As I stare at the long list of my holdings, almost all the longs (each of them carefully chosen) is in the red, and all the shorts are in the green. It's as simple as that. Las Vegas Sands, which popped up to a 30% gain in a couple of days, sank into a loss today, so I dumped it. Plenty of other issues I bought last week have been closed out with 20% losses.
Anyone trying to peg a bottom is going to get burned. The tables have totally turned. I spent a long time Waiting For Godot, and Godot is finally here. Now it's the bulls turn to wait for years to "their" market to return. This is a bear market. This is a technician's market. The ultimate bottom is years away.
The old saying "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent" cuts both ways. All the good reasons for a bottom don't count. The market is, on the whole, completely bearish for years to come. I am snuffing out the little bull that was emerging inside of me. Sure, if we plummet to 500 on the S&P or something, maybe there will be some bargains. But I am focused on shorts.
