Wednesday, 24 March 2010

UK Sub Prime Government and Its Sub Prime Thinking


The INFLATION Mega-Trend - The world's subprime governments are sending their economies headlong towards bankruptcy by basically continuing to exchange private debt for public debt as a consequence of the dual forces of paying attention to worthless thesis generated by ivory tower academic economists that populate the institutions that rely on revenues from governments to sustain their existence because they would not survive in the market place precisely because they fail to understand economic and financial reality, and as a consequence of politicians being in the back pockets of the bankster elite that wait for the cash handouts when they leave office.
The politicians and governments DO NOT work in the best interests of the people, instead the are systematically screwing the voters / tax payers out of ALL of their life savings and future earning capacity. In Britain we will shortly face a general election where it is either a vote for party tweedle dum or tweedle dee, neither of whom has done or will do anything to bring any of the bankster's to account for their £1 trillion crime against tax payers, instead the Treasury and Bank of England continue to funnel tax payer cash onto the balance sheets of the bankster banks so as they can continue to pay out bonuses on the basis of fictitious profits.
Both Labour and Conservative politicians are in the back pockets of the bankster elite, NEITHER are capitalist OR socialist. Free Market Capitalism would have demanded that the bankrupt banks go bankrupt. Socialism would have demanded that the interests of the workers be put FIRST ahead of the bankrupt institutions instead of giving them hundreds of billions in cash, that money could have ignited an economic boom if every tax payer had been handed £20,000 in cash ! - NEITHER took place, Instead the politicians in the back pockets of bankster's CHOSE to provide unlimited tax payer funds to the bankrupt banks in exchange for future reciprocal cash hand outs that we will witness as the politicians leave office and politicians market themselves at as much as £5,000 a day to the bankster elites.
The consequences of this remains for the balance sheets of the private sector to improve whilst the balance sheets of the public sector to explode. The governments through money printing are set to continue this which is feeding inflationary mega-trend and the stock market BOOM. Eventually the governments risk defaulting into hyper-inflation (many years from now) which is why it is important for people to protect their wealth from the Inflationary Mega-trend. My New FREE 100 page ebook contains 50 pages of how to protect and grow your wealth from strategies including investing in the stocks stealth multi-year bull market and avoiding government bonds and cash as a consequence of negative real interest rates. (Download Now - FREE).
Meanwhile deflationists continue to miss the obvious in that REAL debt is not what is stated in statistics pumped out by the governments such as UK debt being at 60% of GDP. Real debt and liabilities has the UK at 400% of GDP, we are already well along the path towards high inflation, which IS now manifesting itself in the official inflation indices which over the past few months has seen UK CPI break above 3%. The governments will continue to print money to monetize the huge budget deficits because that is publically far easier to do then to allow for the consequences of deflation. I.e. the masses are far more conditioned and susceptible to have their wealth gradually stolen by means of inflation then countenance the pain associated with deflation and nominal economic contraction. This means inflation proof asset classes will continue to rise in price which includes the major stock indices, and 'most' of the individual stocks they comprise.
The strategy is this - To inflate the debt away, to inflate wage purchasing power away, to give the illusion of economic prosperity when people are in actual fact working twice as hard to buy the SAME goods and services. The ONLY defence people have to protect themselves is to diversify out of fiat currencies as illustrated by some 50 pages of the Inflation Mega-Trend Ebook.
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Economy - The economies are continuing to improve in terms of GDP growth as a consequence of unlimited money printing and stimulus, this will continue throughout 2010 and into 2011, which continues to paint a favourable stocks picture for the current year at least, therefore continues to support the stocks bull market target of 12,500 for this year as a consequence for the need for risk as a consequence of negative real interest rates.
Corporate Earnings - Corporate earnings have FOLLOWED the stock market higher, despite continuous doom orientated commentary of the past 12 months that has repeatedly stated that corporate earnings forecasts implied stocks could NOT rally. The fact is that corporate earnings are surprising to the upside (no surprise to me). There exists a strong case of delusional thought in the processes of many analysts that hold a particular view then go out to seek out reasons to support that view, which is why they miss WHOLE bull markets. Corporate earnings are NOW rising and far from looking for earnings to collapse into a double dip recession, this IS ONLY the beginning.
We heard the mantra based on WRONG corporate earnings expectations that the market cannot support a P/E of over 25, when in fact real forward P/E is much lower because corporate earnings are MUCH higher, not only that but corporate earnings 'should' continue to surprise to the upside for the whole of 2010 therefore reinforcing the fundamentals for a strong bull market.
In terms of stock market trend this implies positive price action into lead up to Q2 earnings season, which therefore implies that the stock market should be heading higher going into May and into the earnings reporting season which suggests a positive trend into at least Mid May and therefore suggestive of a price trading at new bull market highs. So Corporate earnings suggest the stock market will be trading at new bull market highs during May.
