Dennis Kneale is a contributor/host/comic relief man on CNBC. I was always taught that not always but quite often one can learn much about another's level of acumen by the questions they ask rather than answers they give.
Recently, via his forum on CNBC, he has embarked on a campaign to call this recession dead. Besides the fact that this is wishful thinking of the first order based on hope and a few fabulously massaged statistics, he took especial affront to the blogosphere. Here is the link to view it.
Mr. Kneale is in no uncertain terms the village idiot plain and simple. His grasp of things economic and market related is so shallow as to render one speechless. I hate to be so harsh but I find it extremely hard to find a more appropriate adjective, village idiot, to describe him given his litany of past utterances. Some will say, 'ya gotta give him credit for speaking his mind.' To which I would suggest that at this point we are beyond speaking our minds and we need some adults in the room who have some grasp of the issues we face, the problems that caused it and remedies thereby but I digress yet again.
But rather than focus on Dennis Kneale, whom I have criticised ad nauseum in these pages, I wish to focus on his attacks upon the blogosphere of which I am an inhabitant.
His comment last evening regarding blog criticisms as "the anonymous, dark and cowardly corners of the blogosphere" is particularly telling.
I am one of those bloggers who writes under a nom de plume as they say. So does Zero Hedge who was called out by Mr. Kneale along with many others on the web. We are not the first to write anonymously nor will we be the last. Anonymous writings have been around far longer than the internet for sure. Am I to believe Mr. Kneale that our anonymity renders our information moot? That simply refusing to identify ourselves invalidates our point? Tyler Durden (nom de plume) over at Zero Hedge responded as follows to the issue;
Fourth, as pertains to anonymity, Mr. Kneale would be well-advised to read the Zero Hedge manifesto:
though often maligned (typically by those frustrated by an inability to engage in ad hominem attacks) anonymous speech has a long and storied history in the united states. used by the likes of mark twain (aka samuel langhorne clemens) to criticize common ignorance, and perhaps most famously by alexander hamilton, james madison and john jay (aka publius) to write the federalist papers, we think ourselves in good company in using one or another nom de plume. particularly in light of an emerging trend against vocalizing public dissent in the united states, we believe in the critical importance of anonymity and its role in dissident speech. like the economist magazine, we also believe that keeping authorship anonymous moves the focus of discussion to the content of speech and away from the speaker- as it should be. we believe not only that you should be comfortable with anonymous speech in such an environment, but that you should be suspicious of any speech that isn't.
Wow! Tyler got your head spinning now Dennis? Yes, I know you are a product of the status quo. First it was the Drudge Report and sites like it. Now virtually every journo goes there to get the "scoop". You couldn't undermine him and others like him so now it's on to the bloggers.
Yes, Dennis the same crew who all saw the housing bubble, the credit bubble, the subprime bubble coming. Yes, that which has so befuddled you and your mainstream brethren. It is obvious the threat, you and your minions in the mainstream financial media recognize bloggers as posing. Charlie Gasparino, who is one of the better reporters out there, knows it all too well, hence his unmitigated animosity to us.
Anonymity dear Mr. Kneale is the pinnacle of equality as it forces one to address the message and not the messenger. Think of what one has read and now imagine now that you do not know who has written it. Interesting test no? One might have to actually address the merits of the argument and not whether the article came from a blog or the Times or Forbes.
Anonymity is just as useful in technical analysis which, it now seems, you are now fond of using since someone obviously has told you about the golden cross and you think emboldens your recovery call. Like the saying goes, the only thing worse than someone who knows nothing is someone who thinks they know something.
Getting back to anonymity in trading, a wizened trader once told me to print my charts and cover or cut the names off the top to remove the inherent bias that one has for a particular position or sector. Shall we do the same with a political or economic issue? I surely would think it useful.
Further to this, would Warren Buffett's market moves be so wonderful were they not made by the Oracle of Omaha himself? Who else gets a pass like he did with his fund, Berkshire shares down 45%, Ron Insana? The former anchor of CNBC who then attempted a fund of funds and was shaken out didn't. Forget for a moment the absolute lunacy of a fund of funds and remember that Mr. Insana's performance actually did better than the market for a while. Were his name Ron Buffett, nephew of the Oracle or Ron Insana former Julian Robertson protege and now Tiger Cub spinoff made a difference?
Back in my first year of college I got into a heated debate with a senior academic official of the university who also taught a public administration course. He was, by the way, an absoutely awesome professor the likes of which we sorely need more of. The debate focused upon whether or not my name should appear on my paper which he advocated. I argued that only my student ID number should appear.
I seem to remember backing up my argument with a study that had been performed some time prior, which concluded that the first grade you received on a paper all subsequent papers, (barring a mushroom cloud) graded slightly higher or lower. Basically if you got a C on your first paper you pretty much were range bound from C+ to C-.
I submitted my papers anonymously as I do my blog because I wanted it to be judged on its content and nothing else. Now if I looked like Pierce Brosnan that would be another story but then I would need to fork out mucho dough to get my head massaged with a shrink wondering if they liked me for my cover or my content.
Housekeeping notes;
I neglected to note that I was stopped out of my DRI position Monday at $33.57 for a loss of just over 1/2 pt on 1 unit short.
Today I was stopped out of my FXP position at $11.68 for a loss of almost 3/4 of a pt on 1 unit long.
I was also stopped out of my ARO position at $35.57 for a loss of just over a 1/2 pt on 1 unit short.
Good speculating to you all and please don't ever, ever forget that "an investor is a speculator who made a mistake and will not admit it".
Open Positions:
Long 2 units Ultrashort Real Estate ticker SRS @ $18.85 stop @ $17.84/18.94
Long 2 units Ultrashort S&P500 ticker SDS @ $54.75 stop @ $52.38/53.38
Long 1 unit Financial Bear 3x ticker FAZ @ $4.36 stop @ $4.46
Short 2 units Wells Fargo ticker WFC @ $25.10 stop @ $26.26/27.41
Short 1 unit Autozone ticker AZO @ $157.95 stop @ $158.11
Short 1 unit Blackrock ticker BLK @ $177.15 stop @ $178.51
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