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Archive for Market Commentary

Jul
19

The Future of Energy

Posted by: Chris Grande | Comments (0)

7.19.2010

Curious about how the energy industry will play out in the coming years? Will we wean off of oil or continue to be enslaved to black gold? Will some new technology take its place?

Extremely well-respected resource investor Rick Rule lays out his thoughts on the coming years in energy in this excellent inteview:

Energy Report

Rick Rule

Rick gives maybe one interview every quarter so we don’t see or hear from him often – but when he appears, it pays to listen.

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May
06

Pounded

Posted by: Chris Grande | Comments (0)

5.6.2010

When the market goes up steadily for 12 months in a row with only one small hiccup (February), I knew that the next move would be sudden as I’ve mentioned in past articles.

Not sure what happens tomorrow but interesting points to take away from today:

1. As the Euro currency and region gets pounded, the dollar and Yen are rising as safe havens. Both will have their day in the dark, but for now, they’re considered safe. As an aside, I was short the Yen for a few makes but took profits once I got the first clue that the Yen would rise on weak market days. Since my overall view was that a correction was imminent, I didn’t want to be in the Yen. I’m sure this trade will come up later.

2. Interestingly, gold has been rising the past few days as the dollar has been rising. In the bull market up til 2007, and in correction of 08/09, we had stocks up, gold up, stocks down gold down. Now it appears gold may be going its own way. That has yet to be proven though. I do think massive buying by Europeans is adding to demand.

Let’ s see what happens. I have noticed that shorting the retail sector has been a good hedge to a diversified portfolio since the retail sector has risen much higher than the market indices this year.

note: just watched the market (DJIA) fall over 1,000 points then pop back up. Apparently an erroneous trade entry caused a blip in trading which scared the poop out of a lot of people. It was an interesting day.

disclosure: Currently long XRT puts

Categories : Market Commentary
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1.28.10

Bill Fleckenstein gave a great interview with Eric King of King World News:

Fleck on KWN

One of the best lines (paraphrasing)- “how could anyone who held financial stocks claim to know what he was doing?…How can they be managing money?”

great stuff – enjoy!

See Bill’s regular articles on MSN by clicking the link to the left – “Contrarian Chronicles”

Categories : Market Commentary
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6.9.09

“Do you know how good you have to be to not make a mistake leveraged 20 to 1?”

Jim Grant commenting on Morgan Stanley being leveraged 40:1 before the credit markets crashed

This video is a good reflection on the credit crisis of last Fall. Here is Part 3 of a fun and informative interview with credit market genius Jim Grant:

Video

Enjoy!

Chris Grande

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6.5.09

From one of the truly great rational money managers in the world, here is an interview with Jeremy Grantham of GMO in Boston on “what to do now.”

Video

Enjoy!

Chris Grande

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4.22.09

Here is an excellent interview with Dylan Ratigan (of CNBC) on the problems US citizens have with the poor job our politicians have done in this financial crisis as they allowed (and like profited from) the total raping of our financial/banking system by some financial executives. He contends that we must start with FULL disclosure and that no one is forcing these companies to disclose.

Listen here: LINK

Enjoy!

Chris Grande

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4.20.09

Amid all the reporting about the big banks being profitable, a number of other reports are popping up as analysts dig deeper in the numbers.  Bank of America had larger profit numbers but the reserves they are taking for expected credit losses are quite large – read HERE.

Credit losses are growing at a “rapid rate” at Citigroup too – read HERE. After the government has given them billions they are still losing money. What is also amusing about Citi is that their CEO came out and said their first 2 months of the year were profitable so I’m not sure how they still showed a loss on an operating basis excluding loan losses?

It’s not going to get much better for the banks either. The April 1 voluntary moratorium on bank foreclosures Read More→

Categories : Market Commentary
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4.13.09

A strong underlying current of the recent market/economic rebound has been the rising prices of industrial metals and platinum group metals (PGM).

Copper and platinum come strongly to mind for a couple of different reasons. Copper, because it is used for water pipes and electric wiring, two highly important needs in a new construction project; Platinum because it is simultaneously a precious metal and an industrial metal used in catalytic converters, in high precision equipment, and for jewelry.

Are the rising prices reflecting an economic upswing? Or does it represent just a rebound off a ZERO-activity 4th quarter of 2008? Or in platinum’s case, a bounce off of an oversold low level for investors worried about inflation seeking haven in a precious metal?

Some Clues

Recently, South Korea ordered 55,000 tons of copper to refill depleted supplies, but, in the 4th quarter of 2008, no one ordered ANYTHING so there was bound to be a “bounce” up in orders and economic activity in 1Q 2009!

Copper ETN - Source: Yahoo Finance

Copper ETN - Source: Yahoo Finance

Therefore, whether copper demand over the past 3 Read More→

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4.6.09

I was just listening to the Jim Rogers video (again) that I have on my front page. From time to time, you need to listen to wisdom to keep your head steady so this was a bit of a refresher.

Listening to Jim say “why should healthy economies bail out the US?” And that they should “take care of themselves” is very good advice for those countries and counters what our government is trying to do in encouraging the EU, etc to spend and stimulate the global economy back up to growth (or said better, back to its fantasy/inflated level of 2-3 years ago). There is a good chance that these countries will wisely Read More→

Categories : Market Commentary
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3.30.09

Even though I expected this market rally over the past couple of weeks, and that there were many good explanations and reasons this would happen, I am still shocked that people are behaving as if there is no economic collapse! Some people really think there will be a recovery soon. But there are Read More→

Comments (1)
Mar
08

Had to Share Jimmy

Posted by: Chris Grande | Comments (1)

Just saw this Jim Rogers interview in BusinessWeek and had to share:

Jim Rogers

Enjoy!

3.9.09 – Editor’s note: Had to add this other recent video where he says “Farmers will be driving Lamborghinis not bankers.”

Bloomberg -  Jim Rogers

Chris Grande

Categories : Market Commentary
Comments (1)

As a follow up to my response to Charles Wheelan in my last post, who tried to claim that capitalism had failed the market because “free market Greenspan” had failed,  I am posting a good interview with Jim Rogers where he covers this quite efficiently as well as outlines many of his other thoughts on Read More→

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Marc Faber – he outdoes himself every time he talks:

Marc Faber

Enjoy! Oh and a bonus, Bill Fleckenstein:

Bill Fleckenstein

Chris Grande

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Oct
14

Marc Faber on China

Posted by: Chris Grande | Comments (1)

I’m still in San Francisco and will be here for a while. I’ll keep my usual posting volume of every other day or so but as is typical with me, if one of my favorite wise men makes an appearance on TV, I will post it. Here is Marc Faber on China and the recession and other topics (various videos from CNBC):

Faber on China

Faber on the Dollar

Faber on Asian Real Estate

Faber on US Bailout

Faber on Investing in Volatile Markets

Faber on Commodities (halfway through the video)

Chris Grande

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Hello everyone – I am writing to you today from San Francisco where I am visiting a couple of clients; and when I’m here, I always take the opportunity to visit 2-4 investment companies (SF counts many interesting investing companies as residents – some of the better known are Dodge & Cox and Barclays, along with Matthews, Icon, and Pensco – a leading provider of self-directed IRA’s). Interestingly, this weekend is the start of Fleet Week where there will be among other events, airshows by fighter pilots. Also being Columbus Day weekend, there will be a fireworks show tonight in North Beach, the Italian (restaurant) section of the city.

Ok enough of the side-talk and let’s get to the point of today’s article. Read More→

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