Up

Hp up huge on the open. Why? Yesterday's testimony was pretty worthless. I guess wall street likes that things are probably going to slide out of sight, though obviously someone on hp violated all of their ethics rules.

Cnbc still on dow watch all day. The info I saw shows that all of the movement in the Dow 30 has happened in only 10 stocks. The other 20 are well below their high of 2000. This is nothing to get excited about.

I am sitting back near an all time high on net worth. Close to where I was at the beginning of May. I did not expect September to be this strong. Will Octoboer break down? I hope was get some selling next week. I will start to buy for a hopeful year end rally.

HP

Watching the Hp saga on cpan looks bad to me. Nobody can remember, where have we heard that before? Deny, deny, deny. That is how it is going to play out. There is no way that they can say that they were following their standards of business conduct. Hurd seems nervous and kind of scatter brained to me. They are really sorry, now.... but they weren't before.

Grand Standing

Well, as expected. The commitee investigating HP-gate is standing on their soapbox and whining about how shameful it all is. It would be interesting to disclose how many of these people aren't themselves under investigation for wrong-doing or how many of them haven't been found guilty of something.

Watching

Tuning into the Hp saga on Cspan3. Getting off to a very slow start, as expected. I wish these aholes in the government weren't involved. This is going to be ran by complete idiots trying to prove that they are standing on higher moral ground. Which is a joke. Especially when you think about how much spying on all of us that the government is doing. I hope that Hp brings up that point.

Once again foreign stuff is leading out of the gate. I am still expecting a downturn, now it looks like it will be happening next month. I feel certain that it is right around the corner. Going to be exploring whether I shouldn't sell vtv and pick up the Large Cap Growth eft to go along with iwd.

cnbc

Cnbc couldn't will the Dow to a new high. Though they tried all day. It is really comical. It was good to hear a couple of the talking heads admit that the Dow touching a new high was not really a big deal.

I hope that they show the Hp testimony on either Cspan or Cnbc tomorrow. I will be watching. Clearly Mark Hurd flunked his Standards of Business Conduct Class.

What worked today, Foreign and small caps.

Oh My God

The Dow is almost at a new high. Can you believe it? An index that tracks 30 stocks, out of a field of about 10,000 stocks is at a new high. Cnbc is showing the ticker non-stop. If it happens there will be confeitie(?), balloons, champane, and giant video game type swooshing sounds and graphics all over the screen. It isn't that big of a deal and will probably spur on a massive sellof, kind of like it has done in the past. But, of course, what I think will probably happen quite often doesn't.

Durable?

Durable goods orders turned the futures negative. The consensus is that the big players will take this market higher through week end. I still think that if we hit a new Dow high that the market will then selloff and get knocked back down. The bad durable goods orders shows more weakness than many were expecting. It does appear that the fed will be cutting rates sooner than later, though probably not until next year. The question is how much is this going to effect company's quarterly reports going forward. If we start getting a lot of earnings warnings, watch out.

On fire

Obviously things have been a lot stronger than I was expecting. There has to be something up ahead that is going to bring on the sellers. Could be more earnings problems. Today, all my etf's were green, though I once again underperformed the Dow and S&P. Still itching to buy vtv and iwd and maybe a little xle. I don't think that oil is going to ever be heading back to $40 or $30 or maybe even $50. This weakness is probably a good long term buy opportunity.

On fire

Obviously things have been a lot stronger than I was expecting. There has to be something up ahead that is going to bring on the sellers. Could be more earnings problems. Today, all my etf's were green, though I once again underperformed the Dow and S&P. Still itching to buy vtv and iwd and maybe a little xle. I don't think that oil is going to ever be heading back to $40 or $30 or maybe even $50. This weakness is probably a good long term buy opportunity.

Open

Futures have been inching higher all morning. Now it looks like we will open positive. Earnings warning season is approaching. Lowe's guided towards the lower end this morning. Everybody expects home type stocks to have problems so it is already baked in. I need to be ready to buy soon.

Is a recession right around the corner? Could be. That will mean that the fed starts cutting rates and will set the stage for the housing sector to get some legs.

mojo

Got some serious mojo now. As I said. There is no trend that a person can follow anymore. This morning it is selling, now it is buying, tomorrow????? Everything is up now, foreign, u.s., small, big, it is all good. Don't know why we had the change of heart.

falling

Emerging markets and small caps are still under fire. I think that big swoon down, which I will buy, could be approaching. The housing numbers are going to be important. Oil, now below $60, nobody cares. it is interesting how the focus shifts from one thing to the next.

recovery

Market recovered some of the losses heading into the close. Emerging markets and small caps were weak all day. Hp recovered some and is holding after and close and Hurd's comments. Hopefully this is the worst that it gets. Firing Dunn will hopefully help. Looks like a very bumpy road heading into October.

Here we go

Out of the gate more selling in emerging markets and small caps. Increasing talk of a recession setting in. The dollar has weakened a lot, apparently if the fed winds up lower rates soon the dollar will continue to slide.

Hp possibly heading back to the low 30's. It will be interesting to hear what Hurd has to say today.

Emerging markets and small caps taking a dump. Though I've seen worst. Hopefully this will be the pause that refreshes. But again, this time of year tends to be tough. If the selling continues I will have to step up to the plate for some iwd and vtv.

Hp could be really hurt here. Scheduling a conference on Friday after the market close is typcially not a good thing. I'm sure the lawyers are meeting already about how they can go in for the kill.

Hp could now be in big trouble. Mark Hurd being implicated could really rattle the stock. Crap. I need it to hold up until January.