Market Psychology - The mainstream financial media and blogosphere continues to pump FEAR into the minds of investors, FEAR of recession, FEAR of sovereign debt default, FEAR of currency collapse, FEAR of credit crisis II, FEAR of the U.S. Following Japan, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR. Any small bit of bad news is MAGNIFIED on an near daily basis. No wonder small investors are running scared, dumping their cash into bonds and cash. However FEAR is a great driver for a stocks stealth bull market, where the FEARLESS have already wracked up profits of 60%+ whilst the FEARFUL majority look on in well FEAR. As I mentioned in the Inflation Meg-trend Ebook, I do not expect this situation to change for MANY YEARS ! So those that are waiting for good news to abandon fear and invest, won't get what they are waiting for many years when the Dow has long since passed its previous all time high, not until we get to the final stages of the bull market when once more investors are wrapped in the cloak of certainty of profits amidst a new paradigm of every rising stock prices.
So market psychology wise, this bull market is still in its infancy which means all corrections are buying opportunities where the greater the deviation from the high the greater the buying opportunity presented. So far this conclusion has borne immense returns for those that deviate from the normal expected behaviour that concludes towards most investors only joining the bull market when it is time to SELL!
Stock Market Trend Against 2010 Forecast and Expectations
The stocks stealth bull market that bottomed in March 2009 confounded widely held expectations by both the bulls and bears of immediate term price action lower to dissipate its overbought state that failed to materialise, instead the stock market last Wednesday broke to a new bull market high by closing at Dow 10,733 with a further advance on Thursday, followed finally by a small down day on Friday to break a 8 day winning streak with the Dow closing at a new weekly high of 10,742.
The Dow high had lagged other stock indices that had made new highs over previous week including the UK FTSE, S&P500 and Nasdaq (though not other European indices despite the weak Euro).
Stocks Stealth Bull Market Trend Forecast For 2010 - The Inflation Mega-Trend Ebook Page 82 (DIRECT Download)
Dow 10,067 - Stocks Multi-year Bull Market that bottomed in March 2009 will trend Sideways during first half of 2010 attempting to break higher. The second half will see a strong rally to above 12,000 targeting 12,500 during late 2010.
DOW Stock Market Forecast 2010
My trend expectation has been for the Dow to trend around its 50% axis (10,333) to conclude in a sideways trend between a support and resistance for between 9,500 and 10,730 for the first half of 2010, the trend off of the early Feb low has shown relative strength against this expectation, especially given the break higher. The stock market forecast for 2010 stated that the market would trend within a volatile trading range for the first half of the year and could generate as many as 3 failed attempts to breakout higher, presently despite its strong action off of the Feb lows, this scenario suggests that the stock market should revert back into its trading range in preparation for the breakout higher later in the year.
Stocks Bull Market Anniversary - To make money you go long (invest) in a bull market and go short (SELL) in a bear market. This bull market is now ONE YEAR OLD! Think about that for a moment, ONE YEAR OLD ! The only thing that has changed during the past 12 months is the reinforcement of trend and capital appreciation.
Many investors who have been fooled into MISSING one of the greatest bull markets in history have been driving the market higher these past few weeks to new highs, which suggests the anniversary is carrying increasing momentum behind it which means despite corrections that will undoubtedly happen, however the weight of new buying pressure is so great that we are likely to see the stock markets go much higher and much sooner than anyone expects (even me!).
TIME ANALYSIS - The Jan to Feb 2010 correction was of a similar duration than the June - July 2009 correction, which implies that both corrections were of a similar order in terms of corrective trends that imply we can therefore expect a powerful multi-month rally to transpire over the coming months taking the Dow far beyond the preceding high of 10,730.
ELLIOTT WAVE THEORY - Since the Market Peaked in January, my interpretation of the EWT component of analysis had resolved towards an wide corrective ABC pattern into the target zone of 9,500 to 9,800. We got the Wave A which terminated at 9,835, which left some doubt at the time whether that was the low or not given that it was just out of the target zone, additionally the downtrend was much shorter in time than necessary to unwind the previous swing higher to 10,729. Nevertheless at the low in early February the EWT pattern did continue to conclude towards B wave rally higher in advance of a further C swing lower.
As indicated in the first chart above, this rally continued higher past the previous swing high of 10,438 WITHOUT correcting. The market has trended higher day in day out for 8 straight days into Friday's small decline. The ABC scenario remained in tact right upto the target of 10,625 after which the scenario was further negated on the break above the bull market peak of 10,730.
