Sometimes a chart is all you need

Chart of the Day strikes yet again with the inflation adjusted S&P 500 since 1990.

Click anywhere on the chart for a very short and worthy discussion.

I'll grab one small statistic for myself.

The annual rate of return for the S&P 500 when adjusted for inflation since 1900?

1.7%

A question worth asking here has to do with what this chart would look like when dividends are figured in.

I have no idea what either Mid Spread or CPD% means.

But my eyeballs tell me that the state of Illinois has come out of nowhere to both leap into the top ten and overtake the state of California on the latest update to the CMAVision.com list of likely international, municipal deadbeats.

California while having battled valiantly to hold it's position, increased its Mid Spread from 254.01 to a very impressive 353.47, but just could not keep up as Illinois charged (in every sense of the word) all the way to 368.60 with a CPD% of 27.87

You go Illinois. 

From Canada's The Globe and Mail.

Casey's Dispatch is on a roll this morning, as the link to the below map came in the same Casey's Dispatch as did the What Gold Bubble? chart that appears below.

Click anywhere on the map to link to the story.

Just another reason to be buying Gold.

The following chart links to Casey Research's Casey's Daily Dispatch.

It's free, and would be a good deal at twice the price.

Recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll begin this post by stating unequivocally that I only sort of know what I'm talking about here.

And ......

Let me continue by offering the following two words to those of you who find yourselves reflexively reaching for your telephone.

Caller ID.

You will remember from previous discussions having to do with the Bradley Model, found here, here, and of course over there.

The summer of 2010 reeks of doom.

And so far, considering a monumental ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, not one, but two active volcanos thinking about erupting in Iceland, an extremely impressive meltdown of the world's #2 reserve currency, the governments of the eighth and twelfth (I think) largest economies in the world (California and New York) teetering on the brink of bankcrupcy, and ..... as a sweetner a couple of carrier groups and a nuclear armed submarine either heading for or already in the Persian Gulf ...

I'm giving the thing high scores for accuracy.

So ... just what exactly is the Bradley Model ... ummmm ... modeling ... viewing ... following ... I dunno ... doing.

As I explained once before.

It is simply charting the sum (positive or negative) of a set of mathematical values Mr. Bradley attached to the angles of relationship between the Sun, the Moon, and the planets within an astrological chart.

Planets in relationship of or near 0, 60, 90, 120 and 180 degrees were considered and a value (again positive or negative) was assigned each.

The positive or negative values were assigned on the basis of the historic consensus having to do with the benefic, or malefic qualities of each planet within each angular relationship between the planets.

Got it this time?

Don't worry about it.  Here's all you gotta know.

Up is good, down is bad.

Here it is again.

Here's the Bradley Model for 2010 from Amanita.

.

The following is the daily astrological chart taken for exactly 12 noon of June 19, 2010 at Chicago illinois,USA.

It is a chart exactly like the following from which the calculations were created/taken to create the above charts.

Got that?

Don't worry about it.

Green is good, Red is bad, Purple isn't terrible, but it ain't all that helpful either..

Why noon? Why Chicago?

Just being arbitrary.

Now .....I know exactly what you're thinking here.

Huh? ... or worse.

I understand completely and I am here to help you.

If you want to, you can safely ignore everything from here, all the way to ......

To begin with, you need to know the planets.

The purple 4 at about 9 o'clock is Jupiter.

On the positive side, Jupiter represents prosperity, growth, expansion.

On the negative side, Jupiter is inflation, over eating (spiritual, economic or physical) mistakes from overconfidence.

The light blue oval also wearing a crown at also at about 9 o'clock is Uranus.

Uranus is sudden, unexpected, explosive happenings, accidents.

Uranus is also genius, intuition, vision and breakthroughs.

The dark green th looking thing at 3 o'clock is Saturn. 

On the positive side, Saturn is common sense, practical, steady, discipline, structure.

On the negative side, Saturn is hard lessons, limits, obstruction, it's the ass kicking you typically get when you screw up.

The pink cup holding a ball is Pluto.

Pluto is endings and new beginnings, death and birth, upheaval, transformation, destruction, power struggles, revolution, crime, secret police, spies, hidden things, mines and wells.

The purple pitchfork at about 10 o'clock is Neptune.

Neptune is inspiration, spirituality, sensitivity, idealism, self sacrifice, utopia, collective society, dreams, glamor, fantasy, illusion, delusion, deceit, fog, fumes, drugs, alcohol and addictions.

