# Financial Market Exit



## AKPrepper (Mar 18, 2011)

Saw this today and though I'd post to get everyone's opinion. My apologies in advance for the long read and the obvious anti-Obama rant for those of you that may support this man. My intent is not politcal, but rather financial. At first blush I thought it sounded alot like sour grapes from someone that is closing their brokerage business, but since I'm not all that savy regarding the markets, what do those of you that are, think about this?





"The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse" - Presenting The First MF Global Casualty
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/17/2011 14:19 -0500

Barack Obama Bond Cronyism MF Global Reality 


Presented without comment, merely to confirm that the market as we know it, no longer exists.

BCM Has Ceased Operations (source)
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - November 17, AD 2011 10:27 AM MST
Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.

Perhaps the most ominous dynamic that I have yet heard of in regards to this mess is that of the risk of potential CLAWBACK actions. For those who do not know, “clawback” is the process by which a bankruptcy trustee is legally permitted to re-seize assets that left a bankrupt entity in the time period immediately preceding the entity’s collapse. So, using the MF Global customers as an example, any funds that were withdrawn from MFG accounts in the run-up to the collapse, either because of suspicions the customer may have had about MFG from, say, watching the company’s bond yields rise sharply, or from purely organic day-to-day withdrawls, the bankruptcy trustee COULD initiate action to “clawback” those funds. As a hedge broker, this makes my blood run cold. Generally, as the markets move in favor of a hedge position and equity builds in a client’s account, that excess equity is sent back to the customer who then uses that equity to offset cash market transactions OR to pay down a revolving line of credit. Even the possibility that a customer could be penalized and additionally raped AGAIN via a clawback action after already having their customer funds stolen is simply villainous. While there has been no open indication of clawback actions being initiated by the MF Global trustee, I have been told that it is a possibility.

And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.

Remember, derivatives contracts are NOT NECESSARY in the commodities markets. The cash commodity itself is the underlying reality and is not dependent on the futures or options markets. Many people seem to have gotten that backwards over the past decades. From Abel the animal husbandman up until the year 1964, there were no cattle futures contracts at all, and no options contracts until 1984, and yet the cash cattle markets got along just fine.

Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform. So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy.

To my clients, who literally TO THE MAN agreed with my assessment of the situation, and were relieved to be exiting the markets, and many whom I now suspect stayed in the markets as long as they did only out of personal loyalty to me, I can only say thank you for the honor and pleasure of serving you over these last years, with some of my clients having been with me for over twelve years. I will continue to blog at Barnhardt.biz, which will be subtly re-skinned soon, and will continue my cattle marketing consultation business. I will still be here in the office, answering my phones, with the same phone numbers. Alas, my retirement came a few years earlier than I had anticipated, but there was no possible way to continue given the inevitability of the collapse of the global financial markets, the overthrow of our government, and the resulting collapse in the rule of law.

As for me, I can only echo the words of David:

“This is the Lord’s doing; and it is wonderful in our eyes.”

With Best Regards- 
Ann Barnhardt


----------



## SageAdvicefarmgirl (Jun 23, 2011)

I also know so little about these things, but just in case, I have copied and FWD this to several friends...

Looks to me like it could be THE trigger! I guess we'll soon know...

May God help us all!


----------



## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Without getting too into the politics mentioned, I will say that her situation was not caused by our current president. As if crony capitalism didnt exist 3 years ago.

Forget the political angle. I am no expert in the markets. I didnt start investing on my own until the late 90's.
I will say this. She is right. I have not been able to bring myself to pull the trigger and sell everything I have, but I have switched about 40% of my IRA into silver and gold, and I havent even done it the correct way (read: not into actual physical metals) but to me, not having the physical stuff in my hands is the same as the paper. Some feel differently, and have firms that they trust, and thats great. More of us will say that you must actually have it in your possession, and I agree.
Sorry, you cant talk about the markets (especially in here) without getting into precious metals.
All of the markets are rigged. Stocks, bonds, all of it. That does not mean that you cannot make money with them, but understand that its a game played by huge players, and you are along for the ride.
[For a political aside, and I have trouble verifying this, but I have heard of it from more than one source...
during the last debate, a question was read to Cain along these lines: "70% of the stock trades are done by computers, what will you do to protect the little guy?" He of course had no answer, and said "We have to create jobs".] My point is not about Cain, but that if 70% of the trades are done by computer programs, there is really no relation between the price of a stock and its 'actual' (? perceived?) value. To quote Max Keiser "There is no price discovery". Prices for any good are (supposed to be, in a free market, which is pie in the sky, because there isnt one unless you are bartering with your neighbor) set by supply and demand. If computer programs are doing the (high frequency) trading, then there is no 'real' correlation between the price and the actual supply/demand for the stock.
It is a huge game of chess, and you are a speck of dust on the board.

Sorry, got off track there.

