The Stock Market hit an all time high today, but wait

.... Is it just the artificial inflation of asset prices by the Federal Reserve and Central banks around the world flooding the world with cheap cash.

My has the US changed since its last record high in 2007. Is this what you call a healthy country or should we proceeded with extreme caution. NOT POLITICAL------ just fun financial education for those interested in macro economics and investing.

Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6
S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+
VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares


Is it a house of cards ready to collapse?

 

If it does, it will go up again. That's what markets do. That's what they have always done.

 

Not always June--- Look At Japan!


it took almost 200 years for the Dow to get to 2000 and only a short time to go from 2000 to 12,000 (14,000).

It will be interesting to what happens when interest rates rise and Central banks stop printing cheap money.

 

But the Chinese still want to be like us

 

Yes, that is what happens. We hung around 10,000 give or take for a decade. If you just look at the nineties you get one picture. But look from the 1870's to now and you get the big picture. Boom and bust ad infinitum. Of course you have to take inflation nto account as well even now. I just saw that for this to be an all ti e high in real dollars, we would have to be at 15,000 something. Before you put everything into gold as a hedge, look at charts for the last hundred years for gold too. Same thing, boom and bust. It is what markets do. It is their nature.

 

The Chinese own us

I was watching a interesting show the other night that talked about China's real estate bubble ... Unbelievable to see these cities with noone living there but all the condos are owned by speculators.

 

The do own us.
But they do so by manipulating their currency, very dangerous.

 

But they cant foreclose and they have nowhere better to put their money so they dont have much leverage.

 

Ghe truth is we are all interdependent economically now. No country likes to admit it but it is the case and its not going to change. Companies of any size are all multinationals no matter whether their names sound american or chinese or french ...

 

I usually like to do short term trades.I also own some ETF's and CEF's as they're monthly dividend payers.I only have one stock,FleetCor Technologies that I'm holding for the long term.

 

I buy broadly balanced no load funds and hold forever. I only own two individual stocks, msft and intui which i have owned for more than 15 years.

 

I own only index funds.

and 4 stocks (Coca Cola, General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Pepsi) ----- have owned them for 20 years, never sold any of them, dividends reinvested.

Boring I know but that is my personality. I like companies an idiot can run because one day an idiot will run them.

 

On Friday I bought 1000 shares of Uni-Pixel at $26.71.I'm thinking of holding this and not doing a short term trade.

 

What is uniplex?

 

Uni-pixel
http://www.topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/business/companies/uni-pixel-inc/index.html

 

Interesting. I see itis at 27 now.

15 years ago when i had my acoustic neuroma surgery, i did not stay current with my portfolio. I decided then, i did not want to have to watch individual stocks. But if i still did, i

 

Uni-Pixel currently trading at $29.17

 

Very nice!

 

Uni-Pixel(UNXL) closed today at $30.52.So far so good.

 

Anybody selling? I really think this is going to end badly, not sure when but I think the market is up because of the FED and All the Central Banks around the world just printing money and buying assets to keep the world economies afloat.

Hope is lasts but I think there is some irrational exuberance creeping in.
We have come very far very fast and I am not sure the underlying economy warrants it around the globe