Meanwhile, Europe is still going to apply Super Mario's (ECB Head Mario Draghi's) $1 trillion of QE. The effects have begun to take hold. After the first six months of Draghi's QE, the European Central Bank's plan to flood the financial system with cash by purchasing bonds is making progress. Unemployment in the euro zone is falling. Germany, one of the most powerful economies on earth, showed its manufacturing sector was expanding at a better-than-expected pace. Most analysts still predict profits for companies in the currency bloc will increase 12 percent in 2016, according to a recent survey.
I offer this for those doomsayers who insist that a severe decline in the U.S. and global markets like we're seeing on Monday marks the end of the world: The world isn't ending. The sky isn't falling. But those with naked long, unhedged exposure to the markets are certainly feeling the pain of being overexposed ("Unhedged" happens to be the title of one of "Fast Money" regular Stephen Weiss' books!). Some of you will promise yourselves — yet again — that you will learn to own some hedges, such as VIX futures, VIX call spreads, SPY, or IWM put spreads. But, sadly, most of you will abandon expanding your toolkit and instead will just take the pain whenever the market throws a 3-percent punch in your mouth. That's really not a good plan, but I know a majority of you will go down this route.
