Asia opens--23 Aug 2015-2300 hours (E)

[neilgin1]

1115 PM (east coast time) the Nikkei is down 623 pts, over 3% and the Shanghai market is in crash mode, down 291 pts , over 8%.

I don't see Hong Kong ticking.

well?....whadya'll think?...I wonder if the ECB/FED...whoever, whatever "Plunge protection team" will be out in force tomorrow?

the equities market has been gassed up for so long, they'd be fools to throw QE digits at it....coz that's all they are, digits constructed by the FED for what? 7 years?....is isn't MONEY.....silver is MONEY, commodity money.

why didn't "they" just let it crash in 2008?....and just trade out of it?

I know WHY they didn't, its just a rhetorical question.

I gotta admit, i'm nervous....my personal gig is wired down pretty good for this all, so why am I nervous?

many reasons, and i'll give you a couple, leaving out personal reasons:

first of all, we've all gone soft, in different ways. Though I've known hunger at points in my life, our American Macro generation (18 to 60.....children of the empire) has never really known hunger, or REAL want, and that could lead to real mass unhinged behavior.....combine that with the trend towards non food producing urban areas, and........

this last week some strange stuff has happening in East Asia.....2 days after China devalued 3 days in a row, you have this insane explosion at the Tiantin harbor, and there have been whispers, that it just wasn't an industrial eff up.....then on Saturday you had another massive chem plant explosion in the Shandong province, but this time the chicom's had a chance to step on coverage, and step on the Net......and then last night an American military ammo storage base in Japan had a massive explosion and fire.

Now, make of that what you will.....to me, it just all doesn't pass the smell test, there's a lot of kooky rhetoric on the Net about it all.

and one other thing bothers me....i'm concerned about bank holidays and bail-in's. I credit union it, and our rural credit union is amazingly strong and the leadership sober, but even so I got good checks coming from extra stuff I got, and I am seriously thinking about just cashing and stashing.

and brothers, if you haven't already just start now to build a 30 day supply of food and water.

maybe this is something, we as a nation have to go thru, and we come out the other side a BETTER nation , and if some of tyrants in this country wanna pull anti-Constitutional stuff....then maybe we might have a new age of American heroes.

Sleep well.....I don't mean to be a bummer, n

later add: this is looking VERY bad, tomorrow will be Black Monday 2015.....check this numbers at midnite:

the NASDAQ futures are already down 163 pts, the Snp is down 52, and the Dow down over 400.....and that's just the night trading!

crude down over a dollar, the dollar is down .54......good grief.

there's gonna be a bank holiday in Sep, I feel it.

[beauanderos]

a lot of wealth is vaporizing in China, some of it sorely needed by the investors who borrowed to play the market, and then leveraged
up again using margin. Loans collateralized by personally held gold holdings? What happens when a large percentage of the Chinese middle
class take a huge hit upon their discretionary income?

[neilgin1]

a lot of wealth is vaporizing in China, some of it sorely needed by the investors who borrowed to play the market, and then leveraged
up again using margin. Loans collateralized by personally held gold holdings? What happens when a large percentage of the Chinese middle
class take a huge hit upon their discretionary income?

War.

[beauanderos]

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/world-indexes/asia-pacific

[neilgin1]

then on Sat



then, last night in Japan, at an American facility

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bGHVknhyVg[/youtube.com]

[InfleXion]

It looks like US stocks are following suit too between last week and the futures so far tonight. I kind of got a feeling that because a Fed VP came out last week saying that QE did not accomplish its goals that they were priming the PR campaign for turbulence. I have a hard time seeing him going rogue and doing that as opposed to it being a calculated move. Could that be foreshadowing that they won't step in again, possibly because they don't think another attempt would work now with things being on a global scale? I think it would have to be global easing by all the central banks at this point to have a chance at working, and if the Fed is going to step in there needs to be a lot more blood in the streets first.

Also in my home state of Washington, we are amid the worst wildfires on record. With all the explosions going on too, it's starting to feel like a perfect storm is brewing. No sense of panic here though. It's important to keep a level head. I've got my home turf covered, and I'm sure you all do too.

[Thogey]

What happens when a large percentage of the Chinese middle
class take a huge hit upon their discretionary income?

[InfleXion]

C-SPAN right now covering Chinese Military Threats on "Washington This Week", about their missile programs and technological advancement. Just heard an official say "Capability is what you have to watch, and not rely solely on good intent". Also some talk about space operations and space deterrents.

I don't really consider nuclear arms to be a concern. I don't think either side wants a world where life struggles to survive. Nuclear weapons were used before as a showcase, and now it's a bargaining chip. Plus there are the conferences from CNN I've seen with former AF officials stating an unknown source overrode their ability to communicate with their nuclear systems a few years back, which could be both a good or bad thing actually.

Right now its a currency war, and China has the gold. It looks like the US is going to fight to defend its interests, but the interests being employed are not the US's. Orwell said it best: "The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living.", but it looks like maybe the powers that be will try to boost the economy this way instead of printing money, or both. Each nation's economy could use the help.