Housing, I just don't see it being that big of a deal. The average person should not be affected. The people who took out crazy, stupid lones, deserve what they get.

All this chatter about the Dow, I just don't see that it is good.

I am seeing selling in eem and iwn. But they have had a nice run.

Rockin'

Near the highs of the day. It's been an interesting September so far. Oil nearing $60. Can it get back into the $50? That would be bullish I think overall though the selling in energy stocks may continue to accelerate. I don't think that housing slowdown is going to crater anything. If anything it could cause more money to come back into stocks. Bring it on.

Mo Fo

Big time rally at the moment. This market is the most trendless that I have ever seen. Yesterday, a political coup, a yahoo blowup, other worries had things on edge. Today Oracle and certainty that the fed stands his ground has this market forgetting all of yesterdays problems. You just can't find anything to give you any solid ground to stand on. This market could easily turn at any moment. And right now it is turning up.

new high

This constant pre-occupation on the dow hitting new highs is what is probably going to keep us trapped right where we are. Who cares about the dow? It is only 30 stocks. And these companies are stoggy, slow growers, most haven't gave any meaningful returns in years.

clawed back

That was some rally in the last hour. Still finished lower, but my losses were cut in half.

I wonder if hedge funds start going under how much damage that could do to the market.

ouch

small caps and foreign holdings are killing me. Blaime it on Tailand??? Lets hope we can get it together for the close. Not buying into this. The Dow is actually up from it's lows. Yahoo warning is not helping things. Oil staying low, nobody cares anymore.

prelude

After the real tame PPI number and a huge drop in housing the futures are rocking. Looks like another interesting day on tap. Is this going to be a goldilocks economy like we've seen in the past? Not too hot not too cold? It is beginning to look that way. That will mean good things going into the end of the year. Looks like I need to look for the next selloff to pick up the rest of iwd and vtv that I want.

gotta love it

The indexes end flat. I end up .5%. Gotta love that. My foreign holdings were up the best but once again large cap is also making some good gains.

In my model mutual fund portfolios it is interesting that vanguard is doing the best. It is beating schwab, fidelity and trow price. That was not expected. I will probably be transferring my 401k from fidelity over to vanguard, mainly for the lower fees and what looks like better performance.

Jiggy

So far I think the action has been rather jiggy. Foreign holdings are up nicely. Again, not what I was expecting, but you've got to play it for what it is.

nibbling

I bought some ixj and added a little more efa. I hope the fed doesn't blow things tomorrow when they meet. But I guess if they do and we get a big selloff I will be buying more iwd and vtv. I don't understand what is holding things up, but I am not going to question it too much because nobody knows exactly why the market moves like it does. I hope we don't get hit with some kind of shocking event which pulls the rug out from everything. That kind of event is what is the wildcard. What I keep wondering is are people really as bad off as I keep hearing. It seems like every article I see claims that everyone is broke and in debt. But yet most people are reasonably happy and the economy keeps rolling along. Something about all this just doesn't seem right.

weird

This market rally going on today must be very narrow. I am badly under performing the indexes today. Not sure why.

Wow

Somebody on cnbc predicting gas at $1.15. That would be a real energy shock. If energy stocks take a huge hit, like they would, it will be real interesting to see how the market takes that. Tech stocks have been on fire, possibly because big money is shifting from energy to tech? So far September has been much stronger that I was expecting.

Jim Kramer has turned into a complete clown and I think his schtik is idiotic. I hope that cnbc cancels his show.

Two Things

1. Never go 100% cash ( you will miss out on big rallies like today)

2. Never overweight any sectors (oil, home builders, gold have been pummeled)

Holding the right mix of foreign and domestic investments will give the best long term and short term returns. Although the road will be volitile because of the way that the foreign markets are. If we continue to rally it is going to be tough to pick a spot to buy. My first pick will be ixj, the global healthcare etf. It is one sector that I am too light.

911

Watching a replay of the events on 911. Pretty disturbing and interesting. So far the markets in september have been playing out as I expected. But gold and oil have fallen a lot more that I thought they would. Is it a buying opportunity? Not so far as far as I am concerned. I think we could take a significant hit. I only hope that I have the guts to go in and buy at the right moments.

relief rally

Today was a garden variety relief rally. After two days of selling there had to be some b uying. I expect more selling pressure ahead. Buying into this market is still several weeks off. I suspect I won't be buying until next month.

ugly

If the futures hold here, then the open is down. How today plays out is even more important then yesterday. If we stay down all day I think we have a major downtrend in place and things could get very ugly, I will regret that I didn't go to more cash. I am leaning toward things getting ugly and hoping that things wind up not too bad.

For starters

If the futures hold, the indexes will open lower. The important thing is where we are at the close. This could be the beginning of a larger downword trend, which will present a buying opportunity. I am not in a rush to buy anything. Things could get very ugly.

Close

Things pretty much meandered along all day. I once again outperformed the S&P. We could go either way from here. I think it will be a big move either way we go.

When September Ends

Where are we going to go? If we have a big up day today I think that we are setup for some increased selling pressure. If we meander all day, which is what has happened so far, it is anybodys guess. I will hold onto my cash through the month to see how things play out.

first post

Took some money off the table today. Sold pbe, pwj, epp, some mtk and pwc. Getting some cash ready for the coming selloff. I don't expect September to be much different than any other typcial September, which means there will be a selloff. Staying the course in my etf winners, which have been efa, eem, ewc, iwm, iwd, vtv. The large cap stocks are indeed on their way back. Planning on buying more efa, iwd, and also some pfn, lor to add a little more yield to my portfolio.