Just about a month ago I returned from Spain. Gasoline there is way more expensive than it is here in the states. Nevertheless, filling up here on the Central Coast of California (one of the most expensive places to live in the US) shocked me. Regular gas cost $4.49 per gallon. I filled up yesterday, and I paid $3.83. That is a significant drop in anyone’s book. Just saying …
This morning, the market is all a twitter about the coming EU summit and the Supreme Court’s ruling on The Affordable Health Care Act. Get ready, my friends, as these two happenings are just the beginning of the intense political season we are now entering both in Europe and here in the US. The market is not going to be happy for a little while …
Losses on JPMorgan Chase’s bungled trade could total as much as $9 billion, far exceeding earlier public estimates, according to people who have been briefed on the situation.
The above story has seemed a bit routine to me, until now. A company with assets of almost $160 billion losing a couple of billion dollars trading is not a big deal, but the largest bank in the world with assets of $160 billion losing many billions and not knowing exactly how much is a huge problem, especially in the aftermath of the largest and most devastating financial scandal in modern history.
It seems JP Morgan’s mushrooming trading problem will add another log to the political fire burning here in the US and across the globe. The highly combustible JP Morgan fuel will reignite the debate over regulating the big banks, and rightfully so. What exactly do these banks have to do to signal to anyone and everyone in political power that in their current under-regulated trading state, the big banks are still a huge danger to the financial structure of the globe, and thus, to the economic well-being of everyone on the planet?
Frankly, it really peeves me that our politicians do not have the fortitude to stand up and do the right thing, which is to re-erect the wall between banks and investment firms, the same wall erected in 1933, the same wall that protected all of us until 1999 and 2000 when Congress and President Clinton tore the wall down. A mere eight years later (2008), the consequences of that egregious and idiotic act rained down on the world in a storm of huge ferocity. Will it take another equally ferocious storm to get politicians to re-erect that wall?
Okay, so the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate. Regardless of your opinion on the act, one big plus in the moment is that the promised chaos from overturning the mandate will not materialize. Even though the market seems not to care about that this morning, the reality of not creating chaos in the healthcare sector, some 20% of the US economy, will, in time, reflect positively in the market.
How can I be a successful swing trader?
Study, learn, work hard, practice, and fill your mind with visions of candy canes and lollipops. The latter is a metaphor for success, just in case my humor slipped past you …
Trade in the day; Invest in your life
