Alternative Hedge

|| New unemployment claims jumped 417,000 last week. ||

Unexpectedly.

Experts were predicting new unemployment claims to come in at 405,000 last week.

The experts were unexpectedly wrong… again.

New jobless claims rose again last week, coming in at 417,000.

QE Minus 1 Comes In The Form of Stealth Media Political Propaganda "Cross of Fiat"

How To Interpret The Put Call Ratio?

There are 2 main ways to interpret the Put Call Ratio. First, it is taken widely to be a "Panic Meter" where a higher reading suggests panic in the market as investors rush into put options. Second, it is taken to be a contrarian indicator which points to major reversals in the market.

Not This Time:

Adding Debt to the Backs of Taxpayers Doesn't Work

Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

The Death of Demand: The Post-Consumer Debt Economy

The  Fed has been conducting yet another stealthy foreign bank rescue operation, which rerouted $600 billion in capital from potential borrowers to insolvent foreign financial institutions in the past 7 months. QE2 was nothing more (or less) than another European bank rescue operation!

Gary Alan DeWaal, senior managing director and group general counsel at prime brokerage firm Newedge, said most non-US FX hedge funds seemed unaware of these obscure, burdensome requirements. "Most hedge funds would not think that they are retail funds. However, all it takes is one US client, who fits into this bracket to make them a retail FX fund.