Well, my friends, we’re seven months into the year, and we’ve had one – count ’em – ONE stinking month where the S&P actually fell (that would be June, when it plummeted a crash-worthy 1.5%, certainly harkening up fears of imminent armageddon). For a number of reasons, I think that August, at long last, will finally yield the bears an all-too-rare good month.
I had mentioned in my post last night that today “...is either going to be a sucky final day to a generally sucky month, or it’s going to be a glorious revenge.” Well, ummm, it was neither, and it was both.
Intraday, it was both sucky and glorious, depending on what time of you day you checked in with me. In the end, weirdly, it was all kind of a non-event, with my portfolio down eight-hundredths of a single percentage point. I did beat a hasty retreat in all the tumult, fleeing from an 83% commitment (all shorts) at the opening bell down to just 51% at the close. It had a lot more to do with me taking (small) profits early in the day, and getting the hell out of big ETFs after the FOMC announcement, than it had to do with actually getting stopped out of anything. In other words, it was really all about risk reduction, although it was kind of unnecessary by the end of the day. Had I put absolutely nothing (which would have taken gonads that I simply don’t possess), I would have taken a three-hundredths hit instead of eight. BFD.
The brightest spot for me, personally, this month was Slope+, which is catching on better than I imagined it would. The more people subscribe, the more I get into it, such as beefing things up with SlopeCharts last week. I guess part of me really misses the days of Prophet, when I ran a successful subscription-based web site, so Slope+ is bringing me back to those salad days (and, I hope, giving subscribers lots of ideas that hopefully yield a profit). Remember you still have a chance to get Slope before the price goes up at midnight tonight (although I confess I’m not sure if “midnight” is EST or PST……..)
In any event, I am almost done with my book about the history of financial markets, so I’m going to finish up my penultimate chapter on that right now. I bid you a good evening, and I look forward to starting August with you, with best hopes for a fruitful month for Slopers. Good night, and thank you, one and all.
