Earlier today, when I posted about how great my gold shorts were doing, SnPMonster asked what my technical reasons were. I hurriedly said I didn't have time.

Some people might have interpreted this as meaning (a) I didn't have good technical reasons; or (b) I had no idea what I was doing. If nothing else, I didn't mean to be rude about it; I honestly didn't have the time.

I will say, however, that looking at these charts of gold (the commodity itself) and $HUI, I am very comfortable with my bearish position. I've reconsidered how low gold might go; it might only get to the low- to mid-700s; the high 600s is a bit more of a stretch.

The main point I want to make is that, although I'm a pure technician, I'm a terribly simple-minded one. My methods are very elementary. I just try to use them very, very well. So don't mistake the lack of fifty indicators as a lack of knowledge. I simply think the vast majority of technicians confuse complexity with competence.

When I was a teenager, I wrote about twenty published books about computers (beginning with The World Connection back in 1983, when I was 16 years old). I didn't write a book for a long, long time until Chart Your Way to Profits, which came out a couple of years ago.

Why do I write books? Well, as a kid, it's so I could have cash for ridiculous things like a Porsche (a seriously stupid move) and pay my way through college (less stupid). But that's no longer the reason. I made more last night on a simple move in the /ES than I have from the entire Chart Your Way to Profits income stream. So Lord knows it's not for the money.

I mainly do it because I enjoy it. As it is now, I don't know where I'd find time for another book, but I've got a few ideas I'm kicking around. I'd love to know which one youd' be the most interested in buying. Generally speaking, the ideas are:

• The Slope of Hope – a retrospective, drawn largely from this blog, of the 2005-2008 financial markets. I think "repurposing" a lot of the material from thsi blog would make a pretty fascinating chronology and would yield a lot of good lessons in trading;
• We Want Our Money Back!– profiles of all the investment bankers, Countrywide Loan-types, World Savings-types, and other ne'er-do-wells and the compensation they extracted from the bubble; the kind of populist rile-em-up book that makes for an infuriating bathroom read;
• Advanced ProphetCharts Trading – not the real title, but basically a deeper-dive into ProphetCharts with some of the newer features, including retracement levels, pattern recognition, candlesticks – – kind of a Chart Your Way to Profits, Part Deux

Here's an easy poll to tell me your preference:

As a follow-up, a couple other ideas I've got are……….

• Just A Minute! – the Modern Man's guide to lovemaking; and
• Oh My God, It's Coming Toward Us – Tim Knight's guide to fitness and fashion

I have been jumping-up-and-down bearish about gold since last week. These positions are doing extremely well and constitute virtually 100% of my profits today. I am delighted, and I think gold has a long, long way to go down. I've received a fair bit of "are you kidding?!?!?" emails from gold bugs (and Gary), but I'm stalwart in this position. Gold's going back to the 600s.

At the risk of ticking off the real permabears out there, I have bought these stocks and am using these corresponding stop prices.

AAPL 79.13
ABFS 15.83
ACE 30.91
ACGL 44.71
AET 18.65
ALB 15.13
ALK 12.88
ARE 31.18
BBT 12.89
CPT 16.32
DOW 6.29
DV 40.60
FRT 36.91
HNT 9.99
IR 11.45
KOF 25.95
MAR 11.80
MET 11.36
NSC 24.99
ORH 37.52
PSA 45.34
UNH 16.17
VLO 14.99
WLP 29.31 

Last night couldn't have gone better. As I mentioned on Sunday, the 30-point spike on the /ES was simply too tempting to pass up, so I shorted 40 contracts. When I ambled over to the computer screen this morning to see how things were going, it had fallen exactly as I had hoped (that is, a meaningful amount, but not piercing Friday's lows). I got out of the position, and I am watching /ES to see if this mutates into a good long position. I've tinted the "ride" I took on the /ES below.

While I have your attention, I have a question I've been meaning to ask the group…………regarding the /ES, "are there any others like you at home?"

What I mean by that is this: I only "discovered" trading the /ES back in October. That's only five months ago, but I feel like I've been trading it my whole life. Although I completely screwed up at the beginning, racking up six figures in losses in no time, I got my bearings and, since then, it has been the backbone of my profits and my trading.

Obviously I knew about the /ES before then, since it's a popular and widely-discussed instrument. But I let my fear of "futures" keep me from exploring it more deeply, and how I wish I had known how to trade this before I wasted so much time and money trading things like Russell and S&P index options! (whose spread still shocks me).

So naturally I am wondering, what else am I missing? What other highly-liquid, highly-profitable trading vehicles are out there whose boat I am simply letting sail by? I really blew it not getting into /ES earlier, and I'd love to hear other general ideas out there, if there are any.