Spoofing? Who ya mean...
Abby Cohen? Auric Greenthumb? Mobius? David Evans? Wasserella?
Hell, I haven't seen this much spoofing since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Okay, I was still danglin from an umbilical cord about then but you get the picture.
Rruff, it's all spoof. The "legit" guys and the boneheads. That's why I dig Auric and the truthseekers' names so much. Course, I don't give em credit for any depth of thinking--they probably just thought they sounded way cool. But aren't they suitably mystical and eerily reminiscent of the dark ages. Lot's of sages wandering the countryside dispensing wisdom to the peasants: witches burn, wood burns, witches float, wood and ducks float, therefore if someone weighs the same as a duck they're made of wood and must be, of course, a witch! Now everybody bow, hand over yer shekels and go get your matches.
Same thing here. Truth LOVES a flunky, two bit net travel agent with zero differentiation and a snowball's chance. Nice plan. I'd tell him to look around, and get serious, or toss him out of my office. Yet he HATES, despises and must smite from the earth something original, and of course, always fragile and bullyable--the XYBRs, SCONs and whatevers. If he decrees it is good, then by God and Thunder it is good, and the money will pass. If not, well, the thunder thing again.
But it's not just him. Lookit the media bumkissers or Money Houses. Abby and Mobius in some wacky unholy union gave birth to an army of smirking reporters and retroactive genius analysts this week. CNBC wants to be the Current Affair of finance. Cramer's for rent. Bloomberg's giving out coupons and Barrons is pissed they aren't one of the Altars anymore. Ditto ML, dragged kicking and screaming online. Read the tea leaves, dude. All these guys, even the ones in awe as recent as 6 months ago, got bored with "up" and "easy". It's boring and it ain't profitable.
I've swung a few bats for Midland, Bank One, Barnett and others and I guarantee I'll be getting calls from finance wonks or agencies shortly casting about for new ideas and strategies: Make it seem diabolically dangerous to DIY. Sell safety, security, calm. None of this ease and freedom rubbish this time, pal--the lunatics are done running the asylum. Time for the professional grifters to get in, the skimmers, from Knight to Fleet to Citi.
That's what gets me about the frenzy over online trading. It's an outrageous bull market so even the dopes can win, but so many still don't realize the house has the odds and the info against them and that this investing shit is hard work. Well, maybe after this week a few more do. But after reading so many shocked!, shocked! posts about "criminal market makers" and questions like "what's DD?" or "how do I sign up for a split" over the last few years, the term sacrificial lamb comes to mind. How metaphorically and Aurically appropriate, eh? The average joe is finding out that money really is a vicious dirty business--"Hey, that Gecko guy wasn't foolin, Hon."
Not to get upitty here (too late?), but serious money organizes, coalesces and motivates. Shorts play their game on credit and on deadline. And if they don't pay attention, they're dead. That tends to clarify the mind, if not the character. Longs, at least many who call themselves "long" on these damn boards, are part timers, unaffiliated, with other worries, things to do and dreaming of a lazy rainy days. Nothing wrong with the latter. I want lazy rainy days. But in a fight, and money's always a fight and never a fair one, I'd bet on the cornered, lean and mean.
DISCLOSURE: I'm heavily margined on Auric being not so "lean."
Sorry, board, for the rant
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