Current interpretation of EWT is illustrated in the graphs below which conclude towards a relatively minor correction during early to mid April (Wave 4), followed by a powerful wave higher into early to mid May 2010 that targets Dow 12,000, as part of a more powerful trend from the early Feb low. Whilst this will clearly be a Wave 5 peak off of the Feb low, however this does not automatically mean that it will be the larger 5th wave juncture for the whole bull market off of the March 2009 lows - No that would be a far too simple interpretation of EWT, always remember EWT is ONE component that needs to be confirmed by the sum of ALL analysis and if need be needs to bend to the sum of that analysis rather than price be forced to fit EWT. So first things first, we need to get the next two months or so of price action out of the way before I contemplate what happens after mid May.
Bear Market and the 1930's Stock Price Chart Pattern - What happened to the bear market that had supposedly resumed following the January high ? A timely reminder from an earlier article (02 Nov 2009 - Stocks Bull Market Forecast Update Into Year End ) as various changing charts from the the 1930's keeps being brought out on every correction to signal the rally's end, I can imagine 4 years and several thousand points higher from now they will still be presented as FACT as to what is going to happen which NEVER DOES!
Stock Market Crash Again?
Forget swine flu, the pandemic doing the rounds is that of another Crash with the 1930's chart dusted down and presented as near fact of what is to transpire on every correction. However the markets response has so far always been to push to a new high for the move.
What happens to the crash calls ? They again get rolled out again on the NEXT correction! However the damage has been done as short stops are hit and losses accrued, that no broker will refund for the next crash call.
There is one major fundamental flaw in the Repeat of the 1930's thesis and that this is 2010 and NOT the 1930's I could also pick a chart form the past that would closely fit onto recent price action to imply the a stock market will soar higher, but that would be more wishful thinking than an actual attempt at trying to generate an accurate projection of future trend which is exactly what has been taking place for the past 12 months! 1930 does not fit, use 1931, then 1932, then 1933, then 1934 and so on, keep changing the charts each time they are proven to be wrong - That is not analysis.
TREND ANALYSIS - The Dow ABC into early Feb was swift and short, bottoming at 9835, just shy of the target of 9,500 to 9,800. The subsequent uptrend has seen little corrective action against it, which is not surprising given that virtually everyone saw it as not sustainable. The trend of the past 3 weeks has been particularly strong which culminated in an 8 day winning streak with the first down day last Friday that marked a brief pause before resuming to a new bull market peak last Wednesday as mentioned above. As of writing there is NO reversal pattern i.e. lower high and last low break to trigger any form of a sell signal which suggests a continuation higher.
SUPPORT / RESISTANCE - Previous resistance of 10730 now becomes support. With the Dow at 10,888 immediate resistance lies at 11,000, that is likely to contain the momentum behind this rally, which suggests that the Dow may mark a corrective trend to target the 10,730 support level therefore implying a bearish outlook for the Dow during early to mid April. Below 10,730 there exists a wide range of support levels all the way down to 10,500 which implies that any price action lower into this range will be choppy and very volatile. On the upside resistance over 11,000 exists at between 11,900 and 12,000, therefore implying a significant correction could take place from that level.
MOVING AVERAGES - The 200 day moving average contained the Jan- Feb 2010 correction and continues to act as a distant support for the bull market. The shorter 50day moving continues to act as short-term support and as a significant correction measuring move for future corrections, current support stands at 10,400, rising to 10,500 by mid April and therefore providing further support to the zone of between 10,730 to 10,500 which could see intra-day spike lower towards the MA at approx 10,500.
PRICE TARGETS - Upside price targets resolve towards 11,000 and 11,900 to 12,000, then 12,500. Downside price targets resolve towards 10,730 to 10,600 with a possible intra-day spike as low as 10,500.
MACD - The MACD confirmed that the last correction was in line with that which transpired during June / July 2009. Whilst the current rally has been strong, however because of the amount of time taken to rise, it has not pushed the MACD into a particularly overbought state. Neither does any negative divergence exist. However on the expectation of a narrowing in momentum for this years stocks bull run, I do expect a more compact MACD pattern which implies stocks could correct BEFORE they reach an overbought extreme, which implies a correction towards the lower end of the MACD range (indicated) could be imminent.
VOLUME - Volume has remained WEAK throughout the rally, which has been one of the main reasons why so much commentary has been bearish during the past 12months. However it is perfectly inline with that of a stealth bull market and also implies that this rally is STILL NOT being bought into. So all of the talk of hyper bullishness investor sentiment since, well summer 2009 basically remains rubbish as there is no sign of such sentiment in the volume, which remains heavier on the declines than the rallies and thus suggestive of SELLING rather than buying into the rally.
SEASONAL TREND - There is a strong seasonal tendency for stocks to rally into Summer then correct in October followed by a sharp rally into December. The seasonal trend is increasingly matching actual chart trend and the unfolding forecast for the next 2 months for a rally into Mid May 2010.
PRESIDENT CYCLE YEAR 2- The impact of the 2nd year of the presidential cycle on the stock market is for a weak trend into September, and a rally in the fourth quarter into the end of the year for a small average gain for the year. This is increasingly becoming contrary to the unfolding trend which implies greater price volatility.
