Calling a market top or bottom is difficult. Even when you see sure signs of a bubble (they are easy to spot on price charts), there’s no assurance that the bubble won’t continue. The 1999 dotcom bubble was seen for what it was at the time, but investors couldn’t get enough of Pets.com or Space.com (it’s still around but only after a nasty stock price crash in 2000).
The same was true of the Nikkei Stock Average in Japan. As it pushed to 40,000 in late 1989, it was widely viewed as a bubble, but the momentum continued. Finally, it crashed and bottomed at 7,570 in 2009. It only recently made it back to 30,000 after a 30-year recovery.
An indicator called ‘distribution’
You don’t want to short a bubble, because if momentum continues you can lose a lot of money being right. There’s usually plenty of money to be made on the way down once the bubble bursts. Still, there are certain indicators that a market is near a top that are more reliable than others.
One such indicator is called ‘distribution’ by Wall Street insiders. It refers to a process of insiders and banks dumping stock on unsuspecting retail investors. The retail investors often don’t have access to the best deals such as IPOs, so they snap up any such Wall Street offerings readily. Little do they know that the insiders see the crash coming and are dumping high-priced stocks on the little guy so they can escape the collapse with profits in hand.
A classic case of distribution
This article describes a classic case of distribution. Robinhood is an online trading platform available as a mobile phone app that is favoured by many retail investors, especially first-time traders among millennials using government handout cheques to place leveraged bets using options. Robinhood has announced that its platform will now be available for IPOs, which are among the most prized offerings.
IPOs often soar in price on the first day of trading. Because of that first-day dynamic, Wall Street generally keeps the IPO allocations for its most favoured clients, especially large institutions. If IPOs are now being distributed to small retail accounts, it means that the Wall Street banks don’t expect them to perform particularly well. They just want to get the IPOs done so entrepreneurs can get rich and the banks can collect fees. If retail investors get burned, well, that’s just too bad for them. Distribution is most common near market tops. And that may be just where we are right now.
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Meanwhile, I have to ask:
Do you have your vaccine passport?
As a fan of 1950s black-and-white movies that depicted life in Europe under Nazi control during the Second World War, one of the most chilling lines of dialogue was a single word: ‘Papers?’ That was how a security official, who could be in the SS or a local Nazi collaborator, would confront an innocent-looking citizen to ask if he or she had the right papers that allowed them to travel or move freely in their present location.
The confronted citizen would shake nervously, reach in his jacket or her purse, fumble about, and finally produce the papers. The Nazi official would scrutinise them carefully, ascertain if they were in good order, and finally look at the terrified citizen. A few follow-up questions might be asked. If the papers were in good order, the papers were returned and the citizen could go on his/her way. If not, the citizen might be arrested on the spot.
In certain scenes, the citizen knew the papers were forged and would not withstand scrutiny. They would make a run for it while the official was still reading them. Sometimes they got away, but more often they were shot in the back by the official. Case closed.
Vaccine passports are on the way
Believe it or not, this system is now coming to the US in the form of a ‘vaccine passport’, as described in this article. This would be a document of some sort, likely in digital form as a QR code on your mobile phone. If you have the COVID vaccination, you’ll get a QR code to put on your phone. With that, you’ll be able to board aeroplanes, attend concerts and sporting events, go to classes, and basically live life as ‘normal’ (although the neo-fascists may still require you to wear a useless mask).
Without the QR code, your ‘papers’ will not be in order and you will be denied transportation, entertainment, and educational options. It’s basically a way to force people to be vaccinated if they want to live a normal life.
Another excuse to restrict civil liberties
Of course, the ‘vaccine’ is not a real vaccine but is an experimental gene modification process. The gene injections (in the form of mRNA) are not approved by the FDA but are being offered under a waiver from normal FDA approval. Extensive personal information is required from you before you receive the injection (that’s because you’re a guinea pig in an experiment whether you know it or not).
All of that information will go into a government database before you get your QR code on your iPhone (which will be used to track your whereabouts). Once this system is in place, it can easily be expanded to include criteria other than the injection, such as your race, political affiliation, postcode (which can be used to estimate your political affiliation in some instances), and other social criteria. The QR code could then be used to determine eligibility for racial reparations, ‘stimulus’ cheques, and other government goodies.
Being asked for your ‘papers’ was one of the most chilling lines in the old movies. It was common during the Second World War. And it may become all too familiar again. The fascist impulse takes many forms, but it never goes away completely. COVID is just another excuse to go back to the Dark Ages when it comes to civil liberties.
Regards,
 |
Jim Rickards,
Strategist, The Daily Reckoning Australia
PS: This content was originally published by Strategic Intelligence Australia, a financial advisory newsletter designed to help you protect your wealth and potentially profit from unseen world events. Learn more here.
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