The other program I saw before that on C-SPAN was Mr. Abenomics talking about the 70th anniversary of WWII, and how we need to learn from history even as we seem to be ready to repeat it. This from a man who did not learn from his nation's history of QE.

[smalltimeopn]

On the market(s): watched an interview on before its news site, interviewing Bill Holter. He felt it was possible the fed would shut the market down if certain circuit breakers trip. We shall see as this day unfolds.

[Copper Catcher]

On the market(s): watched an interview on before its news site, interviewing Bill Holter. He felt it was possible the fed would shut the market down if certain circuit breakers trip. We shall see as this day unfolds.

If that happens it will only fuel the panic that is already out there in my opinion.....

[silverflake]

I find it amazing, despite the amount I have read on the markets over the years that markets can go down so much faster than they go up. I have done ok since 2009 but I am watching a lot of my positions (yes, I still play 'The Game') get stopped out (most of them with substantial gains). Now this isn't a discussion of investing styles, theres a hundred ways to invest/trade but I do whats comfy for me. And to tell you the truth, getting stopped out feels pretty good right now though cash in a brokerage account these days seems as unsafe as everything else!

Feels a little creepy guys. We'll see what happens.
Keep the faith guys. And keep stacking.

[beauanderos]

"May you live in interesting times..."

[neilgin1]

On the market(s): watched an interview on before its news site, interviewing Bill Holter. He felt it was possible the fed would shut the market down if certain circuit breakers trip. We shall see as this day unfolds.

If that happens it will only fuel the panic that is already out there in my opinion.....

.....doubtless, you're spot on. in the 87 crash the ONLY major market to close that black Monday and stay closed for 4 days was Hong Kong, and that just made things worse. (obviously...for them)

I didn't post this last night, but I was watching Shanghai, and it was down 8%, I forgot the exact number, but it wasn't ticking, trading....and then I read at that point, 2,000 issues were "limit down", and only 13 issues were trading.........and thinking, "wtf is this"?!....in China, they have a 10% point change limit. that's lunacy.

but here's the thing, after 2008, and that frantic 700 bln dollar "TARP bailout", tells the market that the theory of moral hazard is NO CONCERN. Moral hazard is foundational to free market capitalism, which obviously is a thing of the past.

[neilgin1]

What happens when a large percentage of the Chinese middle
class take a huge hit upon their discretionary income?

oh, I been reading some very strange and bizarre stuff on the net this weekend....i'll post the strangest palaber I heard in another post, and with that stuff, you learn 95% is just mist, its the 5% that's "true", you want to focus on. Thog, i'm posting to Flex next, a little bit on "warfighting"....if i'm off, tell me....or say nothing at all, believe me, I know the drill.

[silverflake]

OK so I am watching for the open, DOW down, oh, about 680 or so. I see gold is up $6 an ounce so I head over to KITCO. Whats up with silver???? Down 63 cents at the time I am typing this. The more I think I know, the less I know.

Buy silver. Sincerely.

[NHsorter]

I think the idea is that silver is an industrial metal used in tons of stuff people buy. Stuff that people will be buying a lot less of in a horrible economy.

If your money is not safe in Stocks, Bonds, Cash, then a good place to have it is gold. The safe haven.

I think that is the current reasoning driving the prices on silver and gold today. And I agree, buy silver. But keep some powder ready too. It could get ugly.

[neilgin1]

C-SPAN right now covering Chinese Military Threats on "Washington This Week", about their missile programs and technological advancement. Just heard an official say "Capability is what you have to watch, and not rely solely on good intent". Also some talk about space operations and space deterrents.

I don't really consider nuclear arms to be a concern. I don't think either side wants a world where life struggles to survive. Nuclear weapons were used before as a showcase, and now it's a bargaining chip. Plus there are the conferences from CNN I've seen with former AF officials stating an unknown source overrode their ability to communicate with their nuclear systems a few years back, which could be both a good or bad thing actually.

.

that's a little bit coincidental, don't you think?....with a nice lil side chat on space ops. I want to check that out.

agreed that nuclear weapons are not THE main concern at this second, but there are some in leadership, who MIGHT believe we could (and/or) should pull off a first strike, bolt out the blue, "leadership decapitation" strike, which would involve maybe 10-15 target strikes. there are some here, who would know better than I.

the gamble on that (and yes, I realize, its an insane chess move) the gamble is, once you commit to this, your adversary doesn't have the time OR WILL to launch a massive counterstrike....or that anything they counterstrike with, a similar target package can be rendered ineffective with space and land based missile defense.

who nows?.....there are so many chess pieces moving right now, God only knows.

[neilgin1]

"May you live in interesting times..."

PPT to the rescue!!!!.....whew!

what WOULD we do without those brave and sturdy pencil neck geeks?

[Copper Catcher]

In the mean time in Congress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF184_T ... TY&index=9

[beauanderos]

Ain't the Plunge Protection Team wunnerfal? Only down 110 now. Yeah... right!

