Markets are a sham – investors are finding out the hard way

Investors have realised markets are all smoke and mirrors, says John C Burford. That's a very bearish sign.

In that classic scene from The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy's little dog pulls back the curtain hiding the great and powerful wizard, he is revealed as a mere mortal, not the superhuman master of the Emerald City.

But instead of owning up to the scam, as soon as he's sighted by Dorothy and friends, he continues to pull the levers, turn the dials and keeps blowing smoke in a frantic attempt to keep the illusion going in his house of mirrors.

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John is is a British-born lapsed PhD physicist, who previously worked for Nasa on the Mars exploration team. He is a former commodity trading advisor with the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and worked in a boutique futures house in California in the 1980s.

 

He was a partner in one of the first futures newsletter advisory services, based in Washington DC, specialising in pork bellies and currencies. John is primarily a chart-reading trader, having cut his trading teeth in the days before PCs.

 

As well as his work in the financial world, he has launched, run and sold several 'real' businesses producing 'real' products.