The Commodity Robot Review: I was walking onto the floor of the Commodities Exchange
Center (CEC), formerly within the World Trade Center In New York City. It was
1984; the gold market had just gone through its most bullish price move in
history and was in the midst of its post-bubble collapse. i felt the same buzz
that I used to have when I played basketball in college. The trading floor
reminded me of a basketball court - it had that same electric energy coursing
through the air. And, I was drawn to it from a place deep within my body.
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| The Commodity Robot |
The gleaming Twin Towers embodied the
proud-to-be-an-American feeling that permeated the country in 1984. There was a
groundswell of new confidence that started at the bottom, worked its way up the
ladder of wealth, and emanated from the fiscal and foreign policies implemented
by Ronald Reagan. President Reagan had also restored a sense of pride in the
average U.S. citizen, following the disastrous confidence hit during the Carter
administration. Moreover, Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve System,
had played hardball with monetary policy during the go-go-inflation period. The
era was capped by the Hunt brothers' attempt to squeeze the silver market and
the run in gold bullion prices to new all-time highs above $800 The Commodity Robot. For gold, it
had been a decade-long bull market that began when Richard Nixon removed the
shackles from the U.S. dollar.
By 1984 the The Commodity Robot Review, we had already hit the second down-slope in the
post-inflation period, as confidence was rising, prices and interest rates
finally were falling, and the U.S. stock market was beginning to make some
noise. While unknown at the time, the stirrings in the equity arena, flat for
the better part of a decade, reflected the early phases of an evolution that
would dominate the financial landscape up to the 1987 crash (and Well beyond,
through today).
The CEC was like a temple constructed to honor the financial
gods. Huge price boards covered three of the four walls that ran more than a
hundred yards on each side, with listings of dozens of commodities from
potatoes to orange juice, from cotton to sugar, from platinum to heating oil
and, of course, gold, silver, and copper. Under each commodity, a number of
months were listed, and to the side of each month, there was a series of
numbers. Those numbers represented the last trade, the first previous trade,
the second previous trade, the third previous trade, the opening range, the high
of the day, the low of the day, and yesterday's change. Is The Commodity Robot Scam?
Imagine those enormous walls covered with constantly
changing numbers, flipping a thousand times faster than the train schedule at
Penn Station, with people frantically jousting just to secure a space to stand.
It was easily the most energetic place I had ever encountered. As i walked
across the floor, I observed what can only be described as mayhem: men and
women screaming at other men and women, people screaming into phones and at
each other on phones, people sprinting across the floor oblivious to the bodies
that went flying in nearly every direction. Arms were flailing, fists pumping,
faces snarling, mouths drooling, foreheads sweating, and then there was more
screaming. I did not at all understand what was happening, but i Knew I had
found the place I wanted to Be.... The Commodity Robot