SWING SELL SIGNAL - The nearest swing sell signal is at 10,500. With the Dow at 10,888 the market retains plenty of room to breath, in fact I would not be surprised if the market retraced towards the sell signal before continuing higher.
Stock Market Conclusion
The sum of existing analysis upto the end of January had concluded in the Dow targeting a trend during 2010 to above 12,000, targeting 12,500 by late 2010, to be preceded by a volatile sideways trend during the first half of the year.
As we approach the end of Q1 the trend is showing relative strength against this forecast, the key manifestation of this is that the stock market did NOT retest the February low as I was expecting to take place i.e. to generate a double bottom pattern. This coupled with current analysis (above) suggests we are going to get what cycle analysts would know as 'left translation' in the projected trend, which implies we get the rally to 12,000 far earlier i.e. during Q2, rather than Q3 to Q4. Which on face value also suggests a weaker trend later in the year, but more on that in May.
Dow (DJIA) March to May Stock Market Trend Forecast Conclusion - Therefore my specific conclusion is for a continuation of the uptrend into early to mid May, achieving the 12,000 target during this time period, also allowing for a correction during April as illustrated by the below graph.
Risks to the Forecast
That the market reverts back to the January forecast expectations and delays the trend to above 12,000 until later in the year, at this point I would put a probability of this happening at about 20%.
The next in depth analysis is scheduled to follow during early May 2010 as the current analysis expires. The key question I will answer at that time is whether the stock market under goes a major correction, far greater than that of Jan to Feb or continues trending higher beyond the 12,500 target for 2010. My focus is now primarily on mapping out a trend for UK house prices over the next few years that will conclude in an FREE ebook, to receive this in your email in box, ensure you are subscribed to my always free newsletter.
Hedge Your Portfolio
Stock market and commodity investing is high risk which does require mechanisms to be in place to hedge against being wrong. Just as those that have remained bearish on the stock market this past year have probably long since given up any bear market profits by repeatedly betting against the bull market, the worst thing an investor can do is to give up all of their bull market profits during a bear market. In this regard investors need mechanisms that are able to liquidate / distribute portfolios to cash in the early stages of new bear markets and this mechanism is stop loss orders. The most basic rule is that for a 20% retracement from the last bull run high on an individual stock. The better rule is to identify a preceding significant support level that cannot be breached for ones opinion on the stock to be correct.
A more advanced form of hedging that requires greater experience is to utilise stock index futures and options to partially hedge your portfolio against any decline. The operative word here is that one is hedging, i.e. the returns are to partially offset the loss on the portfolio that is paid for by the portfolio. I.e. dividend income in part finances put options etc.
Labours Last Giveaway Election Budget Tomorrow
Tomorrow (24th March) is the Labours last budget. The labour government over the past 12 months has bent over backwards in an attempt to ignite an debt fuelled election boom, I just cannot conceive that they will now at this late stage see sense and implement a commonsense budget, so I expect a final throw of the dice, to spend more money that the country does not have and leave the tories with an even bigger debt headache than the 12% annual budget deficit and £1 trillion of public debt that they already face. So expect spending surprises / election bribes tomorrow aimed at Labours traditional voter pool that will likely result in much volatility for sterling.
The axe is hanging over the public sector of which some £65 billion or 10% will be cut which includes the NHS black hole spending department that as we saw with the lengthy report on the REAL performance of one of Britians top ranked hospitals, The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust that NHS statistics are fiction against the facts of actual patient experience.
Up to 1,200 patients are thought to have died unnecessarily at the trust between 2005 and 2008.
A damning report on the deaths found chronic staff shortages, receptionists in casualty departments assessing the urgency of cases and nurses switching off equipment that did not know how to use.
Both trusts are “Foundation Trusts” a status supposedly awarded to only the best in the NHS.
I don't mean to be a damp squib to those americans reading this and in an euphoric mood following Obama's healthcare bill being passed by Congress, but the last thing you need is your own version of NHS hell, that routinely kills patients masked by fictitious official data that disintegrates in the face scrutiny under public inquiries and that politicians are too scared to seriously reform due to the army of workers / voters that ride the NHS gravy train. The sooner the NHS is privatised the better the prospects for the health of ordinary Britains.
Your Dow stock index trading and bull market investing analyst.
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By Nadeem Walayat
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Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on UK inflation,economy, interest rates and the housing market and he is the author of the NEW Inflation Mega-Trend ebook that can be downloaded for Free. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 500 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. LINK`http`www.marketoracle.co.uk/`margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(0, 0, 204); background-position: initial initial; `LINK
Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis.Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

