The EUR tanking 1.5% even after the US debt news might be just the signal that the currency still stop defying gravity and will trend lower from here. I will monitor 'very closely' the developments there to see if I will add to shorts
The S&P news is noise, utterly meaningless to the markets. I'd be careful getting whipsawed in the euro. Definitely a better idea to find something other than the greenback to short it against. Just covered my euro short from this morning for +70 pips; it was a lot lower 3 hours ago, damn. The 'news' today is the coming Greek default and the Finnish elections. I doubt the True Finns have enough votes to completely block a bailout of Portugal, but you never know. What we do know is that the people are moving to take back power. I wouldn't rule out a Sinn Fein victory in Ireland if the new gov't continues to bow down to the EU banking powers. I also wouldn't rule out some nut job winning the WH in 2012 if BO, Geithner and Bernanke continue down the disastrous path they've led us.
The USD might be the perfect currency for my own portfolio actually. That is because if the USD were to tumble from here its likely due easy money from the Fed which means I necessarily will be cleaning up on the Fed futures side. Over the past few months it was exactly what happened
In response to some wiseenheimer's PM ... I did not cover 70 points higher than when I shorted, the +70 refers to a 70 pip gain for yours truly.
I have a little less than 10% of my networth stuck on pokerstars as a result of the US government moves to crackdown online poker. I suspect I won't lose anything because I plan to get the cash out before pokerstars faces any kind of bankruptcy risk(IF they face that) but still its making me more cautious regarding some other financial accounts I have an interest on. Oanda is a broker I use which offers little or no protection so I concerned about that. The vast majority is protected because IB is insured and so are US and Brazilian banks but some other parts are unprotected
The US government's administrator for the seized corporations will likely implement a tedious and highly annoying redemption procedure for the player accounts. Amongst other things they'll probably ask for the standard notarized passport copies, notarized copies of utility bills, personal reference letters from your local bank, "Are you a US citizen?", "Do you pay taxes in the US" etc. My guess is that behind these red tape strategies they hope half of the account owners will shy away from asking for their money.
I expect US citizens to have to take some kind of haircut on their money. The poker wizards with hundreds of thousands or even millions online are out of luck
ESPN nixes all poker broadcasts. I assume they're doing it because advertisers are pulling out. The government has destroyed an industry overnight. Countdown till GS (with Tim's approval) gets into the online poker business ... just kidding.
Yeaaap. Remarkable lobbying done by the casino industry. I was reading comments made by Doyle Brunson and he says the casino game has been jam packed the last couple of days.
The dollar hits another post-Hunt Brothers low vs. silver (and gold). Silver above $44 now ... it's $50, or bust.