A Michelangelonian paint job today in the face of awesome forces of destruction. If they can keep up this charade until the end of the year, next year is going to be something!

ST indicators bottom

question is: how far does it go?

IT remains on the verge of collapse

RIMM going UP UP and AWAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Riceback's got some room to move up. Perhaps it will be abused as rocket fuel for the New Year orgy.

Here is an interesting report. More than you probably wanted know about CDOs.

http://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uplo...ared_nomura.pdf

another one in the 'funny how it works dept'...

The rating agencies are now being blamed for not doing their job properly during this period of madness,so now they have to err on the side of caution and downgrade companies at the very worst time.


Investors lulled by S&P & Moody's


http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?clipS...XgQ_lcamYKQ.asf

Quite amaz'n.
Up 20% off of Tuesday's low.

Yep, closed all shorts and reversed long on the last hold of YM 13,280..

Rut led the charge upside..not what da bears wanted to see...

ES still in the range.. 1457-1475...

We are at the early stages of our own sub prime crisis in OZ.

Option2Buy latest credit crisis victim

A NEW home finance company that allows buyers to move into the home of their choice for as little as $500 is the latest victim of the credit crisis.

Only months after its launch, Queensland company Option2Buy is said to be fighting to avoid receivership after having difficulty securing loans to support its business model, according to staff members contacted by The Age yesterday.

Many of its 150 employees say they have not been paid and have been told by management not to turn up to work for the time being. They claim the company has advised them to contact the Queensland Government agency that helps people who have lost their jobs due to the liquidation or bankruptcy of their employer.

O2B burst onto the Australian property scene in August, promising a "revolutionary" approach to housing affordability by targeting those people who could afford repayments but could not save a deposit.

Under the company's scheme, where buyers do not have to purchase the home they are living in for five to seven years, they pay a fortnightly rent to O2B.


The product has recently attracted criticism. Rita Voohar, a spokeswoman for consumer watchdog CHOICE, said in August: "The major source of risk seems to be the possibility that the housing market will experience a downturn and consumers will be locked into paying an inflated price for a property."
.

http://business.theage.com.au/option2buy-l...ibr.html?page=2

Great call today Bung.

Posted this yesterday. Bears need to be very careful here over the next 2 weeks. Beware of the golden cross fake out. Might be best to just sit and watch.....

Trade safe.

It sounds like these guys are out of ideas to me.

You could subsitute Iraq or Katrina for housing woes and you get an idea of how bad things are.

Bush says "all options" on table to help economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday said he would consider "all options" to help the U.S. economy weather a deep housing slump but the economy was fundamentally strong.

"My view of the economy is that the fundamentals are strong," Bush told a news conference. "Like many Americans, I'm concerned about the fact that Americans see their costs going up. I know Americans are concerned about whether or not their neighbor may stay in their house."

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNew...T00811320071220

jam jam

option jam

pump it pump it pump it

pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump pump

the eCONomy is boooooooming

CONsumers are flush with spendable Ditech $caSSh they took out of their Homes

and there's a lot more where that came from

check in the closets

and behind the terlet

That's what I'm thinking. Once the holidays are over, the bear market really shows its colors.

Centro made a typo with a $billion of debt...

Centro keeps $1bn debt secret

By Anthony Klan and Turi Condon

CENTRO'S property group has admitted it failed to properly disclose more than $1 billion of debt in the months leading up to its $5 billion implosion this week.

Responding to a query from the Australian Securities Exchange, Centro (cnp.ASX:Quote,News) last night admitted it had "incorrectly" classified $1.097 billion of debt as "non-current" in its June 30 full-year accounts and the misstatement had been identified by its auditors.

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23...149-462,00.html

I apologize if it was already posted on IDS:

Loonie named Time newsmaker of 2007
ROMA LUCIW

Globe and Mail Update
December 20, 2007 at 4:47 PM EST

The loonie, a currency ridiculed in other countries for its fowl-inspired nickname, is finally getting some respect.

Uncle Buck has bowed down to the loonie and other currencies for the past 3 to 5 years. Time to head across the border and load up the station wagon!