Saturday, 4 April 2009

Petro-dollars Under Threat

The coming financial storm no one is talking about

BY MANRAAJ SINGH

Dear Reader,

There’s a major trend that could have a devastating impact on the US dollar.

What’s shocking is that I haven’t come across a single other financial analyst who has fully grasped the implications of it.

This is crazy, given that it will affect anyone who owns dollar-denominated investments, whether it’s gold, international shares or commodities. In fact, even if you aren’t directly invested in them, there is very good chance your pension fund is.

That’s how big this is.

The thing is, though, you can turn this trend to your advantage, as we’ll see in a moment.

I’m talking about the planned creation of a single common currency in the Gulf States. A new monetary union just like the eurozone, but for oil rich countries.

That might not sound like a big deal. After all, who really cares what a bunch of Arab countries are doing with their currencies?

But this is going to have a colossal impact on the world economy. Let me explain…

Last Friday, I explained why the dollar’s long-term value is under threat as the US economy falters. But now let me show you the threat to the dollar that the rest of the world still hasn’t picked-up on…

The great petrodollar merry-go-round is about to break down

You see, right now the dollar receives a huge amount of support from being the standard currency for international trade. The international oil trade is a big part of that. Oil is priced in dollars on the international market. It is bought and sold in dollars.
What that basically means is that countries that want to buy oil need to have dollars. Countries that sell it are left holding dollars. That fuels global demand for the American currency. It props up its value…

Right now, the only major producer that sells in a different currency is Iran. They take their payments in euros and Japanese yen. But it is the Gulf Arab states like Saudi, Kuwait and the UAE that are at the heart of the global oil trade.

But now think of a situation where global oil production is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the Gulf Arab countries. And, as I explained in a recent special report, that is what is going to happen as non-OPEC production collapses.

Now consider what the impact on the dollar is going to be when those countries say they don’t want to be paid in dollars anymore. Once they’ve got a common currency you can bet they are going to price their oil in it. They will want to be paid in Dirhams or Dinars or whatever else it is that they eventually name it.

That is going to short circuit global demand for the dollar. Because oil importing countries won’t need to buy dollars to pay for their oil anymore. The Gulf countries won’t be left holding huge reserves of dollars which they then have to recycle into the US…

Right now the oil-exporting countries are the second-biggest holders of US government debt after China. That’s because they get paid for their oil in US dollars. A lot of that money then gets reinvested in US dollar-denominated assets. But if they aren’t being paid in dollars anymore, they won’t have to recycle them by investing in US government bonds. International demand for the dollar is going to plunge. And the value of the dollar is going to plunge with it.

Two years to D-Day?

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states have been talking about this for a long time. And they signed the first concrete agreements to implement it last September. Since then they have been moving ahead with their plans. By the end of this year, they should have a monetary council in place. This will be a precursor to the Gulf central bank. And it will decide on the name and value of the currency.

They had planned to have their new currency in place by 2010. I doubt they will manage it that quickly though. The way I see it, the impact of the financial crisis will force them to push it back by about a year.

But there is absolutely no doubt about it – the Gulf common currency is now on its way. And when it happens it is going to kick the legs out from under the dollar.

As I said though, there are ways that you could profit from this. An obvious trade is to go short on the dollar. There are listed funds that allow you to do that. And again, not all dollar-denominated assets will lose out. Whilst the value of US shares, for example, is going to be eroded, the value of certain dollar-denominated commodities like oil and gold rises as the dollar weakens.

Kind regards,

Manraaj Singh
For The Right Side

Editor’s recommendation: Manraaj Singh is Chief Investment Strategist at Profit Hunter. As he explains, when the dollar falls, oil goes up. Click here to receive his latest smart way to play the “oil rebound”.

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

When will gold break through $1,000 an ounce?

When will gold break through $1,000 an ounce?

The difference between gold and other precious metal

Thanks to Dominic Frisby, in London

Today, I wanted to look at precious metals in general. Not just gold, but silver, platinum, palladium and even some of the lesser known platinum group metals, such as rhodium and indium.

