Getting Ready for Today's Fed Rate Hike

The only story we found that might have a smidgen of interest regarding the Fed's expected rate hike can be found at Zero Hedge:

Soaring junk bond redemptions; rising investment grade (and high yield) yields pressuring corporate buybacks; record corporate leverage and sliding cash flows; Chinese devaluation back with a vengeance; capital outflows from EM accelerating as dollar strength returns; corporate profits and revenues in recession; CEOs most pessimistic since 2012, oh and the Fed's first rate hike in 9 years expected to soak up as much as $800 billion in excess liquidity. To Wall Street's strategists none of this matters.

As Bloomberg notes, virtually every single sellside "strategist" doubles down on Barron's cover store from this weekend in which "experts" predict another 10% increase in stock prices in 2016 (just ignore their forecast about 2015), and agree that despite the Fed's rate hike, there will be no end to the bull market.

It seems we've all stepped off the ledge of that great cliff called Mt. Sanity which stands in the midst of the vast Mindless Desert that stretches as far as the eye can see. Now that we're in the hot sand, with the sun beating down and no water in sight, let's hope we can get to the next oasis before we turn into desiccated mummies, mere tragic markers on the road to the next crisis. But with the background noise of High Frequency Traders panic buying and selling these past few days, who can blame those of us sucked into the fantasy land of free money and profits forever. Even a Fed rate hike may not quell the craziness.

Then again, this article reminds us of striking similarity to a recent move by a major Central Bank. Perhaps calm caution and vigilance should replace our mania:

...every single bank is positioned on the same side of the trade; last time we checked with the comparable positioning in the EURUSD ahead of the ECB's announcement, this type of herding tends to have unfortunate consequences.