So far President Elect Obama has proven to those who made the bet on him that he IS the right man for the job. His stances and early policy and personnel moves already are showing he will be more centrist that many had believed. What has already become apparent is that far left liberals and Democrats will be the ones most annoyed and disappointed in how Obama leads. The financial and economic crisis we find ourselves in will be solved with leadership from the middle, not from the far left or far right.

This weekend word began to circulate that already the tax increases for the rich, championed by the left and Obama are now off the table. For amusement I went to some of the hard leaning liberal blogs and boy are they mad! My words of advice to the tree huggers and the far left – get ready for lots of disappointment as President Elect Obama is going to lead this country the way that makes the most sense for ALL of us and that is from the CENTER! Get used to it! For once I’m not annoyed!

This article is totally unrelated to the stock market but it is impossible to ignore this “story” the media is trying to create. NEWS is a business these days. Whether the news is true or not it is the eyeballs a story generates that matters. Anyone with half a brain knew that once Obama won the election a big deal would be made of racial tensions. Much to the chagrin of the mainstream media America has grown up. We elected the first non-white President in the history of this country and race wars did not start. The nation barely blinked (in a good way!) It was for all intents a non-event. Despite this the news media is trying to a create a story where there is none. Right now there is an article circulating discussing the “hundreds” of racial incidents since the election. What counts as one of these incidents? How about an AP story this weekend about a NINE YEAR OLD girl who heard another boy her age say” I hope Obama gets assassinated”. This is what one of the incidents is? Not to discount what has happened but one can easily see a story is being created by the media here. Stir the racial pot and get viewers and readers. This is shameful. Our country has grown up. It’s about time the news media did!

Unions really annoy me. Sure they benefit the ones who are members but the rest of us, taxpayers and traders and investors pay the price. The latest example of course is the US Auto Business. Aside from airlines this has been the second biggest black hole for investor money over the last couple of decades. GM, Ford and Chrysler are a heart beat away from insolvency, driven in large part by a poor economy and from bad management but mostly because of insane labor costs. This weekend the head of the UAW, United Autoworkers Union said screw you when asked about labor concessions from the unions to help keep the Big Three alive.

The AVERAGE labor cost per hour, wages and benefits in 2006 per Forbes:

FORD: $70.51 ($141,020 per YEAR)
GM: $73.26 ($146,520 per YEAR)
CHRYSLER: $75.86 ($151,720 per YEAR)

The average pay for Toyota, Nissan and Honda was $48 per hour ($96,000 per YEAR)

The average pay and benefits for a college professor with a Ph. D is $92,973! So an HOURLY union worker with a high school diploma makes 57% MORE in pay and benefits than a College Professor with a Ph.D! And people wonder why the US is losing its competitive advantage?

Still how can we blame the UAW Head for his comments? After all we now have a Democratic Congress AND President and unions are THE friend to the Democratic party. Why give concessions when their paid politicians will just write them a tax payer check? Anyone that believes the auto companies won’t get a bailout needs to read up on how politics work in this country. You contribute money to a party and politician and you get your way! We have a country by and for the LOBBYISTS, not the taxpayer and certainly not the investor or trader.

What is sad though is that those saying not to bailout the financial sector are the same ones callings for a bailout of the auto companies! You should be annoyed too!

This is perhaps one of the most difficult stock markets to make a living off, at least in the last seven years. It seems every trick in the trader’s money making handbook has stopped working. Buying new 52 week highs, well there are none! Moving average breakouts, sure go ahead and five minutes after you enter the play you will be stopped out! How about buying stocks with tight stops? Again, go for it and watch as your buy and cover stops hit 30 seconds before the trade runs your way! Yes it’s ANNOYING and yes it is getting old. Still, there is ONE way I have found that has been consistently working over the last few months and I’m giving it to your free today!

The market is stuck in a trading range right now. 10k is the top and 8k the bottom. ETF’s have been a great way to play the large moves seen on a daily basis. ETFS or Electronic Traded Funds are baskets of stocks in a sector. The QQQQ is the ETF of the Nasdaq 100, the DIA follows the Dow Jones, the USO follows the moves in oil prices. There are literally hundreds of ETF’s for every sector and subsector. I personally prefer the ones of the major indices such as the NASDAQ, Dow Jones and S&P 500. When the market moves to 8600 or below buy the DIA or QQQQ and sell when the Dow gets to 9200 or above. When the Dow moves about 9500 you go short. For more sophisticated traders buying options works great! This SIMPLE trading plan has yielded several winning trades in the last month and is a strategy you can employ without little effort. I’m annoyed I didn’t try this sooner!

Everyone BUT the ones that matter are getting help from the Fed. What about the consumer getting reamed from the same banks getting Government Bailouts? Consumers not only have decreasing credit card and home equity line limits but now they have to worry about their GIFT CARDS, a once BOOMING business for retailers. With many retailers falling into bankruptcy this holiday season where do holders of gift cards stand?

Gift card holders could lose more than $75m from just store and restaurant closings in 2008, said Brian Riley, senior analyst at Tower Group, a consulting firm. And if you think you are safe from this in states such as California think again! In August, home-furnishing retailer Bombay Co., which closed 388 stores, won approval from a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Fort Worth to pay off gift card holders 25 cents on the dollar.

Perhaps the Fed should open the Discount window to GIFT CARD holders now!

FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT
Dow to hit 6,000
Obama predicted to be worst president on economy since Herbert Hoover

The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is heading for a new low of 6,000 in the next month as Barack Obama

prepares to assume the presidency in January, according to a new report from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert. Red Alert predicted the Dow Jones Industrial Average would hit a bottom of 8,000 before the election. Corsi predicts."We are confident the mainstream media, which did every possible bit of cheerleading to get Obama into office, can be relied upon to proclaim him a genius following every decision he makes," he said."Unfortunately, economics tends to be a function of reality, not hype."

Corsi further states that the US will lead the world into the worst global depression since Herbert Hoover.

"Red Alert is confident that within one year, even an economic failure like President Herbert Hoover will look like a genius when compared to the failures we are likely to see from a President Obama," he wrote.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80642

1. Announce a Treasury Secretary as soon as possible. The quicker we have our new guy in the quicker the market can get comfortable (Summers!)
2. Bail Out GM and F immediately. Politically incorrect but look what happened to the market when we let Lehman go bankrupt. A GM bankruptcy would cause massive unemployment and destroy a fragile financial system.
3. Pick our new SEC Chief NOW. Again the quicker we know who is in charge the quicker things may change for the positive.
4. Modify the Paulson Bailout Plan IMMEDIATELY! Tell the market what changes you would make to this poorly executed plan
5. MAKE BANKS LEND! The main reason the bailout package is a failure is we really are just bailing out banks. We are giving banks TAXPAYER money and not requiring them to lend it out! THIS ANNOYS ME!
6. Hire at least TWO Republicans for your Cabinet. This would send a HUGELY positive message to Wall Street.
7. Get the new bailout plan formalized ASAP. A LARGE stimulus package for individuals that goes out January 21, 2009 and a LARGE infrastructure rebuild plan.
8. Tell Americans we need to SPEND if we can. This worked in 2001 and WILL work again. People respect you and will follow your lead. Give us HOPE!
9. Make it be known that your Administration wants a STRONG DOLLAR. Give the world another reason to invest in the US again.
10. Drop the capital gains tax rate for the next 12 months and THEN raise it. Give the money on the sideline a reason to get into the market NOW.

Analyst opinions really annoy me! It is obvious they are meant to screw the average trader, not help him. GM is the latest example today. The stock is down 90% year to date. There are currently 11 analysts covering GM.

One has a BUY rating still (so we bought $20, $15, $10, do we buy $3 now?)
Five have a HOLD rating (good way to create tax losses!)
Three UNDERPERFORM (Underperform WHAT, the analysts track record?)
Two say SELL (after the stock has dropped 90%, gee thanks!)

The two brave Sell side analysts have come out with their report TODAY after the stock price has been decimated in the last two weeks. I don’t know about you but I’d prefer to hear the SELL rating two months ago when the stock was $14, not here at $4. Then again the reason for analyst ratings are to suck in fools to buy what their respective brokerage is selling. Think of analysts as Used Car Salesmen. Their rating reports are akin to the sticker you see on a 1984 Chevy; “Just like new, Only one owner! New paint!” Look under the hood and you see an engine with 500,000 miles on it.

TEN THINGS THAT ANNOY ME ABOUT THIS MARKET

1. JIM CRAMER – how is someone with a track record worse than a 3 legged horse STILL on the air?
2. ANALYSTS– How some of these analysts stay employed is beyond me. Today's example is GM, down 80% in the last month and TODAY at a 40 year low they downgrade it! Thanks Mr. Analyst for your TIMELY research!
3. BUSINESS MEDIA – gone are the days of reporting news, now all they care about is MAKING news to sell ads. Speaking of ads please click on mine so I can pay the bills!
4. RATING AGENCIES – this deserves an article on its own (coming this week). How are Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s STILL in business? They have missed every single financial crisis of the last 20 years!
5. CNBC – I mentioned these clowns already but they are SO BAD it deserves another mention!
6. COMPUTER PROGRAMS – this one used to be funny, not so much anymore. Those 800 point intraday day moves in the market are all from poorly written computer programs
7. JIM CRAMER – ever notice the computer programs trigger AFTER Cramer has come on the air? Program language is likely SELL EVERYTHING once Cramer says BUY any stock!
8. POLITICIANS - Politicians that schedule MEANINGLESS press conferences during market hours. The latest being Friday when President Elect Obama called a press conference on the day of the worst Employment Report in 14 years and talked about WHAT DOG TO HAVE in the White House! You want a DOG President Obama? Buy a Cramer Stock Pick!
9. ONLINE BROKERS - thanks to a wave of mergers all we have left are a handful of brokers that only crash when you MUST trade! After so many years you would think they’d invest in some cheap servers!
10. FOMC MEETINGS - the world comes to a halt every time the Fed meets and for what? There are likely 1 in 10 people who actually understand the gibberish that comes out. Guidebook to Fed announcements – when the market is in a recession they say everything is ok. When the market is fine they say we have to stop the good times. Rinse and repeat!

Jerry Yang turned down $41b in February, stock price now $17b. GOOD JOB JERRY! I get SOO ANNOYED when I see companies pull this crap! Another recent example was ACLS. In June they turned down $6 per share. Stock price last week was 50c. WAY TO GO! Management teams like this should be lined up and SHOT. It's not like they wont make a fortune in ANY buyout. Those happy times are gone now greedy management!