Doing The Dead Cat Bounce? DOW 5,000 in 2010? – Robert Kiyosaki

March 17, 2010 · Filed Under Investment, Short term - Medium term · 1 Comment 

Dow 5,000 in 2010?

In my last column I predicted a “dead cat bounce” in the stock market and a possible Dow plunge to 5,000 this year. Obviously, many readers mocked my prediction.

But the dead cat bounce is very important, especially in today’s market. 

Simply put, ‘a dead cat bounce’ looks like Diagram 1 below:

Cat1a.gifThe market crashes, rebounds, and runs out of steam, then crashes again…unfortunately, and possibly, to a lower low. When professional investors observe a ‘dead cat’ forming, many will begin to sell. If their selling leads to a panic, the stock market goes even lower.

Putting today’s numbers to the ‘dead cat’ diagram gives this topic more meaning.

In 2002, the Dow hit a low of 7,286.

In 2007, the Dow hit a high of 14,164 

Cat21.gifIn 2009 the Dow fell and stopped at 6,547. 

Dow 6,547 is where the market stopped falling and the dead cat bounce began.  At 6,547 the market was oversold and buyers came rushing back in, looking for bargains. The Dow headed back up, and a bear market rally began.

On February 5, 2010 the Dow closed at 10,012.

 

What Does This Mean?

So the question is, “What do these numbers mean to me?” The answer to that question depends upon you. If you are a bullish person, you will be optimistic, reassured by these numbers, and looking forward to the Dow breaking 14,000 soon.
If you are bearish, you will be waiting for the dead cat to finally die and for a double dip recession to begin.

One of the theorists (and writers) I follow is Richard Russell, a wise sage who is in tune with markets and the madness of crowds. He has been in the business for about 50 years, so he has the wisdom and perspective of time. Lately, he has been writing about the ‘50% Rule’ of Dow Theory. I thought I would pass it on to you because it may assist you in seeing the future of the economy, even if –like me — you do not trade in stocks.

The following is my interpretation of the ‘50% Rule’ using real numbers.

In 2002 the low of the Dow was 7,286.

In 2007 the Dow hit a high of 14,164.

The ‘50% Rule ‘number is 10,725…the halfway point between 7,286 and 14,164.

In 2007, when the market headed down and broke 10,725, professional traders who follow the Dow Theory ‘50% Rule’ knew what was going to happen next. On March 9, 2009, the crash stopped at Dow 6,547.

On that day, what I believe is a ‘dead cat bounce’ began as the market moved up.

On January 19, 2010, the Dow stalled at 10,725 and headed down again. This is spooky. The 50% rule came true.
Deadcat3a.gif

The next interesting point is 7,286, the low of 2002, when the rally began.  According to Russell, if the Dow holds at 7,286 and begins a rally, this might be a good time to buy. But if it fails to hold at 7,286 and slides past 6,547, then look out for dead cats dropping from the sky. Russell predicts that Dow 1,000, the number at which the Dow began its rally in the 1970s, may not be out of the question. If that happens, there will be millions of baby boomers joining the dead cats falling from the sky as their 401(k)s and IRAs implode.

 

Other Markets

This ‘50% Rule’ may apply to other markets such as gold, the hot commodity of this era. 

In 1971 gold was $35 an ounce. I began buying gold in 1972 when I was a pilot in Vietnam, watching the Vietnamese panic when they knew the U.S. was not going to win the war.

Gold hit a peak of $850 an ounce in January of 1980.

Gold dropped to a low of $252 in July of 1999. Obviously, I bought a lot of gold in 1999.  Gold was at an all-time low because Central Banks, such as the Fed and the Bank of England, were dumping gold in an attempt to protect the value of their counterfeit currencies.

According to the ‘50% Rule’ of Dow Theory, when the price of gold was passing $600 an ounce(halfway between $850 and $252), a rally in gold was on. When gold passed $600, mainstream financial experts began warning of a crash in the price of gold… stating that gold was in a bubble.

Today gold fluctuates between $1,000 and $1,200 an ounce.

 

Is Gold in a Bubble? 

When you factor in inflation and devaluation of the U.S. dollar, $850 gold in 1980 is $2,500 an ounce in today’s dollars. In other words, gold might be at 50% at $1,200, which is the highest of highs. Could there be a run to $2,500?

Your personal answer to that question will depend upon how confident you are in Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, President Obama, and Wall Street. If you have faith in our leaders of commerce, don’t buy gold. If you do not have faith in them, maybe you should buy gold or silver.

