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FUTURES TRADING BEGINS IN 10 MINUTES AND WHETHER SHARES MOVE HIGHER OR LOWER I WILL BE DOING NO BUYING. Off and on all weekend I have been pulling up 10K’s and 10Q’s to look at balance sheets–I always look a the balance sheet 1st–then I review the in…

It is always dicey to try to guess what the weekend ahead–and then the next trading week will bring us, but I always try–usually unsuccessfully. Markets are pretty calm today–of course the employment report was bad, but everyone knew it would be and…

There is no reason to have stocks up today–or any day really, as we have no new news and the economic damage being done is way beyond anything priced into equity markets. I am aware of the rumored oil production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia–and al…

With the selloff yesterday in most equity markets and todays weakness it is a good time to add a few shares here and there when they fall. Don’t get carried away, but a little here and a little there. This morning I added a few more shares of the Allia…

I bought a 150 shares in total in this ‘gift’ today at $30.97 (a 100 share buy and then a 50 share buy) to add to my 100 in the sock drawer. AATRL which is a $50 trust convertible issue from Affiliated Managers (AMG)—the yield at my cost was 8.3% for…

This is such a calm market today that one has to wonder about whether this is the calm before the storm.  I watch the news out of New York and shudder to think about a similar situation moving across the country. Each day I see more and more layoffs an…

On a relative level today is kind of a calm day–equity markets up 1.5% or so. I am very leery of this market–everyone is trying to pick a ‘bottom’ without firm data to really be able to see clearly. I have made 2 purchases today–no sales of investme…

Well here we go into what no doubt will be a wild week. Last week the SP500 traded in a range of 2175 to 2629–an incredible 20% range–before closing at 2489.  This was a huge gain on the week and is highly likely to be a rally in a bear market….

Well it has been a decent morning for me–not profitable, but not negative. As you might suspect I bought modest positions in Proshares Ultrashort SP500 (SDS) late yesterday. As always when you hold these short positions it is a question when to unload…

Seeing the equity markets up this much today you have to know this is a bear market rally. We have little knowledge (and the knowledge we have is suspect) on the extent of economic damage to the economy–but I guess it is ‘party on’ for the computers….

As you all know many of the mortgage REIT preferreds fell fast and hard this week—either devasting investors or presenting a huge opportunity. We have seen large bounces the last 2 trading days, but prices remain very low. Regardless of what these pr…

Well we have carried over some strength from yesterday into today–accounts look nice. On the other hand the bid/ask spreads on some of the stuff I wanted to buy are pretty wide–many at $1 to $2. I have been adding to many positions, but not chasing t…