The golden dot within a circle at about 6 o'clock is the Sun.

The Sun is the individual, the authentic self, the will and the ego.

It also represents the national leader, power, authority.

The silver crescent is of course the Moon.

The Moon is the unconscious mind, that which you know without thinking.

In mundane astrology it is the people, the masses and women.

The red sign of the male is of course Mars, the god of war with all that implies.

The sign of the female is Venus, the goddess of love.

The little brown horny looking thing at about 6:30 is Mercury.

Mercury is thinking, communication, transportation.

Mercury is also writers, agents, public speakers, travelers, and tricksters.

..... here.

Planets sharing the same point of the circle tend to cooperate, or excite one another.

Planets at in opposite points of the circle conflict with each other (Red Lines).

Planets at 90 degree angles create friction between themselves (Red Lines).

Planets at 60 or 120 degree angles tend to assist one other (Green Lines).

Got all that?

At the risk of becoming redundant, don't worry about it.

Green is good, red is bad, purple isn't terrible, but it ain't all that helpful either.

We continue (all the while pushing the boundaries of Drupal).

All right, here's June 26, 2010, still noon in Chicago.

The reds thicken as the planets cluster in squares and opposition.

June 29, 2010, green disappears.

July 2, 2010 the greens return as the Moon makes nice with the Sun and Mercury, and the Sun and Mercury make nice with Mars (always a good thing).

 On July 23, 2010 the Moon plays nice with Neptune, while Uranus and Jupiter spend some quality time with the Sun who continues to make nice with Mars (still a good thing).

By July 27, 2010 much of the niceness is tapering off, leaving lots af opposition, friction, exciting and little else.

Red lines thicken as green lines disappear.

Until on August 6, 2010 all niceness disappears again as Uranus and Jupiter stand together in opposition with Venus, Saturn and Mars (never a good thing).

Until on August 7, 2010 the formation becomes complete as the Moon and Pluto also oppose each other while squaring everyone else.

The "Cardinal Cross".

It's Cardinal because of a bunch of stuff I don't have the energy to go into right now, but you can trust me on this one.

To quote Fred Fenster once again,

"This is very bad."

There remains much opposition and friction until the end of August.

Feel free to think me nuts.

Gold and Cash.

Maybe oil.

Short something else if you have the cajones.

I have ... a little.

Chart of the Day brings current a chart that was flying around everywhere late 2008 through early 2009.

If you remember .....

In our last two episodes of The Bradley Model we discussed the fact that an outstanding opportunity to test the model's predictive powers was upon us beginning March 1, 2010.

Click the chart below for the amanita.at site.

We also discussed the caveat invariably issued by Bradley believers that the model is better suited for predicting turning points than for determining market direction.

To which I say rude noise (pick your favorite).

I want my models to make me rich by virtue of infallible predictive power.

Maybe I am being unreasonable, but that's what I want.

So, as disclosed earlier, I'm short of the S&P 500 (to quote Dennis Gartman) and pretty damn happy.

Long of Gold, Canadian and U.S. Cash and pretty damn happy about that as well.

Below is the S&P 500 from December 2009 to May 21, 2010.

It doesn't physically line up with the Bradley chart above, the vertical lines fall on March 1, April 1 and May 1 respectively.

So you're gonna have to line it up in your own mind's eye.

And the verdict?

Not horrible.

3/1 turned up, as did app. 4/1.

You can figure out the rest for yourself. 

You can do what you want, but with the possible exception of more Gold, I'm not buying anything much before the middle of August.

The Wall Street Journal Interactive put together an interactive chart for U.S. unemployment going back to 1948 which is in their words, "... the first year in which the government provides data that can reliably be compared with the current rate.

Clicking on the chart below takes you to the site.

I subscribe, but I don't think you have to in order to access the interactive site as there are comments from non subscribers.

Speigel Online offers a very informative and entertaining piece entitled,

The Hollow Euro

Specter of Inflation Haunts Europe

It's a little long, but pretty easy to read.

Recommended.

Click on any chart to link to the site.

P.S. American taxpayers contribute about $50 billion by way of a 17-20% partnership in the $250 Billion from the IMF. 

I'm searching high and low for a similar treatment of deficits within the states.

Most notably California, New York, Illinois et. al.

Preferably with lots of pretty colors, graphics, etc.

You know what I like. 

If you see something, let me know.