Thursday, April 30, 2009

The bull's resurrection

I thought I would go back to my Easter post, where I assembled some quotes from the bears on the durability of this market rally. Aren't those quotes looking just a wee bit foolish now?

He is Risen!

Today, a lot of people celebrate the resurrection.

But not on Wall Street.

No-one believes in that resurrection; the one of the bull-market variety!

Check out the following quotes:

Ratigan: Suckers' rally. No question. That's not an indictment of the judgement of the market. That's just my perception of the ability of the banks to function in a timely fashion, the ability to create meaningful amounts of jobs in the immediate future, and the as-yet unrecognized meaningful losses to come in commercial real-estate and other asset classes...
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-dylan-ratigan-speaks-and-hes-angry-2009-4

So far this feels like a distribution rally before a retest of the lows. It is the timing of things that is the challenge, and the ability to spot a genuine change in character in the long market trend.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/character-of-this-new-bull-market.html

The effect of (1) and (2) is what is known in the investing marketplace as "distribution" - that is, you, the retail bag-holder, wind up with the shares at the end of the day, and the institutional and quant-driven "fast money" departs with your cash. When they stop their high-frequency "pass across the table" game, and they will, you find yourself with some very expensive shares as the floor disappears.

Distribution marks tops, usually very significant ones.
http://market-ticker.org/archives/951-Do-Not-Be-Stupid.html

"Anyone who is doing anything sensible right now is either losing money or is out of the market entirely." These are the words of a quant trader, who is seeing something scary in the capital markets. Scary enough to merit a warning that we could be on the verge of another October 87, August 2007, or January 2008.
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/04/incredibly-shrinking-market-liquidity.html

It's the question Pilate asked:

"What is truth?" John 18:38

Judging by the numbers of people going to church today, it appears that millions and millions believe in the resurrection.

Maybe Wall Street should learn from the masses.

A little bit of faith, makes the believing easy.

And it comes with it's own rewards!