Thursday, December 29, 2011

Evening Thread

1987 New Year's eve

Afternoon Thread

3 AHA moments for me about why listening to CNBC in hopes of stock tips is hazardous to your bottom line:

(1) came from twitter of all places. Herb Greenberg tweets about an hour ahead of time to watch and he and "Sully" will have a staged disagreement/discussion about some stock ... an hour from his tweet. A couple of times he has a twitter discussion about what he should wear ... So - fake as wrestling. There's a concept.

(2) these matchups between analysts - one of whom is bullish and another who is bearish on a particular stock - this is how they set them up according to Dan who let the cat out a couple of times: the show producer sends out mass emails to everyone on their guest list asking if they have a take on DMND or GMCR or NFLX (last year it was BP and HAL and RIG) and would they appear on a wrestling match - though they don't call it that of course!

(3) They interview alot of people every hour, 24 hours a day pretty much. (ok some re-runs and I exaggerate, but you get the point.) Anyway, the perpetual question is: what are you buying right here right now? or sometimes: what are you selling right here right now? The implication of this - you should be buying or selling something all the time.

Those guys standing around talking on TV and tweeting all day are not trading all day. Do the Najarians ever really trade?


Right now when CNBC is asking for predictions. Mass email from show producer to everyone on their guest list: do you have a prediction for 2012 and do you want to be on TV?


They have a program to fill. We need to get Toes in the guest list. Does Toes have email?

Morning Thread

Well, the Italians managed to sell a boatload of bonds but maybe not as much as they wanted to.  At least those that they sold were at lower rates than the last time out of the chute.  Yields then traded higher but have come back down as the day progressed.

We have the jobs number coming and it could move the markets if there is a surprise.  The more likely market movers continue to be Europe and Iran.  At least that's the way I see it.  Maybe it will be different after I get some more coffee.