The markets are rigged. There are plenty of criminals involved, as there are in any industry. Personally I am less concerned with outright blatant theft (as in the MF case) than with the global economic situation itself. Corzine will not go to jail, he is too well connected. And to think, he was a state Guvnah! I am more worried that the current state of the global economy is built on a sham; fiat currencies, rediculous accounting practices, and corruption.
Yes, the markets are not safe. Money can certainly be made, but it is, and has been for a while, a gamble. Do not play with money you need. (I have never had money I didnt need)
I think its probably safe to say that I can speak for most us in saying that the global financial system is on the verge of collapse. We could be wrong. There are NO safe investments. (food, water, etc are NOT investments!) Your house obviously IS an investment, but you have to have a place to live.
A quick read through a days worth of articles on ZH ) ZeroHedge, where the article came from, just in case) will reinforce this. The system is ready to collapse. You cannot be worse off by putting all of your money into food, water, shelter, and protection.
Ugh, I knew I was gonna write a freaking book as a response.

In summation: Yes, get out of the markets, but it aint (all) the presidents fault.


----------



## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Wasn't there a book/article that said computers would be our downfall??
You're right..this theft/criminal behavior has been going on for decades; it's just more blatant now and the courts/judges are involved and owe everyone, so who's to prosecute these criminals??

Thanks for your candor about the ongoing financial disaster..will it ever stop??

