Is the Rally Over?

^^^ That's the headline from a WSJ article this morning. I'll quote some of it below for reference:

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111331/is-the-rally-over?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=

   For those investors wondering whether the months-long stock-market rally, after retreating a few steps, has more room left to run, Mark Rylance has some words of advice.

   "There's absolutely no way that anyone knows what's going to happen," says the Newport Beach, Calif., financial adviser. Many investors are wondering whether they should cash out or stay invested.
 

   The DOW dropped about 200 points yesterday. Guess that's why headlines like, "Is the Rally Over?" are being printed. The rally is just getting started. We are at the early innings of a multi-year rally that will take all of the indices way past their former highs. People are down on the stock market because it's a cruel and unforgiving monster. Make a bad trade and you're eaten alive. Fat-finger a trade and half of your capital disappears into the monster's gaping maw.

   Trading ain't easy and it was never meant to be a game played by children. However, the market's going higher. No doubt. There'll be dips and blips on the road to DOW 18K but only children expect the market to move in one direction. That is all. 

10 Reasons To Buy a Home - WSJ

   Man, this one's a doozy from Brett Arends for the Wall Street Journal. And I quote:

"Brett Arends explains why owning a home is a good thing.
Enough with the doom and gloom about homeownership.
Sure, maybe there's more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare "Owning a home may no longer make economic sense," it's time to say: Enough is enough. This is what "capitulation" looks like. Everyone has given up."
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/110685/10-reasons-to-buy-a-home?mod=realestate-buy

  Brett, you done got facked up again. Anyone who's seen True Romance knows that line. Yeah Brett, you're grasping at straws when you try to make a convincing argument that it's alright to buy a home right now. Pointing to a magazine cover as a contrary indicator stopped working during the crash of 2008-2009. Magazine cover after magazine cover decried the health of the market before the first crash in late 2008. You know what those contrarian magazine covers did? Nothing. The market continued crashing and crashed again in March of 2009.

   I'm going to go through Brett's ten reasons why it's good to buy a home now and smash them to pieces:

1. You can get a good deal
   Hey, I can get a good deal on a house. Let me take out a $380,000 mortgage from banks that won't approve my application because I don't have a job. Good one, Brett.

2. Mortgages are cheap
   Shut up. Get out of here!? Morgages are cheap? Holy shit, now I can run out and get myself a house.

3. You'll save on taxes
   This one is so stupid that I'm not going to bother humiliating him.

4. It'll be yours
   Will it still "be yours" after it's foreclosed on?

5. You'll get a better home
   This guy is a genius. By genius, I mean idiot.

6. It offers some inflation protection
   People aren't worried about inflation when they're on unemployment.

7. It's risk capital
   WTF is he smoking? No, I don't want any of it.

8. It's forced savings
   Um, what savings? "Hey Marge, let's put some money from the unemployment check into our savings instead of buying food for the kids."

9. There is a lot to choose from
   This guy has a knack for stating the obvious. I hope he's not getting paid for that article because he has to be writing for free. You know the phrase, "Beating a dead horse" right? I don't want to beat Brett anymore.

10. Sooner or later, the market will clear
   Thanks Brett. You're like Nostradamus with your pronouncement that the market will clear. Will it clear in time for people who just bought homes and lost their jobs to pay the mortgage?

   I will now read all of Brett's future articles in the WSJ with a jaundiced eye and a suspicion that he's got a screw or two loose. Those screws lost their threads and are spinning.