{"id":20420,"date":"2011-03-30T17:56:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T21:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/?p=20420"},"modified":"2011-03-30T17:56:23","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T21:56:23","slug":"a-lesson-from-charlie-sheen-about-the-stock-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2011\/03\/30\/a-lesson-from-charlie-sheen-about-the-stock-market\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson from Charlie Sheen (about the Stock Market)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/taipanpublishinggroup.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>By Jared Levy, Editor, Smart Investing Daily, taipanpublishinggroup.com<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maybe I am a fan of Charlie&#8217;s because of his role in the movie <em>Wall Street<\/em>, which motivated my career in finance. Perhaps it&#8217;s the fact that I have enjoyed his films and his comedy.<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that Mr. Sheen has been accused of (and is guilty of)  actions that I do not approve of or condone, but what I have found  interesting is undeniable about the man &#8212; he speaks his truth! (As  irrational as it may seem or offensive as it may be.)<\/p>\n<p>Oddly, the words of Charlie Sheen have more sincerity than the  majority of politicians, and corporate and world leaders. And SOME kind  of truth is what this world needs right now.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of straightforward, raw truth we&#8217;re seeing in government and  the corporate world right now might be one of the reasons the stock  market is behaving the way it is, and I don&#8217;t want you to get caught up  in the &#8220;bull&#8221; without being informed.<\/p>\n<h3>Lost in the Jungle of Information<\/h3>\n<p>The recent rally in the <a title=\"The Options Markets Tell Secrets... Should We Be Listening?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.taipanpublishinggroup.com\/tpg\/smart-investing-daily\/smart-investing-031811.html\" target=\"_self\">stock market<\/a> has been dubbed the &#8220;nothing matters rally&#8221; because the market has  seemed to get a boost from nothing. In reality things have gotten  seemingly worse (housing, sentiment) but none of the news has fazed the  market. The headlines can be extremely confusing and even misleading,  and the average retail trader has to be experiencing a bit of  bewilderment; I know I am.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the stock market just had its best week in months, shrugging  off record highs for oil, elevated food and energy prices, a dead  housing market, astronomically high U.S. unemployment, flat wage growth  and spotty earnings expansion for the majority of the stocks in the  S&amp;P 500.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s in addition to a terrible disaster that is crippling an  indebted country and many companies that produce goods there. And by the  way, revolution is further destabilizing the Middle East&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, there are many companies that may flourish in this  environment. You see, with global prices (inflation) on the rise (food,  metals, etc.), there are companies that will benefit. We have seen the  results of these in companies like <strong>Potash (<a title=\"Google Finance: Potash Corp.\/Saskatchewan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=POT%3ANYSE\" target=\"_blank\">POT:NYSE<\/a>)<\/strong>, <strong>Mosaic (<a title=\"Google Finance: The Mosaic Company\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=MOS%3ANYSE\" target=\"_blank\">MOS:NYSE<\/a>)<\/strong>, <strong>Caterpillar (<a title=\"Google Finance: Caterpillar Inc.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=CAT%3ANYSE\" target=\"_blank\">CAT:NYSE<\/a>)<\/strong>, <strong>Deere &amp; Company (<a title=\"Google Finance: Deere &amp; Company\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=DE%3ANYSE\" target=\"_blank\">DE:NYSE<\/a>)<\/strong> and others. <em>Smart Investing Daily<\/em> has had many of these companies on our radar.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Investing doesn&#8217;t have to be complicated. Sign up for <\/em>Smart Investing Daily<em> and let me and my fellow editor Sara Nunnally simplify the stock market for you with our <a title=\"Sign up for Smart Investing Daily\" href=\"http:\/\/www.taipanpublishinggroup.com\/free-signups\/splash\/sid-video-su2.html\" target=\"_self\">easy-to-understand investment articles<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Other sectors that are seeing support are connected to global  technology growth, economization (the cloud) along with wireless  communications and infrastructure (transport, electricity and telecom).  Global growth and development has created demand for computers,  smartphones, hardware and much more, fueling profits for companies like <strong>Apple (<a title=\"Google Finance: Apple Inc.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=AAPL%3ANASDAQ\" target=\"_blank\">AAPL:NASDAQ<\/a>)<\/strong>, <strong>Google (<a title=\"Google Finance: Google Inc.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=GOOG%3ANASDAQ\" target=\"_blank\">GOOG:NASDAQ<\/a>)<\/strong>, <strong>Skyworks Solutions (<a title=\"Google Finance: Skyworks Solutions, Inc\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=SWKS%3ANASDAQ\" target=\"_blank\">SWKS:NASDAQ<\/a>)<\/strong>, and <strong>Qualcomm (<a title=\"Google Finance: QUALCOMM, Inc.