Why do we work 5 days? Market trading on a Monday is like going to a kids softball game when only 4 or 5 kids show up for each team yet they insist on playing anyway and the parents sit on a metal bench for 2 hours watching kids chase balls around. There's a human tendency to follow a plan – even if the plan already looks like a disaster. This just happened to my daughter's game on Saturday and I KNOW everyone would have rather gone out for pizza instead but it was on the schedule and would count in the league standings so we went through the motions – but no one, not even the kids, considered it a real game . The markets are like that on Monday. Half the traders are still in the Hamptons and the ones that show up aren't into it and volume is usually 2/3 or less than that of a regular day and even the news isn't awake yet and very little data is scheduled (how often do you promise to have a report ready Monday morning?). Still, we go through the motions but I'm not going to pretend it matters – let's just try to enjoy a nice sunny day. Europe is happy this morning as the Greeks have agreed to yet another round of Draconian austerity measures. Well, everyone but Italy is happy, because they are next on the EU chopping block. Though thousands of protesters rallied outside Parliament yesterday, the Greek lawmakers bowed to Germany's demands (over IMF objections) and slashed $6.2Bn (3% of GDP) worth of spending, mostly coming from pension cuts while, at the same time, increasing the amount workers must contribute into the dwindling pensions. I have long warned that Greece is simply a petri dish in which the powers that be test just how much crap the people will take before they revolt – so far, it's an amazing amount of crap! IN PROGRESS
Why do we work 5 days?
Market trading on a Monday is like going to a kids softball game when only 4 or 5 kids show up for each team yet they insist on playing anyway and the parents sit on a metal bench for 2 hours watching kids chase balls around. There's a human tendency to follow a plan – even if the plan already looks like a disaster. This just happened to my daughter's game on Saturday and I KNOW everyone would have rather gone out for pizza instead but it was on the schedule and would count in the league standings so we went through the motions – but no one, not even the kids, considered it a real game.
The markets are like that on Monday. Half the traders are still in the Hamptons and the ones that show up aren't into it and volume is usually 2/3 or less than that of a regular day and even the news isn't awake yet and very little data is scheduled (how often do you promise to have a report ready Monday morning?). Still, we go through the motions but I'm not going to pretend it matters – let's just try to enjoy a nice sunny day.
Europe is happy this morning as the Greeks have agreed to yet another round of Draconian austerity measures. Well, everyone but Italy is happy, because they are next on the EU chopping block. Though thousands of protesters rallied outside Parliament yesterday, the Greek lawmakers bowed to Germany's demands (over IMF objections) and slashed $6.2Bn (3% of GDP) worth of spending, mostly coming from pension cuts while, at the same time, increasing the amount workers must contribute into the dwindling pensions.
I have long warned that Greece is simply a petri dish in which the powers that be test just how much crap the people will take before they revolt – so far, it's an amazing amount of crap!
IN PROGRESS
