TRADE CLOSURES: DBC,FXI,RGLD,CF; and Escape From Egypt, Part II

Several trades expired at the end of last week, but before we get to them, a brief word on the state of the world.

This past Shabbat, Jews around the world read the Torah portion of Shemot, in which a new King arose over Egypt “who did not know Joseph.”

As is known, what follows is the story of the subjugation of the Children of Israel at the hands of the Egyptians, all they experienced there, and their subsequent redemption.

What very few discuss, however, is the twisted nature of the Egyptians themselves, or their corrupt and perverse approach to the enslaved Jewish nation – in particular, their anti-male bent.

Here are some of the more salient details –

• It’s written in the Midrash that ten measures of prostitution were given to the world, of which Egypt took nine.
• There, it’s also explained that in order to humiliate the Jewish men, all the males were forced to perform women’s work, while the women were given men’s.

The Nazis, yimach shemam, employed the same practice.

• Interestingly, the Hebrew term for the work the Jewish men were forced to perform was “avodat parech” – a term employed across the Near East to denote slave work given to a free man.  The purpose of the work was clearly not to speed up the building process or maximize the slaves’ output (Pharaoh never would have taken from them their straw if that were the case), but to destroy their spirit and sense of manhood.
• Men were also forced to live and work in the fields, far from their wives and children – an initiative intended to break the natural Jewish inclination toward family.
• Eventually, the crushing workload given to the men was decreed to leave them too exhausted to reproduce.
• And finally, when all else failed – after the Jewish women had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep Jewish family life thriving – Pharaoh ordered that all newborn males must die, while the females be kept alive.

We bring this bit of Biblical exegesis as more than just a sojourn through the holy book of Exodus.  Rather, our sages have informed us that the final geulah (redemption) – that we’re now approaching – will be as was the first from Egypt.

And so it is –

The “de-maling” efforts of the Egyptians have long been in place in the West, and are today ubiquitous in nearly every aspect of life.

Consider –

1. The entire world has become an open house of ill-repute, with free access for all one’s lusts via the internet.  Or, if you prefer something more life-like, a fully functioning robot can be had for just a fraction the cost of a wife!  (This far exceeds the nine measures of prostitution known to ancient Alexandria.)
2. As for men and women doing each other’s work, we’ve gone much farther than even the feminists originally intended.  Indeed, men can ‘transition’ today at a tender age, ‘become’ women and avoid all the glass ceilings and patriarchal sexist ways of the misogynist West.  Heck, it’s even encouraged by the education and legal systems!

And woe betide anyone who dares denounce the phenomenon.

3. Men have long been the butt of jokes on both television and in movies. And fathers, in particular, have borne the brunt of the derision.  Men are regularly characterized as foolish, tolerated appendages of family life – when families are even portrayed.
4. Men working far from their families?  Happens everywhere.  And if they do come home, it’s only after picking up some takeout and scooping the children from the baby-sitter (who got them from day-care) after a 14 hour workday.  And you say slavery is no longer alive and well in America?
5. As for the killing of boys and allowing girls to live, Western culture has done a splendid job of just that in the last few decades.  Gone are the days of pen knives and tree climbing.  Indeed, boyhood has been robbed of everything that was once naturally associated with… well, boys.  And all in the name of a war against ‘toxic masculinity,’ we’re told.  When there’s really no such thing.

The war is against masculinity.  Plain and simple.

Which brings us to the only conclusion possible, dear friends.  And that is, that the geulah shleima is just around the corner.

One by one, the conditions are being fulfilled.

May it arrive swiftly and without suffering.

And now on to some trades!

As mentioned above, four trades closed last Friday, and here’s the rundown –

First, we opened an FXI trade back in March in a letter called Play the China Trump Card.  It was placed for a $0.50 cent debit that later cost us another $1.80 to avoid a steeper loss.

And that’s where it ended.  We lost $2.30 on the ordeal.

Next up was our patriotic July 4^th venture that arrived in a letter called Sturdy Like a Moth: The Fate of the Commodities.  That was a zero premium trade that expired last week OTM.

Zero spent.  Zero gained.  Zero lost.

Number three was issued on July 31^st.  The letter was called Cue the Heavens to Fall and the Sound of Valkyries Screeching on High, in which we wrote an RGLD debit spread for $0.90.

Which died last Friday.

Loss of $0.90.

And…

Some good news, too.

Our final report is from What You Need is Some Old-Fashioned Farm-Boy Resilience!, in which we wrote credit spreads on CF Industries in the amount of $2.64.

And that’s where it ended.

We pocketed the full premium – $264 buckeroos.

And that’s that.

Eschatologically yours,

Alan B. Harvard

Follow @HughLOHaynew