Well, July is over, and I couldn't be more happy to see it end. This month absolutely stunk up the joint. It will be remembered for two things, both of them painful for the bears:

1. The ridiculous head & shoulders tease, which probably convinced 95% of T.A. newcomers that charting simply doesn't work; and
2. The surge across the board to new 2009 highs.

Here are the cold numbers:

• S&P Gain for the month: 7.39%
• S&P Gain for 2009 thus far: 9.29%
• Tim's biggest account for 2009 year to date: 14.2%
• Tim's second-biggest account for 2009 year to date: 40.4%

Regular readers know I have four accounts, but two of them are kind of puny, and I only track and chart the two big boys.

I'm glad I'm still ahead of the market, but I am not pleased with those numbers at all. I lost a lot of ground in July, and for the love of God, I work wayyyyyyyyy too hard at this to be up only 5 points better than the stupid S&P 500 index. I don't mind working hard for triple-digit returns. But this? Kee-rist. Mr. Market, you owe me a ton of money for the rest of 2009 (OK, OK, don't get your pants in a wad, Slopers; I'm just kidding).

I'm not the only one feeling discomfited by July's insanity. My friend and fellow blogger molecool went on a furious bender in Manhattan last night, and a crude snapshot making its rounds on the Internetz is almost certainly him, as he's known to favor white briefs.

But……."we'll get 'em next season", right, folks? I hope "August" lives up to its name. In the meantime, we close the books on 7/09 and move forward, hopefully wiser for the wear.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but over the past 20 hours I've done a couple of quick seat-of-the-pants /ES long trades, both at a profit. I've highlighted the areas where I was long. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was kind of fun. One has to do something to while away the hours during this idiotic day.