Here We Go Again….

We have yet another country going down the gurgler – this time its Italy. And I’m surprised that everyone else is surprised since if you have ever been to Italy you will know that it is not the most well run place. In fact you get the distinct impression that running a hot bath would be beyond both the government and most institutions.

The great thing about watching central bankers and regulators run around like chickens with their heads cut off is that it demonstrates how little they actually know about markets. Italy is heading down the same path we and other markets went down when the market collapsed – that is find someone to blame. In this instance (again) it is apparently the short sellers . It is undoubtedly short sellers who cause every major calamity. It couldn’t possibly be that companies are run by total dickheads who could tell the difference between their arse and their elbow and that markets just happened to notice these little things.

The upshot of this is that it knocked out my longs from last week which in all honesty I am not surprised at since the market is very skittish but you have to do what the system says.

The result for the week is as follows –

Dow +280 points

Nasdaq + 60 points

S&P 500 – 5 points

So not a bad week.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the market seemed quite complacent with very little fear around – well that seems to have changed over night with the VIX ticking up from its historically low levels.