An Ornithologist's Guide to the Sudden Market Silence.

Something very strange happened yesterday that was quite out of character for the markets -

NOTHING MUCH.

But the silence that really would have caught my ear, had it not been silent, was not so much the price action but that of the commentary streams. Was it my imagination or have all the doomsayin', top pickin’, crash wishin', cabin buildin’, gold buyin', gun totin’ Bearsieeeeess  fallen silent for a little longer than the prerequisite two minutes at 11am 11/11 for Remembrance? And come to that, their bullish antagonists too?

Recent market pauses in price cacophony have been compensated for by a dramatic increase in the volume of rhetoric from those arguing as to whether things go up or down from here. So the comparative lull is somewhat calming. Or is it? Perhaps it's as calming as that silence in the countryside before your only companion in these woods miles from anywhere remarks how strange it is that there is no bird noise. At all. At which point the staccato minor chords of the film score are completely unnecessary in their warning of impending horror, as one's own sympathetic nervous system has already started to gear one up for pant filling flight.

But rather than sprint off screaming back to the car only to trip over some creepers and fall into an old buried church to face a clan of possessed Satan worshipers (i.e. check out the Zero Hedge website), instead we should turn ornithologist and find out why the birds are indeed so quiet. Let us see -

Ahhh!!  A Norwegian Blue - Not much explanation needed as Ornithology 1.0.1 teaches that any unconscious Norwegian blue is just shagged out after a long squawk. It would appear that this specimen has been screeching for tops for so long it has collapsed exhausted.

Cuckoo - Grown fat being fed in its adopted home of financial TV shows with its gaping mouth calling doom looking for reward. Having kicked all the opposition out by bullying and harassment, it now finds itself all alone because even the guardian parents are fed up with this thug who doesn’t make sense and don’t want to feed it any more. So the Cuckoo’s nest is silent.

Fat Turkey - Thanksgiving is just a week away and rather than waste breath on recounting old arguments perhaps its easier to say nothing until Black Friday provides more to vocalise over. If it lives that long.

Chicken - Confidence lost in all self-belief. The rules just haven’t worked in this market so until it can work out a set of new functioning rules it’s probably best to retreat under a bush and sit this one out.

Dodo - As dead as itself. Hunted to death by the Stoploss bird with its fearsome scream ’Sorripalurout’. There is only so much getting it wrong before the stop losses will finally kill you.

Pink Famingo - Ah the famous Pink Flamingo. The silence from the Pink Flamingo is due to its very nature. It has wandered far from this market off to find different ones to disrupt, leaving silence behind it.

And for those birds that sing on high and call for mates to join them in the sunny skies? Why is there silence from them?

The Sky Lark - Its high pitch repetitious trill, normally uninterrupted on sunny days has vanished. Why? This bird has suddenly grown a fear of heights having ascended so fast and would rather, just maybe, not take so much risk and take it easy pecking seeds on the ground quietly if thats ok by you.

The Hawk - His normal prey, who he likes to think he can rip to shreds having caught them on the wing in a weak argument, are now silent, so with nothing to betray their position he has moved off to his perch hoping for easier prey at a later date.

The Albatross - Flying behind the market on up breezes this bird is considered good luck, but kill one and you are doomed. But not as doomed as the Albatross. And this albatross has seen a sailor fiddling with a cross bow of internal market stresses that could well take it down. So it too has made like a cloud.


So far from being a portent of doom the silence of the twitterings is easily explained. Or, to sum it up, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It’s coming up to year end. Bank a profit, cut a loss and shut up. 2016 will be here all too soon and the screaming in the aviary wilL once again BE driving us nuts.