1. When I Twittered that Obama's speech was just propaganda and that my readers would be better served by focusing on bettering themselves, it inspired a 40+ comment chain on my Facebook profile. The lesson here is that people become very attached to their beliefs, like their stocks, no matter what any naysayer thinks, and many still believe in "quality investments" like Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS), each now down more than 50% in just a few months. 2. Propaganda works only for so long before it backfires -- Obama better come through on what he says or it'll be just another case of the "Steve Jobs is fine" rhetoric that has proven false and now taken down Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), which has just broken through the key $80 support I talked about recently. That may make it a great technical short for aggressive traders, but not for me; I'm a conservative short selling penny stock day trader.
3. Politics is eerily similar to the stock market, those who inspire and make people the most excited rise to the top.
4. Obama is like Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), both have raised hundreds of millions of dollars on the promise of new ideas, but why is Palm, Inc. so heavily shorted while Obama is not? Lesson: don't fight the hype/hope, Palm, Inc. will be a short eventually, but only after all the overeager short sellers have been squeezed.
5. Obama talked about a new area of responsibility for Americans, but we're the most financially irresponsible country on earth -- the lesson for investors is we're probably screwed! There will always be good stocks out there, but I wouldn't go investing in a bulky index anytime soon.
Timothy Sykes writes the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, star of the TV show Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund
5. Obama talked about a new area of responsibility for Americans, but we're the most financially irresponsible country on earth -- the lesson for investors is we're probably screwed! There will always be good stocks out there, but I wouldn't go investing in a bulky index anytime soon.
Timothy Sykes writes the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, star of the TV show Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-20-2009 @ 9:01PM
Jay said...
Propaganda? Are you kidding me? More like motivation I'm an Obama supporter but talk is cheap and hopefully his administration (see it's not all about Obama) can come through with some of what they want to happen. Have you ever played sports, do you know what a coach's job is to do? It's to rile up his team, motivate them, because when times are hard and everything seems to be going against you, its all about how hard you work, and how you bounce back from what seems rock bottom. This is what Obama is trying to do. I walked into my student center today and classes stopped students professors, janitors, and our food staff all stood in front of the T.V.s to watch and listen. There's something brewing within all of us, somthing and someone that has inspired us, when it seems like there is no hope. So Would you rather listen to what we already know? That the Bush administration failed on many issues? That the economy sucks? Or rather how we can TRY to fix it. How WE can work to fix it. So you keep being a pessimist, and keep doubting on what we can try to achieve. You give us the fuel to prove you wrong. It's a free country and do what you want, but for those of us who are inspired. Even if we can't achieve everything, we can at least say we tried, we can say we never quit. Our actions will determine us, and hopefully Obama's action will determine his, because yes words are just words. But while his words inspire us into action, your words are just that, words.
1-20-2009 @ 11:23PM
John Dupuis said...
Listen up...trying to correct the problem of over consuming, over paying, over indulging, over spending, by more spending and mover over idulgence is crazy! We are in this situation because of pork spending, by lending policies, and bad decisions by Congress. Now investors are suppose to believe that these same nut cases are going to fix things? I really feel sorry for people that have bought into this...
1-21-2009 @ 10:39AM
brarchery said...
RIGHT ON JAY