This is will a text-only post with just a few odds and ends.
First, not that it matters a great deal considering how smoothly things have been working here on Slope thanks to Leisa and the guest contributors, but I should be back at home-sweet-home very late Sunday night. When I went to the Air France office a couple of days ago, I waited in a long line to get re-booked along with the zillions of other volcano-displaced passengers. Initially they told me they could fly me back in a week. After extensive pleading, I managed to arrange for a ticket on Sunday, with two of the most unrelated stops in aviation history……..Amsterdam and Memphis. But, new explosions notwithstanding, that should get us home.
Second, a bit of commentary on Wednesday's market activity. I confess to being petrified Tuesday after the close when Apple announced their oh-my-God earnings forecast (just to be clear, I had no position in Apple, tending to shun interests in hyperbolic equities). The ES and NQ shot higher, and I really began to wonder seriously about what was going to happen next.
The cool thing is that the market wouldn't even permit a matching of the prior higher. In spite of earnings from Apple which would require a currency printing press to beat, the market's multiple attempts to rally were progressively beaten down, and I actually wound up the day with a profit. That chart on HHH remains terribly enticing to me, since I think it may indicate a major pivot point at last for technology in general.
Lastly, a word about SlopeFest. For a long, long time, people have expressed an urge to get together. Even though we bears have very little to celebrate right now, I decided to have a go at it, and I published a survey asking how many folks would be willing to fly out to Las Vegas (at the same time of the Money Show, to give them more than one reason to fly) and get together. About 150 people expressed their interest.
However, when it came time to actually commit, only ten – count 'em – ten – folks said they wanted to do it. Part of the reason is that having a private dining room with two hours of cocktails, appetizers, and a grand dinner is not cheap, so the $175/person fee apparently turned some people off. Maybe I've become jaded by the ghastly prices of everything where I live, but I had no idea the cost would be an issue for anyone.
I'm perfectly happy to proceed with a small gathering, but just as an experiment, let me ask this – – if you wanted to go to SlopeFest and were put off by the price, would you instead be interesting in attending a cocktails-only gathering at, say, $50? If so, drop a line to slopefest@gmail.com and let me know. My hunch is that it won't make much of a difference (this is basically an exploration of the elasticity curve for this event), but I want to be sure.
In any case, I'm going to try to make the most of my (presumably) last few days in Paris. Good luck, and I'll keep putting up my oh-so-simple posts in the meantime.
