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still wondering who I should pick as TE for my playoff fantasy squad...Gronk or Aaron...?
Gronk
Battle of the Birds? :)
I like how Ryan can air it out...got Julio Jones for one of my Fantasy Playoff squads...
the pass/catch at 4:55 is pretty impressive
I'm thinking the Patriots will make it to the Super Bowl in the AFC, I think the 49ers or Seahawks will make it in the NFC
Patriots got a good running game to compliment the pass this year, Ridley is pimp...
3:43 work hard, play hard
Haha, that would be awesome, I hate that bastard lol...
anyone think CCI or SBAC are going to get dumped next year? On paper these big institutions are going to be able to show a nice return to their clients, thinking these stocks will pull back at least 20% next year
Euro doomsayers adjust predictions after 2012 apocalypse averted
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/28/us-euro-doomsayers-idUSBRE8BR05Q20121228
(Reuters) - Back in May, as the euro zone veered deeper into crisis, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman penned one of his gloomiest columns about the single currency, a piece in the New York Times entitled "Apocalypse Fairly Soon".
"Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro -- that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union -- could come apart at the seams," Krugman wrote. "We're not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years."
Krugman was far from being alone in predicting imminent doom for the euro in 2012. Billionaire investor George Soros told a conference in Italy in early June that Germany had a mere three-month window to avert European disaster.
Then in July, Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup and former Bank of England policymaker, raised the probability that Greece would leave the euro to 90 percent, even going so far as to provide a date on which it might occur.
Buiter's D-Day -- January 1, 2013 -- falls next week. And yet no one now believes a "Grexit", or catastrophic implosion of the euro zone for that matter, is just around the corner.
Half a year ago the chorus calling an end to the euro reached a crescendo. Among the chief doom-mongers were some of the world's leading economists and investors, many of them based in the United States.
Fast forward six months and their prophesies look ill-judged, or premature at the least. The euro has rebounded against the U.S. dollar. The bond yields of stricken countries like Greece, Spain and Italy -- a market gauge of how risky these countries are -- have fallen back.
Even the gloomiest of the gloomy are revising their forecasts, although they warn of more trouble ahead.
"Europe has surprised me with its political resilience," Krugman admitted earlier this month in a blog post.
In October, Citi lowered its view on the likelihood of Greece exiting the currency area within 18 months to a still high 60 percent and there are plenty of economists who think that while a patchwork of measures have drawn some sting out of the crisis they have done little to address its root causes.
Krugman and Buiter did not return mails seeking comment. Soros declined to be interviewed.
POLITICAL WILL
With the benefit of hindsight, it seems clear that many simply underestimated the political will in Europe to keep the euro together, and the impact that a series of policy shifts in the second half of 2012 would have on sentiment.
The most important of these were European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's July promise to do "whatever it takes" to defend the euro -- which led to the ECB's commitment to buy euro zone government bonds in sufficient amounts to shore up the currency bloc -- and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's late-summer shift on Greece.
After wavering for many months on the costs and benefits of a Greek exit, she finally came around to the view that the risks to Europe and her own political prospects of letting Greece go were far too great.
"There may be a logic to Greece leaving, but the mechanics are too disruptive for both Greece and its neighbors," said Barry Eichengreen, an economist at U.C. Berkeley, who has long argued that the euro is irreversible.
"An appreciation of European politics makes you realize that everything will be done to prevent a breakup of the monetary union. It would be intensely catastrophic, economically and politically."
Capital Economics, a UK-based consultancy that forecast one or more countries would leave the single currency bloc by the end of 2012, now concedes that it underestimated the ECB's determination to save the euro and the market's faith in the bank's promises.
"It may simply take longer," Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics said of a euro breakup. "It's obviously not happening this year."
Prominent investors have also paid a price for betting against the euro zone this year. Earlier this month celebrated U.S. hedge fund manager John Paulson blamed big losses suffered in 2012 on his bets that the sovereign debt crisis would worsen.
For those who placed their chips on the other side of the table, there were stellar returns of around 80 percent to be had on 10-year Greek and Portuguese government bonds this year.
CRISIS DEFERRED
Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist whose bearish forecasts earned him the nickname "Dr. Doom", has been in the gloom camp from the beginning, predicting as far back as 2010 that countries would be forced to abandon the single currency.
Now he says the risks of a near-term catastrophe have been reduced. Reflecting the more cautious view of many of his colleagues, Roubini believes 2013 will be another year in which European politicians "muddle through", avoiding catastrophe.
But the euro's day of reckoning will come, he believes, with the risks metastasizing over the course of 2013 and Greece, once again, posing the biggest threat.
