I'm going to lighten things up with my favorite Monty Python sketch of all time.

Growing up, I was a radical. A radical capitalist, that is. Not many ten year old kids are acquainted with the notion of laissez-faire, but I was. Dog eat dog. Every man for himself. The whole schmear.

A few decades have mellowed me, but I'm still a passionate fellow, and I keep worrying those passions are going to do a polar reversal, and I'm going to wind up as America's Che Guevera.

Why? Because witness what the crooks have done to our country sickens me. I read about Jimmy Cayne (allegedly smoking pot, shooting rounds of golf, and playing bridge while BSC was collapsing), Ken Lewis (who caught the ultimate falling knife, paying $50 billion for MER all by itself and now has a combined BAC+MER which is worth only $40 billion just a few months later!), and John "the human chin" Thain. (whose antics you can read about here).

Years ago, when I'd see hapless Chinese bureaucrats dragged in front of courts and sentenced to draconian prison terms (or even death) for bribery and corruption, I would think what a savage government they must be. Not any longer. How many of you would tune in to see the top 50 profiteers from the sub-prime bubble be thrown into prison? (I'll leave out the idea of a public beheading, enticing as that might sound).

Some months ago, I mentioned that high-profile suicides would start to appear. They have. I think what's next is worse: outright murders. Would you really be surprised if Madoff ultimately met with an untimely death? He hasn't offed himself (incredibly). But how many people would like to get their hands on him?

Here's my idea………every day, for a month, nationally publish how much money (in total) each of, say, the top 100 folks who took advantage of the past few years made (and by "take advantage", I'm talking about those who lied or deceived or otherwise abused the system; not those who got rich honestly). Put them in the middle of an arena. Bus in 500 out-of-work Teamsters to surround them. Sell tickets to the public for the viewing stands. Let the Teamsters loose. Sound a trumpet. And let the show begin.

I read as much as I can (which isn't as much as I'd like), and one breezy read I had a couple of weeks ago was the hot-selling Outliers book by Malcolm Gladwell.

One of the chapters in the book is devoted to what he calls "The 10,000 Hour Rule", which, simply stated, postulates that for any person to achieve mastery in anything (be it music, ballet, writing………or trading!) requires about 10,000 hours of practice.

That actually sort of jibes with my own experience. I only got really profitable as a trader a couple of years ago, and – surprise, surprise – I had by that time about 10,000 hours of experience charting. That's a very long time (I've been at this since 1987). Some might point out that plenty of people with no experience made plenty of money during the 80s and 90s. I think that's where the phrase "don't confuse brains with a bull market" comes from, becaise I imagine most of those folks have been net losers recently.

The goal, of course, is to achieve profitability in any market, irrespective of conditions. Not every day is easy, of course – – last week was a rough ride! – – but I hope I can continue to prove myself out through these hills and valleys.

Anyway, the book's a good read; you might want to pick it up. Only after you finish mine, though.

I'd be interested in knowing the group's opinion about the graph below. It used to be, I think, that gold and the EUR/USD moved in lockstep. Over the past month or more, these two have gone their separate ways. I'm confused, because looking at gold, I want to short it (and I have), but looked at the EUR/USD, I am bullish. This seems contradictory. Opinions?

I'll probably do a post this weekend, but I'll just say this quick tidbit for right now: as we, day to day, focus on every little tick, every little one cent move, and every little squiggle, let's not lose sight of this fact – – nothing even resembling a base has even started to form, and to my mind, the ultimate bottom is still years away.

I use my weekends to try to get organized and clear my head, and I could definitely use it after a week like this. Even though it was just four days long, it was a tumultuous four days! I'll see you here later………