i only feel im about half as stupid as i was late last week... i rode DUG way, way down into the crapper..... i'll probably be OK, less some opportunity cost.

im with SPG... we are going to retest the lows and then some.

PS

on friday, i actually saw some CNBC 'financial tv' (the one dennis gartman is on) and it really does resemble a bad half time show.

SPG, your analysis and chartistry is spot on. once again, you have impressed me. but remember the warning (i forget myself most of the time)... the charts work, until they don't! the market can stay irrational longer than i can stay solvent!

World markets are set up for a bloodbath overnight. I can see no hope for any good news anywhere in the pipeline.

Nothing like a financial smackdown to open people's eyes.

Zombie free market loyalty will turn to anger as they learn they have been led down the primrose path by their fellow neocons they thought they could trust.

Fools and their money and all that.

Political dogmatism in the financial arena is doomed from the start.

Mid-cap ultrashorts.

Down almost 700 points! What the heck? I hope it gets all this over with by the time Obama gets in there. (but I don't think it will)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081201/ap_ ... all_street

Yeah. They seem to be a pretty reliable contrary indicator. Two weeks ago, they were all crying about the dow was gonna hit 6000 and we'd all be eating out of dumpsters by Christmas. It promptly rallied 1000 points. Friday they were talking about how optimism had finally returned to the market and it was a great time to buy and we're on the road to recovery. Heh.

SPG-

Time to upgrade that Pinto to a Ferrari?

Hardly. I'm back to break even. With any luck, I'll have enough of a stake built up by April to keep trading once I pay my taxes. I'm self employed, so I'm going to owe a big chunk of money to the IRS come April.

Another patriot !

Patriot. Yes that's one word for it.

The way things are going, by April the IRS will have about 3 employees processing taxes on 2 surviving businesses with 1 employee. Don't worry about the taxes. The IRS is in a WORLD of Shti. They cannot possibly audit all the crap coming their way in April. Long as you are under the $1M mark, you could put anything you want down, they won't have time to check it. Much bigger fish to try and fry.

Reverese Engineer

These are still the "good times". It gets really bad right after Christmas and before New Year's.

Bloomberg certainly is an interesting acid trip this morning.

Corporate Bond Risk Surges to Record on Concern Slump Is `Too Hard to Fix'

`Great Recession' May Just Be Starting as Job Losses Mount, Credit Shrinks

U.S. Stock-Index Futures, European Shares Climb

SPG Is thaaaaat ewe?
Abaaaaout to be sheaaaarrd?
You neeed a baaaath!

Nice picture SPG, but do you have a picture of you in the shorts that you seem to have to keep holding on to?

Looks like an up day today.

I heard on Bloomberg, one 'guest' suggesting that the stock market would go up before the end of the year, saying that in the (tradionally) light trade around and after Christmas it should be easy to move the index higher.

actually, this is the exact opposite of how the IRS audits. If you are under $100K and either misstate or omit something that has a 1099 or w2, they will simply correct your return and send the bill. 100% chance of being corrected. you will never be audited because your return in not complicated. if your income is over 100K and the return becomes more complicated, your chances of being audited drop to 4% or 5%. if you are uber-rich, your tax team is better than the IRS and they know it. so they only get nailed in conjunction with other federal or state investigations.