Small Caps

It doesn't get any lower than Canadian small caps in the eyes of some. My favourites are GDL and SMT, I own both. Now that everyone is majorly hating on value investing I am all the more confident that it will produce sizable long term gains. I'll write about value investing later. The point I wanted to make here about small caps is that they seem to be rebounding a lot more than the market, many 20%+ off their bottoms.

Buy Stuff

I had to move from Germany back to Canada so excuse my absence.

I don't offer any advice besides "Buy stuff." And not inverse ETFs. Actually I would advise against buying leveraged ETFs too.

Look for ways to get long big leading banks, oil because it can't go any lower unless they give it away, and perhaps short the USD into extreme strength in the short term and certainly in the long term.

Robin Williams is hilarious about the bailouts on Jay Leno right now.

Whatdaya Know

We jump up yesterday, futures down heavy all morning, do we go back down today?

MS posts a much larger than expected loss, did they go down today?

Does the past week not look sneakily bullish to you?

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO. Actually in the case of MS you might follow up with a "wtf?". I'll help you out, they bit the bullet this quarter apparently so that future earning will be higher.

This is what I was hoping to see today, not another huge day up, but a steady day signaling that everyone is comfortable with yesterday's gains. Now all we need to do is rinse, wash, and repeat.

Don't mess with the US

The US has decided that they aren't taking anymore shit.

It's so crazy it just might work.

A lot of BAC haters out today selling. Haters. Pff.

Who would have thought GS and MS would shoot up after posting losses (assuming MS does tomorrow).

We have to be looking at some inflation and devaluation of the dollar sometime in the future though. Something to think about.

Nobody Knows

.. what the hell is going on in the market. I have heard a lot of bullish sentiment lately but despite that we are still headed lower. How much lower than our previous lows will be go? Anyone's guess really. As time goes on today, I think more and more we are headed lower. If we do head back to Dow 7500 and S&P 750 territory I doubt we will go much lower than that for any prolonged time period. My guess is that when it's all said and done we will have a nice example of a double bottom bear market.

Since I'm a dumb optimist I will continue to buy stocks.

Could be a big day

Asian markets continue their uptrend. If the Auto bailout materializes I suspect we will rip higher. Regardless, you'd have to have some big nuts to be shorting into today.

Stocks and Socks

Unless you're short in a big way you've got to be happy with the market today. After ending up last week in god knows how long we are rallying again. It's even possible that we really into the close today. Even if you are short you have to rejoice, just a tad, in this pre-Christmas gift.

That being said this could very well be just a leg up before two more down. This uptrend will probably last into January and could see the DJIA reaching its resistance/support around 11000 and S&P around 1200. Depending on how we got there and how the economy looks in a couple months I think will be a good indication as to how big the next leg down will be. Be sure, there will be another downward trend soon. I am asking Santa to make it more of a flat trend while the economy realizes this isn't 1930. We have production and communication tools to get us back into the green faster.

Oh yeah, I should build some credibility so you don't think I'm a complete moron. I said last week that BAC was a market leader; today is a good example of that. They're up more than the other big financials on no good news.

By socks I really meant some articles you might find a laugh in over at Cracked.com:

The 7 Most Retarded Criminal Excuses of All Time


The 7 Most Ingenious (And Insane) Smuggling Techniques


7 Historical Figures Who Were Absurdly Hard To Kill

Bring It

I just read some article about Japanese graduates desperate for jobs. I have also recently received a letter from my university pretty much laughing at the possibility of finding an internship for one of my final terms. Being in the finance industry doesn't help much either.

Personally, I look forward to a challenge. I have developed myself socially, intellectually, physically, and psychologically throughout my life and will continue to do so as long as possible.

It's those other people that bug me. As Einstein once said,

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once."

A little bit too Nazi for me at the end, there, but I do agree. I think some tough times will force some people to think and fend for themselves. Who knows, it could be a good thing in the end. We'll see.

Berlin > Sandwich

So instead of going to eat a sandwich the last couple days, I went to Berlin instead. Didn't look at the market for close to two days. I expected to come back and see a huge drop (and hedged for such before I left). Imagine my surprise when I find that market has pretty much moved sideways from Tues.

Since the market didn't drop over 10% I feel like perhaps, as a bull, I might not be going directly to the slaughterhouse. Sometime I'll have to tell you about how I timed the market correctly to get from Citi to Morgan Stanley to Bank of America all with beneficial trades. This is because I believe BAC will be a market leader when this insanity is over.

Today

Today scared the shit out of me since I was looking for a tell into whether or not the market was headed for the door. I still have no idea, but I hedged a bit so that I am not so much net long. I predict down tomorrow to start, who knows during the day.

Down We Go

I'm mainly a long investor, and, liking the financials, today hurt. However I am like a foreign child that lacks self control; I am used to the beatings.

I think tomorrow will be a good indication as to whether we are to make new index lows within the next couple weeks.

Hey, on the bright side, the stock traders almanac says the best time to own stocks is from November to April by a far margin.

I will add again, Bell Canada will have to put in effort to f up at their board meeting and the shares are only looking more attractive with the temporary (god bless his little soul, he said temporary) downturn.

Did you know Benjamen Graham went bankrupt three times in his investing career? I found that encouraging since I am working on number one. I got nothin' but time, baby. Nothin' but time..