Cycle Rally Quotes

So much has happened, boys," he said, draping one hand over the back of a chair and pointing at them with the other. "Came back and the place was a battlefield. I rallied a few of the fellows

Desire doesn’t spread like information; it spreads like energy. It passes from person to person like the energy between people at a concert or political rally. This energy can lead to a cycle of positive desire, in which healthy desires gain momentum and lead to other healthy desires, uniting people in positive ways; or it can become a cycle of negative desire, in which mimetic rivalries lead to conflict and discord.

A few years ago my friend Jon Brooks supplied this great illustration of skewed interpretation at work. Here’s how investors react to events when they’re feeling good about life (which usually means the market has been rising): Strong data: economy strengthening—stocks rally Weak data: Fed likely to ease—stocks rally Data as expected: low volatility—stocks rally Banks make $4 billion: business conditions favorable—stocks rally Banks lose $4 billion: bad news out of the way—stocks rally Oil spikes: growing global economy contributing to demand—stocks rally Oil drops: more purchasing power for the consumer—stocks rally Dollar plunges: great for exporters—stocks rally Dollar strengthens: great for companies that buy from abroad—stocks rally Inflation spikes: will cause assets to appreciate—stocks rally Inflation drops: improves quality of earnings—stocks rally Of course, the same behavior also applies in the opposite direction. When psychology is negative and markets have been falling for a while, everything is capable of being interpreted negatively. Strong economic data is seen as likely to make the Fed withdraw stimulus by raising interest rates, and weak data is taken to mean companies will have trouble meeting earnings forecasts. In other words, it’s not the data or events; it’s the interpretation. And that fluctuates with swings in psychology.

Yes, but what about tomorrow?” “There’ll be no tomorrow!” “But if there is. Say that there is—just for the sake of argument. That anger might take shape as something serious. After all, you know, the whole financial world’s been in a nose-dive the last few months. The stock market has crashed three separate times, or haven’t you noticed? Sensible investors don’t really believe the world is coming to an end, but they think other investors might start to think so, and so the smart ones sell out before the panic begins—thus touching off the panic themselves. And then they buy back afterward, and sell again as soon as the market rallies, and begin the whole downward cycle all over again. And what do you think has happened to business? Johnny Public doesn’t believe you either, but there’s no sense buying new porch furniture just now, is there? Better to hang on to your money, just in case, or put it into canned goods and ammunition, and let the furniture wait. “You see the point, Dr. Athor. Just as soon as this is all over, the business interests will be after your hide. They’ll say that if crackpots—begging your pardon—crackpots in the guise of serious scientists can upset the world’s entire economy any time they want simply by making some cockeyed prediction, then it’s up to the world to keep such things from happening. The sparks will fly, Doctor.

At Oaktree, we strongly reject the idea of waiting for the bottom to start buying. First, there’s absolutely no way to know when the bottom has been reached. There’s no neon sign that lights up. The bottom can be recognized only after it has been passed, since it is defined as the day before the recovery begins. By definition, this can be identified only after the fact. And second, it’s usually during market slides that you can buy the largest quantities of the thing you want, from sellers who are throwing in the towel and while the non-knife-catchers are hugging the sidelines. But once the slide has culminated in a bottom, by definition there are few sellers left to sell, and during the ensuing rally it’s buyers who predominate. Thus the selling dries up and would-be buyers face growing competition. We began to buy distressed debt immediately after Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection in mid-September 2008 as described on page 235, and we continued through year-end, as prices went lower and lower. By the first quarter of 2009, other investors had collected themselves, caught on to the values that were available, and gathered some capital for investment. But with the motivated sellers done selling and buying having begun, it was too late for them to buy in size without pushing up prices. Like so many other things in the investment world that might be tried on the basis of certitude and precision, waiting for the bottom to start buying is a great example of folly. So if targeting the bottom is wrong, when should you buy? The answer’s simple: when price is below intrinsic value. What if the price continues downward? Buy more, as now it’s probably an even greater bargain. All you need for ultimate success in this regard is (a) an estimate of intrinsic value, (b) the emotional fortitude to persevere, and (c) eventually to have your estimate of value proved correct.

In this vertiginous cycle of the impossible exchange of death, the death of the terrorist is an infinitesimal point, but one that creates a gigantic suction or void, an enormous convection. Around this tiny point the whole system of the real and of power [la puissance] gathers, transfixed; rallies briefly; then perishes by its own hyperefficiency.

The slums unfurled like a giant moth-eaten quilt as I exited the highway at Al-Maqsha. Qaryah, the villages—a country unto itself, whose backroads had become grossly familiar to me, an unwanted second home. Piles of garbage rose from the streets like dying trees. Layers of houses were crammed into alleys; dingy fast-food restaurants and cold stores pockmarked every corner, the emaciated commerce of poverty. No skyscraping hotels here, only stubby broken-shutter lodgings with misleading wistful names—Riviera Palace, Oriental Retreat. The most noticeable feature, a sprawling tattoo stamped across an already-mutilated body, was the graffiti. Bright protests neutralized by government blackouts then covered with more rallying cries, a laughably unavailing cycle. In the end the blackouts mostly prevailed. Above the graffiti, above the jagged rooftops, black Shiite flags tried to best

Seeds of hatred have been planted in those eyes where love should be. The liturgical shame game is based on ownership and divine ordination. God rallies on the side of men. Eve, as chattel, her chastity as currency, may barely survive the institution of marital and creational hierarchy, nerves frayed, weary, wounded, rendered fragile, locked into eternal cycles of blame and shame. No wonder Lilith fled, choosing sorcery over servitude. This is not Love. None of this is love. Love is free and fair. Love is an apple, sweet and delicious. Love is gnosis, in the form of a big juicy, eye-opening apple, seeding wisdom, received by Eve, gifted by Lilith, eaten in secret, far away from pious eyes looking for a fight. Eyes and knuckles locked across the centre of self, Eve can see, reflecting in his, the patriarchal mindset, a darkness she must descend into. She must descend into this vortex of limbs and fleshy bits: a churning shame spiral of feminine wounding and patriarchal reversal: a reputation breaker, where female power is trod down and freedom shackled. Countless unnamed and named women throughout history, including Mary Magdalene, who was mortifyingly shackled to the word “whore”; Cleopatra, the whore-queen; Helen of Troy, the bitch-whore; Jeh, the Primal Whore; Rahab the harlot; Jezebel, the witch-whore; Asherah worshipers, those brazen prostitutes and leg openers; Hypatia and her Satanic wiles; have already been blistered, minimized and even murdered here.