What I Learned Today

11th October 2008

Post with 1 note

“We have lived through what we have considered to be periods of chaos previously. 9/11 was obviously chaotic; the weeks of the Russian/Emerging market/Long Term Capital Management collapse was chaotic; the assassination attempt upon President Reagan was chaotic; the weeks and months of of the Watergate and the Clinton Impeachment goings-on were chaotic; the final weeks of the massive bear market of the summer of ‘74 was chaotic, as were those final days in the summer of ‘82 when the stock market made its last final low. We recall the Friday, the Saturday and then the Monday of Paul Volcker’s Saturday Night Massacre when monetary policy was stood upon its head and the capital markets were shaken to the very core; that was chaos of the first order. We have lived through them all, and we have traded through them all, and what we are seeing now, and trading through now, and trying to make sense of now makes them all seems like quiet, lazy, rainy Sunday afternoons around a game board. What we are seeing now is unlike anything we have ever… EVER… seen in thirty + years we have been doing this. What we are seeing now is something we wish never to see again.”

— Yesterday’s The Gartman Letter, a daily commentary on the global capital markets subscribed to by leading banks, broking firms, hedge funds, mutual funds, energy and grain trading companies around the world. Mr. Gartman has been producing his commentary on a continuous basis since 1986.