Big Ben Chimes on Wall Street
The Fed Chief offers his take on Mark-to-Market.
Step inside, walk this way, you and me Ben, hey hey!
I return to my turret to find Big Ben on the little screen and his words all over my eight other screens. As I scrolled through his vibe, a few headlines stood out. Among them:
- The Fed needs to buttress protection for money market funds (this is huge from a "social order" perspective).
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He urges authority to take over the biggest financial firms (read: nationalization, temporary or otherwise).
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Fed should play some role in broader risk management (HELLO McFly!--Where was this proactive initiative when the writing was on the wall?)
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Fed will seek legislation 'on its own account'' (help me here--does this mean they, themselves, will push for legislation or they want legislation to enable 'its own account,' namely Fed bonds).
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And finally, and perhaps most importantly, he said he wouldn't support suspending mark-to-market.
Even before he offered that last bullet (stamp a ticket, 9:14) I was going to reiterate my game plan, which was to scale out of my upside trading exposure into Thursday's House Panel Subcommittee meeting (while maintaining my S&P 600 bid for 25% of my nest egg).
My vehicles, as it stands and as I sit, includes the soon to be sold FAS (trading crack), the remainder of my General Electric (GE) calls and the other half of my SSO calls. I also have some Dryships (DRYS) and Yahoo (YHOO) but those are smallish, like the hands of a carnie.
Given his opinion on M2M (grr, thanks Ben), I'm sure alotta traders are thinking the same (sell, Mortimer, sell!). That should lend itself to a press lower out of the gate and we'll take a fresh, real-time look how that supply is digested on the Buzz.
One thing for certain, Minyans, something big is coming down the pipe. Take a deep breath and remain lucid--this is what we've trained for.
Good luck today.
R.P.
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