photo by joe shlabotnik

In this election year we have heard a lot about what will happen to the American people more than I can remember since I’ve been voting (which covers over 25 years). One of the major things being spoken about is taxes and yes it’s a topic that is discussed every election, but with the condition of the economy, it’s more important than ever.
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I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that I’m a Libertarian (a party that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves). I believe that our federal government has gotten too big, it spends way too much money than it should. The one true way to reduce taxes is to reduce spending.
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The reason why I bring this to light on a blog that deal solely with the stock market is that this year we could have our investments effected in ways that will hit us on many levels. If some of these ideas come to pass we may have more money pull put of the markets that will continue to cause the markets to fall.
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Take into consideration that if any one political party was to control the Presidency, the Senate as well as Congress, they would be able to mold the laws and pass bills that could take decades to change. At the present time the Democratic party controls the Senate and Congress. With the way Congress has been sitting on their a$$ for the last two years from all the filibustering that causes the delays in decision making, we can’t afford to let most of the candidates go back to Congress to serve this country again.
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Please be aware of the politicians that were involved with the issues that help cause the collapse of the housing market as well as the credit crisis. These candidates will most likely continue to do more of the same if they were to get re-elected.
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As for the Presidency, below is a link to help you think of a few other things that will be effected if the wrong person is voted in office. Remember Wall Street and Main Street are one and the same. Where does average Joe have his 401K plan? On Wall Street, that’s where we all have them.

Target the Investor Class in 2009

Today the DOW had one of it’s top 6 days in history after it’s worst week in it’s 112 year history. Everybody is jumping for joy and looking forward to the rest of the week. But let’s be real, I said in my earlier post this morning that the markets don’t turn around this quickly.
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We still have a lot of work to do before we can reap the rewards of what has been done in the financial sector over the last few weeks. I’m very happy from today’s gains, but I’m realistic in the fact that this has to come down from profit takers within the next few days. With my interest in Morgan Stanley, my portfolio is up an average of 25% today.
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What we witnessed today was investors and traders getting in on some great deals after a major sell off last week. Most of the trading wasn’t based on fundamental, but on the fact that many hedge funds and other entities were trying to raise capitol and cover margin calls. no matter what you were invested in (except GE and ABX), you made some big gains.
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If you are up in any stocks at this time, you might wnat to think of taking some off the table for when we will have a down day (and believe me, we will have one soon). It’s better to miss out on some short term gains than to lose out on the ones that you made already.
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DOW @9,387.61 +936.42 (+11.08%
NASDAQ @1,844.25 +197.74 (+11.1%)
S&P 500 @1.003.35 +104.13 (+11.58%)
Oil $81.85 (+$4.15)

Hang in there and happy trading.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last week you know that the economy is in deep trouble and it looks like no matter what anyone does, it’s not going to do any better. This has been the worst week in stock market history. The DOW drops over 6% in this week alone, as the NASDAQ falls 9% and look what happened to the S&P 500, it dives 9.4%.
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The week started off bad on Monday (it was the worse of them all) by dropping 777 point on the DOW. Congress couldn’t leave their feeling at home that they went ahead and voted against the “invest In America bill (mostly because Nancy Pelosi can’t shut up) that would have help the American people and gave a little confidence to Wall Street. We heard all week from the politicians that Wall Street and Main Street are two different groups of people. Let’s see how different they are when the residents of Main Street get their 401K statements by November 3rd and realize that their portfolio has shrunk quite a bit in this quarter (which ended September 30th).
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We listened as Citigroup bids and signs the papers to acquire Wachovia, only to see Well Fargo came in with a better offer. Now Citigroup has filed a lawsuit against wachovia because of this issue. All the while the rest of the financial sector takes a slow ride downward all week long. To add insult to injury, when the bill was finally sign by Congress today, Wall Street, with it’s good solid gains for the day, took it all back and then some. For what reason, I don’t know. I guess Wall street lost that confidence they had while waiting so long for Congress to come back to the table.
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So what’s to come next week for the markets? More of the same, I would guess since it’s so evident that we are in a recession/depression period, the smart money is going to start moving their money into more stable vehicles (bonds and such). I myself think that’s a pretty good idea at this time. If you have capitol tied up in stocks, you may want to take good hard look them and see which ones are one that you shouldn’t have during a recession. I’ve read a lot of articles that say that the way to go right now is consumer staples (McDonald’s, Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson etc.). If you own any, hold on to them. If you’re in a stock that is sensitive to the price of commodities, then it might be time for you to sell into any rally you get. Remember, the old saying… “cash is king”. But then again, who knows what’s going to happen to the almighty “greenback”.