Some abnormally amusing market commentary from everyone’s favorite “commodity guru”, Dennis Gartman.
[W]e are reminded of a day many, many years ago when as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade we had come home, beaten and thoroughly exhausted as the bond futures had traded both limit up and limit down only to have closed the day unchanged. The trading activity was violent; random and huge, and our wife at the time… with whom we are still very good friends… having seen on the television that the bond market had closed unchanged on the day greeted us at the door by saying “It must have been a boring day.” It was anything but boring! It was almost life changing. To many on the floor with us, it was life threatening; to very, very few it was life affirming. To everyone it was frightening.
Yesterday was that day relived, except this time it was in the equities market. Having been 150 Dow points higher and then only moments later to have traded down to where the Dow was suddenly 150 lower, the market finished effectively unchanged, with the Bulls and the Bears left scratching their heads and wondering aloud, “What the hell just happened?”
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Yesterday was our worst day of the year thus far, as that which we were long of fell and that which we were short of closed unchanged. Long ago we learned that when things go awry and do so as “majestically” as they did yesterday it is best to simplify, simplify and to simplify again. Getting smaller; getting less involved; curtailing positions in numbers and sizes is the only proper way to respond and so we did exactly that. We exited everything other than our positions in GEUR, GYEN and our short derivatives position… and even that we cut back upon to leave ourselves net short of equities but only rather modestly so.
Yesterday was a disaster which we wish to put behind us, and by getting smaller and less widely involved we are in the process of doing so. We are still profitable for the year-to-date, but only marginally so. Defense is the better offense for the moment. There will be better times ahead if we stick by our rules of trading. Of that we are certain.
“Oddly” enough, there was no update of Gartman’s YTD “performance” in retirement fund terms, an unaudited number which Gartman has been very proud of in recent weeks.
The post “What The Hell Just Happened” – To Gartman “Yesterday Was Our Worst Day Of The Year Thus Far” appeared first on crude-oil.top.