11.30.07 Portfolio Updates

Year to date through November 30:
NoTouch Portfolio: 12.3%
OOPs Portfolio: 11.0%
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...Versus the market averages:
Dow Industrials: 7.3%
S&P 500: 4.4%
Nasdaq Composite: 10.2%
Wilshire 5000: 4.7%
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...Both ports have never had a losing year dating back through 2000. I still expect both to be severely tested over the next several months, as this market is in serious trouble, despite what the cheerleaders on our favorite financial channel tell us.
...In the new sample trading port, the DUG trade was not initiated, since the parameters were not met the first day and I never got around to updating it here on the blog afterward.
...It is my contention that we are the final generation before the return of Jesus Christ, as outlined more thoroughly in my other blogs, and that we are going to see some almost unbelievable things in our country, and in the markets, as a result. Many doomers and diehard bears still think that somehow gold is going to become money again and still recommend it as disaster insurance. But the Bible speaks of a day when people will be throwing their gold and silver into the streets and a loaf of bread will be selling for a day's wages.
...I contend that gold will never ever be the standard again for worldwide financial transactions. We will end up an electronic currency, with the currency valuations being set by the powers that be....and those people have no interest in being held accountable by a standard as rigid as the 'barbarous metal'. Their will be a final 'beast' system that requires all participants to log onto a central computer system via biometric identification in order to particpate in the end times financial system.
...Gold may well turn out to be an inflation hedge in the short to intermediate term future, but if that is so, so should the other metals and minerals, which have done every bit as well or better than gold in the past few years, and have more usefulness in the marketplace.
...Oil, for instance, to me still has a lot more going for it than gold longer term. The market gets excited every time a new find is announced, but one needs to keep in mind that it takes several years for new finds to make any real difference. For instance, the new Brazilian find will amount to about 100,000 barrels a day from what I read, and that is years from now. And as for the OPEC nations increasing their output for any length of time, there is a lot of speculation out there as to whether they are even able to do so.
...China is going to be a big time player on the end times stage. They are building toward that now and we are the major contributor helping them get there. The $230+ billion trade surplus that they enjoy with us (remember, that's a $230 billion trade deficit for our nation) accounts for most of their economic growth. And we keep shipping jobs and infrastructure over there and then buy the products they make and ship back to us, cutting manufacturing jobs and putting middle class citizens out of work over here all the while.
...Our government and their corporate masters have put us in a situation where China controls so much of our debt that even the mention of them diversifying away from the dollar sends tremors through the financial markets...and now they are using some of the dollars that they hold to buy physical assets such as natural resources and new infrastructure. We have become a debt and consumer driven economy, while other nations that will someday stand up against us are bulding infrastructure and real assets. We have gone from being the largest creditor nation in the world to the largest debtor nation in the world in one generation. The Bible says that the borrower is servant to the lender. It also says in the same book of Proverbs that the wise see the danger and hide themselves, while the simple pass on and are punished.
...China will use the 2008 Olympic games to demonstrate their wealth and power. I do not know how anyone can think otherwise. What that means for natural resource stocks in the meantime, is that the harsh corrections we see from time to time in those areas, are likely still buying opportunities.
...Most of us with jobs and 401k accounts are trapped in these markets. That is one of the reasons for both the NoTouch and OOPs portfolios, which to date have survived both good and bad markets with results that outperform the overall averages. I expect both to be severely tested in the months ahead, but still expect that they will outperform the averages as long as the powers that be are able to hold things together and we do not get a deflationary spiral. The most powerful and deepest pocketed people on the planet use inflation as a tool. They fear deflation and will do everything in their great power to prevent it - and so far they have been able to do so.
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The Gathering Storm, (UK Online).
The End of Consumer Credit As We Know It, (SafeHaven). Highly recommended article by one of my favorite writers on one of my required daily reading sites.
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