Friday -- It's Not Different This Time; It's Better

S&P E-mini Futures:
Down in choppy overnight trade.

News:
Option expiration today. Very surprised to see futures down in the pre-market. Sounds like good news out of China is now bad news, as in no more stimulus. Ha.

Never mind, there are much better things to focus on.

There’s a loud corner of Reddit where millennials look to get rich or die tryin’

We've come full circle back to the late 90s when penny stock speculation was rampant and stock touting sites like Raging Bull and Silicon Investor were all the rage (I know, I was there, and the article mentions them too).

Marketwatch takes us back to a world that is still the same yet has gotten even better.

Why? Because it's not penny stocks this time. It's options on leveraged ETFs. It's speculation on oil, gold, the S&P 500, imploded crap like former hedge-fund hotel SUNE, and more.

This means they can be gamed. On the other side. Because they are the ultimate crowd.

Human nature never changes. They're using the same lingo as if the 90s were just yesterday: hopping on the same CHOO-CHOO trains, blasting off TO THE MOON, getting screwed by the same scumbag MMs (perceived as all-knowing market makers that seem to operate by magic), talking which yachts to buy, which islands to escape to after making millions. Others shout about going down in flames, becoming homeless over blown all-or-nothing trades.

And the newest lingo: YOLO. Perfect.

All under the watchful eyes of DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort as their hero. It's all right here.

Wall Street Bets

You Only Line Once, so see what the herd is doing -- hop on the Reddit train and take a joyride.

Wait, there's more. The incredible irony is that a market maker is going public into this mania.

Bloomberg reported that Bats Global Markets Inc. (BATS) priced its latest initial public offering at the top end of its range, "valuing the company at $1.8 billion."

BATS "increased the deal’s size after demand for shares exceeded the 11.2 million originally offered by 20 times, a person familiar with the matter said." 20X oversubscribed!

Here's the punchline: BATS tried this before.

"In 2012, BATS tried to go public on its own platform, only to cancel the offering when a glitch wouldn’t let the stock trade."

FX:
JPY turning up.

Treasuries:
Volume increased on yesterday's pullback. Prices may be creating small impulse waves down.

Energy:
WTI crude down on pre-Doha jitters. NG down hard.

Metals:
Currently some weird action. Gold and silver higher. Platinum and copper lower. Palladium higher.

S&P Outlook:
Today not looking for a breakdown unless 2078.13 fails. Then a close below 2075 could lead to trouble. Otherwise looking for continuation higher.