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May 18, 2012  Fri 8:48 AM CT

SPX: SEE CHART GET CHAIN FIND STRATEGIES
Oh my, hideous action. We are at a fulcrum moment for this market, when we could be faced with some hideous losses if Europe doesn't act now or a rip-your-face-off rally if it does.

In the face of all that, Facebook is just an abstraction. I mean, do you really want to buy an overvalued Internet company into this morass? Or would you rather be a seller?

I know this market is deeply oversold. I also know that when gold spikes, as it has, that's usually a harbinger of Europe taking some action that spurs growth at the expense of the euro.

TheStreet.com logoBut everything else is signaling that there will be runs on the banks in Europe. Everything else portends a nightmare scenario of retail investors using market orders to buy Facebook at a ridiculous valuation while sophisticated investors sell everything that's not nailed down, including their Facebook allocations.

All day yesterday, my charitable trust's Stephanie Link and I labored over a simple question. The question is not whether to buy Facebook, but what's the maximum cash we can raise in case Europe fails to act.

That European question, not what price Facebook is worth buying at, is the single imperative at the fulcrum moment we now find ourselves in.


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