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The last FOMC meeting is tomorrow (cue the music to “Eight is Enough”, if anyone can remember it) and the world can fully embrace one of the great Buy the Rumor/Sell the News events of the year. A pointless 25 basis point is on the way, which will be as potent a salve for the economy as wrecking exports for farmers and then handing the same farmers a huge bailout for their trouble. God Bless America.

Equities seem to have stalled out in recent days, as illustrated by the /NQ, which is so laughably bloated and overvalued as to merit astonishment a few years from now when folks look back at these prices.
 

The small caps, by way of /RTY, which heretofore had been particularly strong, have likewise started making circles around the airport, not having any motivation to push any higher.
 

In one of my portfolios, I have taken the rather unusual and bold step of loading up on IWM puts which expire this Friday ($252 strike). I suspect there’s almost BOUND to be one good slosh lower between now and the weekend.
 

A subtle change seems to have taken place in the market since the NVDA earnings event, illustrated below. On the left side of the chart, you can see the last gasp of the AI Mania take hold, as NVDA exploded higher on the heels of its earnings report, only to see the entire gain obliterated by the next day. Since then, it has tried to hammer out some kind of recovery, with Jensen Huang continuing to bloviate about the AI Revolution, but we’re basically exactly where we were before the earnings report even came out. Maybe he should autograph more tits or something.
 

The one chart which seems to be strengthening and pushing higher is volatility, which I have a hunch will get spikey over the next 72 hours.
 

For myself, I intend to end 2025 with a flourish. I have amped up my exposure on one all-short portfolio to 131% and, in other, a full 266%. I’ve got three other portfolios which have had a good year, and I’ve decided to stay “all cash” for safety’s sake until January. I even gave each of them a FIFA Participation Trophy to assuage any hurt feelings of being left out.

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