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/finance?q=QCOM%3ANASDAQ\" target=\"_blank\">QCOM:NASDAQ<\/a>)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The potential problem is that much of the demand is coming from  fast-growing &#8220;bubbles&#8221; in China and other developing nations such as  India and Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>But like we experienced here in 2008, what goes up too quickly, can end badly. But no one seems to be bringing this up&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3>D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu<\/h3>\n<p>Commodity prices, on average, are through the roof, many back at  early 2008 levels, and the greenback is still in the toilet. The DXY,  which is a popular index that measures the U.S. dollar against other  currencies, is also back at early 2008 lows. Not good for us here in the  States.<\/p>\n<p><em>Where is all this inflation coming from?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Several reputable data sources have noted the <a title=\"China's Inflation Exceeds Target for Fourth Month, Adding Rates Pressure\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2011-02-15\/china-s-january-consumer-prices-increase-4-9-producer-prices-climb-6-6-.html\" target=\"_blank\">extreme inflation<\/a> readings in China. Yesterday <a title=\"Chinese Inflation Goes Global\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/chinese-inflation-goes-global-2011-03-27\" target=\"_blank\">MarketWatch<\/a> noted how inflation in China is spreading across the world affecting  prices and perhaps more importantly outsourcing in the country now and  for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>To put it simply, we all know that many companies make many of the  products that you and I use on a daily basis in China. This is because  it has cost so little to manufacture goods there because of cheap labor  and materials.<\/p>\n<p>Change is coming my friends; China is no longer the cheapest place to  manufacture, which means all those manufacturing cost increases are  getting passed back to you and me, leading to even more expensive goods  and services &#8212; like we need that.<\/p>\n<p>Some also discount the enormity of the situation. In a research note published last year, <a title=\"Top 10 Largest Economies in 2020\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.euromonitor.com\/2010\/07\/special-report-top-10-largest-economies-in-2020.html\" target=\"_blank\">Euromonitor<\/a> noted that &#8220;China will overtake the USA to become the largest world  economy in 2017 and there will be more emerging economies in the top ten  economies by 2020 and beyond.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>What Do You Do?<\/h3>\n<p>In a letter to subscribers last week in <em>WaveStrength<\/em><em> Options Weekly<\/em>,  I noted that something has to give. The only catalyst I see for the  stock market&#8217;s boom is essentially material and food price inflation  driven by the largest developing nations. Remember that earnings season  starts April 11; I don&#8217;t think the market can shrug off <a title=\"How to Outsmart the Financial Market\" href=\"http:\/\/www.taipanpublishinggroup.com\/tpg\/smart-investing-daily\/smart-investing-032511.html\" target=\"_self\">financial results<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For now, you can&#8217;t fight the tape, so stay long but keep your  stop-losses extremely tight. I would hang on to those longer-term  insurance puts that you may have and perhaps begin to take profits on  your long positions here.<\/p>\n<p>I just wish that the mainstream media would tell the full story (dare  I say truth), unedited and unpolished to investors around the world.  Things don&#8217;t seem to make sense at the moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note:<\/strong> Expose the $50 Billion Shadow  Syndicate! At this moment, a ruthless government conspiracy is  cannibalizing American jobs&#8230; crushing hopes for an economic  recovery&#8230; and setting up the single greatest profit opportunity of the  last 83 years. Act now, and you could be $97,500 richer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are the details for this <a title=\"Learn more about American Wealth Underground\" href=\"https:\/\/orders.taipanpublishinggroup.com\/CUT\/WCUTM204\/\" target=\"_blank\">exclusive investment report<\/a>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jared Levy is Editor of <em><a title=\"Learn more about WaveStrength Options Weekly\" href=\"http:\/\/www.taipanpublishinggroup.com\/video-alerts\/wow-video\/wow-real-tpgweb.html\" target=\"_blank\">WaveStrength Options Weekly<\/a><\/em>, our options trading research service and Co-Editor of <em><a title=\"Sign up for Smart Investing Daily\" href=\"http:\/\/www.taipanpublishinggroup.com\/free-signups\/splash\/smart-investing-su.html\" target=\"_blank\">Smart Investing Daily<\/a><\/em>,  a free e-letter dedicated to guiding investors through the world of  finance in order to make smart investing decisions. His passion is  teaching the public how to successfully trade and invest while keeping  risk low.<\/p>\n<p>Jared has spent the past 15 years of his career in the finance and  options industry, working as a retail money manager, a floor specialist  for Fortune 1000 companies, and most recently a senior derivatives  strategist. He was one of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange&#8217;s  youngest-ever members to become a market maker on three major U.S.  exchanges.<\/p>\n<p>He has been featured in several industry publications and won an Emmy for his daily video &#8220;Trader Cast.&#8221; Jared serves as a CNBC <em>Fast Money<\/em> contributor and has appeared on Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNN Radio, <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> radio and is regularly quoted by Reuters, <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> and Yahoo! Finance, among other publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe I am a fan of Charlie&#8217;s because of his role in the movie Wall Street, which motivated my career in finance. Perhaps it&#8217;s the fact that I have enjoyed his films and his comedy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}