I know.  It hurts.  But, I believe it will go sideways for two months as it did Nov-Dec 2007 and then will continue its ascent. 

I've gotten some questions about the relevance of the Visa IPO.  So, the following is my explanation.

The Visa IPO will serve to further disrupt the financial markets.  It's supposed to be the biggest IPO *ever* at about $15B.

Visa is owned by its member banks that produce Visa cards, like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, etc, and they desperately need the liquidity they will raise in this mega market offering.  If it doesn't go well, the financial services firms involved and the markets as a whole will face  an increasingly challenging environment.

Today, I've gone ahead and sold my very average (and not end times portfolio) holdings in Kraft and Gol, a Brazilian airline.  Kraft was basically even money with a nice dividend and Gol was good for a while as an overall tracker of the Brazil economy, but with oil prices skyrocketing, it has fallen substantially.  Gol is unlikely to stem losses in the near term.  Going forward, most airlines will need to substantially reconfigure business models in light of higher fuel costs.

The rebalanced funds are going right into Gold.  Gold has been strongly under-performing the past month because of the $1k barrier.  But, note how quickly oil went from $100 to $110.   I'm relatively confident that Gold will jump 10% or so as soon it tests and breaks that $1,000 barrier.

The financial markets may recover, of course.  All of my strategies are long term.  For example, the $25B Visa IPO could go well and rally the markets. 

However, I believe a worldwide financial disaster is a required prerequisite for one world currency.  And once that disaster takes place, it will take some time for the cashless currency to develop.  So, that crisis will have to precede the currency by some time, the main question is -- how much time do we have before financial collapse?  And, between that collapse and one currency?

 Today I'm going to start slowly shifting assets into gold and oil.  I'm going to do this by selling some of my other equity positions, even at a loss in the current poor market.

I recommend you consider doing the same.  You will lose money in the sale, but they will begin making money in these alternative asset classes immediately.

Some things to consider:

- Dollar is hitting its record weakest, versus Euro, Yen, and others
- The Fed is going to keep making it worse, by easing monetary policy
- The temporary market rallies are not sticking
- Gold has hit $1,000 in overnight trading, it's past that psychological barrier
- Gold can get to $2,000 easily, in inflation-adjusted dollars it was there in the 1980's
- The $25B VISA IPO could potentially flop disasterously
- Potential continued financial markets failures could precipitate a more rapid fleet to gold/oil

Background articles --

* Bloomberg: Gold Rises to Record on Demand for a Haven

* Businessweek: Gas prices jump, oil hits $110

* Bloomberg: Dollar Falls to 12-Year Low of 100 Yen