Wall Street Initiative Seeks to Help Vets Find Jobs

Weekly jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week keeping the national unemployment rate above 9 percent, but among veterans, that rate is more than 12 percent. Today in New York City, big-name Wall Street firms are scouting for new hires at job fair specifically organized for returning troops at Pier 86's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. Fox Business Network's Adam Shapiro said that in addition to a difficult over all job market, veterans face competition from civilians and a potential bias from employers about vets being called for reserve duties.

Am I Diversified? [NBC: 6-15-2011]

Thom Hartmann: How to Cut Wall Street Down to Size

NYC - The Wall Street Bull

Investing Dying as Computer Trading, ETFs & Dark Pools Proliferate

^ That's a headline from CNBC. A snippet from the article goes like this:

   There's an old Wall Street adage meant to inspire investors that goes "it's not a stock market, but a market of stocks." Consider that dead.

   Computer trading, dark pools and exchange-traded funds are dominating market action on a daily basis, statistics show, killing the buy and hold philosophy still attempted by many professional and retail investors alike. Everything moves up or down together at a speed faster than which a normal person can react, traders said.

   The author of the article isn't listed but whomever it is, he or she has no idea what investing entails and thus the whole article is invalidated on that fact alone. It's when the patzers of the world claim that buy-and-hold is dead is when it's making a comeback. Anyone who bought and held the S&P from the lows of March 2009 is now up by nearly 100%. How is buying and holding dead in that case? There's a lot more bull action on the way and anyone who buys and holds will be amply rewarded in the coming year. You know why? Because it's a bull market.

America Hates Wall Street

   A CNBC article from today reminds me that, "America Hates Wall Street" and one from the WSJ exhorts, "A new form of madness grips investors" which are about Americans' distaste for the stock market.

   These types of stories are indicative of the fear that still grips the American public when it comes to Wall Street. I guess it's understandable because during the 2007-2009 crash, the DOW dropped from 14,279.96 all the way down to 6,440.08. I traded through those days so I know there was irrational trading going on, lots of fear, and a feeling amongst the rabble that the end of America was upon us. Crazy right? Yet, here we are in 2010 and the Dow's recovered all the way to 11,113.91 but folks are still fearful.

   That's why po' folk will never get ahead. They should've been buying with both hands and both feet when the market dropped like a stone in 2008 - mom and pop investors should've been stampeding into the market when Pfizer was $11.62 on March 2009 and GE had dropped to $5.87. Yeah, I know GE is a hedge fund in drag (Thanks, Cramer) but c'mon now. GE has survived wars, turmoil, and recessions before and it's not going out of business.

   So yeah, the social class strata in America is going to stay the same for the next hundred years because of fear and greed. It's as simple as that. When the market dives, Joe Sixpack becomes fearful and sells near the bottom only to watch the market bounce back again. However, he doesn't buy when the market climbs - he stays out because of a fear of being whacked again. That's why Joe will never ever become wealthy or be rewarded by the market.

   Joe Sixpack will probably buy when the DOW's at all time highs in the next few years when prices are dear. A powerful bull market is upon us but the majority of American's won't benefit from what's coming because their fear outweighs their greed at precisely the wrong time.