Ignore The Pundits

On a slow day/week, I tend to gaze at CNBC more often. Lately, there have been a couple of things that annoy me. First are these so-called pundits who come on and say they expect the market to be "not as bad" next year as 2008.

Duh! 2008 was one of the worst years in history. I expect 2009 to be a double-digit up year, albeit it with above-average volatility. That is far better than "not as bad".

Second, many of these strategists say very matter of factly that "the market could go down a bit and retest the lows" in the near-term. Let's clarify. The lows on the SPX were 741. That means it would take a -18% plunge to retest those lows. I'm not saying that won't happen, but since when is an 18% dive a "little retest"?

Last, to me the notion that Madoff could have pulled off this whole ponzi scheme by himself is ludicrous. I can barely keep up with all the trades, reconciliation, statements, reports, etc. for my small firm. For one person to accomplish this while managing tens of billions of dollars is simply not humanly possible. Especially for a guy like Madoff who was always travelling, marketing, socializing, etc.

Memo to CNBC: get a clue.

Now that I got that off my chest, I want to wish a Happy New Year to everyone.

long SSO