Wow. That was a fun ride.

BRCM gave it up today.

It's only fun if you are on the ride.
Great job today folks.

check out HP ..... woooowwwoza

Trading over $46 AH from a $44 Close ???

Bondtrader,

Nice call/trade if you were long HP.

the 'depression' fantasy is becoming a reality for millions of 'ordinary' folks across the US and hundreds of thousands of folks in OZ.

Plenty of folks lose their houses or go broke in business,but not all at once and on a scale like this.

Home repossessions on rise

A report by JPMorgan and Fujitsu Consulting this year warned that 300,000 Australians might default on home loans and risk losing their homes.

Increased costs of living, interest rate rises and aggressive marketing by non-bank lenders had created an environment "where lenders are not considering a consumer's capacity to repay a loan", Mr Brody said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hom...3190822608.html

All those folks who are under mortgage stress and hanging on by a thread will not like the idea that interest rates might rise by 50 basis points in a few weeks time.

Double rate rise: RBA's shock plan

FINANCIAL markets have marked down another interest rate rise next month as a virtual certainty, after the Reserve Bank revealed it came close this month to delivering two rate rises at once.

The minutes of the Reserve's board meeting two weeks ago show it seriously debated lifting rates by half a percentage point in one hit - adding $100 a month to the cost of servicing the average new mortgage - to send Australians a signal about the seriousness of rising inflation.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/02/...3190822602.html

$TYX smacked into something.

...while a derivative paints a lovely double bottom.

Bris,

because of the RBA policy Aussie Dollar is extremly bullish, i know some who went long very very very big positions in the mid 0.80s (at the end of january at the 50 fibo), their target is parity to the USD.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...5x_Q&refer=home

"GMAC LLC, the lender partially owned by General Motors Corp., plans to close about 75 percent of its auto-financing offices in the U.S. and Canada after losing $2.3 billion last year."

"GM injected $1 billion into Detroit-based GMAC to help cover earlier losses at its Residential Capital mortgage unit. GMAC also pumped $1 billion into ResCap during the third quarter to help the lender meet minimum net worth limits set by bankers."

Looks like the monopoly guy got the better of snowman


A strong GM policy

what a steamin' Pile O' Dung

this stock action makes me wonder if they might shut down and layoff 100%

that CONpany always was kinda funny...

Ex-Broadcom CEO broadsided by cocaine and orgy torture charges
A copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Register shows Kato accusing Nicholas of carrying a concealed weapon with him at all times, performing Judo chops while standing close to others , threatening people like an angry drill sergeant and vowing to "make people disappear" using contacts formed through work with the Defense Department. You know - typical officer banter.

Fxfox,

I think parity is a certainty.

Interest rates are going much higher in OZ.

Unless of course the Reserve bank 'blinks'.

I don't think they will,but you never know.

This is like watching one of those old movies with the two trains hurtling towards each other at full speed,you keep thinking the hero will change the tracks to avert a disaster but they are too late and the trains collide head on.



ps Liverpool are champions..

You know - typical officer banter.

I thought Kato was the martial arts expert

I only ever traded currencies once about 10 yrs ago and lost an arm up to my elbow.



Favorite "Play of 2008" Alive and Well
by Ashraf Laidi


While central banks in most industrialized economies are either reducing interest rates or expected to do so thus year, the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to further raise its rates to fresh 12-year highs. Overnight, the RBA revealed in the minutes of its policy meeting this month a debate whether to raise rates by 50-bps.

http://www.safehaven.com/article-9513.htm

MSFT will crush these clowns

just a matter of time

to anyone who disagrees, I have only one question:

how much money have you lost dongin' this POS?

can't they make it up in volume?

gotta hand it to 'em, it's quite an accomplishment to lose $2.3 Billion per year making secured loans

six million dollars a day down the craphole

GG back to resistance.

Psycho wild child Bear Stains calmed DOWN today

Mike Burgur returned from work last month to interrupt a break-in at his rented Clearwater Beach CONdominium.

The intruders were stripping fans off the ceiling and the knobs off the doors. They had carted out the refrigerator and yanked up a toilet. They'd even pulled the plates off electrical outlets and unscrewed the faucet handles.

As he stepped around the broken eggs and jelly jars on the kitchen floor, Burgur had no trouble recognizing the culprit: It was his own landlady, a Reamtor, who hadn't paid her mrotgouge in full for more than a year before the bank seized the $300,000 CONdo in January.

"I'm going to strip this mother," the 70-ish property owner raved to Burgur, as she ripped apart the 950-square-foot unit.



