Wheeee – the S&P is up 6 points this week!
I know, I can hardly contain my own excitement either. It almost makes my cash-out decision of the 19th (where we did open at 1,166) seem silly what with us missing a 6-point (0.5%) rally this week and all.. Of course, you have to look at the bigger picture like the year-to-date, which has us up a whopping 34 points since January 4th although, to be fair, 18 of those 34 points were gained by Jan 19th, then we had that sell-off thing and THEN we had a nice rally, all the way back to 16 points over the Jan 19th high. See, I’m not early with my top call – I’m 2 months late! We could have taken a vacation from Jan 19th to today and missed very little upside action.
We don’t cash out just because we’re at a top. Hell, we love playing tops, bottoms, middles – whatever… We cash out when it’s no fun to play and, as many, many members commented this week – it’s much less fun to play when the market turns toppy and churny like it is now. My cash out call was for a Market Mental Health Break ahead of earnings season and we did have a very nice, relaxing week just hanging out in Member Chat and, yes, making the occasional play but it’s more like when you go to the track and toss a couple of bucks on a race to keep it interesting – and that makes it fun!
Monday Medical Miracle – Health Care Finally Passes
We passed the Health Care Bill on Sunday and, instead of ending the Unverse as promised by Republicans and Tea Party enthusiasts alike, it actually sparked a huge dollar rally that gave us a full 2.5% run for the week, closing at a year high of 81.60. We were thrilled as we had taken gold shorts and SCO (ultra-short oil) longs the week before, when oil was testing $83 a barrel – now back at $80 on the nose to close out this week.
Seven banks were shut down by the FDIC last weekend (and 4 more bit the dust last night), Greece was still up in the air, TIF missed earnings and the Four Seasons in Maui missed a mortgage payment but the thing that made me gladest we were on the sidelines was the fact that the cost for the US to borrow short-term…
