Hello (finally) from Paris. I am able to type this for one reason only – – – I went ahead and bought a new laptop. My poor Dell was just too sick to be revived, and in spite of the utterly heroic efforts of Royale with Cheese (author of oft-cited ETF Corner and a host whose generosity has yet to find any limits), I decided to bite the bullet and get a very Euro laptop to make do. Otherwise, I’m completely locked out of managing my positions for the week.
As I mentioned a few days ago, the French style of keyboards is different from those to which I am accustomed, but since I’ve modified Windows to simulate an American orientation of keys, I am all right, provided I don’t actually look at the keyboard (whose keys are labeled different, which would send my brain into a very damaging loop).
We are still badly jet-lagged, with the family being up and ready to take on the world at about 2 in the afternoon. I figure by the time we are fully acclimated, it’ll be time to go home and go through all this jet lag nonsense once again.
As for the markets – – it was actually a bit of a relief to see the bulls got their long-desired 11,000 level at the closing bell. Earnings, I think, are going to be the prime movers for the next couple of weeks. The news to Greece didn’t cause the rollicking rally the bulls might have expected. My own positions did pretty well Monday – – some longs (like VMW) continue to push above nicely-formed patterns, and short shorts (like USO and X) fell in spite of the Dow closing at a new record. So in spite of being completely out of the loop for the entire trading day, it ended up OK.
I’m almost certainly going to mention this again, but forgive me as I say once more how grateful I am that Leisa and the guest contributors are keeping the blog going. You know how guilty I get if I don’t post every few hours, so being basically on another planet for more than a week had the potential of sending me into spasms. Fellow Slopers have saved the day!
Anyway, I doubt I’ll be doing any market- or idea-oriented posts at all this week. Best of luck to everyone, of course, and thanks again to my host here in the City of Lights, Royale, whose blog you might want to visit. Au revoir!
8:22 a.m. (EDT): Leisa here. No, I did not break the blog. Disqus is currently undergoing maintenance.
