Kevin Warsh met with reporters Wednesday to announce he has meetings. Brave stuff. The Fed Chairman wanted everyone to know he talks to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent more than once a week. Sometimes they speak outside their scheduled weekly meeting. Revolutionary concept. Two government officials with phones.
Warsh defended the Fed's independence by immediately telling everyone how often he coordinates with the executive branch. Nothing says "we're independent" like broadcasting your call frequency with the administration. That's like your girlfriend saying she's faithful right after mentioning she hangs out with her ex-boyfriend "often." The word doing a lot of work there is "often."
Retail traders heard this news and checked their portfolio for rate-sensitive plays. They found three meme stocks, a leveraged ETF they bought by accident, and something called $LIGMA that promised 400% gains in the Discord channel. None of this will be affected by how many times Warsh and Bessent grab coffee. But they'll refresh their brokerage app forty-seven times today anyway.
The Fed Chairman could announce he's conducting monetary policy via Ouija board and it wouldn't change a single thing about your trading strategy. Because you don't have a trading strategy. You have a collection of screenshots from FinTwit and a recurring nightmare about margin calls.
Warsh will continue meeting with Bessent. Bessent will continue meeting with Warsh. The independence will remain defended through press releases. The monetary policy will stay exactly wherever it was going to stay regardless of this headline. Your stop-loss will still get hunted.
Two men with calendars discovered they can schedule calls whenever they want, and somehow that's financial news.
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