Today's Market Close

Well, I think that Chicken Harris was in the markets today! I'm listening to GaryK now. He thinks that we are in a bear phase. Make sure that you catch his show.
A couple of days ago I wrestled about whether or not I should send a note to my friends. I've been expecting this market to crash for the last year, so I didn't want to unnecessarily alarm my friends or look like a fool. I elected to send the following note to my friends (yes, I have a few (sic's) in there--but they know that I can spell and am a decent grammarian, so they'll not discount my message based on that:

I'm sending this note to each of my friends with the following large qualification: I’m no market expert.

Nevertheless, I did want to alert you that the credit markets have become all out of sorts lately. I’m not making any prognostications about the market, and Thursday’s and Friday’s weakness in all of the world markets (except for the Chinese Shanhai which is in it’s own world) are reflecting the concerns of a widening of credit spreads. The market typically corrects when the credit market contracts-and it has contracted in a big way. How much it corrects and/or how long it takes to recover is a fool's speculation. I'm not engaging in that or am I tryin to be a Henny Penny. But, I can encourage my friends to ensure that their portfolio can weather such a contraction. I think that it would be worth your time to take a minute to look at your investment allocations and talk with your financial advisor within the next couple of days.

I elected to send it because I would rather look like a fool than NOT give my friends a heads up. Did any do anything? I doubt it, but my conscious conscience (perhaps I'm not even conscious) was clear. Now at the beginning of today I was thinking, "Leisa, you are going to look like a fool." Naturally with the close, I felt less stupid.

Today's Lament: Why the %$!#%$^!$%&&% heck did I sell my MTG puts? I sold because despite all of the long, hard work I put in, I let others (the market pundits) talk me into thinking that I was wrong. Of course, the price action in the stocks supported that I was wrong. I did the prudent thing, and I closed my position--but at a modest profit rather than the obscene profit that could have been mine, mine mine! (maniacal laugh). I also had some terrific ALL, LTR and HIG puts--all of which I should have hung onto. But hindsight is 20/20. Heck, if you lack the conviction, you lack conviction--sometimes one's conviction can lose you money!

Today's Smart Thing: I shorted SRCL @ $49 (watch them get bought out!) because there was a short squeeze on July 27. I've not had the best of luck shorting, but I'm getting better at it. I figured it will be ripe for a fall. I also bought some QID. Both in my taxable account. My non-taxable accounts are mostly in cash (80%). I do have some Sep MDY 152 puts. And small positions in ROG, SEED and QUIX. I had more short positions, but I closed them out profitably before the bounce. I'm sure that I'll wish that I had them.

Good luck to you in these turbulent times.