Lee Wheeler On The Mark

I have some extraordinarily sad news today.

David Mack, who wrote this blog under the nom de plume Lee Wheeler, good friend and mentor to all of us, passed away suddenly of a heart attack this weekend. David was 52. He is survived by a brother and his companion Michelle.

David was an inspiration, as well as a friend. I learned so much from him. His keen mind, sense of humor, analytical acumen, his integrity, his balanced approach, his willingness to share, and his basic human decency made him someone we all looked up to. He was truly one of a kind.

I send my deepest sympathies to Michelle and to David’s brother. All of us who have come to know David share deeply in the shock and grief over his loss.

David, you are a class act. We will miss you terribly.

When I think of the words, a gentleman and a scholar, David, that was you.

Words do not suffice…

David’s obituary has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, October 21, at 3:00 at Temple Emanu-El, 2 Lake Street, at Arguello, in San Francisco.

A poster at Capitalstool.com brought to our attention this quote from one Max Whitmore writing in Newsmax: “Because of all of the huge bets that the bears have been making by taking huge short positions along the way during the last 15 to 16 months, that strategy has now put the bears in a very, very precarious position.” I never heard of this guy and don’t know whether he’s right, wrong or something in between. But I’d give little credence to anything found on Newsmax, a site just slightly to the right of Atilla the Hun.

That said, who are these bears that he is talking about? All the bullz talk about the bears being wrong. Problem is, there aren’t any bears. At least none with enough money to make outsized betz against the markit.
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Spoozer busted the trendline off the 9/24 lows (1507) with some authoritah yesterday. Now we need to find out whether it was a fakedown breakdown or not. I s’pose a move back over 1565 should answer that question.
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Looks like the finaglers are targeting ‘em younger and younger. Just in time for the holidaze, Mattel has come out with the “Barbie Fashion Fever Shopping Boutique”.
The playset comes with an initial inventory of eleven outfits—though plenty more are available for a fee—and a handy-dandy, point-of-purchase credit card terminal. Every time the “Fashion Fever” credit card is swiped through the terminal, more money appears in your account.
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From a L/T perspective, the U.S. markets have been a one-way street. In the three decades since 1980—the most consistently bullish period for schlocks in U.S. history—the fraudexes have moved up 10-11% a year, on average. Obviously, they don’t go up 10-11% every year, that wouldn’t be any fun. Sometimes they go up more, sometimes less, sometimes they even decline (though rarely.)
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How ’bout the Hang Seng (HSI)? The Hong Kong market is at all-time highs and up a sweet and tasty 50% since the August lows. For those keeping score at home, that was seven weeks ago.

Is the Hong Kong market worth 50% more than it was seven weeks back? Apparently Mr Market thinks so.
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Even before the markit dumped in Jul/Aug, I felt the techs (and Q’s) had higher I/T targets to hit. Once it became clear that we weren’t going to get the 1998-style selloff continuation into Sept/Oct, I figured the Q’s would ramp to minor higher highs in the first two weeks of Oct.

So here we are.
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Here’s a couple “crime scene” patterns to ponder. Both the IIX (internuts) and XLE (bigcrap energy) have completed their “return to the scene of the crime.”
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Sentiment towards gold has gone thru the roof, as you’d expect given what has transpired. A poll from a gold site, SwissAmerica, asks visitors where gold will be at the end of 2007: $700, $725, $750, $800, $850. Funny that it doesn’t even give an option for lower prices, considering that gold has closed the week above $700 for only the first time in 27 years. (Continued)

One look at the chart of “Program Trading as a Pct of Weekly NYSE Volume” gives you a clue as to what is happening. The Basket Trade Boyz—the ETFs and the hedgies who love them—have represented an increasing share of market volume for the past eight years. At the top in 2000, program trading comprised about 15% of market volume. Since the August 2007 lows, this number has now skyrocketed to over 90%.
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