Off Topic: regarding Greece and this is really scary.
~~~The Greeks could easily have gone the way of Iceland and simply defaulted on their loans. Instead, the globalist insiders positioned within the legislative halls of their government sold them down the river when they forcibly implemented bailout and austerity measures at the behest of the IMF and international banks. By doing so, they offered as collateral all of Greece’s assets – and we mean all of them including ancient sites, islands, energy resources and even the Greek people themselves. This was actually written into the agreement! Once the Greek state’s insolvency becomes reality and they finally default on their crisis loans to the world’s lenders of last resort (there really is no other option at this point), international banks will have jurisdiction under international law (not Greek Constitutional law – sound familiar?) to seize that collateral.~~~


----------



## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

Me thinks there was more to the brokerage closing then what was written.

WRT Europe. I've said it before, as part of my MBA, I had for my finance class a prof that is a retired exec VP from the federal reserve. My education on global macro economics was fantastic... and scares the hell out of me.

Greece is nothing more than a canary in the mines, and frankly under normal circumstances should be nothing more then noise. Unfortunately, there is so much at risk right now because of the deep interactions between the sovereign nations and the way the system has been manipulated, if Greece totally fails, it takes down the Euro and the USD with it. The central banks have been buying each others debt and the all own big pieces of the debt.

My take, Europe will monetize some debt to temporarily fix the problem. Markets will rebound and maybe even soar. That's when I'm getting out of the market.


----------



## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

partdeux said:


> My take, Europe will monetize some debt to temporarily fix the problem. Markets will rebound and maybe even soar. That's when I'm getting out of the market.


That would be a perfect exit point, and a definite sign of an impending collapse. Lets hope it happens. I'm not a fan of Cramer, I think hes a buffoon and an insider, but one of his big points is that when everyone in the MMM is saying the same thing, good or bad, then its time to bet against the crowd. Same applies in sports betting. If the public is all going one way, its a pretty safe bet theyre wrong.


----------



## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

*I'd like to re-open and bump this topic..thanks*

I found this on timebomb2000.com...extremely interesting

for the link to the mp3 follow this link:

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...sis-Before-Christmas-Ann-Barnhardt-on-TruNews


----------



## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

Don't believe it. They can still print a bunch more money.


----------



## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

Hmmm. It is only me? Seems if international bankers tried seizing some defaulting country's collateral for defaulted loans it would trigger one hell of a war.


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

*Europe financial collapse*

Heard today, From differant sources, when commenting on European financial collapse several talking heads are now using the following descriptions "end-of-the -world", "Abyiss", "doomsday". Two of the experts now say that the most likely outcome will be failure.

I continuely listen to the same talking heads and they have never used these terms before.

Also, when asked how this will effect the US markets, one man said that the gov experts are continuely saying that a European collapse would have little to no affect on the US and that because the Gov repeats this to be believeable. The man said that European failure could have significant impact on the US.

If your are not scared enough, no one seams to no how to protect your self from this!


----------



## BlueShoe (Aug 7, 2010)

Anybody that uses a fake name to post an opinion article as an expert is to be considered nothing more than a rhetorical writer.


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

TenOC;

Witch article and what was the fake name that you are talking about??:gaah:


----------



## BlueShoe (Aug 7, 2010)

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I read it as an original post by "Tyler Durden" who was a character in the movie Fight Club. Isn't that the same guy that has/had a radio talk show on conspiracy radio stations? Maybe he's just forwarding it, and I believe we're on the eve of the collapse, but that comes from listening to people like Marc Faber, Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff, John Hathaway, Robert Kiyosaki, James Dines, David Tice, JIm Rickards, etc., etc.. Actual financial guys.


----------



## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

I'm sorry this is a short clip of a movie that has Hanoi Jane in it, but the clip has been updated with some modern current events.

The movie is frightening. This clip kinda summarizes the movie. There's a part 1, this is just part 2


----------



## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Ten, I 'll assume youre familiar with ZH, which is where hes from. I would like to know his qualifications also, but I readily admit that most of his posts are waaaaay over my head, so he knows at least something. He has to have some kind of financial background, he gets so technical sometimes I cant take it.


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

Partdeux;

Thanks for reminding me of this movie (Rollover). I saw it when it originally came out. I recommend this movie to everybody.


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

*Greenspan statement*

Greenspan (former head of the fed) was being interviewed (I think it was CNN) when he said something amazing. He said that the American public needs to get adjusted to living a lower standard of living then past generations. He continued to say that this will happen its just a matter of time.


----------



## BlueShoe (Aug 7, 2010)

Immolatus said:


> Ten, I 'll assume youre familiar with ZH, which is where hes from. I would like to know his qualifications also, but I readily admit that most of his posts are waaaaay over my head, so he knows at least something. He has to have some kind of financial background, he gets so technical sometimes I cant take it.


Zero Hedge? I didn't know that. Interesting.


----------



## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

I know nothing of investments. I've lived paycheck to paycheck my whole life (sigh). In the past I've tuned out the financial news because I didn't understand it and didn't have two extra dimes to invest into anything, so it didn't seem to apply to me. IMHO, the economy WILL crash. Although slowly over the next 5 years or very quickly within the next six months I couldn't begin to fathom. 

My biggest fear is losing our house. We have no credit cards, no vehicle loans, only our house. I've tried and tried to pay extra every month to get it paid off more quickly, but it's been tough between losing jobs and what-not. What happens to mortgage debt when/if the whole country's economy collapses? I've read that the gubberment is trying to convince banks to allow vacant, foreclosed homes to be rented to offset some of the loss to the bank, which the banks are adamantly against, but if you can't pay your mortgage along with 300 million other people do they come and kick you out or will it all end up being a wash?


----------



## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

Daisy,

you might consider going over to Chris Martenson - Information on the global economy, environment, and our energy challenges. Real estate, oil, community, homes, money. - Chris Martenson, ChrisMartenson.com and watching the "crash course". It's long and at times boring, but well worth it. How we have gotten here in general is pretty simple, but the latest recent stuff is amazing and extremely complex, albeit just noise. We were going to get here one way or another. I've almost turned this into an amateur study program and really don't see anyway out of this.


----------



## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

I doubt your security is no safer with precious metals than anything else ,they will confiscate it like they did before.Also who will you barter with? Not many will own gold and if they did there would be very little to buy with it.
The mere numbers of us could have saved this nation from them without bloodshed ,but we chose not to act .
I read the book'Taking Back America'several years ago and it made more sense than trying to elect an honest person for ur savior.
The insiders have controlled the money since time,but less so when the people paid attention and kept watch on them.
I'll just pray to hopefully save my soul because the rest of me is in serious trouble.


----------



## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

lazydaisy67 said:


> I know nothing of investments. I've lived paycheck to paycheck my whole life (sigh). In the past I've tuned out the financial news because I didn't understand it and didn't have two extra dimes to invest into anything, so it didn't seem to apply to me. IMHO, the economy WILL crash. Although slowly over the next 5 years or very quickly within the next six months I couldn't begin to fathom.
> 
> My biggest fear is losing our house. We have no credit cards, no vehicle loans, only our house. I've tried and tried to pay extra every month to get it paid off more quickly, but it's been tough between losing jobs and what-not. What happens to mortgage debt when/if the whole country's economy collapses? I've read that the gubberment is trying to convince banks to allow vacant, foreclosed homes to be rented to offset some of the loss to the bank, which the banks are adamantly against, but if you can't pay your mortgage along with 300 million other people do they come and kick you out or will it all end up being a wash?


I had a great loan officer in a refi in 2000 and purchase of our home here, 2007...and I will never forget what he told us once.
Don't ever pay extra on your mortgage...put that money away for a year...and THEN, if no hardships happened pay half on the mortgage(or a third) and continue to add to what's saved, and after a year, pay half of that amount(or a third).

That way, you have backup when you can't pay the mortgage...and these are his words...BECAUSE WHEN YOU LOSE yOUR JOB OR GET HURT...'THEY' DON'T GIVE A S**T HOW MUCH EXTRA YOU PAID PER MONTH...THEY WANT YOUR HOUSE!!!!
And that was in 2007.


----------



## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Meerkat said:


> I doubt your security is no safer with precious metals than anything else ,they will confiscate it like they did before.Also who will you barter with? Not many will own gold and if they did there would be very little to buy with it.
> The mere numbers of us could have saved this nation from them without bloodshed ,but we chose not to act .
> I read the book'Taking Back America'several years ago and it made more sense than trying to elect an honest person for ur savior.
> The insiders have controlled the money since time,but less so when the people paid attention and kept watch on them.
> I'll just pray to hopefully save my soul because the rest of me is in serious trouble.


OH, no..I've read lots of your posts..and I bet this Whitman box of chocolates that not only your soul is safe, but your heart is gold..


----------



## Elinor0987 (May 28, 2010)

JayJay said:


> OH, no..I've read lots of your posts..and I bet this Whitman box of chocolates that not only your soul is safe, but your heart is gold..


I'll trade you my bag of M&M's for your box of Whitman chocolates!


----------