If the dead cat bounce dies and the Dow drops to 5,000 in 2010, as I predict, then the price of gold and silver may die with the dead cat of the Dow, as investors cling to cash. The next question you need to answer is, “If the Dow dies and the price of gold and silver drop, what should you invest in at the bottom…stocks, gold and silver, or cash?”

I know what I will do. I will buy more gold and silver. Why? The answer is because I trust gold and silver more than Central bankers, the Oval Office, and Wall Street. Gold and silver have been real money for thousands of years.

 

The Lost Decade

The people I am most concerned about are the average investors who have bought their financial planner’s advice of “Invest for the long term in a well-diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.”

Many investors are calling the past 10 years The Lost Decade. That means those who invested for the long term in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and cash are long-term losers. Japan has been in a Lost Two Decades.

A ‘lost decade’ means:

1.  Zero job creation.
2.  Zero economic gains for the typical family. Home values are down and   many families owe more on their home than the home is worth.
3.  Zero gains in the stock market.

Over the next few months, it is important to watch both the Dow and gold. As I write, the Dow is around 10,000 and gold is at $1,000. If the Dow breaks 7,286, the 2002 low, and continues down below 6,547, the 2009 low, watch out below. If 6,547 is broken and gold passes $2,500 an ounce, you’ll have even more to worry about.

 

Source: Yahoo Finance

Disclaimer: Please be informed that the above mentioned stocks/indexes/investment instruments are solely for the purpose of education; it is NOT a recommendation or an invitation to trade/invest. For trading/investment advice, please speak to your remisier, dealer representative or financial adviser. Please understand that there is risk in every trade/investment venture, know your risk first before you venture into any of them.

2010: The Best of Times or the Worst? – Robert Kiyosaki

January 18, 2010 · Filed Under Investment, Short term - Medium term · 5 Comments 

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”  - Charles Dickens

Is the recession over? Are happy days really here again? Paraphrasing Dickens, my answer is, “For people who are prepared, 2010 will be the best of times. For many, 2010 will be the worst of times.”

The following are a few of my predictions and reasons behind them :

 Prediction #1The real estate market will crash again.

mortgage rate

Pictured above is a graph of mortgage resets. In simple terms, a mortgage reset is when a mortgage comes due. In normal times, refinancing was a simple process…but these are not normal times. Some points of interest:

1.  In September 2008, the mortgage resets hit $35 billion that month. That was the exact time the financial crisis hit. When people could not afford to refinance and began to default, the stock market and banking industry crashed. 

2.  The eye of the storm: In the summer of 2009 mortgage resets were low — around $15 billion a month. This is when optimists began to see “green shoots” in the economy. The green shoots were the eye of the storm.  In 2010, as I see it, the second half of the financial hurricane hits. By late 2011, the resets climb to nearly $40 billion a month. The storm will not end until 2012.

3.  The first half of the storm was primarily due to subprime defaults. The second half of the storm will hit more solid homeowners. The question is, can they weather the storm? Will Mac Mansion foreclosures be next?

4.  In America, there are over 40 million people who own more than two homes. Can they afford to carry and refinance two or more mortgages?

5.  Since home values have gone down, many homeowners will find they owe more than their home(s) are worth. Will the bank be kind to them?

6.  The time for using your home as an ATM is over. This is crushing retailers and retail real estate. Shopping centers are in trouble. Strip malls are empyting as shopkeepers close — permanently. This will lead to the crash of the office, warehouse, and other commercial properties.

My prediction:  Obviously these are the best of times if you are a buyer of distressed properties and the worst of times if you are a seller.

Other things I am watching for in 2010:

1. Will China crash? America’s crash has hit China in the gut. The Chinese are laying off millions of workers. Only massive government bailout is keeping the economy afloat. The Chinese boom will eventually go bust…but will it bust in 2010? Only time will tell.

2.  When America stopped importing from China, China stopped importing from the rest of the world. This affects Asian countries as well as Australia, Brazil, and other suppliers of raw materials.

3.  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is replacing toxic debt with new debt. By protecting his friends in the mega-banks, he is turning the U.S. into a zombie nation. The recession is over, but America is entering an era we will be calling The New Depression, a period when the rich become extremely rich but everyone else becomes poorer. Taxes will kill anyone working for a paycheck.

4.  The U.S. dollar will grow weaker. If the dollar strengthens, we will have more unemployment because our goods become too expensive and we will export less. 

5.  The deficit will increase.  The bailouts for the rich are killing the economy.

US National Debt

6.  Israel may attack Iran. Israel will not tolerate Iran developing nuclear power, even if Iran claims it is for peaceful purposes. If there is an attack, oil prices will go through the roof. 