The former owner actually broke in twice, the second time in an unsuccessful attempt to pry loose the kitchen's granite counters and the bathroom's travertine tile.

Precious article

"Neighbors were shocked last month when, as the bank zeroed in on the house, the former owner leased a Bobcat excavator and uprooted the wooden privacy fence and five palm trees. Postholes still litter the yard.

That wasn't the end of it. The ex-owner dismantled and removed the garage door and the double French doors in the rear, leaving the home exposed to the elements. A piece of plywood now covers the gap in the back. "

"Neighbors often end up suffering the most. Renters like Burgur are out of a home. Nearby homeowners worry about squatters enticed by the missing doors.

"You're hurting the values of the neighbors next door. You're hurting the whole community," Thomas said. "

nah i was not long that ... it was up 6% ah's though.... not that those gains could hold

Mohel Lynch ( I lOOked up the correct spelling and holy cow.... ) hit shport, backed up and pounced down again today.




I picked up some some APR 50 putz mid late arvo, but I swear I didn't do to the putz what that guy did to da putz (met zee za ).




And what's all this about her peas?

Shank MexDiego Ream Estate Borkers Drank Their Own Kool-Aid, Now Losing Their Own Homes

Dave Pierce, a veteran ream estate agent, recently went into default on his five-bedroom, 3,864-square-foot Torrey Highlands home, which he bought for about $1 million 3½ years ago. He can't reamfinance his loan because his Beanie Baby is now worth far less than he paid for it.

“I know about a dozen people who are losing their houses,” Pierce said. “All are in ream estate. This business is really hurting.”

VALLEJO, Calif. --
by John Boitnott, Web Producer

The city of Vallejo is on the brink of becoming the first California city ever to declare bankruptcy, City Council members said Tuesday.

Vallejo may run out of cash as early as March, council member Stephanie Gomes said.
"Not only that, but now we have 20 police and fire employees retiring because they are afraid of not getting their payouts," Gomes said. "That means we have another few million dollars in payouts that we had not expected. So the situation is quite dire."

Gomes said the situation has been building for more than a decade.

"This has been happening for quite a while. For 15 years the city council has been putting Band-Aids on the problem. (It has been) extending contracts and deferring payments for public safety to the next years as a way of balancing the current budget."

Public safety contracts for police and fire services make up 80 percent of the city's general fund.
"We've been spending more than we've been making for 20 years and it's time to pay the piper," Gomes said.

source

Oh my!

In 1985 my little town of then 10,000 people had its first open trade fair at the local civic centre/arena. There on display at a reamtors booth was their trade fair special. A lovely 2400 sq ft house in the prestigious part of town, up the hill in the Highlands. It was a foreclosure..

...he who had been foreclosed stripped out all the appliances, all the the electrical fixtures in the walls, even the wiring boxes themselves., but at least left the wires, the plumbing was basically untouched. I did a thorough inspection and added up what it would cost for me do the repairs and decided I'd throw a low ball bid on the property. I offered $22,100 and had to counterbid others who saw it at the trade fair and I finally got it at $23,101.

This is when interest rates were in the 15-20 percent zone.

I swung a personal loan from the bank for it, not an actual mrotgouge, at 15%, or $259 a month for 15 years. All was done and ready, lawyer did all the paperwork, and finally it was to be registered in the land titles office on the next Monday morning...when I could then buy insurance for it as it would then be mine to insure.

Well...on the preceding Sunday, the day before, while gathered at my parents house for Father's Day...which happened to be 6 houses away from the house I was buying...here comes a bevy of FIRE TRUCKS...

CNNfn has begun embedding helpful little video newsclips into its homepage, a veritable fount of "content."

The inane hype piece on WMT I heard today was a thing to behold. If I wasn't already short the stock, the vapid, obtuse collage of half-truths, double-thinks and contradictions I heard in that little video clip would have had me salivating to sell. The gist was that WMT released great earnings, proving that it's a strong stock because the companies know what goods to put on the shelves to sell to people during a recession, but if a recession passes, then it should do even better because a recession will have ended and people will begin buying more.

I don't know how you guys manage to follow crapvision during the day.

Some Homeless Squat in Foreclosed Houses

Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working.

"That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and self-described "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses.

Has anyone seen the new commercials of the little old ladies collecting their "old" gold jewlery and then selling it to getting a check for $600 dollars?

QUESTION?

When will we see commercials about little old men collecting "old" oil and getting a check for $100 dollars?