We are living through one of the greatest financial crises in history – possibly the greatest. The contraction in credit has forced selling in everything.

Many were under the illusion that precious metals would be safe in such a scenario. But they haven’t been. Let’s look at why...

Gold is maintaining its purchasing power, unlike money

The key thing to remember is that this is a financial crisis – a crisis of money. Of all the precious metals, gold is the only purely monetary metal. Yes, it has some industrial use, but a negligible amount. Gold’s use in jewellery has derived from its monetary function, which is to store wealth.

Money has two functions: one is to be a medium of exchange, the other to store wealth. Gold has long since been useless as the former (although technically sovereigns are still legal tender) but as the latter it has acted soundly. Yes, it fell against the yen last year, but so did everything. Yes, it was volatile against the dollar, but in the grand scheme of things, gold is maintaining its purchasing power, while money, be it the yen, the dollar or the euro is falling.



Some currencies have been weaker than the dollar. One ounce of gold now costs 110,000 Icelandic Krona for example, up from around 40,000 in 2007. To be honest, I’m surprised it isn’t higher. (Thanks to Nick Laird at www.sharelynx.com for the charts.)



Britain has similar, though currently less extreme, problems to Iceland. This has been reflected in the price of the pound against gold.



So gold, although volatile, has performed well.

Silver is more vulnerable than gold

Silver, too, is a monetary metal. As many of you will know, the words ‘silver’ and ‘money’ are interchangeable in some ninety or more languages: ‘argent’ in French, for example; ‘plata’ in Spanish. ‘Pound sterling’ once meant a pound of sterling silver. But, historically, silver’s role as money was less as a store of wealth and more as a day-to-day medium of exchange. That role has now expired.

Many silver bugs will point to silver’s numerous and ever-increasing industrial uses. But the demand for these uses has decreased as the crisis has unfolded. The outlook for business is grim, and the market has reflected this in the price of silver. In other words, silver’s industrial use, the very thing that made it desirable, suddenly made it undesirable.



In short, silver outperforms gold during an inflationary boom, but underperforms during a deflationary bust. This is reflected in the gold-silver ratio, which spiked dramatically in the Autumn.



Many were calling for that ratio to fall below 20. It will one day. The historical ratio is 15 – there is 15 times as much silver in the earth’s crust as gold. But we are a long way from that. We may see 100 first.



But those who bought silver with pounds will not be as disappointed as dollar buyers. It’s not too far off recent highs:



The story isn't great for platinum or palladium either

I’m afraid it is the same story for platinum and palladium as with silver. Only a year or so ago, many - myself included – looked at South Africa’s political problems and its energy crisis and asked where in the world platinum was going to come from. Indeed we are still asking ourselves that.

But the market doesn’t care. Though precious, platinum is still an industrial metal. The car industry is, for now, doomed and the market has no time for platinum, despite its rarity.



It was the same story for palladium, which fell from $600 to about $175 per ounce, and for rhodium it was even worse. The rhodium chart was amazing. It seemed to do nothing else but go up. For years this was the case – then crash.



Yes, silver and platinum group metals have a use in jewellery, but jewellery sales are down, despite its use as a store of wealth. Even gold jewellery sales are down. All the demand for gold is safe-haven investment demand.

By November of course, the industrial precious metals had become way too cheap. The market recognized this and platinum and silver have since rallied. And I suspect they will continue to rally along with all commodities for the next month or three.

But the greater demand is for money, so over the longer term – the next three years or so - we can expect the demand for the monetary metal gold to be greater than the demand for the industrial.

When will gold break through $1,000 an ounce?

However, those short-term traders who play gold in dollars should perhaps exercise some caution here. It has had a good run since November and could easily bounce back off the trendline below. In fact, the ideal technical scenario is to gently pull back and then cruise through at the next attempt.



Those who read a lot of my stuff will know my theory – and it is no more than that – that gold makes 6 to 9 month up-moves, followed by periods of consolidation lasting about 18 months. I suspect we are in one such period. I do not see a break out to new highs above $1,000 in the very near future, but we'll be there by this time next year.

So I am holding onto every ounce of gold and every quality share that I own. Gold’s uber move could strike at any time and I don’t want to miss it when it comes. Like the stock market crash of last autumn, it has been years in the making, it will be swift in the unfolding and you have to be positioned.

If you’re not in it, you will not win it.

Turning to the wider markets...



The FTSE 100 fell another 0.4% yesterday, closing at 4,194. Mining stocks and utilities were among the bigger fallers: Xstrata lost 4.9%, Anglo American 1.3% and Antofagasta 0.8%. Severn Trent Water was down 3.5%, and Scottish & Southern Energy lost 0.7%.

