"Anyone is welcome to add his or her perspective. Just don't expect it to be greeted uncritically."
That should more accurately read "Anyone is welcome to add his or her perspective. Just don't expect it to be greeted at all warmly, particularly if it goes against anything anyone in this thread has ever said or felt."
The idea that "anyone is welcome" is total bollocks. I have seen it over and over and over and over. Your little group DETESTS outside opinions and has a long history of making interlopers feel unwelcome. If a new poster chimes in and immediately agrees with the running meme, they are indeed welcomed with open arms. Display a smidgeon of a contrary opinion however and watch the fuck out.
"PPT is old school, certainly not original to DU. I've heard traders use the term for as long as I can remember."
The phrase was coined by a headline in the Washington Post in 1997. If 1997 is "old school" then so be it, but the SMW regulars certainly do like using it, no matter how absurd or inaccurate.
"I'd say most of the regular commentators believe the market does not accurately reflect the state of the economy for the 99%, and on that point I completely concur."
And that specific point does NOTHING to further their credibility. Here's what the market reflects;
When a stock price is bid up, it reflects the sentiment of the buyers that things will get better for that company, that it will be more profitable in the future and is therefore a smart move to purchase shares. When the price is bid down, the opposite is the case.
THAT'S ALL IT MEANS.
However, when taken as a whole, when the entire market ( or the overwhelming majority of traded shares) are rising, then it is indeed an indicator that things are looking up.
Now, knowing you to be the well versed type that you want people to think you are, I know I am not telling you anything you don't already know. So why keep on with that same line of tired bullshit? OK, I (we) get it. The market doesn't reflect the state of the economy. Fine. It isn't a mirror anyway. It's a time machine, if nothing else, predicting (or at least trying to) the future.
"US equities are currently floating out in the ether, detached from our current economic realities."
Really? Just because the Dow has been playing around the 13,000 level for about 4 months? Is that it? At what level will "US Equities" come out of "the ether" in your opinion? The current P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is around 22 which is pretty close to the average for the last 130 years.
Here's one of my major beefs with your quaint little pet thread;
When the Dow was at 14,000 plenty of folks on that thread (and indeed elsewhere) were saying it was overbought and headed for a correction, if not a crash. Kudos for getting that one right. But no one, NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON, EVER, NOT FUCKING EVER even hinted that when the DOW got to 6750 and below that it was an oversold condition (which it was). In fact, numerous regulars were utterly CONVINCED it was going to fall all the way to 4000 or lower. The fact is, markets get overheated on both sides of the mountain and the fall all the way to 6400 was exactly that - an overheated selling frenzy completely detached from reality.
The DOW is just about where it ought to be, given the long term trend. It isn't "out in the ether". It is right where those who are buying and selling those issues think it ought to be, based on how things are going in the economy and how they feel things will continue to go.
The start of this little exchange was me simply asking "WHY?"
Why would you recommend that thread to a novice or even a well read investor who is seeking other "Liberal" sources of information? Instead of thinking it is something it is not, be happy you (and by 'you' I mean the regulars on that thread) have your little corner of DU that you can feel superior in and stop trying to convince others that it has any relevance or any real insight to offer.
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