A pathetic and irrational stock market, what else is new?
I could have never predicted Wall Street’s reaction to Friday’s unemployment report. The initial report came out that 598,000 more people lost their jobs in January making it the worst unemployment figures since this “crisis” began. The numbers were several percentage points higher than what the market was looking for but due to timely events in the Senate the market flew up the charts quickly to end up 217 points on the Dow.
I’m starting to understand why Wall Street has such a terrible reputation with the American populace. Most institutional investors and hedge funds play the market in a totally different world than the individual investors out there. We small investors pay our taxes to fund bailouts and work full time jobs worried that the next month might bring a pink slip.
But institutional Wall Street will never play on the same level as the rest of us. They’re naked shorting whole corporations to their depth by artificially creating larger floats and inevitably more supply and decreasing prices. If you had both the power to change and gamble on prices, would you not do it?
They’re also setting their own guidance, lowering and raising profit forecasts to enable their own portfolios and some Wall Street bankers are making billions by helping companies issue more stock and dilute their shares.
I’m also noticing how much power and influence the stock market has gained with fiscal policy in Washington. Turn on any TV station and you’ll see a “tracking the Dow” in the left corner with the current price and the daily drop or gain. Wall Street has infected people in the same way that gasoline did, if you see prices everywhere you go they start to have a psychological impact.
But back to Wall Street casino its disgusting to watch 598,000 jobs be lost and the investing class buying up shares. The people in the know already have an idea that the worse these numbers look on paper the better chance the 2009 stimulus bill goes through. When the stimulus goes through the market will rally. Inflation creates higher prices including Wall Street stock prices.
The market is dirty but I’ve realized you can’t beat it on ethics. You have to beat it on accuracy, that’s where the money is made. Small investors don’t have the power to move the markets, they just have to sit and wait and hope the big-boys push it their way.