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 lost just one point to end at 2,954; the German Xetra Dax, meanwhile, was down three points at 4,323.

In the US, financial stocks led the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.7% to 8,174. Bank of America climbed 8.3%, while Citigroup added 6.6%. The broader S&P 500 index closed up 1.1% at 845, and the Nasdaq Composite finished 1% higher at 1,504.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 8,106, sustained by hopes of a US 'bad bank' rescue plan. The broader Topix index, however, fell 0.1% to 804.

Brent spot was trading at $43.63 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $42.39. Spot gold was trading at $898 an ounce, silver was at $12.13, and platinum was at $948.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.4283 and against the euro at 1.0743. The dollar was trading at 0.7526 against the euro and 89.08 against the Japanese yen.

And there was mixed news for Britain's economy today. In a rare ray of sunshine, satellite TV operator BskyB announced it will create 1,000 jobs in its customer service and equipment installation teams, as it expects strong demand for its high definition services. Sales were up 5.8% in the six months to December 2008. But there was bad news for the commercial property market, as a report issued by Moody's concluded prices in the UK could fall by as much as 25% this year.


Wednesday, 7 January 2009

The Gold Bull Run

Dominic FrisbyWhat was the best-performing asset of 2008?
Thanks to Dominic Frisby of Money Week


The Japanese yen. The many funds that had borrowed money in yen to buy assets in other currencies, now sold those assets and bought back yen to pay down debt. This was the unwinding of the Great Yen Carry Trade.

Hard to believe though it is with all the huge volatility, the next best performer was gold, up about 6% on the year against the dollar, and a lot more against everything else from stocks to real estate.

Gold was down some 15% against the yen. But those who bought their gold with British pounds will be delighted. After a hedge-fund beating 30% gain in 2007, we saw a stupendous 44% rise in 2008. Gold broke out above £600 to all-time highs.

However, it was an extremely volatile year and many of those attempting to trade gold with margin, in other words on borrowed money, will have been wiped out. It’s why I am forever saying that you should buy the physical metal itself...

The outlook for sterling is grim - gold is your insurance

Even silver, which had a pretty woeful year by all accounts and was down some 24% against the US dollar, made 13% against the pound. (That most frustrating of metals continues to frustrate). As we all know the outlook for sterling is grim. I do not rule out a full-scale currency collapse. But, for now, it appears to be making some kind of a bottom against the US dollar.

If you look at how gold has traded vs sterling since Gordon Brown sold our gold, you will notice a distinct staircase pattern. It shoots up, then consolidates at the higher level, then shoots up.



Based on this repeating pattern, since we have just had a sharp shot up – and this could continue for a short while longer - a period of consolidation is now likely, before the inevitable march to £1,000 an ounce and beyond. But I would not sell a flake of your physical gold yet. It is your insurance - if sterling implodes, you’ll need it.

When measured in gold, this is already the worst house price crash in history

I don’t know if this sell-off in sterling has been orchestrated, but it suits the government. The economic downfall doesn’t look nearly so bad measured in weakened sterling as it does in, say, dollars. House prices are down some 15-20% from the highs, depending whose figures you use, measured in sterling. But measured in gold, this is already the worst crash in history, as the chart below shows.



What’s more this crash still has a lot further to go.

In this chart, having risen by the most, London prices look set to fall by the most:



(My thanks to mathematician Tom Fischer of Heriot-Watt University for these superb charts, which he kindly offers free of charge. You can see more of his work here.)

There are many people out there, myself included, who sold property and bought gold. They were considered cranks and crackpots by their nearest and dearest. Those nearest and dearest are now revising their opinions. The long-term trade of property to gold and back to property when certain targets are reached (100 ounces of gold for the average UK home, maybe?) is still very much alive and well.

Gold is on track to be a top performer this year

In late November I wrote that I felt gold stocks were set to be the best performing asset class over the next two years (to read this article, click here: 2009: gold stocks will be among the top performers). We are already on track with the HUI (the index of major gold producers) up about 50% since then. Now that tax-selling is done in North America – it ended at Christmas – some significant buying has come into gold stocks of all kinds, from explorers to majors, and we are seeing some impressive action everywhere. Hold your positions.

Over Christmas, I had a long conversation with my step-father about gold. He’s South African, so perhaps has a greater familiarity with gold than many of us Brits. In the 1970s, you weren’t allowed to take your money out of South Africa. (Who knows what currency controls are headed our way as governments – Brown’s in particular –move to tighten international banking regulation).

