Mailbag: The Key to Staying Sane in a Time of Crisis

Andy Snyder|April 6, 2020

We got a note from an old friend at the newspaper last week.

We penned a weekly column for him for well over a decade. But now the 144-year-old rag he manages has run into some serious trouble.

The end is near.

In the midst of the biggest news story in a generation, staff is being cut, salaries are getting slashed and, worst of all, the Truth is not getting reported.

It means the mainstream press just took another bite out of the neck of the traditions that made America great.

We spit on the idea.

There’s too much Truth that’s not being told… so many ideas that must be pondered, shared and built upon.

At the same time that more than half the humans on the planet aren’t legally allowed within 6 feet of each other… the Truthtellers are giving ground to the storytellers.

When You Need It Most…

If we had our way, we’d get each Manward Press publication in the mailbox of every home in America. It’s not out of vanity or greed… or because we’re the man behind it. It’s because our oh-so-curious brain somehow managed to trip over one of the most powerful and useful ideas for a nation in distress.

Our Triad doesn’t get much attention… at least in normal times.

But these days, it should be sat on a chair and vaulted high above our shoulders. When the nation is suffering and confused, it’s a focus on our Liberty, Know-How and Connections that can bring us back to sanity.

We’ve done a fine job of showing how our Liberty has eroded over the last month. Joel Salatin and his pen are two of the greatest freedom-fighting weapons ever put on this earth.

We’re proud to publish his words.

But as we start a new week – another week with the nation locked in its homes – we worry about a lesser-understood evil.

If this crisis has eroded our Liberty, it has flat-out destroyed our Connections. What once was a mountain has been washed into a molehill. This tiny bug has chewed away at more than one aspect of our health.

Bad Connections

Dr. Hans Kluge went on the record last week to prove it.

He seems like our kind of guy.

“We want to avoid a pandemic of mental disorders in addition to a pandemic of COVID-19,” the World Health Organization’s doc said last week.

“This goes to the individual level. I see it around me, I see it in my own household. This is putting a burden on individual people, but then also collectively the elderly people who cannot see their grandchildren.

“So my message is, stay connected. We cannot overstate the importance. Stay connected.”

With that, we’re glad to report that our mailbag has never been busier than it was last week. Faithful readers are writing in from all over this locked-down planet.

Let’s dig in.

Let’s stay connected.

Use This Indicator

We’ll start with money. That seems to be on the minds of lots of folks today… and always.

Our piece on when to go “all-in” on a recovery rally was quite popular. It’s clear that lots of readers are excited to take advantage of this rare chance to buy stocks at a deep discount.

Reader S.A. wrote in with a simple but good question.

Can you explain negative money flow? Every sale must have a buyer.

He’s right, of course. With every trade, money must flow out of one hand and into another. It’s a neutral process.

Where the idea of “positive” or “negative” money flow comes in is when we look at the trend and the amount of buyers and sellers.

We calculate money flow by simply averaging a stock’s open, high and low prices. We then – this is important – multiply it by the day’s trading volume.

If the resulting number is higher than yesterday’s figure, money flow is positive. If it’s lower… money flow is negative.

What’s wonderful about the equation is that, unlike so many metrics, it puts great emphasis on volume. It doesn’t just measure the price paid… but how many folks were willing to pay that price.

That’s very important.

One buyer who overpays is a fool. Many buyers who overpay, though… that’s a bull market in the making.

One of our heroes in the world of technical analysis (we just started another of his books last night) once said that if the market wore a watch, its hands wouldn’t denote hours and minutes. They’d depict volume.

Money flow does exactly that.

We highly recommend you use it.

Why Such Excitement?

Another good question…

I’m feeling pretty good overall having finally become disciplined enough to have stop losses in place and preserving most of my capital. That wasn’t the case in ’87 or ’99 or ’08… ok, I’m a slow learner… Anyway, I work for a tree company that does about 40K per week. We are now at zero/wk. Most all the businesses in my state are closed… The impact of this is devastating to individuals, businesses, the State revenues and of course the Federal Govt.

With all this bleeding it doesn’t seem possible that the market can move up for quite a while and really should be going south. I have done well with a couple ETFs and shorting some companies, but I’m curious why so many are predicting that all will be fine shortly. What am I missing? – Reader M.C.

You’re not missing anything. You’re using solid common sense.

There are a couple of issues here. The first, lo and behold, is the government’s reaction to all this. It just unleashed $2.2 trillion into the economy.

That number is no coincidence. It represents one-tenth of the nation’s GDP last year.

Numbers are meaningless in Washington these days. Even so, that figure is quite a doozy.

The second reason – and this is the biggest variable – is that the American economy is essentially sitting at a stoplight, with its motor revving.

Things were running great until the light turned red. Now we’re sitting at the line eager to race ahead when the light turns green again.

As long as we don’t stall the engine… we’re in good shape.

But if we burn all of our oil or toss a rod while we wait, well, then we’re in trouble.

The longer the light, the more dangers we face.

That said, here’s a nod to that little pang at the bottom of your gut… Never be afraid to bet against the crowd.

Forced Medication

One more before we get to work…

You know, I was just thinking about the whole vaccine thing myself. I am a Vietnam Veteran and I go to the VA medical clinic when needed. The thing about the VA, every year they always push you to take the flu shot, but I refuse it, because twice when I received it, when I’d just gotten out of the Army, I got the flu and was very sick. Now I refuse to take it and have been okay since 1975.

My concern is, when they finally find the cure and vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, would they force everyone to take it? I know my body and I know if I take the new virus shot, I will get sick. I know it sounds dumb, but that’s how my body works. In this social fear thing you talk about, do you think they’ll make it a law and force everyone to take it? I’m hoping not. – Reader P.D.

Well, let’s look around.

The governor told us we can’t be on the streets. The hospitals say we can’t visit our loved ones (we have a good friend who just dropped his wife off at the hospital for serious brain surgery. He can’t see her or hold her hand again until it’s time to take her home in a week). They closed schools. They launched checkpoints at state borders. They even told us we couldn’t go for a walk in the park.

So do we think if Washington’s pals at Big Pharma rush a “cure” for this bug to the market that they’ll force it on all of us?

You can bet your life on it.

But if you ask us what Mrs. Manward asked us last night…

Would we put the needle in our skin?

Oh boy… don’t bet your life on that.

We sure aren’t.

Dare we say it these days… but some cures are worse than the disease.

Remember… please stay connected. Call a friend. Write some letters. Call another friend. Join an online group. And step away from the TV.

Keep the commentary flowing. Email us at mailbag@manwardpress.com.