At the height of the crisis in June, the euro zone dodged a bullet when the conservative party New Democracy narrowly beat anti-bailout leftists SYRIZA in the Greek election.
Since then, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been able to keep his three-party coalition together, and behind austerity measures needed to keep bailout money flowing. But as the country enters its sixth year of recession and support for the government wanes, his task will become harder.
Recent opinion polls show SYRIZA with a five point edge, underscoring the risks of a political earthquake in Athens at some point in 2013.
"By late fall of next year, the Greek coalition could collapse and an exit may be back on the table," Roubini told Reuters.
Even economists like Eichengreen are reluctant to declare the worst of the crisis over, pointing to deep recessions on Europe's periphery and the risk of political complacency.
At a December summit in Brussels, European governments delayed serious discussion on closer fiscal integration until mid-2013 and made clear that creation of a "banking union" would stretch into 2014 and beyond.
"What we have seen throughout this crisis is a cycle where steps are taken, politicians think the problems are solved, they sit on their hands and the situation worsens again, with spreads blowing out. I'm sure we'll see more of this going forward," Eichengreen said.
Krugman, while expressing surprise at Europe's ability to avert disaster in 2012, isn't backing off his predictions of gloom either.
In his recent blog post "Bleeding Europe", he likens the austerity imposed on countries like Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland to "medieval medicine" in which patients were bled to treat their ailments. When the bleeding made them sicker, they were bled some more.
Even if the euro has defied forecasts of its demise, the economics of austerity, Krugman says, are playing out "exactly according to script".
(Reporting by Noah Barkin, editing by Mike Peacock)
now I know why Sylvester Stallone married Brigitte Nielsen back in the day
watch at 2:15...bombshell
VIX north of $25?
watch at 1:48 min, one trader thinks the VIX will be north of $25 early next year...
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000137453
Herbalife Working With Law Firm in Dispute: WSJ
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/herbalife-working-with-law-firm-in-dispute-wsj-7kk2Q24DRh2PSc0Q9ABTBQ.html
Morgan Stanley Recommends Dumping Paulson's Funds
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/morgan-stanley-recommends-dumping-paulson-s-funds-PmnuPcW4S22O9OpWDzYt3A.html
MS needs to recommend dumping CRM and LNKD...
Netflix Faces Fundamental Headwinds
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/netflix-faces-fundamental-headwinds-ramelli-ZSeIy0nFSGeDraC_59pD1A.html
NFLX The Scary $3B Bomb on Netflix's Balance Sheet
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/the-scary-3b-bomb-on-netflix-s-balance-sheet-HOK8c1WOTAeSEtbigkGuMA.html
Bank Stocks: Fundamental, Technical, Options Take
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/bank-stocks-fundamental-technical-options-take-UARVQXCISR6Y6Ec_gtQ1OQ.html
Are Homebuilders Overheated After 100 Percent Gain?
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/are-homebuilders-overheated-after-100-percent-gain-oyNkPQ1ySCWOWC1Myiffow.html
PHM looks like a good short...
A Fiscal Cliff Deal? Not Until February: Nomura
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/a-fiscal-cliff-deal-not-until-february-nomura-_bNtn__4RHqJjcVnyQyDAg.html
This economist says a deal might not happen till possibly even March?
Investors Shun Postwar Iraq
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/investors-shun-postwar-iraq-0YAjWIQDQ8anSGXr_56GFA.html
WHY?lol
Madoff, in Christmas Eve Letter, Says Insider Trading Has Gone on 'Forever '
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100338795
yep, Wall St. front runs just like the penny market....trading the penny market actually helped me realize this...
Thanks man, Merry Christmas to you too...I got some good gifts and got to see a lot of friends and family, how was yours?
Volatility to Increase this winter...
don't believe me? Awesome Bear DD...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82758290
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82758447
What to Expect Later This Week
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000137311
watch at 1:50 min, another analyst also thinks early 2013 could be bad for the bulls, and also thinks credit rating agencies will downgrade U.S. debt...
If you think about it, a lot of Republicans probably don't want the economy to do "too well" under Obama's watch, which is why they will likely play this game of chicken and make Obama's job harder...same analyst says that what will really be bullish for the markets and get a lot of money to come in from the sidelines is a "real solution" by Washington to the U.S.'s short-term and long-term problems...unfortunately, Europe has a lot more problems than the U.S. and will be a lot harder to solve than the U.S....and collectively the European economy just as big, if not slightly larger than the U.S....
The ECB's own forecasts suggest the euro zone economy will shrink 0.3 percent next year
Euro zone rescuer Draghi faces daunting 2013
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82607986
markets remain skeptical that the bloc's weaker members, such as Spain and Italy, can fund ballooning government deficits without formal aid programs.
