Kenosha Chaos And The NPC Economy
Image via Twitter.
Another Riot, Another Record
After another clear cut example of police brutality against an African American on Sunday,
Another open & shut case of racist police brutality as a guy with a history of resisting arrest and keeping handguns under the seat of his SUV is shot while resisting arrest and reaching over the front seat of his SUV pic.twitter.com/Wi42YYBnOf
— Second City Bureaucrat (@CityBureaucrat) August 24, 2020
"peaceful marches... gave way to fires and destruction," in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as the New York Times put it.
Washington Post and New York Times coverage of the BLM riots in Kenosha is an excellent example of what propaganda looks like. pic.twitter.com/R7mlyRoAen
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) August 25, 2020
More Small Businesses Destroyed
Among the local businesses destroyed in Kenosha were a car dealership, a furniture store, and this gaming lounge highlighted by journalist Michael Tracey.
This place in Kenosha, WI re-opened on July 9 after having been closed since March due to COVID. Now closing permanently after catastrophic riots. Don't whine about large multinational corporations taking over all commerce if you turn a blind eye to this pic.twitter.com/8Ym7UpfhEl
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 25, 2020
That store getting destroyed brought to mind the video game term "NPC" (non player character). To the stock market, all the small businesses torched and looted are NPCs. Same with the local outposts of large retail chains.
Markets Hit New Highs
The destruction of the NPC economy means little to a market driven by the likes of Apple, Amazon, and Google.
Everyone rioting around the country, and every small business owner whose store was looted or burned down, is an NPC to the stock market. https://t.co/ZgGudcL7PH
— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) August 24, 2020
The market's reaction is consistent what the pseudonymous Twitter correspondent Second City Bureaucrat describes as "Occupy Main Street":
Occupy Mainstreet's radical anarchist agenda:
— Second City Bureaucrat (@CityBureaucrat) August 26, 2020
-Consolidate police power with the Federal Government
-Destroy local businesses to consolidate the consumer economy under a cartel of multinationals
-Remove impediments to corporate global labor arbitrage
-Menace downscale whites
After The First Death
Tuesday brought the first death in the Kenosha chaos, as armed civilians shot at each other.
Kenosha pic.twitter.com/LGNuS01Y9z
— special agent viti (@selfdeclaredref) August 26, 2020
Elijah Schaffer argued that the shooter responsible for the first death in Kenosha was a BLM-supporting libertarian.
GASLIGHTING: the shooter was a libertarian who said he was in support of the BLM movement
— ELIJAH RIOT (@ElijahSchaffer) August 26, 2020
Also said he supported their right to protest and target government property
The group wasn’t even all white & openly said they were there to protect BLM
VIDEO EVIDENCE DOESN’T LIE https://t.co/mRS9za94rJ pic.twitter.com/B1AwigZ4Fl
Investing During Occupy Main Street
COVID lockdowns, riots, and looting are wrecking business districts while Americans shoot each other in the streets. How should you incorporate that into your investing framework? Portfolio Armor doesn't incorporate it at all, at least not directly. Instead, we look for names that have been going up, and that options market sentiment suggests have more room to run over the next six months.
We use our analysis of total returns and options market sentiment to select our top ten names each trading day. A month ago, these were our top ten names, as we shared in a post at the time (An Inauspicious Signal).
Our top names as of Monday, July 27th.
Here's how those top names have performed as of Tuesday, August 25th's close versus SPY.
As you can see, they were up 10.27% on average, versus 6.47% for SPY. Our security selection process seems to be handling the chaos well so far. We should have an update today's top names for subscribers on our site by 9pm tonight.
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