We live in extremely unpredictable times. How did things get so bad so fast ? Full article:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/seeking-trading-solutions-in-an-uncertain-world-2010-08-18 Stay and play or run away? Commentary: Seeking solutions in an uncertain world By Todd Harrison NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- We live in interesting times. During the last two years, a financial virus spawned and infected the economic and social spheres as a matter of course. This isn't just about money anymore; our civil liberties, the foundation of free market capitalism and the quality of life for future generations are dynamically shifting as we traverse our current course. If we've learned anything through these years, it's that unintended consequences tend to come full circle. Whether it's the moral hazard of bailing out some banks, the gargantuan profits of a chosen few.-- the caveats of percolating protectionism or the growing chasm of social and geopolitical discord, times they are a-changin' and it's freaking people out. As speculators are vilified and hedge funds are perceived as acceptable casualties of war, financial fatigue will evolve in kind. We've already seen the burnout manifest in trading volume -- upwards of 70% of the flow are the robots -- and we've witnessed it in financial media, with reported ratings of some of CNBC's marquee shows down as much as 25% year-over-year. As we navigate this socioeconomic maelstrom, an increasing number of people are weighing their options -- and some of the smarter folks I know are "going dark." What does that mean? They're selling businesses, unwinding trading operations or otherwise distancing themselves from the capital markets. I speak with people in an array of industries throughout the world and "business is great" feedback is a rarity. More often than not with increased frequency, the sentiment skews in the other direction, as do anecdotal data points such as thinning crowds at concerts and excess capacity at high-end restaurants and sporting events.
Perhaps things are quite predicable... all for the bad. 1. Globalization and Outsourcing = paradigm shift resulting in a PERMANENT excess of labor... an issued not yet addressed by government. 2. Obama's Socialism... Higher taxes, more regulation, higher health care costs for employees = negative incentive to hire. As a result we have an excess of people suckling from the government tit... people who don't contribute to the economy nor even their own maintenance beyond spending the money given to them by government in exchange for their vote... money which the government doesn't have and must borrow. America is a slow motion train wreck and nobody in Washington acknowledges.... most probably don't even see it.
Permissiveness, a result of Socialist and Liberal infestation for the last 30 years, is the prime cause of most of our problems today. More hangings, less welfare.
What's more interesting from a trading perspective is this sentence from the article. " We've already seen the burnout manifest in trading volume -- upwards of 70% of the flow are the robots -- and we've witnessed it in financial media, with reported ratings of some of CNBC's marquee shows down as much as 25% year-over-year. As we navigate this socioeconomic maelstrom, an increasing number of people are weighing their options -- and some of the smarter folks I know are "going dark." What does that mean? They're selling businesses, unwinding trading operations or otherwise distancing themselves from the capital markets. " Traders.....prepare yourself. Of course most of us trading the last year or so already knew that the game was dying.
At least half of this can be blamed on the bernanke summers crowd. Some was probably inevitable. the HFT operations must be dying.