Sold to me!

Traders are always trying to get into the heads of other traders. They are either trying to understand them or spread misinformation to confuse them.

At certain times, like the present, these head games are turned up a notch. That's when even I scratch my head.

For example, when was the last time you heard an analyst's recommendation to buy an industry group that is backed up by a clearly articulated report of rising profit margins amidst solid revenue growth?

Those are the stories I believe in.

But what we have today are stories. How about the one that goes something like Company A has undiscovered real estate values underneath its retail stores (so forget the fact they can't find customers with money to spend), or maybe it's Company B is a potential take-over candidate because, simply, the big cheese is retiring?

Or how about the one that goes, there happens to be a glut of commodity X in country Y that is going to depress the profits of industry C, especially with the weather patterns coming out of the east, and the lack of refrigerated tanker ships in the south, and a growing appetite of people in the north?

It's all so phony.

But it's what happens when Wall Street has nothing much good to tell you about regarding things of substance you want to hear, like new killer products, attractive PE multiples, exciting revenue and earnings growth rates, improving margins, and the like.

Of course, Wall Street has a job to do, which is to get you to turn over your money to their control, or, if you decide to keep it under yours, to just turn it over as much as possible.

So, like it or not, they have to keep their lips moving.

Wall Street is called the "sell side" for a reason. The odd time it is IPO goods they have to move. This past several months it was something like a $3 billion disgorgement of GOOG from two 32-year olds who are, we have been told, in dire need of estate planning.

Or maybe they were just in awe that their number one opponent has managed to sell $1.6 billion of his holdings in Microsoft this year, or that their buddies at Kleiner Perkins sold their $12.5 million stake in GOOG for a cool one billion USD.

Big numbers, these.

I've been thinking that maybe Google and Microsoft are printing money faster than Alan Greenspan can manage to take it out of the system. That's what can happen of course when Wall Street tells us something priced at $85 (25 times $3.38 current earnings) is really worth $320.

Heck, with a PE at 94, I could be 22-years old and in need of estate planning! I'm not stupid. I'm going to get while the gettin's good.

This week, nine of the ten sector-based ETFs I follow were up and one (healthcare) was down a piddling tenth of one percent. Only seven of the Dow 30 stocks were down, as the Dow index was up +1.43 pct W/W.

What that tells me is that more people are buying stock than selling it.

So why are Messrs Brin and Page and Gates selling it - big time? And why is the world's most successful investor Mr. Buffett not buying any?

Can't these billionaires get it right this time?

Even the Walton's of Wal-Mart fame decided to dump their St. Louis sports franchise for a cool couple hundred million, which they did faster than a New York minute!

Does all this have something to do with squirrels putting away their nuts for winter?

I mean, it is after all October, and next week in Canada it's Thanksgiving. Pretty soon the snow will be coming down the mountain and blowing across the prairies.

Canadians by the way are just thrilled to death that crude oil is still above $66, so more can be shipped south of the border in order to keep prices at the local gas pumps north of it above $4 American.

That makes sense (not!), as well as a stronger Canadian Dollar.

Pretty soon there will be a 90-cent Loonie. Any higher and Hollywood North will be located permanently in North Hollywood. And auto parts and even autos, for heaven sakes, will be made in Detroit once again, rather than across the Ambassador Bridge.

And American skiers will just have to settle for Colorado and the U.S. Rocky Mountains instead of Whistler-Blackcomb, north of Vancouver. I mean why buy Loonies at par when the George Washingtons are so cheap these days?

It's a shame of course that America is not self-sufficient in commodities like oil and gas, copper and nickel, and gold and silver. That's because prices there are rising faster than house prices in California, which is a shame because interest rates are sure to follow.

And then house prices will not be so high.

U.S. bonds had a tough month in September, not just because of some high maintenance women called Katrina and Rita either. It's just what happens when inflation gets out of hand, and Alan Greenspan able to do little about it except raise the interest rates a tad.

This week coming is not a big one on the U.S. economic calendar. There's the ISM Manufacturing Index to be reported Monday morning and Motor Vehicle Sales, which comes out at 4pm. Of course, we all know what's happening to vehicle sales - they don't sell unless there happens to be a "$10,000-off" sticker.

The big econ report this week comes out the first Friday of every month, which is the U.S. Jobs Report. That's the one where traders keep an eye out for that glorious day America stops handing out its best paying manufacturing jobs to poor countries like China, that country where gambling in Macau now makes Las Vegas look like pikers.

This report of course is where traders are checking for signs of wage inflation because something happens to be pushing up the price of gold. This week it hit 17-and-a-half year highs.

Yes, a Friday high of $474.50 on the Dec-05 gold futures is an absolute first since the typical college freshman has been alive on this earth, at least as a healthy consumer and sought-after voter.

And how about that CRB Commodity Research Bureau Index? It hit a record 337.18 late last week, closing Friday at 332.97.

The last time that happened, many of my friends were talking up "pork bellies" like they do today "distillates".

And how about that USD? It seems to have spent the month of September building strength to a lean and mean 89.44, while waiting for the pork to go from frying pan into the fire now that the VIPs have returned to Washington.

Do you think it's possible they might keep government spending under control, or is tough to make ends meet, given the $300 billion lined up for Katrina and Rita recovery and reconstruction, and the hundreds of billions more for the soldiers in the Middle East.

I guess only gold knows.

The great surprise to me is that anybody is really surprised by these events. And, that traders continue to buy stock, rather than follow the lead of mega-billionaires Page, Brin, Walton, Buffett and Gates, who are selling it as fast as the little people can shout "Sold to me!"