Thar she blows!

8:34 pm (Hawaii) Back a month or so when JP Morgan proclaimed that gold would go to $2,500/oz, was there any doubt about the tyranny going on "behind the scenes"? Hell yeah they were long gold to protect their asses. They knew Obama was PISSED OFF that they took the bailout trillions and stashed it instead of lending it out. So friggin much for good will. And for Dimon and other CEOs to publicly bitch about the White House and its business philosophy? That took the cake and the whole shit is hitting the banksters' fans.

That's why gold is back to $1,900 from the recent dip to $1,700 so quickly, even with a margin requirement hike. Sure, the CME mafia could play games, but any more margin hikes would be met instantly by heavy buying from India (festival season) and China, not to mention every other central bank in the world. The dollar is withering away, the crooks are long gold (and probably short silver again). Not very likely they can keep gold and silver buried much longer.

None of this should make a sour face on you for long. JPM telegraphs their moves, in hindsight. So does the dollar, ie the economy. So does the Euro. If making profits on AAPL or NFLX or LULU is smiley-face profits, then making profits off physical gold and silver, or especially ultra-bull paper gold (DGP) or silver (AGQ) is angry profit. Nobody wants to see shit hit the fan, not when friends and family have lost jobs, prices keep escalating, and the world dips deeper into recession or worse. But protect we must, and it's all we can do to stay afloat. Survival.

Tonight's move in gold says it all. Think fast, think clearly and survive.

Update 9:14 pm US Mint has frozen sales of First Spouse gold coins. Again. Price was at $1,054 for a half-oz First Spouse, but the mint has listed all of them as "temporarily unavailable." It's the same process they went through before raising price on First Spouse gold coins in recent months, and the American Silver Eagle 1-oz proofs.

What's also interesting is that US Mint jacks price up, but has yet to bring price down on dips in gold and silver. Demand is strong, even ludicrous. It was just a few months ago when First Spouse gold coins (half-oz) were available at $929. I thought that premium was a bit much.

Fear is contagious

This week — this month — more than ever has been a lesson in the power of the external. All the charts, statistics and revenues in the world are great, sort of like measuring the tide and the frequency and size of waves on local shores. You believe what you see. But the recession worries, housing subprime crisis, breakdown in financial institutions, etc. are certainly earthquakes from beyond our vision. It's like an earthquake in Indonesia that can cause a tsunami to hit Hawaii or North America. And that's the simple lesson.

Apple has nothing to do with Countrywide Financial, let alone a quake on the other side of the ocean. But today AAPL trades at 160, 20% below its recent high, and there is no way to argue against a trading strategy along with (or without) a core, long-term position. At the end of December, AAPL traded at 200 and far above its simple moving averages. Clearly not a buy, but I was among those who didn't consider selling shares. The street sold off just about everything since the start of 2008, and Apple was caught in that tsunami.

It will be a long time before the confidence of the market is reestablished. Until then, there's no point in fighting the price action. Any movement up is paired with lowered volume (re: Apple, Google, RIMM, etc). There is no conviction from the bull side, and that's why it's impossible to go long-term with new positions right now.

Apple's earnings are out on Tuesday. The telescopes are focused. Fear of the tsunami prevails, but will that fear continue?

Clobberin' Time!

This cold has knocked me out for several days, so I've been getting up late enough to miss virtually entire market sessions. Getting up at 11:15 a.m. (HST) today gave the chance to turn on the laptop and be shocked by the 98-point drop in the Nasdaq. Here's a stock ticker I would empathize with: "OUCH."

When I look at my "real" shares of Apple and Research in Motion, I can't help but think that a sell at the start of the year would've been wise. We all know there are investors who waited until Jan. 1 to unload shares and hold off paying the tax until 2009. But today's jobs report put a sour taste into the market, and across the board, stocks were clobbered. Only a few survived in the green, such as XM Satellite Radio.

All the traditional mettle about holding shares long pertained to the market of two or three years ago. Since then, trading in and out has been the superior methodology. Apple at 180? Why would the globe's top growth company plunge more than 10 bucks in the face of a seemingly soft recession? I see consumers choosing a Hybrid car over a gas guzzler. I see consumers spending less on expensive clothes and opting for Ross Dress for Less more. But I do not see them passing up a new iPod Touch or Macbook. People will still treat themselves when it comes to technology, especially cool tech. This is not a Depression we're seeing ahead.

My shares of RIMM are hurting, particularly my swing-trade shares. Could've sold at 122, as Pete Najarian did with his RIMM options. Who knew that RIMM would nosedive back to 103 — lower than it was pre-earnings — even on a robust earnings report and raised guidance? Ridiculous. But that's the market for you.

It's clobberin' time and only the brave will wade into the water. Reminds me of one of ABC's shows of 2006, Invasion. Anyone who got into the water was eventually attacked by a mutated, alien manta ray-like creature, and then you became a human-alien hybrid. Then the hybrid men impregnated human females (sneaky invading bastards). Doomed, doomed, doomed. Well, before we got to know exactly where civilization was headed, the show was cancelled and I was left hanging. I tend to think our economy — and the market — are in slightly better health.