NOT, but I have seen TV shows about young'ins collecting used cooking oil to fill their tank for a free ride.

I wonder if these are buy signals or SELL SIGNALS?

I know about a dozen people who are losing their houses,” Pierce said. “All are in ream estate. This business is really hurting.”

this would never have happened to the Glen Garry, Glen Ross boys...

RE WALMART



Walmart is not going anywhere - up or down - its just going to dribble sideways to infinity. Ex growth, ex everything. It topped out in 2000 at $70 and has been going sideways ever since.

You could regard it as a safe haven - but then you will miss out on some retail stocks with much better metrics that could double over the next few years.

News today that they are looking at adding medical clinics - like you said sideways.

Credit was tight in 1985. I was young and this was to be my first house and, frankly, the local banksters then had the tightest sphincters imaginable. I had a very good high paying union job and a downpayment and cash for the reno/repair, impeccable credit and STILL needed my fathers co-signature!!!

Am thinking we finally get the real deal move tomorrow...below today's low and we could see rapid downside, and above today's swing high ES 1365, ER2 710, we should launch.

My guess is da move will start overnight ........

Hourly ORDS about as wound up as they come...

Sell the Full Moon, Right?

Less than hour away from being as full as it's gonna get....

Don't forget to checkout the eclipse starting any minute now...


EDIT: OOPS tomorrow night, not tonight.....

KWAVE.....710 it is on the RUT.We rode that puppy for almost an hour thurs before we broke south. Then zoomed back to retest before the close. Retested 5 more times since on the 5 minute chart. Had it as a sell this am. My numbers on the Rut are 690 and 710....bullish case is Mr Rusty outperformed today marginally.

Inflation numbers tomorrow could dampen the bull case.

Have been spending my evenings trading the euro wedges....luv those coiling MAs

Yeah, I was thinking tomorrow, next day at the latest. Fraudexes are about into the apex of triangles with downside bias, and the vix looks ready to launch.

Jim Sinclair is a man of few words tonight...

Shorty, I disagree, but I never had any position in Goog. It's nice company, solid income, just overpriced.

The google online spreadsheet is doing 50% of the functions that MS office has, but it allows realtime collaboration between remote people. MS has nothing like that and unlikely will have.

And actually MSFT worries me a bit.

If you look at their history none of their products were actually developed inside MS, they acquired everything from others. Except Windows XP and Vista, I know no other exceptions.

If they spend all that cash on Y, how they will operate this acquisition strategy going forward?

4 th test of 100 area ? in a very short period of time... with a looming depression coming....

I think it's a flaky weird oddball company, income stream is a one-trick-pony, and stock is wildly overpriced.

Target: $40

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballme said that another driver behind the acquisition is to move Microsoft towards a more Web-based software-as-services company:

"The Windows user wants to be live. There will be a Windows Live. There will be an Office Live."

How can he know that gold is heading to $1650? Nobody knows that. Those gold bugs sites strangely remind me viagra and herbalife spam. AMZN $200! GLD $1650!

Here's the ugliest truth about those millions of new homes that got built these past few years

The new homes are crap.

* They were slapped up as fast and as furious as possible, with every imaginable corner cut to save time and expense

* They were built by an illegal unskilled labor force from Mexico. (Ever been to Mexico? Ever check out the building standards? Well, that's what we now have to deal with in the US.)

* And the builders built in places that for hundreds of years nobody ever thought of building homes (Gee, those power lines aren't that bad. Hey, let's build next to that dump!)

Meanwhile, good luck suing the builders. Most will be bankrupt and gone by the time the defects rear their ugly heads. Good luck suing the people who built them - they'll have high-tailed it back to Mexico. And good luck getting anyone to buy one of these crap shacks with cracked foundations, leaky roofs and paper-thin walls.

I think $3,000 is a real possibility within next two years.

It makes no sense fundamentally but I think we can reach that level with a spike high in the new Great Gold Bubble.

Why not?

Everybody's a winner in a bubble.....on the way up.

Just like RE.

Ok. Target - $180. At the bottom, before the next cycle. Let see who's right

(to others, he-he, I pulled that from my ass)

I pulled my number from the jickiss RCA-'29 analogy.

Butt if we're playing Price is Right I'll bid $180.01 Bob!

No, wait.....$179.99

I totally agree that gold _can_ go to $3000. Or to $1650. But I also think it can easily go to $1299 and then crush to $300 with all gold bugs fully invested at margin waiting for $1300 that will never come.

Who knows? How can those guys tell?

They don't know and neither do we.