....A Spanish and Italian bailout is/will be VERY unpopular politically, won't happen unless the markets put pressure on politicians...not bullish...
Be Careful Bulls
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000137298
watch at 0:58 min, many politicians believe that using the Debt ceiling debate as leverage will be the only way to get what they want or a "grand bargain"...so could there be more "political dysfunction" after a "fiscal cliff deal"....which could lead to more downgrades to the U.S. credit rating, likely from Moody's and Fitch...but S&P might send a warning of further downgrades...if those things develop, not sure how the S&P 500 can go to and stay above 1500, and there's even some analysts saying the S&P is going to 1600 in 2013...I doubt that...
more downgrades?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82724824
Summer 2011 all over again?
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000137029
Haha, nice analysis....I agree, HLF is a POS
Rating agencies won't cut U.S. on fiscal cliff - yet
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/21/us-usa-fiscal-ratings-idUSBRE8BK14S20121221
(Reuters) - The stalled progress in the Washington budget battle may be rattling markets but the gridlock among policymakers will not move the rating agencies to downgrade the United States - yet.
The U.S. credit rating is far from safe. All three major agencies have negative outlooks on the United States, which suffered its first downgrade in history last year when Standard & Poor's stripped it of its triple-A rating.
But the fiscal cliff is only one event in a series of issues that will see ratings agencies looming over Washington for months.
Investors sold off riskier assets such as stocks on Friday and scooped up safe-havens such as the dollar and U.S. Treasuries after Republican Representative John Boehner failed to find enough support from his own party to push a measure raising taxes on millionaires through the House of Representatives.
With Boehner's leadership as speaker of the House on the line, markets worry he can't get any tax plan through Congress at all - much less the stricter terms Obama wants in what's becoming the latest drawn-out political budget debacle.
Dysfunction in Washington was specifically cited as one of the reasons Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. debt rating to AA-plus in August 2011. The "fiscal cliff" itself will reduce the deficit, but Fitch has said that a continuing political standoff could cost the country its top-notch rating.
"This potential for continued gridlock among legislators could have profound effects for the U.S. economy," Standard & Poor's said in a report after the November elections.
Without a budget deal among lawmakers, the fiscal cliff, a package of $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, will begin to kick in January 1 and could push the economy into recession.
If investor hope is fading, though, the rating agencies still have some confidence. Fitch still sees a compromise before year-end, spokesman Brian Bertsch confirmed. "That base case has not changed" from a previous view, he said.
But failure could lead to a rating cut.
If the fiscal fracas drags into next year and looks set to hurt the economy, "the U.S. sovereign rating could be subject to review, potentially leading to a negative rating action," Fitch said in a report on Wednesday.
Moody's will probably resolve its negative outlook on the U.S. rating in 2013, as well, but how remains to be seen.
A spokesman for Moody's said on Friday that the rating agency's view hasn't changed since it issued a report in September saying that the United States could be off the hook for a potential downgrade if there is a medium-term plan that stabilizes the debt and reduces it as a percentage of GDP.
In the event of a plan without such policies, "we would expect to lower the rating, probably to Aa1," according to the report, co-authored by Moody's lead sovereign credit analyst on the United States, Steven Hess.
Moody's might take some time to assess a plunge over the fiscal cliff - but not beyond 2013.
In contrast, of the three major agencies, Standard & Poor's is the least likely to act soon, since the agency cut the U.S. rating to AA-plus last August after intransigence on the debt ceiling debates dented confidence in policymakers.
Forecasting Next Week
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136999
Currency Traders Forecast
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000137029
Stocks in Turmoil in Cliff Scare
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136871
IDCC, what a POS...
Ackman Presentation clips, watch at 5:15
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136631
Schiff: Forget Currencies, Go with Gold Instead
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136757
Schiff, PAAS CEO: It's a 'Perfect Storm' for Metals
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136739
Pros Put to the Fire for Trades
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000136759
Ackman: Short in Herbalife Is 'Enormous'
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136628
haha, did you see that Ackman interview on CNBC earlier? I'm impressed
Ackman: Why I Am Shorting Herbalife
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82669512
Ackman: Why I Am Shorting Herbalife
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136735
wow this is good, Ackman says he's donating his profit from shorting HLF to charity because a lot of "low income people got duped" lol....gotta give him credit...he's shorting this stock for ethical reasons, wish more guys would do that with LNKD and CRM lol
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AHLF&ei=bWHTUIDSOMW_qgGjmQE
Inside De Beers: Bloomberg's Unprecedented Access
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/inside-de-beers-bloomberg-s-unprecedented-access-r2HYIrR1SmO7C4fEQabGHg.html
Herbalife is a Pyramid Scheme
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/ackman-herbalife-is-a-pyramid-scheme-wdzgQu8yTOqK1H~MEI~L7g.html
Morgan Stanley Urges Clients to Leave Paulson Fund
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/morgan-stanley-urges-clients-to-leave-paulson-fund-~Q01LRLNR16_6AH5wXyS0g.html
haha, this is funny...
