I was just kidding about government manipulating markets. I do think banks do it though. The government really doesn't have to manipulate the market, they just step in and bail out all the banks after each crash/blowup. With hedge funds maketing TRILLION dollar OVERLEVERAGED bets, it's in every bank's self interest to prop up the market long enough till most funds get out of their long positions - then let it drop. I think all they have to do is make sure the major support levels hold and step in to take out the major resistance levels. This is really a blessing in disquise - there providing a lot of liquidity, and allowing more time for everyone to start getting short. Just imagine coming in one of the days last week and the market gaps down 10%+ - who really benefits from that except the short-term countertrend guys cause the long term trend remains up.
All governments intervene in their markets: buying at support levels and selling at resistance levels. Makes for stable markets and stable monetary systems. They can't control some markets anymore because they are too big. However, I believe, they used to control many markets in the past like gold and oil. tony
Like in the 70s? Did the US government want gold and oil to rally and cause huge amounts of inflation? Where was their control there? Yes obviously you can say that the Saudi and other OPEC governments were in control of the oil but that was because the US hit a production peak in 1970 and OPEC controlled all the remaining supply and cut it off. The US gov. wasn't in control in the 70s. Prior to 1972 that the US was on the gold standard so there was no market for gold. Gold rose because inflation was at double digit levels, not because some government wanted it to. Oh and Alan Greenspan does not use technical analysis. He doesn't look for support and resistence levels. I don't disagree that governments will interfer with markets to an extent, like lowering FF rates in times of crisis. But markets eventually go where they want to go, the differences these market interferences by governments make little difference in the long term. Greenspan didn't want a bubble in the 90s, but there was one. The FED didn't want oil to go up so much in the 70s and it did. The US government doesn't want oil so high now and it is. Oh and someone else, I forgot who, wrote something like "the stock market forecasts the future, it is amazing to watch." Markets don't forecast or predict anything. There isn't a wizard with a crystal ball controlling them. They are run by people like you and me (and big banks and governements, all players get a vote) and reflect all currently known information. The stock market goes up because stocks are designed to go up, hold everything else equal and stocks will rise. Companies must grow or die add that to inflation, stocks go up. This is why the Buy and Hold strategy has worked so well for so long. Statements like "this market is manipulated up," are ridiculous. 5yr
Uhmmm... nice "uptrend" that week! However, that was no call, but some forwarded "insider information". Next time I hear the word, I will post again here. Maybe these anomalies will dissolve some day when really everybody knows.