[neilgin1]

Ain't the Plunge Protection Team wunnerfal? Only down 110 now. Yeah... right!

its all bovine scat! 40 minutes to trade, and didn't I tell you?..."woe to the PPT if they attempt to stem this sell off?"

here's what happened, every sharp hedge fund manager, or high high net individual's, who had equities, just laid back, put in price orders....UP, and just waited for the "cavalry" to hit their offer...and get them out of stocks, get them flat, coz if any hedge fund, or high net individual holds ONE share of stock, this second?....they are morons, because its OUR tax dollars that just got tossed in the flames, so these guys could get flat.......believe me, Thursday, and Friday, HUGE down days, HUGE volume......who do you think was bailing?

the sharp ones....the long pull players....they probably thought, "i'll dump 50% before the weekend", and Monday, when we open bad, I KNOW the PPT will paint the tape, i'll dump the other 50% on those morons, and take the cash, put some in 30 day fed funds or 90 day Tbills, and i'll spread the rest by buying Swiss Francs against selling US Dollars...maybe some (obviously) bought the Euro against selling the dollar.

so who's holding stock?......probably the youngsters at the six too big to fail banks, and their HFT algo twenty something counterparts, and watch out when these humps try to dump equities.

these aren't free markets, and guess who pays the piper, when the bill on our 19 trln dollar national debt comes due?

you and me.

when Au and Ag Finally scream north to their REAL value levels of $16,000 and $1,000 a toz, and the gummit says "50% windfall tax on all sellers of Au and Ag, who pays?...

you and me.....THAT IS, if we SELL ...in the white market.....eff that.

(unbelievable...in the time I took to write this rant, here they come again...the PPT.

[68Camaro]

But the PPT ultimately failed. Yeah the smart managers no doubt gamed them and used them to execute a tactical retreat/exit. The Chinese PPT gave up last night. Well see if they stay away tonight.

It was interesting to watch the schizo headlines on google finance today. My paraphrase: "Oh the horror!" then "Dow manages magnificent comeback." Ending with "Well, maybe not so much."

[silverflake]

Back in 2007-2009 one of the guys I used to read (can't remember which one, might have been Bill Bonner or maybe Richard Daughty - the "Mogambo Guru") wrote that during these times, keep a journal and write down some of the little things that happen that either freak you out or that just come across as sending a red flag. An example I have is one day after things really started caving in Sept-Oct 2008, gold was down in price big time and the stock markets opened one morning really weak, so I went to APMEX web site to buy some gold - I had $800 of mad money, from scrapping, ebay selling etc. and APMEX had no gold! I called them asking what was up. Only thing they had was 10 ounce bars. None of the other sites I frequented had any either - golden eagle coin, mintproducts.com...So I wrote it down to remember.

So, today....here's my little anecdotes to remember:

1. at the open two of my stocks in my td ameritrade accounts had stop-market sell orders triggered. One of them took until 9:40 to execute...the other never executed! I ended up cancelling the order and entering a limit order to sell at the bid. it finally sold at 10:00. I am a small time investor but I do hold at least 100 shares of each so it wasn't like these were odd lots or anything (does that even matter anymore?). DON"T TRUST STOP ORDERS!

2. I have a September 18th 165 put option on SPY. Just one. Friday at the close its value was 0.20. Today at the open, the bid was up to 2.76 and the ask was 4.50! what a spread!!!! I also have a December 31st 170 put on SPY. Value Friday at the close 2.50, at the open today bid of 7.00 and an ask of 11.00!!!! Volatility is back.

3. My friends and family know, and are probably somewhat annoyed at my vehemence, that I am always preaching how the markets are propped up by fiat currency flooding the system...yada yada yada. Very few of them listen to me, I thought. Today my phone was overwhelmed with texts from friends and family, "What do I do?" "Do I buy? Do I sell?" "Do I cash out of my 401k?". I had to tell them basically that I don't know everything. I can't tell them in one text sentence what to do, what's going to happen or how to make things all better. Frankly I don't know. BUT what I took from this is the fear.....the fear. It was palpable in the texts (or maybe I read too much in). I really think they wanted little old me to tell them that "everything is going to be OK." To be honest, I couldn't get rid of them. All day they kept texting me.....I feel bad. But this is a microcosm of what is to come. The sheeple are going to look for that hand to hold their hand. And the powers that be ....well, I just don't want to think about what the next step will be.


OK....Anybody want to share? Campfire stories about the shot across the bow from today?

Stack.

[smalltimeopn]

"May you live in interesting times..."

PPT to the rescue!!!!.....whew!

what WOULD we do without those brave and sturdy pencil neck geeks?

PPT sure earned their pay today!!!

[beauanderos]

"May you live in interesting times..."

PPT to the rescue!!!!.....whew!

what WOULD we do without those brave and sturdy pencil neck geeks?

PPT sure earned their pay today!!!

market probably would have been down 2000 pts if they hadn't made an appearance.