Strawberries To Swine The Rude Awakening
Edinburgh, Scotland
Saturday, December 2, 2006 - The price of decadence for Wall Street's Porsche-purchasing powerfull,
- Marveling the life cycle of the economy from the
safety of the sidelines, - A reminder of depressing times of yore, a cautionary
Rude comparison, the RESERVE opens again and more…
***Rude Investment of the Week***
The rumors are true, Rude reader. The Agora Financial Reserve has opened its doors again…but for a short time only. Our executive publisher, Addison Wiggin, has insisted on offering one final chance to claim your spot among the elite circle of investors that currently enjoy the profits of our best financial editor's labors. And those profits have been coming thick and fast as we take a quick look back over some results from 2006… Resource specialist, Kevin Kerr, has posted an impressive average gain of 86% this year, riding high on the tumult of the resource markets… …Steve Sarnoff has socked away an average 101% gain with Options Hotline and Rude regular, Chris Mayer, has posted over 55% with Wall Street's safest investment… …and then there's the 470%, 728% and 216% gains you could have made had you followed the advice of the analysts at Agora Financial… Indeed, our inner circle Reserve members have had a stunning year. If you are interested in joining them for the 2007 profit season, you may apply here. P.S.:You have until January 2nd, 2007 to join. Having said that, these final positions are likely to fill up quickly. The earlier you apply, the better chance you have of seeing results like those above of next year's books. Read on here for all you need to know. Cheers,
Your Rude Editors ------------------------- Strawberries To Swine
By Joel Bowman A Scotsman, an Englishman, a New Zealander and an Aussie walk into a bar… Last week, before attending a rugby union match in Edinburgh, Scotland, your junior editor met a few likely
lads for a pint in a local free house. We were there to pick up the ticket we had lined up through a few mutual friends and discuss the tactics of the game. After the introductions were made, the teams analyzed and some friendly wagers placed, the conversation turned to professions. "I work in London as a dietician," declared the New Zealand gentlemen. "I have my own landscaping business," the Scotsman proudly noted. The Englishman's sheepish aversion to the question intrigued us and we wandered what mysterious business he was involved in. Was he an international agent with access to radioactive substances and a contract with an ex-KGB agent's name on it? Could it be that our fellow rugby enthusiast also enjoyed playing poker with members of a family of guys with names like "four-fingers Vinny," and "sledgehammer Sammy"? As they were new acquaintances of ours, and because our ticket was still in their possession, we decided not to pry. We would later come to learn that the Englishman had very good reason to be coy about the means by which he earns his money. As it turns out, the man was a writer…a financial writer. What more undesirable profession could one imagine 'fessing up to than one requiring musings about something as anomalous and indecipherable as the stock market? When stocks go down, half the speculators are wrong and, when they bounce back up, the other half are wrong. And in the event they stay the same, almost everyone is wrong. There is, of course, always sound reasons why any coin-flipper's predictions did not come to fruition. There is usually a convenient, though always implausible, calamity to explain away any inaccuracy. "All sound indicators pointed to the contrary!" He will exclaim. "Inconceivable!" He will lament. But this is the lot of someone whose job it is to predict the future. While the newscasters report on the happenings of the past, it is the unenviable duty of the weatherman to stand and, armed with a litany of facts - facts that are not always harmonious - attempt to advise whether flip-flops or an umbrella are in order for the next day…or a snow plow. So it goes with those around the globe who vigilantly study the green and red blips on their Bloomberg screen, each with the hope of eking out a nickel here, a dime there. But like a Galapagos Island chain in fast-forward, the markets have a way of weeding out those that are unable to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Those that predict a parabolic upturn in the markets trajectory will either be praised as a hero, or burned at the stake for their imbecilic inference. Likewise, those that pronounce the death of the consumer are bound to see their name added to a plaque in a giant mahogany office…or to the patient list at the insane asylum. The real crux of the issue, it would seem to your perennially tardy junior editor, is timing. The cyclicality of events provides that, given enough time, every speculator will be proven right and, given enough time, every speculator will be proven wrong. It is those that are nimble enough to adapt their strategy to accommodate the amorphous nature of the marketplace that would seem more likely to enjoy the mahogany office memorial.
This year Wall Street's five largest investment firms seem to have gotten it right. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. are about to reward their 173,000 employees with $36 billion in bonuses. There is bound to be a few giant bows atop brand new Porches in the driveways of some trader's wives this Christmas morning. For the morally flexible, such gargantuan payouts ought to ensure there is enough change to park one in the mistresses' driveway too…if one were so inclined. The decadence that invariably follows such an obscene amount of money around is of little interest to your junior editor. Pol Roger champagne in crystal flutes would be like strawberries to swine for our decidedly unrefined palate anyway. What we are interested in is the cyclicality of it all. What happens when the market cannot stand on its over-leveraged stilts to grasp at record highs? What of the mistresses' Porches when the natural order of things reverts to the mean…or when it crashes through the floor? We are not qualified to know when such a cataclysmic event may occur, but when it does, we will be watching with great interest from the bleachers. To remind us that markets do not disobey the laws of gravity with impunity, Eric and Rude guest, Bud Conrad, take us back to a time when the crystal glasses on wall street were not only empty but for discount sale in the hoc shops. A comparative study of The Great Depression and some current environmental factors reveals the "when" may be approaching sooner rather than later. Get your tickets below! --- Wall Street Places Their Bets --- A CEO Bets 22% of His Modest Salary That His Company's Stock Will Rise At Least 74% in the Next 11 Months His CFO agreed, and invested 31% of her salary…a scant 2 hours later. Fact is-this $300 million company has just seen the largest insider-buying surge in its 48-year history. If the CEO and the CFO, among other top execs, have this kind of confidence-shouldn't you get a cut of the coming profits too? Click here to learn more. -------------------------------------- And the Week's Rude reading… 11/28/06 - The Long View
By Bud Conrad I have been monitoring the big imbalances of our economic system to determine if we are heading toward a big economic convulsion that would change our investments and our lives. I have been evaluating long-term historical measures of prosperity and economic movement, comparing the last big depression to now to see if we face similar situations. Some of the similarities look dangerous, like the large overall indebtedness of then and now. 11/29/06 - The Short View
By Eric Fry Not since the Great Depression has the American consumer paused to take a break from his tireless borrowing and spending. Neither the Korean War, nor the Cold War, nor the Vietnam War, nor the Oil Embargo, nor the Carter stagflation, nor the mid-80s oil bust, nor the post-2000 stock market bust, nor the unfolding housing bust has succeeded in curtailing his consumption. 11/30/06 - Sunsets on Wall Street
By Eric Fry To anticipate short-term market action, therefore, it sometimes pays to monitor the collective attitudes of
investors. When they are feeling extremely pessimistic, stock market rallies often begin. And when they are feeling supremely confident and complacent, share prices tend to fall. At least, that's the bedrock assumption that inspires "contrarian investing." 12/01/06 - The Bayou Review
By Justice Litle Mary Anne and Pamela Aden, longtime publishers of The Aden Forecast, later refuted Veneroso's view with their presentation on why gold's bull market has years left to run. Their argument was almost wholly top-down in nature, and essentially a reiteration of the debt-liquidation trade: the impact of central bank diversification, geopolitics, deteriorating fiscal policy and so on. --- Special --- URGENT ELECTION ALERT: Congress' "blue coup" is sure to turn this 17-cent small cap into… "The Stock Heard 'Round the World…" As political barriers to stem cell-based medicine come crashing down, profits of 3,000-5,000% are all but certain for investors who ACT FAST on this little-known, yet pioneering biotech firm that's certain to take the lead… | 
