I found it interesting that many people on the Fed Auto Task Force do not own American cars.

I have to say that seeing that GM and Ford has most of their Engineering and I.T. work outsourced to other countries breaks loyalty to the brand. How can GM expect Americans to "Buy American" when the engineering, information technology, parts, and call center work is done in outside of the USA? GM and Ford: You want the loyalty of Americans, then stop moving the jobs outside of America. 

Regardless, U.S. government officials should drive American cars. Then they can work on GM, Ford, and Chrysler to bring back the Engineering, Software Development, Call Centers, and Manual Labor back the U.S. It is just crazy that all the degree and non-degree jobs leave this country. There will be no more consumers in the U.S. to buy anything.

Here is a blurb from the Detroit News...

Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.

Steve Rattner, the managing partner of a $6 billion New York hedge fund who will lead the Treasury Department's auto efforts, has three imports and one domestic vehicle.  He owns a 2008 Lexus LS 460 sedan, a 2007 Audi S4 convertible, a 2006 Mercedes-Benz R350 sport-utility vehicle and a 2005 Lincoln Town Car, according to public records.  Geithner owns a 2008 Acura TSX, registered in New York. He once owned a 1999 Honda Accord and a 2002 Acura MDX, according to public records.

What is really ironic? Check out the article, as I was reading it, what do I see? An add for a Nissan.

This is a public post regarding the MTR-TM status on 3/30/2009. To see MTR-TM updates live please register and or log into the site.

The daily change in the market timing model (MTR-TM) is -4.31%. The week over week change in the MTR-TM is
-3.45%. The signal for this commentary is Market Up on Friday, 3/13/2009.

The weekly trend (WoW) showed weakness today at -3.45%. Most stop loss orders would have been hit today because of the -4.31% daily close of Value Line index. This would have shown a good ride since the revised BUY on 3/13/2009. For those that follow Les Masonson a 4% sell from a “recent market top” would have fired today. MTR does not follow Les Masonson model since we have not back tested his concept. The classic 4% model would not have fired today since the WoW change was -3.45%. MTR-TM did not fire since various back-tested criteria was not met. Regardless, good stop loss orders would have taken most traders out of the market today.

Watching Z-Score and Bollinger Bands on QQQQ showed that the markets and QQQQ were due for a reversal. Instead of shorting QQQQ I purchased PUTS on Thursday 3/26/2009 and sold the puts on Monday 3/30/2009 for a 52% profit.

The chart below shows that Z-Score reached an extreme of close to +2. In addition the lower volume on rising prices helped to confirm the trend was about to turn. These factors can help getting into a trade early before the MTR-TM sends a UP or DOWN Market signal.