Something weird is brewing with the currencies lately. It’s like the Euro and the Dollar are in a race to see which one can bottom out first. Gold is hovering near $1,750 again, and honestly, it could go anywhere at this point. If it pushes past $1,800, I'd expect at least a minor correction. This market is absolutely insane right now—I’ve got my bags packed and I'm ready to bail whenever the signal hits. 😍
Ugh, I’m back in the trenches again, specifically looking at mining stocks. Something feels like it's brewing, and we'll see how the Dollar reacts. If the market takes this latest Fed messaging as a green light for QE, things could get wild—both in equities and precious metals, especially with miners.
In North America, we’re mostly just dealing with a debt crisis right now (even if the Eurozone caused the mess in the first place). Currencies are the next logical target, and I think that domino might have already started to fall.
The currency crisis is barely getting started. Honestly, I couldn't care less about gold right now; what I'm watching are the miners trying to claw their way out of consolidation. This time around, they actually look like they might pull it off.
The fundamentals driving this bull market haven't actually changed—if anything, they're stronger. Yet, here we are, staring at a correction from 1,920 down to 1,520. Honestly, after a drop like that, a healthy bull market usually needs some breathing room through a consolidation phase, whether that lasts a week or a month. But if Bernanke has already stabilized the Dollar, there might not be any room left for a sideways move. Currencies aren't even feeling the crisis yet. It’ll be an interesting day when that changes.
The trend just broke, which means the correction is likely over. It’ll be interesting to see how this bull market plays out next—whether we hit a consolidation phase (and how long that drags on) before picking back up, or if we head straight into a final bubble, though I doubt that happens. Everything hinges on how much higher this rally can actually go.
I’m still waiting for the S&P 500 to finally take a dive, the Dollar to actually rally, and Gold to hit some local bottom. Maybe this week will finally be the one.
Gold at 1650, Dollar at 80.75, and the S&P 500 sitting at 1290. I need to see the S&P drop below 1250, the Dollar break past 82.5, and Gold?
The real question is what actually drives a bull market. So far, it’s been pure emotion fueled by moves from the Federal Reserve (Quantitative Easing). For this rally to keep rolling, it basically needs to be carried by the US through the strength of the Dollar. What I’m really looking at—especially since we haven't seen any proof yet that Quantitative Easing 1 or 2 actually wrecked the economy—is the possibility of this bull market shifting into a third phase. We're talking about a stage driven entirely by raw emotion without any real fundamental backing. That would give enough runway for full-blown hysteria to kick in, which would also provide a perfect excuse for when the bull market inevitably crashes. Once that third-phase mania takes over, nobody is going to care about fundamentals anymore. Also, I wonder how much the Eurozone crisis actually fits into this puzzle. There's a decent chance it's the only "real" crisis in the bunch. Even if it just creates a general sense of instability, I'm questioning how much it actually impacts the US bull market.
If people thought that kind of scenario was going to hit by late 2012, they were dead wrong—especially considering how much the Dollar has been gaining ground over the last eight months. For some reason, Americans don't seem to grasp that they aren't the ones who'll be left holding the bag; it’s the Eurozone. Sure, they’ll feel the ripple effects once Europe hits the fan, but I highly doubt the epicenter will be here in the States. The US situation isn't what's going to drive the final gold bubble, at least not during the first two-thirds of it.
dustyheron5 said:Oil is falling because Americans and Europeans have effectively abandoned the blockade on Iranian oil exports to Europe for the next six months... they realized that any supply shortages in Europe right now would be catastrophic for their economy.
So, everyone gets what they want. Iran wins, everyone else wins, and we don't have to deal with any wars or missiles. Great.
dustyheron5 said:It’s classic AT&T—always timing these uncomfortable announcements right before the weekend. It gives investors, hedge fund managers, and the rest of the crew enough time to knock back a few Nomobals or Apaurins just to stay calm until Monday.🤣.........that way they don't go making any reckless moves before heading out on a fishing trip for the next few months.😍
If Italy is rated BBB, then what does that make us? Some kind of bottom-tier joke?😂
How much control do we actually have over our own lives?
I’m not trying to be a total buzzkill here, but it feels like we’re barely running the show.
Maybe it's smarter to break this down into two parts:
1. To what extent did we even design this life in the first place? 2. How much of it is actually under our thumb versus everyone else's?
When you look at politics, the massive marketing machine, family pressure, and how society hits you through social media, your neighbors, friends, and school—it feels like we’ve just been handed some tiny little cage to run around in. If that cage happens to have a window with a decent view, we convince ourselves we’re free.😁 .
Out of 291 world-renowned scientists, artists, and thinkers—depression was found in 72% of writers, while alcoholism hit 28%.
I think that’s just a mirror reflecting society.
Slayer:
If you start reading academic papers (which I have), you'll feel like you can diagnose every single person you meet. Start with yourself, and you'll rack up several diagnoses pretty fast.
On one hand, I agree with the group that these aren't just statistics; severe mental illness is brutal stuff.
On the other hand, everyone ignores the minor neuroses that actually mess up your life. We don't focus enough on prevention. Then, when a major illness hits—something that might have been avoided if we’d stepped in earlier at any level, especially socially—everyone acts shocked and claims there's nothing left to be done.
As for the link between illness and genius, you can draw a few parallels.
For instance, scientists are often highly antisocial people who compensate by withdrawing even further into themselves. Unfortunately, that's actually a socially accepted pattern. That kind of approach frequently leads straight into illness. It's a common, stupid cycle.
Another angle is that some artists might perceive deeper dimensions of themselves. Their personalities might be wired differently, making them aware of things others aren't, which leads to interesting, raw, and essentially "true" works of art. It's similar to how certain subcultures experiment with drugs to reach an altered, "unconventional" state.