WSJ Disses the Hindenburg

Recently by Robert Wenzel: Why Bernanke Isn’t Having a NervousBreakdown

WSJ this morning has a piece pooh, poohing the Hindenburg Omen.

Although the piece contains a nice profile of the creator, Jim Miekka, the positives to the article end there:

Mr. Miekka’s foray into stocks began after he was injured while conducting experiments at a Massachusetts mine, where he was trying to find a better way to extract minerals from rock. There was an explosion from chemicals he was working with, and was blinded by complications during an ensuing eye operation. "The last thing I saw was the eye chart going into surgery," he said.

As he recuperated, Mr. Miekka said he began listening to television shows that focused on investing, and began actively putting his money into the market.

He came up with his first trading "system" in 1989…

Market indicators aren’t his only inventions. He also says he created artificial-vision technology that uses sounds to help him identify targets better than m any sighted shooters. He can hit a National Rifle Association target at 100 yards, and this week he hit a bowling pin at 200 yards.

Liaru2019s Poker (Nort... Michael Lewis Best Price: $1.50 Buy New $6.50 (as of 03:10 UTC - Details)

WSJ then blasts his indicator:

"People are grasping at straws and always looking for someone who might have all the answers," says Jeremy Siegel, finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of business

Siegel, just by coincidence, according to his web site, seems to ‘have all the answers." He tells us that he is the "Wizard of Wharton". Jim Cramer thinks he is God:

Jeremy Siegel is one of the great ones. [His article at the market top was] one of the most stark and prescient calls I have ever seen

What market top is not exactly clear, that insightful fact is missing from the Cramer quote. I highly suspect it wasn’t the recent top.

You see Siegel had this to say about the economy just 4 months ago:

Yes, the recession has definitely ended. What they were more uncertain about was what month it ended, but that is quibbling about history. My feeling is that it was July or August of last year. But there is no question that we are out of it. In my opinion, we are not going to have a double dip. It is just a question of whether we are going to come out of this with moderate growth or surprisingly rapid growth.

I wonder if he thinks the same now, given housing, unemployment and production are tanking? Oh well, you can’t get them all.

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