2017 proved to be a year of mass distractions. There was Trump the con man who promised everything but delivered near nothing. though that did not stop him from claiming success in everything! However he remains very entertaining with his mad tweets and rhetoric of unleashing nuclear war, that the mainstream media were more than eager to regurgitate 24/7. So the greatest weapon of mass distraction of 2017 was being engrossed by the actor playing the part of being President of the United States. A year of twitter storms and war of words especially against North Korea's 'little rocket man':

“If the US is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

“Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime".

However, despite the Trump reality show not come as any surprise given the fact that I expected as much since BEFORE Trump won the November 2016 US Presidential election. Nevertheless the price paid for focusing on the Trump reality show was one of being distracted from that which actually matters - The MARKETS!

And then there was the other weapon of mass distraction BREXIT! Which saw Britain's inept and clearly way out of her depth Prime Minister scrambling from one mishap to another as she increasingly literally sucked her neck into her shell, trying to hide from the mess she created in the infamous snap general election of June despite bad economic indicators for holding an election at that time i.e. falling real terms earnings.

And apparently Theresa May is the best of the rabble that currently occupies West Minister, so despite the fact that she failed abysmally and should have resigned, there just appears to be no one of any caliber to lead Britain through the BREXIT minefield so expect this train wreck to continue coming off the rails during 2018.

And if those weren't bad enough then there was my growing obsession with the saga of our mad city council deciding that thousands of Sheffield's trees needed to be felled as a matter of urgency, amounting to stripping the streets of their pollution cleansing lungs, each with capital values of between £50k and £150k per tree that directly contributed to the ending of Sheffield's housing bull market by mid 2017 and which looks likely to have triggered a local house prices crash of at least 5% once the data is in.

The following video gives a taste for how much time and energy I expended on this weapon of mass distraction, as the city council's contractor literally imported an army of Arb's from the South and HiViz bouncers from the North all to fell Sheffield's street trees that by December had street scenes resembling something out of an eastern european pseudo democracy.

So for me, 2017 proved to be a year of being hit by multiple weapons of mass detraction from that which had always mattered the most - Analysis of the FINANCIAL MARKETS!

From Stocks to gold & silver to oil, even the bitcoin bubble mania were ALL mostly side-lined in favor of what in large part were side shows! And as analysis of Trump and Brexit illustrated that what I term as sub components i.e. at best secondary factors just cannot be relied on to extrapolate for instance stock market trends. For it clearly JUST DOES NOT WORK! That is the main lesson learned from 2017.

Then there was my failure to revisit the US housing market despite the fact that my multi-year analysis and concluding trend forecast by far proved to be the most accurate of any housing market forecast out there, so 2017 should have seen in-depth analysis concluding in a multi-year trend forecast for US house prices.

Another area that remained firmly stuck on the back burner was my failure to convert any of my analysis in the machine intelligence mega-trend into articles and videos for the whole of 2017, despite THIS being one of the PRIMARY mega-trend drivers for the coming decades.

So my resolution for 2017 is clear, I need to ignore Trump, Brexit, and the probable next snap general election and forget about the plight of Sheffield's f-ing trees! Instead focus on that which actually matters! THE FINANCIAL MARKETS and INVESTING IN THE MACHINE INTELLIGENCE MEGA-TREND.

Therefore my focus is now firmly on the following series of in-depth analysis over the coming days, weeks and months toward arriving at high probability trend forecasts:

UK Housing market
Stock Market trend
Machine Intelligence investing
Commodities trading - gold, silver, oil...
US Housing market

NO Trump, Brexit or Trees!

So ensure you are subscribed to my always free newsletter and youtube channel for my forthcoming in-depth analysis and concluding detailed trend forecasts.

And a Happy and Properperous New Year to ALL!

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat has over 30 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

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