I am grateful that the market is presently so uninteresting, because I can attack my blogger's guilt directly by actually – gasp! – writing a post.
Dedicated Slopers know that make an annual trek to Fallen Leaf Lake in the Desolation Wilderness of the Sierras. The picture below nicely captures the beauty of the place, although it isn't as snowy right now:
The same dedicated Slopers know that I actually tend to work more when I'm on "vacation", because a lot of run-of-the-mill household and familial duties disappear (not the least of which is playing chauffeur to my children). This week is particularly bananas, since I want to:
+ Maintain Slope in its familiar efervescent state;
+ Spend some serious time testing the new blog platform, which we'll be releasing soon;
+ Keep pushing forward on SocialTrade (both as a user and a developer);
+ Stay on top of emails and stock positions;
+ Dust off my archery skills, as I always do, and win milkshakes for my kids
The whimsical thing to me is that I sat at this very desk precisely one year ago, anxiously awaiting news from Europe about the Greek parliament voting on austerity measures.
Unlike last year, this year I have a nice, profitable quarter which I am merely protecting by not getting too aggressive with my positions, so I have the upper hand psychologically. In case there's any doubt, it's far more satisfying maintaining a profit than it is to try clawing your way out of a loss. All the same, it just shows again how we're stuck as a planet, because the same stupid issue is confronting us all after all this time has passed.
As for my current positioning, it remains totally short and totally cautious. I am a mere 43.37% committed right now (the rest in cash) in a glittering variety of itty bitty short positions. I don't expect to add or subtract much from what I've done this quarter in the three trading days left, but I certainly hope to get a meaningful amount accomplished in the world of Slope while I'm here.
Thanks for building – and maintaining – such a great community. (So much so that one Tahoe-based Sloper actually offered me his house during my stay here so that I had better Internet!) I deeply appreciate it, and we're going to take what we've built to even better places.
