Now You And Me Can Be A "Drug Lord" Legally

More Marijuana Stocks

California has a strong grass roots effort (no pun intended) to get marijuana decriminalized and legalized. Here aresome  marijuana companies that are involved in developing therapeutic treatments utilizing marijuana and cannabis extracts. Here are a few more stocks that should be included on the list. These are very low cap stocks that should be considered very speculative.

International Merchant Advisors, Inc. (IMAI.PK) develops and operates Wellness Centers and Medical Marijuana clinics for individuals suffering from chronic pain. The company has recently generated negative earnings.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. (MJNA.PK) is a provider of solutions to medical marijuana industry operators, including tracking systems that track the marijuana from grow cycle to final distribution, and auditing and reporting tools. The company has even set up a multilevel marketing division, The Hemp Network. It even plans to have its stock certificates made out of hemp.

Cannabis Science, Inc. (CBIS.OB) develops and produces phytocannabinoid based pharmaceutical products used to treat various disorders.

Cannabis Medical Solutions, Inc. (CMSI.OB) provides merchant payment solutions and financial security products for medical marijuana dispensaries throughout 14 states. The company recently generated negative earnings.

US Oil Spill Rescue Team On The Go !

KCPO:- To Be Bearish Biased Is Prudent ? 10/5/2010

I cautioned about the prior up cycle will be a short one because of the low ADX. And true as it turned out, the market broke down again on last Tuesday. Since I told you to take profit on previous day low, that would had got you safely. Again this market does not offer a clear sign of its next course of action as the Stochastic has already turned negative but the MACD remains positive. Prices went up and down and basically stay within the Bollinger Band. Strange to note is that the ADX has begun to rise and crossed above the falling D+ which is usually a great sell signal. But since the other 2 indicator and price action do not yet confirm a clear sell signal, so I would wait for a few more days. I would look for the MACD to cross down before I start selling. By then if you have sold, place stop at 2527.



The weekly chart Bollinger Band continues to tighten and so is the ADX which is still falling, both are confirming there is no trend in this market. But as before, these are also classic signs of a major violent move ahead. Both the Stochastic and MACD are negative, the Stochastic is below its 50's signal line while the MACD is fast approaching its zero signal line. Watch for a weekly closing (coming Friday's closing) of below the bottom Bolliner Band of 2495. A solid sell signal would be in place.

As I have mentioned sometime back, I cannot seem to be able to make out what this market is going to do next. But with the indicators turning negative and most commodities falling in prices recently and the presence of an imperfect double tops, I would think to be more bearish biased would be more prudent. 

FKLI:- Malaysia truly BOLEH but for how long ?10/5/2010

Well I must congratulate myself for getting it right on 1) stand aside and watch 2) drastic action happening soon 3) more bearish biased. But I forgot to mention we are truly a nation of apa pun boleh. Last Friday while the rest of the global stock markets saw blood turning into rivers, our FBM KLCI in fact gained 1+ point while FKLI ONLY lost 5 points. With this, are we trying to tell the rest of world  that our nation's financials are stronger than theirs ? Or is it about their investors are all sissies that shit in the pant over some bearish market news ?

The latest reading is a little bit clearer now as both the Stochastic and MACD have turned negative and falling. The MACD is dropping and approaching its zero signal line and the Stochastic may fall through its 50's signal line by coming Monday. Both of these are usually taken as a more confirming sell signal. The most comforting sign for the bear power would be the ADX which has started rising, any crossing up above the 20's signal line would be confirming a trend in making. This new trend in making is also been confirmed by the rising D- which has broken out its prior peak as marked out last week.

Though FKLI price action was doing something similar to the DJIA's intra day drop of 900+ points and then snapped back up, our FKLI price first broke below the range that I had marked out with 2 horizontal lines , then it went back and closed above the lower range . But it is still closed below the lower Bollinger Band, this is another bearish sign.


 

I mentioned last week's Japanese Candlestick of Doji Star was "interesting". Yes, this week candlestick is a black body , one that unfortunately did not close below last week's low. So by itself, the signal is vague. But it has closed below the upper Bollinger Band which may be taken as an initial sell signal for the more adventurous traders. The Stochastic has already crossed down but as it is still remained above the 80's zone, we cannot take this as a sell signal. The MACD has also turned negative. The previously flat ADX now turning down which is confirming an end of the prior trend.