I guess it was due for a technical bounce....



SLW up $.90 today.

New podcast at Radio Free Wall Street

http://radiofreewallstreet.fm/

I kinda think ACI coal may just repeat what ADM has been doing lately. Elevator next floor up that is.

ACI
http://www.StockSharePublishing.com/ChartL..._1198189305.png

ADM
http://www.StockSharePublishing.com/ChartL..._1198189664.png

A free 10 minute preview of the podcast has now been posted.

http://radiofreewallstreet.fm/

NDX holds support area, as NAZ Summation turns up after divergent retest...

The window for da bears is closing fast...a strong up day tomorrow could slam it shut...

HUGE pivot area here.....

Great podcast Lee. Good to see Steve Northwood back.

Invaluable information, I agree.

Normally, I understand, the first days of the New Year usually begin with a pop. After that early forth, its short bias all the way.

It's not rocket science what I'm looking at....All I'm looking at is a change in trend of the put/call ratio......that's it. I figure it is the fingerprint of the market makers, aka pigmen....

Trade safe all.

[attachmentid=93952]

Coming to the close of the year, I just want to say thanks to all the great posters here who make this site worth reading day in and day out. If I could trade like some of you guys, you know who you are, I'd quit my day job in a minute. You guys are like Zen masters. You watch the trend, follow the support and resistance, strike when the iron is hot and hold off when it's not, and let go of attachment. Bam! Profits.

Happy holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!

The option jam is almost over.
The RUT is a busted POS that will print below 600 in '08.

here's a more rigorous ANALysis of the Rutster

NaSSty is full of bloated hype stocks foisted onto public morans

only Crammerite suckerdongers and their ilk are stupid enough to chase these impending January disaSSters here

yes, Virginia, price matters

ignore them November warning shanks at yer peril

Loafpinch would be ANALogous to what I have seen called the hanging turd formation.

why chase laSSt year's old winners, when you can dong fresh new faces

when we're under Rodham, solar energy will soar

like ESLR, just gettin' started

iTS THAT TIME OF THE YEAR ---SO TO ONE AND ALL OF THE cHRISTIAN fAITH :a mERRY cHRISTMAS & hAPPY nEW yEAR---tO THOSE of you a little more secular: Seasons Greetings and ancillary Happy Holidays...If I knew the equivalent of wishingPeace and merriment to Bedouins I would do so as well.

To those other non-Arab membes of the Semitic Heritage a belated Happy Khanuka....with heavy emphasis on the rasping prefixational guttaralised Cha or Kha...if you're so secularised and assimilated as to find the appropriate pronunciation too heavy to lift- **** you...

Anyway the season deserves a revelation......

You know me as a buy and hold Gold shtunk....I also have a partner, far wealthier than me, who makes my rather minute holdings look smaller than a pimple on one of the cheeks of my toches.....He (by the way dok. he sends his best to you--if you'll remember he spoke to you on the fone a few years back)

Anyway, hes(I refrain from being more specific) currently the largest gold holder of one of the three largest banks in Amerika...And one of the promises we made to each other when we first agreed to reentering the market (Gold) was grounded in the full knowledge, that when it came to trading, we couldn't distinguish our asses from our elbows..

Therefore we would keep on buying and buying aad buying until very little was left to invest....Both of us, not being inteested in the Adrenalin rush of wild and wooly trading would be very patient and contented with a very very distant payoff.
'
However this commitment didnt keep us from reading Dok's daily excursions into the mysteries of the market...for which i am gratful....

Now despite this cornucopoia of knowledge--(we read ample warnings) were isssued by Dok that despite the relative safety of Gold, a total immunity to the occasional bearishness enveloping the PMs was not to be expected...

We chose to ACCEPT THE WARNING, AND interpret it AS A CORRECT ONE... This is an important admission: because despite our acceptance we felt that entering and exiting the market would be more stressful than we could stand...and so we chose a static methodology....

