It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Ben Bernanke?

Everyone knows growth is slowing, it is pretty obvious to see. Unemployment is stagnant, economic numbers such as ISM, PMI, and the rest of the alphabet soup have slowed drastically, and the stock market is dropping like a rock falling from the Empire State building. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is concluding its meeting at 2:15 p.m. eastern time, and it will be the most anticipated meeting in a year, perhaps ever. The last time an FOMC meeting was this anticipated was back in November, when the Fed announced QE2, by buying $600 billion in U.S. Treasuries. No one knows for sure whether the Fed will announce QE3, QE2.5 or whatever you want to call it, but futures surged from last nigh to this morning on the basis of those hopes. Equities are adding to their gains 90 minutes into trading, as Ben Bernanke and co. are currently being made out to be Superman, and try to save the U.S. economy, and stock market all in one fell swoop. If the Fed does announce a QE3, it probably will not be additional Treasury purchases, as rates are already incredibly low. The yield on a 10 year U.S. Treasury is at ~2.3% as of the time of this writing, and having it go any lower will not do much good. Some have speculated that the Fed will buy bank stocks, but those closes to the Fed do not expect this. Back in June, Bill Gross of PIMCO, tweeted that QE3 would likely be a form of "Operation Twist," and include "“extended period” language or interest rate caps on 2-3 year Treasuries." In June, we were speculating on a potential for QE3, and we were disappointed. Nothing is 100% certain in life, and Bernanke announcing a third round of quantitative easing is anything but certain. Larry Meyer, from Macroeconomic Advisors, was on CNBC this morning, and discussed the potential for a third round of quantitative easing. It is interesting to note this, especially since the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Traders, trapped longs, and desperate money managers are building up Ben to be some kind of superhero, and save them from their bad decisions. So which superhero will Ben be at 2:15 p.m. today? Will he be Superman, saving everyone in sight? Will be the Incredible Hulk, lifting the economy up by himself? Or will he be Batman, after Bane broke Batman's back? ACTION ITEMS:

Bullish:
Traders who believe that Ben will save everyone might want to consider the following trades:

• Go long everything in sight. The higher the beta, the better. Google GOOG, Baidu BIDU, ARM Holdings ARMH, you name it. If Ben saves the damned, everything will rally like crazy, especially since we are so oversold.

• Also consider gold, as more money printing will lead to higher prices for gold. SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD is a name to consider.

Bearish:
Traders who believe that Bernanke will not save the day may consider alternate positions:

• This 2% rally we are seeing before the FOMC meeting is built on nothing but hope. If Bernanke does not save the day in the way traders want, we could experience a massive sell off. Short the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY at will.
  
  

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