Ann Barnhardt says it’s time to get out of the markets entirely:
The Penson ship is going down, it appears. They were in trouble last year when MF Global happened and were looking to dump their European divisions, and they did bounce a bit after MF Global when they unloaded their Aussie holdings, but it looks like it is all but over for them. The stock is cratering, and there is chatter on the net that they are taking forever to get cash withdrawls out, posted and cleared. That’s a very bad sign. MF global was the same way in the weeks before the end. The extreme danger is that the CME is going to do with Penson what they did with MF Global and NOT backstop and keep customers liquid when the end comes. MF Global proved that the CME is no longer going to fulfill its fiduciary duty and will screw clients twelve ways from Sunday without hesitation. DO NOT get caught up in that crap. Just get out of the whole, stinking, festering, putrefied mess. Get out of the markets ENTIRELY.
If you’ve still got your money in the markets, you really need to think again. Something like 90 percent of the trading is now just machines trading with other machines. The brokers are using their customers’ money as a backstop and the regulators aren’t stopping them. You’d arguably be better off, and have a better time, simply going to Vegas and playing blackjack. No one knows when the entire mass of corruption and crap will finally melt down under its own weight, all we really know is that it’s eventually going to happen. But MF Global has taught us that there are no consequences for the financial industry’s criminal shenanigans. No one is going to stop them, most likely because everyone on the inside knows that as soon as the music stops, it all comes crashing down.