well I have more free time now that I'm not VP anymore, and this past semester I took one of thee, if not thee hardest upper level undergrad science/chemistry lab class, which focused on Quantum Mechanics, ie Physical Chemistry II, and I have not taken Physical Chemistry II yet, so I was basically having to write lab reports that involved complicated Quantum Mechanics theoretical models without even taking pchem II and it SUCKED...took up a lot of my time
When I took organic chemistry lab last summer, thankfully I had taken organic chem II where you learn how to read NMR's, but a lot of students that took orgo lab got crushed because they didn't know about NMR's, however learning how to read NMR's only takes a week or two to understand, and they gave students a chance to learn NMR's before we got into it, however PChem II (Quantum Mechanics) is not a couple chapters like NMR's are in the organic text book, Quantum is a WHOLE SEMESTER COURSE....
Go sign up for the lab for physical chemistry and then see how much time you'll have at the gym, you'll need those 8 hours to learn Quantum...
Also, sure 8 hours a day at the gym, but it takes time to get ready before the gym, and AFTER, then you eat more, so you're looking at more like 3-4 hours a day when you factor everything in...nice try though
well I was also Vice President of a big investment club...and if you were lifting along with school, there's no way you can follow the market closely at the same time.
Impossible to focus on school, the market, and the gym all at once, only 2 are possible...
yeah there was getting to me too much euphoria around the "fiscal cliff" resolve...more volatility likely by year end
Staying Bearish on Solar Stocks?
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000136399
hmmm, looks like FSLR could be a good short, great discussion about solar stocks...
it will be after I graduate and have more time to hit the weights :) unfortunately when you major in engineering you have to trade your physical fitness for a degree...
U.S. budget optimism send shares, euro up
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/19/us-markets-global-idUSBRE88901C20121219
(Reuters) - World shares hit 17-month highs and the euro surged on Wednesday on hopes that U.S. politicians will reach a budget deal and that further monetary stimulus will come from Japan.
European shares extended their recent rally in early trading with the FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 near an 18-month high ahead of the German Ifo survey, which is likely to point to a gradual improvement in business conditions for December.
"What is important, and what is driving the market higher, is that the two parties (in the U.S.) are now in constructive discussions over specific tax levels and spending programs, and working towards a common middle ground," said Cameron Peacock, a strategist at IG Markets.
MSCI's world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, which is in its fifth week of gains, was up 0.3 percent at 342.29 points - a level which surpasses its peaks for this year and has not been seen since July 2011.
In Europe London's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI and France's CAC-40 .FHCI indexes all rose around 0.3 percent in early trading. .L .EU
Behind the rally is a view that, once the U.S. fiscal crisis is resolved, the massive monetary stimulus by the world's top central banks will lead to an expansion in economic growth for 2013, supporting equities at the expense of safe-haven bonds.
The Bank of Japan is widely expected to join in the growing activism of central banks to support growth by expanding its asset-buying program aggressively an the end of a two-day policy meeting on Thursday.
The prospect of extra stimulus sent Tokyo's Nikkei share average .N225 up 2.4 percent on Wednesday and back through the 10,000 points for the first time since April.
The easier policy outlook also sent the yen to a 16-month low against the euro, while the dollar gained 0.2 percent on the Japanese currency to edge back towards its strongest level in 20-months of 84.48 yen hit on Monday.
The growing demand for riskier assets on the hopes for a U.S. budget deal also benefited the euro against the dollar and it touched a 7-1/2-month high of $1.3256.
"Unless U.S. fiscal cliff talks take an unexpected turn for the worse, we believe that EUR/USD will meet our 1.33 year-end target," analysts at BNP Paribas wrote in a note.
Commodities were in consolidation mode, however, as investors waited for a U.S. fiscal deal.
Oil held steady, with Brent crude rising about 10 cents to be just short of $109 a barrel at $108.80, and U.S. crude was little changed below $88 a barrel. <O/R>
Copper was also flat at $8,017 a tonne. Copper has rallied almost 8 percent from mid-November and hit a two-month high a week ago, but has since lost some ground. <MET/L>
Gold rose 0.3 percent to around $1,675 an ounce, after falling to $1,661.01 on Tuesday, its lowest since August.