Juggling Dynamite

The last time the Dow was at the 14,200 level was the cycle high in 2007 when the volume of shares traded averaged 1.3 billion per day. Today the average NYSE average daily volume is 545 million. So the belief in a new secular boom phase, at least so far, continues to be weak. We are reminded of the timeless adage: “The public buys the least at market bottoms and the most at market tops.” The investment sales crowd is banking on the same capital sacrifice of the individual investor this time. Hopefully after two of these massive loss cycles in the past 13 years, the public is a little wiser this time around. We shall see.

Arthur Cashin, UBS Financial Services, weighs in on how to play the market’s new record, but adds a word of caution for investors. Here is a direct link.

Broad ranging discussion with two people who are putting money and energy into steps for change rather than just talking and criticizing. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York and Bill Gates, Co-Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, as well as obesity, health care, climate change, gun control, budget reforms and the future of education. Here is a direct link.

China’s economy has become the second largest in the world, but its rapid growth may have created the largest housing bubble in history. Here is a direct link.