My brain works in mysterious ways, some of which I'm still figuring out. One thing I've long known, however, is that my mind gravitates towards analogies and metaphors (which, given what you hear and read in this country, are often confused with one another).

I also find the personalities, interactions, and rivalries amongst financial blogs to be mildly fascinating. It occurred to me that the financial blogosphere can be thought of as a high school. My take on the categorization would be as follows:

Honors English (Slope of Hope) – Bookish. Cliquish. Smarter than the rest of the school, but hardly loved for it. Can correct spelling and grammatical errors at 100 yards, but prone to being shaken down for lunch money.

Chemistry (Evil Speculator) – This class is a bit dangerous. Its inhabitants are fiendishly clever, and if you cross them, you might find your 1983 Honda Accord in the student parking lot to be unusable.

Student Council (xTrends) – One highly-intelligent and charismatic leader surrounded by sycophants and hangers-on.

Trigonometry/Statistics (Retracement Levels) – The nerds of the school, they can calculate the probabilities of any given student getting a wedgie in P.E.

Philosophy (Gary Savage Smart Money) – Wordy, thoughtful, and occasionally pedantic, but you know you should listen, don't you?

Religious Studies (Elliott Wave International) – In spite of the separation of church and state, this is home room for the true believers. Reverend Prechter is a visiting scholar this year.

"Health" Education (Trading Goddess) – In spite of its ostensible purpose, this class is mainly attended by those hoping for some saucy images.

Drama (Live with Oscar) – Project! This time with feeling!

Auto Shop (iBankCoin) – Foul-mouthed. Loud. Obnoxious. Try to stay away from this part of the school. (You didn't really think I'd even provide a hyperlink, did you?)

This market is outdoing itself in terms of cruelty to bulls and bears alike.

Let me say at the outset I did not buy this stock, but this is a good object lesson. Buying a stock at $7 that used to be $80 may sound like a bargain, but this is also the kind of stock which can be down 35% at the opening bell. Battered stocks usually get more battered. I've tried to keep my selections at least semi-rational. Anyway, keep the risk in mind.

For no particular reason, I decided to look at SRS (which frankly I hardly ever follow) and I loved what I saw. What a bargain! I cannot believe this is at "September 19th" level prices. I've just bought a largish five-figure position.

The volume growth on this is also remarkable.

I am going to start building a very large position shorting RTH. I think that once Christmas is over, you're going to see retailers going bankrupt left and right. This holiday season is going to be the last gasp for a bunch of them, and the pattern is nice. I'm not saying it could push its way closer to the neckline, but I'm going to start building the position today and will add to it as December grinds along.