Never Enough Time?

Sometime I just have never enough time to do justice to a weekend stock review, so this is just a very brief review.

I really expected to see some sort of agreement this weekend to end the government shutdown, expected someone to rise to be a hero…as of this writing, it has not happened and no hint of a suggestion exists that any progress has been made. But it still seems that once a hand of compromise if offered by one of the key figures that this could be put behind us soon.

What did I see in my weekend review?

The 10-yr Treasury yield 2.65 %

IBD (Investor Business Daily) has switched to: Uptrend Under Pressure.
 

Copernicus Systems: Long, but mixed.

Moneys Flows:  still positive.

Currently my "Stocks for a Trade" now consists of:

ABX -5.96%

ETF’s for a trade are:

QQQ +7.44% 

IWM +7.97%

IBB +5.13%

What will I do?

I did not add any to positions in IBB, QQQ and IWM this week as hoped, those should all be good to do so.

I paused look enough today to admire the high flyers: SOHU, YHOO, CRM and PCL. I would love to have them all.

I have not let EWZ escape my brief weekend review. It may have turned and when this is clear I will be ready for another long ride that I assume it is still capable of.

 I hope you have a great week.

Impending Government Shutdown?

The wisdom of Ecclesiastes reminds us:

 What has been will be again,
 what has been done will be done again;
 there is nothing new under the sun.

In reality it’s impossible to predict short term what will happen in terms of a government shutdown. The current standoff makes shutdown seem inevitable however, we have sure seen this before, it’s nothing new. There is no compromise in sight and yet compromise always occurs and always has…all the way back to the formation of the country.

If a shutdown does occur it will end with some currently unacceptable compromise being readily accepted.

I have seen predictions that this week will bring chaos to the markets…but it’s “unknowns” that trouble the market and in this case a compromise seems likely to occur just as it always does, even if a shutdown does have to be endured.

Perhaps it would be helpful if Congressional members also felt some financial pain. No doubt  resolution and compromise would speedier if this were the case, however their pay in unaffected by government shutdown.

What did I see in my weekend review?

The 10-yr Treasury yield continues a little slide now to 2.62 %

IBD (Investor Business Daily) continues: Confirmed Up Trend

Copernicus Systems: Long, but mixed

Moneys Flows:  still positive with 1/3 trending higher and portfolio price all pointing higher

Currently my "Stocks for a Trade" now consists of:

ABX -3.36%

ETF’s for a trade are:

QQQ +6.99% 

IWM +7.52%

IBB +4.25%

What will I do?

I did not add to positions in IBB, QQQ and IWM this week. If volatility does occur this week, these are the places I will consider adding.

I hope you have a great week.

Gold!

A wonderful point is made about gold in the classic "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", when an old fellow explains “Gold ain’t good for nothing except making jewelry and gold teeth”…but this is in a flop house full of men who were drawn away from reality by the prospect of finding the precious metal.

Gold and the gold miners shot up this week immediately after it was determined that the Fed would not taper it's bond buying. The jump faded quickly, I'm not sure why, perhaps reality sunk in that the Fed would indeed taper someday.

In the past I thought of gold as a hedge of protection…but I have learned it is not. Some say it’s a hedge against inflation…I’m not sure about that either. Some say it’s a hedge against chaos, but the calamity that occurred in New Orleans showed that bottled water was a better hedge and some project that ammunition will be a better hedge in the future.

So I don’t know what gold it other than it’s still highly desirable. Its future price is indeterminate to me, but the allure of gold continues and it seems that gold miners might be better place as they are striving to cut cost and bring back unprofitable mines into operation.

Barrick gold, ABX, seems to be undervalued by comparison with GLD.

Barrick does pay a modest dividend of 1.1%. The dividend was around 3% before being cut as Barrick’s finances were being cleaned up. I would hope that the larger dividend would be returned in time.

I sure don’t know how where the price of ABX will end up and I likely won’t be adding any more, but I won’t be selling yet either. It may be time to just out it away as a longer term holding and be patient.

What did I see in my weekend review?

The 10-yr Treasury yield continues a little slide now back to 2.73 %

IBD (Investor Business Daily) continues: Confirmed Up Trend

Copernicus Systems: Long, but mixed

Moneys Flows:  still positive with 1/3 trending higher and portfolio price all pointing higher

Currently my "Stocks for a Trade" now consists of:

ABX -2.94%

ETF’s for a trade are:

QQQ +6.88% 

IWM +7.53%

IBB +3.84%

What will I do?

I could be adding IBB and QQQ, perhaps I should add IWM

I hope you have a great week.