Some red meat for the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd

By Peter Brandt


I have not completely organized my thinking about the Occupy Wall Street movement. I sympathize with many of their arguments.
Those pundits who believe the movement will just flame out do not know their history very well. The same was said about the “Occupy University Administration Buildings” movement of the late 1960s and early 197os. Well, that movement changed history. “Occupy” should not be taken lightly, even though the movement’s messaging needs to evolve into actionable demands. Currently the Occupy movement has many diverse independent agendas. Yet, the same came be said about the change movement of the 1960s/70s — in that era the agendas ranged from rejecting the social ethics of their parents, free love, drugs and anti-war.
The movement, to be successful, needs to avoid being corrupted by the environmental wackos, the Democratic Party, the “Move On” crowd and the like. Its success depends upon remaining bottom up.
Anyway, the chart below is some real red meat for the Occupiers. It shows that the financial industry in New York City has been its own biggest benefactor — while the average man and woman has been left behind in the 1980s.
http://peterlbrandt.com/some-red-meat-for-the-occupy-wall-street-crowd/


U.S. stock market — caught between a rock and a hard place

Don’t expect a follow through trend anytime soon in U.S. stocks. This market is about to get volatile in a relatively tight range. At least, that is what the chart is telling me.
The chart of the nearby S&P futures contract shows that the market is between a rock and a hard place. Above the market exists a completed H&S top. This is a powerful reversal pattern (one that I believe will ultimately prevail).
Below the market is arguably a double bottom. The other indexes do not show a similar pattern, but the nearby S&P futures chart fulfills (barely) the general Edwards and Magee criteria for the pattern. The lows are more than a month apart, but the height is only 13% of the value (the criteria is 20%). Also, the rally from the Oct. 4 low should have experienced some pick up in volume, but not as much as was characterized by the first low.