The rand was falling fast and nationals saw their purchasing power collapse. Many of those who fled, he told me, got their wealth out of the country by carrying out Krugerrands. His parents were Jewish and fled Poland in the 1930s. They too transported their wealth through a similar means. And yet he doesn’t like gold, because, he says, it doesn’t pay any interest. I reminded him how much interest you get on dollars and on yen. From tomorrow, as the Bank of England cuts interest rates further, it looks like you’ll get a similar amount on pounds. Paper currency paying as much interest as gold, who’d’ve thought it?

The gold bull market of the 1970s ended when Volcker raised interest rates to 20%. 20% interest rates are a long, long way off this time around – and so is the end of gold’s great bull market.

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

The police, and the state, are out of control

By Philip Stephens of the FT
Published: December 1 2008 19:21

The police are out of control. So is the government. We can only conjecture as to what possessed the senior officers who raided the homes and parliamentary office of Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman. Yet their disdain for political process spoke eloquently to the authoritarian culture of our times.

In this respect, regardless of whether ministers played a direct role in Mr Green’s arrest, the blame rests squarely with the government. The police must be held to account for their heavy-handed intimidation, but ministers nurtured the climate in which such madness flourishes.

The absurdities of the incident are self-evident. A score of officers from the Metropolitan police’s “special operations directorate” barged into Mr Green’s London and constituency homes, hauled him off to the cells and stripped his office of computers and files. The alleged offence? To have put into the public domain leaked information that embarrassed Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.

There is not a hint here of any breach of national security. Mr Green exposed the incompetence that has long described the conduct of affairs at the home office. The official alleged to have leaked the information has already been arrested.

It is all but impossible to imagine a jury convicting Mr Green. Disseminating leaked information has been embedded in the custom of politics since time immemorial. Rightly so, given the stiflingly secretive British state. When he was in opposition, Gordon Brown used to boast of his skilful exploitation of such material. Can we expect the “special operations directorate” to be hammering next on the door of Number 10 to seize Mr Brown’s BlackBerry?

Mr Green was arrested under a part of the common law that proscribes “misconduct in a public office”. The police say (off the record, of course) that the MP was not a passive recipient of documents, but conspired with the official. They hint they have evidence enough to charge Mr Green.

We shall see. The purpose of this 18th-century law is to deal with corrupt public officials including, dare one say it, police officers. To deploy it in this fashion against elected members of parliament is to show, at very best, blithe ignorance of the democratic process. MPs are not above the law, but the police have no place in politics.

We have been here before. During the final year of Tony Blair’s premiership, a team of officers conducted a long, expensive and fruitless inquiry into allegations that the then prime minister had sold peerages in return for party donations. Once again the staged drama – dawn raids and off-the-record smearing of those under investigation – was in inverse proportion to the possibility of any prosecution.

Needless to say, no one was ever brought before a court. But it seems the police are still ready to trample over the line that separates legitimate investigation from the, albeit sometimes grubby, practice of politics.

You could say, though, that Mr Blair should not have been surprised. If the police think they can discard due process, they have been taking their cue from the government.

For more than a decade, first Mr Blair, and latterly Mr Brown, have rolled forward the boundaries of the state at the expense of civil liberties. The consistent opposition of the Liberal Democrats and, latterly, even of the Conservatives to this insouciant disregard for ancient freedoms has been brushed aside as the hand-wringing of feeble liberals.

Some measures have been explicable and justifiable in the face of the threat from violent Islamist extremists. The first duty of any government is to guard the security of its citizens. I have more sympathy than many with the view that the intelligence agencies and the police must be given sufficient means to thwart the terrorists.

But the powers of the state have advanced well beyond that. The present government sees no distinction between the rule of law and whatever piece of legislation it can force through parliament.

In the criminal justice system, the fragile balance between the rights of police, prosecutors and accused has been overturned. The presumption of innocence is scorned. Successive home secretaries, including Ms Smith, have mouthed the mantra that the police are always right.

Ministers have likewise greatly extended the state’s surveillance of law-abiding citizens. The pretence that it is all about al-Qaeda has been exploded by widespread use of anti-terrorism laws by local authorities and other public bodies. Parents suspected of “gaming” school admission systems have become the victims of elaborate surveillance operations by local councils. Almost anyone and everyone in public authority can now call up private telephone and e-mail records. We must suppose they will have equal access to the government’s Orwellian National Identity Register.

Little wonder the police seem to think they can abuse their power. The senior ranks of the Metropolitan police are overdue a serious clear-out. No one should be in any doubt, though, that the real culprit is the government.

More columns at www.ft.com/philipstephens
philip.stephens@ft.com