7.  Dead cat bounce. The current stock market rally will probably turn into a dead cat bounce. If the Dow drops below 6500, 5,000 may be the next stop.

 

The Best of Times

I know I sound painfully pessimistic. I know my predictions are bad news for most people. Yet, for others, bad news is good news.

The following are the bright spots for people who are prepared.

 

Prediction #2: Gold, silver, and oil will continue to be safe investments in 2010.

The following recaps the year-end prices of gold and silver:

            YEAR             GOLD                                    SILVER
            2000               $  273                         $  4.57
            2001               $  279                         $  4.57
            2002               $  348                         $  4.78                       
            2003               $  416                         $  5.92
            2004               $  438                         $  6.79
            2005               $  518                         $  8.80
            2006               $  638                        $12.78
            2007               $  838                        $14.77
            2008               $  882                        $11.33
            2009              $1100  (approx)     $17.50  (approx)

In 2009, the Dow rose approximately 18%. Gold rose approximately 25%. Silver rose approximately 50%. 

By the end of 2010, I predict gold will be at $1,775 an ounce, silver at $24 an ounce, and oil at $85 a barrel. If Israel attacks Iran, these predictions will be blown away.

 

Prediction #3: The next market to crash will be commercial real estate.

Cash flow positive real estate will be even more affordable. 2010 through 2012 will be a real estate buffet for those with cash and access to credit.

 

My Personal Investments

As I stated in 2002, “You have up to the year 2010 to become prepared.”

The following are things I have done to prepare myself:

1. I started The Rich Dad Company in 1997 because I saw this crisis coming. For the past three years, I have tightened internal controls and prepared for global expansion via a franchise distribution system. The company is debt free with strong income. 

2.  2009 was my best real estate year to date. With the Fed handing out large sums of money and pension funds looking for projects to invest in, my real estate holding company has acquired tens of millions of dollars for acquisition of bankrupt properties and development projects.  Development projects are affordable again, as labor, material, and land costs are low and the government is generous with 40-year, low interest, non-recourse loans. People still need a roof over their heads.

3.  My oil development projects have done well. We drilled three wells and hit oil on two of them. Government tax breaks for oil exploration remain generous, even for dry holes.  Even if the economy crashes, we will still burn oil.

4.  I took 90% of my money out of the stock market in 2007. If the Fed raises interest rates, the stock market and real estate market will collapse.

5.  I loaded up on gold and silver between 1996 and 2004.

6.  With the Fed printing trillions of dollars, cash is trash and savers are losers. As soon as I have excess cash I invest in oil, real estate, gold, and silver.

7.  In a zero-interest-rate environment, debtors are winners…but only if you have good debt…debt that’s paid by tenants.

 

In Conclusion

A few years ago, Japan was ‘King of the Financial World.’ Japan’s economy was the world’s second largest economy — till the bubble burst in 1990.  Japan’s budget went into deficit in 1993. Since then, the deficit has averaged 5.4 percent of GDP per year. As a result, Japanese government debt is now 200 percentof GDP today. The U.S. is following Japan, and China will follow the U.S.

We will not see much inflation because the Fed is not able to print enough money to replace the losses from the burst of the credit bubble. Also, factories have too much excess capacity due to lack of demand, which means prices for consumer goods will remain low and unemployment will remain high. Instead, we will see inflation in gold, silver, oil, some stocks, some real estate sectors, and food — not because values are going up but because the dollar is going down.

Welcome to The New Depression. And may these times be the best of times for you.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Disclaimer: Please be informed that the above mentioned stocks/indexes/investment instruments are solely for the purpose of education; it is NOT a recommendation or an invitation to trade/invest. For trading/investment advice, please speak to your remisier, dealer representative or financial adviser. Please understand that there is risk in every trade/investment venture, know your risk first before you venture into any of them.

Helicopter Ben

November 17, 2009 · Filed Under Investment, Long term · Comment 

BenFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose academic research when he was a professor of economies at Princeton was on Japan’s recessionary woes, in his now infamous speech in 2002, talked about dropping money from helicopters if need be to prevent an economic downturn such as the one Japan experienced. He revealed how far the Fed is prepared to go to prevent deflation. His solution is to keep throwing more and more currency, NOT money, at the problem. Isn’t that what he is doing right now?? Printing SO MUCH U.S. dollars to get U.S. out of the BIG MESS that it is in?!! This continuous devaluing of the greenback will in turn drive up the prices of gold, silver and other U.S. dollar-denominated commodities.

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