Monthly Archives: February 2012

Damned leap month. Had the month closed on Feb 28 like normal, I’d have been down only 1.0%. Yeah today was not great. Gold really got hammered on disappointment that there was no additional easing from the Fed on the … Continue reading →

This week the European Union came up with a plan to continue to assist Greece with debt rollovers, and Greece additionally made deals with private investors on principal write-downs of its debts. So Greece’s collapse is forestalled for a while. … Continue reading →

Recently on the bus I’ve been reading Peter Bernstein’s “Against the Gods, the Remarkable Story of Risk”. Its’ basically the history of how modern risk management evolved. One of the most powerful discoveries and concepts was reversion to the mean … Continue reading →

On Monday ERTS picked up a tranche of Cameco, and then on Tuesday two tranches of gold stock ETFs and some Potash and Teck. So overall the portfolio is now net-long 57.6% adjusted for ETF leverage, and still sitting on … Continue reading →

This week metals were pulling back a bit, so ERTS added a tranche of Cameco (uranium) yesterday, and then Teck Corp (copper mainly), HGU (gold stocks), NUGT (gold stocks), and Potash Corp (potash) today. (Actually potash isn’t really a metal; … Continue reading →

After Monday and Tuesday, trading tapered to zero. Prices kept in a fairly tight range between all the buy and sell limit orders in place. All the short positions were sold out by Tuesday – everyone else’s cue to immediately … Continue reading →

Since nobody’s reading anyway, and since I’ve reduced trading volume substantially be moving to weekly setups instead of daily, I will only post the trades and stats once a week. This way I can report on my underperformance more efficiently, … Continue reading →

Today I took a discretionary profit on the tranche of HNU bought last week at $4.23. I sold it at $4.75 before the close today just to have to some dry powder if gas turns and tracks down again. There … Continue reading →

…which means the market will immediately plummet. (Use it to your advantage). I may get unlucky and find I’ve mistimed again closing a position, but for the reasons cited in yesterday’s post, ultimately the portfolio will be better off without … Continue reading →

The S&P500 closed fractionally higher again today – volatility has just collapsed in the past month – but yesterday’s losses were significantly pared by the move in one single market – natural gas. Yesterday ERTS bought back the 4th allowable … Continue reading →