Why We Won’t Protest

Details

Created on Wednesday, 05 October 2011 07:00

Published on Wednesday, 05 October 2011 07:00

Written by Andrew Snyder, Editorial Director, Inside Investing Daily

Hits: 5421

Americans are angry. We've been lied to. We've been cheated. And we're losing money. But we say protests have nothing to do with making money.

The anger is spreading. New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore... all across the country citizens are angry. They don't know exactly what they're mad about, but they know something is wrong.

Desperately wrong.

A lot of the anger is pointed at the rich. Just as much is aimed at corporate America. But there's plenty of rage left over for the self-obsessed crowd in Washington.

Boil it all down and the Occupy crowd is angry with something we've dubbed the "barbell economy" -- you're either a "have" or a "have-not." There's not much room in the middle.

Right now, the "have-nots" are pissed. They've been promised the world and have gotten nothing but a bag full of lies.

They are right to be angry. But the focus is all wrong.

It's not Wall Street that's put us here, it's Washington. Corporate America is merely doing what it's always done... making money.

From Rockefeller and Carnegie to Walton and Soros, if the world wants to grow, somebody has to get rich. That's the way it works.

The problem today is clear... Washington wants to control the wealth. Our political leaders want the might to decide who gets rich and who goes broke.

To prove the idea, open yesterday's Wall Street Journal. You will see how strong Washington has become.

The headline: "Hedge Funds Pay Top Dollar for D.C. Intel."

In other words, the Journal is on to something we've talked about for a long time... the best way to make money is to tail your congressman to work. It's good money.

In fact, Washington's political intelligence industry -- the network of folks who track legislation and the flow of money and ideas inside the Beltway -- is worth some $100 million each year.

Most of the cash comes from the hedge fund industry. It needs to know whose wallet Washington will stuff next.

Big boys of the hedge game like Viking Global Investors and Third Point pay up to $240,000 a year for access to the political brain. It's a small price to pay when billions or even tens of billions of dollars are up for grabs.

If you have been paying attention, you know we've got our own hedge funder working on the Inside. Zach Scheidt knows the industry... he lived it. He knows the power of tracking Washington's spending.

And he knows this is a good time to be angry...

When I asked Zach for his thoughts on the anger and the protests spreading across our country, here's what he sent me:

Give me a break...

That's my reaction to the protests in Manhattan right now. The whole mess is just more evidence of how misguided the U.S. public can be when it comes to the economy, our financial markets, government policies, and the way that all of these issues interact.

Do you think that the top Wall Street bankers are really bothered by the protestors?

Think about it... These are the guys who take their private helicopters from the Hamptons to the rooftop of their corporate building -- enjoy some caviar with a couple of key clients -- and then jet out to Connecticut to grab dinner with one of their hedge fund buddies.

It's not that I totally disagree with the concept of the protests. After all, I'm just as mad as anyone. The government takes our tax dollars -- puts them through a laundering process -- and eventually places them in the pockets of the financial elite. By "elite," I mean the guys who run JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and the like...

But you're not going to find me on the street with a cardboard sign. Honestly, while I AM upset, you're not actually going to hear me complaining all that much.

The reason? Because I have better things to do! And by the way, you should too... As I write this quick note on my laptop, I'm sitting at a desk with my trading platform up on another screen -- watching the tickers blink and the charts develop.

I'm tracking the volume levels on the NYSE (to see how active traders are), gauging the fear index to determine how close we are to a bottom, scrolling through my "focus list" of about 50 stocks that I identified as being "tradable" over the weekend, and watching for any number of price alerts that I have set to trigger.

Trading this market is a full-time job. And trading like a hedge fund is the BEST way to get even with the Washington/Wall Street collusion. The protestors can block traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge or stage a blockade in lower Manhattan -- but when they go home today, they'll be right back where they started.

Let's tackle this challenge a bit differently. Let's use Wall Street's strategies against them. Let's capture profits when their algorithms trigger a sell-off. Let's use the very tools that hedge funds claim are "too powerful" for the common investor to participate in. Let's make our OWN protest by beating them at their own game...

My goal for this fourth quarter 2011 -- and on into 2012 -- is to teach my subscribers how to trade their own account just like a hedge fund. It doesn't matter whether your assets are in an IRA account, a brokerage account at one of the big banks (how ironic would THAT be?), or in your own self-directed discount brokerage account. YOU can trade like a hedge fund -- and leave that "making a statement" business up to the protestors.

Here's my statement: Put down the cardboard sign, and purpose to get even... Fire your Morgan Stanley broker and tell him you are better off managing your OWN account. Make your own profits while the rest of the world frets about a bear market.

Sure, Wall Street is crooked and in bed with Washington. But the best revenge is not to get arrested for pointing it out; the very best revenge is to turn the tables, trade like a hedge fund, and put the profits in YOUR pockets instead of handing them over to Wall Street.

The bottom line is clear... America is desperate and angry. If the crowd is not at your door yet, it will be soon.

We say let them march on by. Their cries have fallen on deaf ears. Their pitchforks won't reach the ivory towers.

We say let your wallet do the talking. Prove to Washington we don't need its help to get rich. We're just fine on our own.