(SCAM OF THE WEEK) From the desk of John Thomas The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Lunch With the CIA. Now that Central Intelligence Director, Leon Panetta, has moved on the greener pastures at the Department of Defense, I thought I would review my notes from a lunch I had with...

In this new video release, “as a first step,” Anonymous has called for public protests beginning on June 14th, continuing “until Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke steps down.” To make their case, they have presented a list of recent scandalous Federal Reserve actions.

The Hard Truth About Residential Real Estate. Anyone who believes that housing is on the rebound, and that now is the time to buy, should take a very hard look at the numbers I dredged up for my spring lecture and luncheon tour. There are 140 million personal residences in the US. Today, there are 19 million homes either directly or indirectly for sale....

As of June 10, the Dow has suffered the “longest losing streak since the fall of 2002. The market’s last seven-week stretch of losses began in May 2001, as the dot-com bubble deflated,” reports The Associated Press. As for why stocks are falling, most observers agree: Blame “weaker...

by Tyler Durden Bill Gross released a very troubling tweet earlier: Why is it odd? Because as David Rosenberg predicted two weeks ago when he expected that Operation Twist could be coming back with the Fed “capping” the 10 Year, Bill Gross, who has Larry “Fed Expert Network” Meyer in his ear and thus knows better than most...

Good afternoon and thanks for stopping by for the 1PM Afternoon Update. During today’s update, we’ll be looking at how the major markets are faring today. INO.com president and MarketClub co-founder Adam Hewison shares his decades of trading and investing knowledge LIVE every weekday through his afternoon market updates and each Thursday evening...

There are significant signals in the current market that a crash or meltdown scenario could unfold sometime in the next 1-2 weeks. Crashes are rare events and nearly impossible to predict, but many elements that could combine to produce a financial market calamity appear to be present at this time. The video below reviews the current technical condition...

From the desk of John Thomas The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Look at Home Prices in Terms of Gold. Every day, I get pounded by experts who insist that the bottom is here in real estate and that it is time to load the boat. I therefore find the chart below pricing US residential real estate...

Tim Iacono The Commerce Department reported(.pdf) that retail sales fell for the first time in 11 months, down 0.2 percent in May after a downwardly revised gain of 0.3 percent in April. Motor vehicle & parts dealers saw sales declines of 2.9 percent last month, the biggest drop in 15 months, due in part to supply chain shortages resulting from...

The Gold Rush in Iraq. The success of the recent oil auctions in Iraq is creating a windfall for American oil services companies. Schlumberger (SLB), Baker Hughes (BHI), Weatherford (WFT), and Halliburton (HAL) have committed to drilling 2,500-3,000 new wells per year and building new pipeline and shipping terminal infrastructure that could make the...

The coming summer should be exciting for traders! While summer trading generally tends to be slow, this one could be different. A large number of other professional traders I talk with are all feeling the tension building in the market. We all think some big movements are just around the corner and the big question is which way are things going to move? Depending...

Dear Readers, How’d you like to get your hands on Bill Poulos’s Forex Income Engine Trade Alert Software… PLUS his companion home study course, and… -PAY NOTHING? Well, he JUST announced a “36 Hour Scholarship Giveaway”! If you get this message before 8am Eastern on Monday, June 13th, then there’s...

The buzz around the blogosphere and in the media is that Quantitative Easing II is scheduled to end in around 3 weeks. Already pundits are asking about Quantitative Easing III as a matter of when, not if. In reality a QE III Lite version is already in the cards as the Federal Reserve has stated they will be buying Treasuries and Mortgage Backed Securities...

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform H/T by Tyler Durden It’s The Debt, Dummy I think charts tell a story that allows you to disregard  the lies being spewed by those in power. Below are four charts that tell the truth about our current predicament. The first is from http://www.mybudget360.com/. The austerity and debt reduction storyline...

HCPG Blog Note the test and success first of the 50SMA in Jan 2011, then the test and success of the 100SMA in March 2011, and now the test of the 200SMA in June 2011. Note the first test of ascending SMA has a much better chance of success than the next tests (if tested in short period of time).   The third test of the 50SMA failed and the...