Black Friday: What Could Go Wrong?

This is the day a good part of America goes nuts.  Bonkers, bahzitsu, meshuga… We expect treatment stations for seasonal illnesses such as “click sprain” and “credit card burn” plus “package-induced back strains” will be full by mid-afternoon. This being Black Friday, as always, odds are good that you’ll be hitting the major sites, too. Sadly, we … Read More

Everyone’s Happy! (Except the Turkey)

But then again, nothing really good using happens without some sacrifice…. Here’s the Thanksgiving video we did back in 2001 when we were still living on the boat and sailing SF Bay.  Land behind us was SF Airport area.  Hunter’s point is off to port somewhere…   Have a blessed and marvelous day.  Don’t lay down after … Read More

Trump’s Tumbler

With a year from the election of Donald Trump, it’s time to begin work on our economics (and therefore market) outlooks for 2018. As a starting point for this seasonal review I wanted to begin this morning with a look at two years of data in order to assess whether economic  progress has been “real” … Read More

Markets are the Turkey; Pass the Paint

While we’ve been yammering on about how there would likely be a “turkey rally” ahead of the holiday, this is getting downright stupid. Monday’s trading session saw a liberal dose of tape-painting – which is what you call it when one index soars while the rest are left in the dust. Monday it was the … Read More

Coping: The Magic of a “Better Future”

Time for a discussion about personal magic.  The kind that really pays off, is honest, and ethical. Odd topic?  Maybe, but let me explain:  The other day, I was talking to a friend and the subject of unlimited personal energy came up. You see, this person has known me for a long time, and still … Read More

Turkey Week: Toms or Stocks?

The market (an hour before the open) was set to open right about even with last week’s close.  We would normally expect a bit of a pullback after options week, but it’s not a regular-enough pattern to make any dough with. Not that I haven’t tried. For now, a one-half percent decline in Japan overnight … Read More

Coping: Our Lost Sense of Adventure

We’ve been kicking around an interesting conversation over dinner the past few days:  What is our next big adventure in life?  This being a 3 1/2 day workweek for most, why not work a bit on the play calculations, right? Sure we’re old,  and yeah, we agree that dying is an adventure, no doubt.  But, … Read More

Scenarios for the Future

We take some time this morning to look at crypto currencies, the future of autos, and where gold may go. These are all topics of immediate concern to subscribers…but first a few headlines and a look at the charts.  Which, as we expected, ended the week in the U.S. right on our 9-day moving averages… … Read More

Fed Moderates, Bitcoin Brightens, Markets Ponder

We need to go over three charts this morning because somewhere in them, there’s a message, but damned if I can figure out what it is just yet. The three charts are the M2-Velocity of Money.  This one says, in so many words, how often money is “turned over” during the year.  The second chart … Read More

Coping: With the Return of REAL Typewriters

I mentioned a while back that I was planning to pick up an IBM Selectric II because to my way of thinking they were the absolute best keyboard ever made.  That is, if you don’t count that seven-pound marvelous mechanical keyboard that shipped with the original IBM-PC’s and which I used at a number of … Read More

Coping: “You Bought a What?”

Don’t buy it yet – we are still in the proofreading adventure on the new (non-fiction) book Dimensions Next Door, but we’re now in the test-loading phase at Amazon…but ONE of the interesting items in the book that I’ve mentioned before is the shofar. Called “trumpets” in the Anglo-centric interpretations of the ancient texts, the shofar … Read More

Bitcoins Biting, Stocks-a-Stalking?

Let’s ramble: A number of readers have asked me what I think is going on with Bitcoins and why – if I’m such a wise old man – I don’t ‘invest’ in them. The answers are incredibly simple. To begin with there is a YUGE ethical question behind Bitcoins:  What is their intrinsic value?  You … Read More

When Not to Follow Trading Models

One of our readers asked an interesting question that deserves a comprehensive answer this morning:  What is the point of all the Peoplenomics research and charts if *Ure’s truly*  doesn’t religiously follow his own models? FOGOD – fear of gap opening down – –which the market is set to deliver in an unusually timely way … Read More