In the short-term here…

Well, the good news is that  I did what I said I wanted to do and built up the SLV and XLF shorts a bit more in the morning rallies before the markets started crashing.  The bad news is I sure feel stupid for having written “I’d guess that the path of least resistance is upward for today’s intraday action” earlier today.  Whatever, we’re not daytrading.

It’s ugly out there today.  Here’s all you need to know as to why:

Reuters

Legislators race to cast an April vote in the lower house of the Italian parliament.

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Picture, thousand words, all that stuff.   The mainstream media and the mainstream traders are all focused on the governmental budget crises that is rightly freaking the hell out of the incumbent politicians and their parties around the world.  But let’s remember that there’s a HUGE difference between sociopolitical crises — even the debt-driven kind — and its impact on our stock markets.   In the short-term here, as I’ve been saying, I think we should expect more of these panicky days of action in the next couple/three weeks.

Same as it ever was.