Let’s run through a few headlines this morning to get some perspective on the set up in the markets and the economy and what the mainstream media is saying about it all.
First, here are the actual headlines from WSJ.com today. This must be the most important business and markets news fit to report today, huh?
Obama Record Looks Up
Is Housing Recovery Finally Generating Jobs?
Blue Chips Hit 14000
First Trader’s Thought of the Day — I’m going to remind you guys once again while the markets are here up in a straight line to new all-time highs that right now is the time to panic about the endless euro-debt crisis and the fiscal cliff and Spain and Greece and spiking oil and gas and inflation and all the other things that you don’t read about right now. You and I both know that as soon as the stock markets undergo the next pullback — and there is always a next pullback — that all of those reasons to panic will suddenly dominate the headlines.
Can you imagine the endless parade of permabears and mindless pundits on TV panicking over headlines like this (if the markets weren’t at all time highs that is):
Dutch state nationalizes SNS Reaal bank
Spanish economy plunges in final quarter
But you don’t see any of that news on any mainstream media newspaper and certainly not being discussed on TV today, do you? Why? Because the markets are at all-time highs.
I’m not a bear (yet) and I’m still net long overall. But as the markets go higher yet again and as complacency grows, I’ve sold down my calls big time lately and I’m not being aggressive in these markets at all right now.
I’d like to get more aggressive on the short-side for the next few weeks at least. I’m going to focus on my newer tech short ideas like Samsung, iShares MSCI South Korea Index Fund (EWY), and IBM. I’d like to get more aggressive on the banks and financial welfare short ideas like JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Lender Processing Services (LPS), but there’s still so much governmental bailouts both explicit and implicit that those shorts haven’t been working at all, and we probably need to wait to see them crack first. Speaking of LPS, here’s another headline from today you should read:
Yet Another Cost of Doing Business Fine: Lender Processing Services Settles with 46 Attorneys General for $127 Million
Steady as she goes, folks. Let’s stick with the best technology revolutionary stocks in the world and let’s keep fighting the biggest welfare queen companies we can find as their gravy trains run short. Let’s continue selling euphoria and buying panic. Sell the euphoria out there today. Be ready to buy the next panic.
Cody Willard writes Revolution Investing for MarketWatch and posts the trades from his personal account at TradingWithCody.com, which is not affiliated with MarketWatch. At time of publication, Cody was net short JPM, LPS, IBM and EWY. Follow Cody on Twitter at twitter.com/codywillard.
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