Abbreviating the story and cutting to the chase; our behavioural decision has in the last few weeks resulted in a loss of over a quarter million dollars....This loss,thank goodness, is relative to our gains and not a net loss...

So, are we crying, and lamenting our choice? Not in the least, because the principle supporting our style has given us psychic income far beyond the pain of the losses.. And . to repeat myself. the losses were relative to much larger previous gains..I know I slept better at nights and as long as I reminded my associate of the rabbits(pace Drano) we would live longer..

Without Dok's continuingly Intelligent assesments (as well as the rest of the intelligent stoolies) sustaining us through this maelstrom of a market it would have been psychologically impossible...

So once again to each and every one of you Thanx.
Beardrech

Ethanol is the comeback kid

tanned, rested, ready

fer another 8-year bonar

That's a big admission, beardrech.

I'm assuming this is a realized loss, as opposed to an unrealized loss?

Californica Beanie Baby Prices Slapped Down to 2004 Levels

The average sale price of existing houses in Southwest County has plunged 22 percent since November 2006, to $375,200, according to The Californican's analysis of sale prices from a database that ream estate agents use. That's a level last seen in March 2004.

Builders have been scrambling to sell off thousands of empty tract houses across the county and the region.

Keller-Williams agent Chris Parent said lenders find themselves paying more than expected in property taxes and maintenance costs after they seize homes from delinquents.

Shorty- Do you follow and biofuel companies? I donged a small position in NBF a couple of days ago. Looks like a pretty good management team and they can make diesel out of pig poop. Sounds like a good deal to me!

thar's sumpthin' funny 'bout GOOG

can't quite put my fingers on it

makes me dizzy just lookin' at the chart

anyway, I think it's goin' down

I used to own EPG butt it's not doin' much lately

I have to say that at some point during the past two years, someone complained when Shorty changed this marching-bear avatar to something else. The someone-else said that their 2 year old girl always enjoyed the marching bear when looking over her father's shoulder at the computer terminal.

Now, my 1 year old seems to fixate on Shorty's marching bear.

Long may it march!

Today I posted how GCH china fund was taken down. It appears they made an $11.30 capital gains distribution. Now there is one reason not to trade price towards the end of the year for funds.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071207/20071207005499.html?.v=1

Same thing happened with PMPIX precious metals fund on Dec. 18.

I'm fixated on the Taiwan chart. It's a claSSic. If the penetration of 8,000 support this week is now resistance as I expect, we'll get one more FakeBreakoutShortShakeout ©Shorty then the craSSh.

Anyone who bought over 8,000 this year is currently a Loser.

It appears the hot money small cap speculators showed up today in the IWM with it up 1.60%. Guess the party crowd had to show up for Christmas some time.

I'd actually like to see Gold surprise mom and pop for Christmas.

Shorty,
The Oct. 1 call by Stock Traders almanac to go headlong into their ETF list produced nothing but seasonal pain except for XLP for consumers as far as I can tell.

So much for seasonal rationality. More like give me my MRE rations

does this mean he gots ta give back the $120 Million?

Government regulators are suing ex-Fannie boss Frankie Raines and others, seeking fines and the return of millions in bonus money.
The former chief executive officer of Fannie Mae says the Bush administration helped orchestrate an accounting scandal that cost him his job.

It's 10pm eastern and crapvision has a show about Taser on "The Big Idea" with the Taser founder...


He's from Philly...

Stock traders almanac states "panics and recessions are headed off by (inflationary) injections of credit." November Issue

After another 20 billion drain today by the fed, I'm kinda getting a panic attack.

don't short me, bro!

20 billion here, 20 billion there......that can add up

giant sucking sound

I knew there was something I wanted to do at 3:30.

Stepping out of the fire into a stepping stone count. The panic ended on August 16.

http://www.StockSharePublishing.com/ChartL..._1198207802.png

Interesting...i've been following that since i saw you first mention it 6-8 weeks ago. Have you actually been trading it?

Since I've been observing ACI coal and ADM Archer daniel, I guess I'd have to say in hindsight they stepped out of the fire on August 16 also.

Man, I'm just catching up. So much for my anticipation.