Good evening! 

Fats were down 30-65 today.  Why?

Feeders were down 30-65 today.  Why?

Corn was down 2 today.  Why?

Why?  Why?  Why?  If you have a lot of time on your hands and never actually want to make progress in this business or achieve consistent profitability, THAT is your quest - to find the answer to the question WHY.  If you are anything of an observer of people in the cattle business, what you will quickly notice is that the profitable people don't dwell on the question of "why".  They are too busy making money to waste time on the causality of the current market structure.  They are concerned almost exclusively with the REALITY of the market and navigating within the market to capture the always-present profit.  Making money keeps a person busy! 

The folks who tend to dwell on "WHY" are the people who are losing money, and thus by definition are failures in the cattle business.  (Remember, there is always hope - one can transform oneself from persistent failure to raging success nearly overnight.  See my tower ad to your immediate right.)  By asking the question "WHY" these folks are trying to justify their failure.  They lose money on cattle and somehow, by procuring a detailed explanation of what macro-economic factors were present in the market as they were losing money, they are soothed and placated.  This is really what all of the mainstream publications and "services" in this industry are all about - pacifying and tranquilizing people into comfort with their losses.

"See?  It wasn't my fault that I lost money on those cattle.  Beef demand downticked two-tenths of a percent last quarter."

"Ah.  That's why I had to file for bankruptcy.  I caught the down-leg of the cattle cycle.  I knew it wasn't my fault."

The mental image here is a baby with a pacifier.  The child can have a semi-load of yesterday's strained prunes and spinach in its diaper . . . but give them their "binky" and everything's cool.  That pretty much describes the mainstream of this industry . . . and their Binky-Fax.

So, just to finish off the thought:

Fats were down 30-65 today and I have no idea why.

Feeders were down 30-65 today and I have no idea why.

Corn was down 2 today and I have no idea why.