The gathering storm, by No1

The shit could hit the fan almost simultaneously over the next three months in Iran, India, and Venezuela, which could blow a hole in financial markets. From No1 at no01.substack.com:

To read this article as I intended it: turn on your music, and start reading 😎. If you’re a reader of average speed like me, the music should largely follow the text you’re reading. Enhancing the words with each twist and turn in the music.

Gold has shattered through $3,500 an ounce while silver touches $41—levels that signal danger rather than prosperity. But here’s the kicker: gold hasn’t moved! It’s the dollar, along with every other fiat currency, that is being systematically devalued. When gold “rises” 43% in a year (35% since January), it’s not gold becoming more valuable—it’s your paper money losing its purchasing power at an accelerating rate.

The S&P 500 sits precariously at 6,448 after recovering from a brutal March correction that saw it plunge to 5,522—a heart-stopping 10% drop in just 16 trading days. The index hit all-time highs above 6,500 in summer, but breadth has collapsed: while the index hovers near records, the median stock is more than 10% below its 52-week high.
Bitcoin tells a similar story, trading at ~$111k after falling from its August peak of $124,500—entering September, historically its worst month with average losses of 3.77%. Corporate insiders see what’s coming: the “200-to-Zero Exodus” Mike Maloney identified shows zero buys among the top 200 insider trades by value.

Q1 2024 saw over $64 billion in executive stock sales, with Jeff Bezos liquidating $8.5 billion in Amazon shares and Mark Zuckerberg selling $1.59 billion in Meta stock. The insider buy-to-sell ratio has collapsed to 0.26. Not the lowest yet, but getting close. Only 151 S&P 500 companies saw any insider purchases—the lowest since 2018. The “Magnificent Seven” that drove markets for years have declined an average of 16% since their peaks, with only three (Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft) managing to surpass their 2024 highs. These aren’t the actions of executives confident in their companies’ futures. They see what’s coming.

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