Now that both the daily and weekly chart are almost complimenting each other in pointing at a new bear cycle, you should engage some shorts positions. As I have been mentioned here in several occasions about the presence of a bearish divergence, if this bear cycle is to developed successfully, your rewards in profit would be substantial. This is the kind of trading situation that no self respecting traders should miss out.

But having said that and knowing how difficult our national secret magic hands is in dealing with a bear cycle, you should NOT count out the possibility that they will come in again to support the market. So our gospel of trading applies again:- place stop at 1336 if you have already sold. Add more sell positions when market closes below 1322. If you are stocks player, I think it would be wise that you should take profit on your portfolio, especially for those heavy weights or so called blue chips. In my opinion, whatever upside, if there is still any, the reward to risk ratio is not going to worth it.

The local experts only begin to wake up to the Greece's crisis recently , and most of them is still not aware of what may be coming after Greece. Other than Spain, Portugal and Ireland, there may be Italy and many of the former Eastern Blocs. The major problem here is that many EU banks are heavily exposed to them. Then there is some coming out from South America, first among them may be Venezuela (the faster crude oil price falls, the sooner they go down and without any blessing from America, it should be a very nasty scenario). Then there may be Dubai revisit follows by  a few other Middle Eastern's and Pakistan. Of course, what I am most excited about is the mother of them all - China.

I completely at a loss at how so many of the experts can be so optimistic about the recovery story. Sometime early last year when I wrote about a possible return of a strong bull rally, I mentioned that at best, it will be a wave 4 technical rebound, after which we should see the final wave 5 down. I think this could be it now.

More On Sugar Me

What a Difference a Year Makes!

There is an old saying that "the cure for high prices is high prices", which means that producers will ramp-up production in a commodity to take advantage attractive prices. This is definitely what is occurring in the world Sugar market, as production estimates for the 2010-11 crop year have rebounded sharply, causing Sugar futures prices to plunge. Since February, front-month Sugar futures prices have fallen over 50%, as traders are now looking for a world Sugar surplus this coming season, as opposed to the Sugar deficits of the past two years. Sugar production in India, the world's second largest Sugar producer, is expected to come in between 25 and 30 million tons this year - which is well above the 19 million tons produced last season, as the monsoon rains were well below average last season. In addition, the Brazilian cane harvest is running well so far this season, as ideal weather conditions have the harvest off to a strong start. Analysts are now looking for a global Sugar surplus of between 5 and 7 million tons for the 2010-11 marketing year. In fact, the potential of increased Sugar supplies is so strong that the Indian government is expected to re-impose an import tax on Sugar, as local prices in that country have fallen and concerns of domestic shortages have subsided.

The surging U.S. Dollar is adding to the bearish tone in all commodities, and Sugar is no exception. The most recent Commitment of Traders report shows large speculative accounts liquidating their long positions in Sugar futures, with large non-commercial traders shedding 15,393 contracts for the week ending April 27th. However, the net-long position is still over 120,000 contracts, and fresh long liquidation selling is likely if prices continue to slide.


Looking at the daily chart for July Sugar, we notice the steep sell-off since the middle of February, with only a brief consolidation period in late March and early April. Prices have fallen so sharply that it would take nearly a 7-cent rally to reach the 100-day moving average, which is currently near the 20.59 area. The 14-day RSI has moved into oversold territory, with a current reading of 27.36. The next support point for July Sugar is seen at 13.10, with resistance found at the 20-day moving average near the 15.85 area.

The Next 10 To Go ?

The World's 10 Biggest Sovereign Default Risks

With all the talk about Greece, investors may have forgotten that there are other serious default risks in the world.

CMA Datavision put together a list of the countries most likely to default, and there are some big names here which may be a part of your emerging markets portfolio.

The list was calculated utilizing CDS numbers, but looking closely at the volatility of that CDS to see which countries experienced the most dramatic percentage changes.

CMA refers to it as "Cumulative Probability of Default", meaning that it is the immediate likelihood of the country experiencing a default scenario.
 
