Michael Covel: News & Info.

In the Midst of Chaos, A Laugh

Michael Covel — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:36:13 +0000

Just caught this:

“I think right now there are just some very powerful negative images that are alive in many people’s minds — images of the Depression, images of people selling apples. The images of the downside are just so salient in people’s minds, and nobody has presented an upside image yet,” said George Loewenstein, a behavioral economist at Carnegie Mellon University

The “apples” line made me chuckle.

Musings from a Crazy Day

Michael Covel — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:31:43 +0000

1. The American baby boom generation has seen their buy and hold retirement accounts shredded in the last year. Shredded. An entire generation, perhaps the most influential American generation, was sold the story that buy and hold would take them to retirement shangri-la. Anyone got plan B for these folks?

2. I just caught a Russian market official speaking about Russian market distress. He said that the Russians were responsible for their troubles 10 years ago, but now the Americans are responsible for the latest crisis. Nice try. The current global meltdown is a result of first greed then fear. Those emotions don’t care about nationalities or borders. So if you, or if anyone, regardless of country, don’t like your portfolio’s direction…look in the mirror.

3. How far can the Dow drop? I don’t know. No one knows. If someone tells you they know, and you believe them, please go see a medical doctor to ask for a full frontal lobotomy.

CSPAN

Michael Covel — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:23:31 +0000

Worth watching. I especially enjoyed the two subprime borrowers.

Fantasy Island Musings

Michael Covel — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:39:07 +0000

What do you get when you have nearly 8 years of low interest rates and a bull market? You get this performance and rationalization (PDF).

Tontine Associates

Michael Covel — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:23:16 +0000

The hedge fund Tontine Associates is down around -65% over 2008. Their explanation (PDF). They were a $10 billion dollar fund…whose predictions did not work out.

Cramer Brings Happy News

Michael Covel — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:05:51 +0000

Quick. Take action. Cramer has spoken.

Pattern Hunting

Michael Covel — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:55:06 +0000

Michael Martin passed along a nice read from Discovery about our ability to find patterns.

The Largest Hedge Fund in the World

Michael Covel — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:21:38 +0000

Wow.

Larry Hite Wisdom

Michael Covel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:58:20 +0000

Out of Control

Michael Covel — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:31:26 +0000

Monday Dow down 780 and the world is on the brink of implosion. All the news shows, all the front pages of the biggest papers, they all painted an end of day scenario. Today, Dow is up 485, recovering a huge piece of the 780, and the story is a footnote on the nightly news. Does the average guy or girl ever stop to think about the level of manipulation being thrown at them? It is very similar to the film ‘V for Vendetta’. That is the messaging, the propaganda, and the fear are quite an impressive achievement for politicians and the media. It might be a sick and perverse achievment, but it is impressive.