Region of Sicily Cumulative Probability of Default: 21.76%

Republic of Latvia Cumulative Probability of Default: 23.06%

Iraq Cumulative Probability of Default: 23.61%

Dubai Cumulative Probability of Default: 26.41%

Portugal Cumulative Probability of Default: 32.16%

Ukraine Cumulative Probability of Default: 34.75%

Pakistan Cumulative Probability of Default: 38.23%

Argentina Cumulative Probability of Default: 47.39%

Venezuela Cumulative Probability of Default: 49.51%

Greece Cumulative Probability of Default: 51.72%

JPMorgan Analyst Calls Senators Children

A top executive at JPMorgan Chase told clients Monday that senators displayed "an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics" during last week's Goldman Sachs hearing, that "Goldman was no more culpable in the housing debacle than Congress" -- and lest he didn't insult Congress enough, with "the financial reform debate...in the final innings, it's time for the grownups to step in."

The note, written by James E. Glassman, a managing director and senior economist at the $2 trillion bank, included shots at U.S. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan (a graph showing Michigan's job woes was titled "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"), the entire Congress, and pretty much everyone involved in the financial reform debate.

Glassman also notes that "financial reform legislation in its present form devotes a great deal of attention to issues that had little to do with the housing debacle and does little to put to rest the Too-Big-to-Fail issue."

Glassman begins by analyzing last week's Goldman hearings:
"From the perspective of economic literacy, last week's hearings before the Senate's Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations had to be, well, not memorable, or inmemorable (as infamous is to famous)," Glassman writes. "The hearings exposed an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics by folks who have a hand in remapping rules of finance that will be with us for a while. Flip assertions about what is and is not socially valuable reflect a confusion about our market economy that is as fundamental as knowing that George Washington was the first president of the United States."

He then goes on to target Levin, the subcommittee's chairman:

"Maybe it's human nature to get self righteous about the mistakes others make when there are even worse problems in our own back yard that we should be tending to. Where are the hearings about the shameful story in the figure below. We can't blame this one on financial derivatives, sir. Michigan's problems began long before the first swap transaction was introduced in 1981. Bad luck? Sure, manufacturing comprises 20-25% of Michigan's economy.
"Except, wait a minute ... that's true for a bunch of other states as well, including Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. And it isn't much different for Texas either.

"Many things are out of our control. But why has Michigan's economy been allowed to evaporate, while its business, labor and political leaders stand idly by, even as others with similar challenges, especially Wisconsin and Indiana, are getting Most-Improved-Player awards? Michigan must overcome a deeply held perception that it is genetically anti-business. Fair or not, no amount of advertising dollars can change that perception.

"This story is tragically ironic, because the Wolverine State once was the icon of business energy. The Tristate area is going to face the same future as Michigan, if it only knows how to raise taxes but not how to shrink its public-sector cost structure."

*From Glassman's note

Next, Glassman goes after Congress for its apparent ineptitude in trying to craft legislation that adequately addresses the failures that caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression:

"The low level of economic literacy is plaguing financial reform. Reform is dangerous--it produces unintended consequences--if we don't understand the connection between incentives and economic behavior.
"Folks may like to hear that someone else is to blame for the mistakes they made, but everyone knows--including those who bought houses far beyond what they could afford and then walked when the promise of endless capital gains died and including the investors who bought funky financial instruments that enabled the housing bubble out west and in Florida to inflate--that Wall Street isn't the only culprit in the housing debacle.

"Sir, Goldman was no more culpable in the housing debacle than Congress. Because Washington is mostly focused on appeasing (or stoking) political outrage, the financial reform legislation in its present form seems likely to do little to fix the flaws and is heavily focused on changing things that had little to do with the housing debacle."

But Glassman has some ideas on how to fix the system -- ideas that have been proposed by some of the more liberal members of the House and Senate:

"What flaws need fixing? The financial system is highly interconnected. The bankruptcy laws need to be modified to allow for an orderly unwinding of a failing financial institution (for example, ending the exemption given derivatives has attracted some attention). No institution should be too big to fail. Public funds should not be relied on to resolve failing financial institutions."

But as the debate winds down, it's time for "grownups" to step up, Glassman writes:

"Now that the financial reform debate is in the final innings, it's time for the grownups to step in. In its present form, financial reform will make credit more expensive and more difficult to obtain and businesses will find it more difficult to shed risk, harming the very people we are trying to help. Done right, reform will increase transparency, allow failing institutions to fail, and not stand in the way of financial innovation that has allowed those who want to shed risk to pass it to those who seek it, an evolution that has contributed to the US economy's robust performance in the past."

 The Huffington Post