The new normal

It used to be I could safely have forty trades on the blotter several days a week. I made it today, but the market volume is still too light to make a living. We've reached 11,000, an almost meaningless psychological number, but it still feels hollow. It still feels like the market, and the economy especially, is a thread, a shoe-drop away from another exteneded period of doldrums. (This being said, of course we're well on our way to 12,000).

The last thing you'd want to do is take market advice from me. I don't manage money. I execute orders, monkey-like, blue collar all the way. Some times the sophisticated talking heads are so far over my head I think they are sophisticated. But most of the time it's noise and nonsense. Most of the time, it's an agenda, someone with something to sell.

Since I am the 'Joe the Plumber' of Americans with credit card debt, my view of things is decidedly negative. I haven't had an 'aha' moment, money-wise, since 1999. Just about daily, another customer calls us up to demand a new rate that resembles a fast food menu more than it does a schedule of fees from a financial company. I should have left this business five or even ten years ago. But I wanted a house, kids, and I needed to start sooner than later. Now I'm juggling it, treading water, but I can't say I'm not blessed. The kids are all right.

I hear and read others talking about the death of 'buy and hold'. That was true ten years ago. I'm not so sure now. The only right answer is to be nimble. Make 10 or 20 percent on a stock purchase, and no one can kill you for cashing out. Or at least selling half. It's all about allocation, diversity. Some cash, some bonds, some stocks. The truth is, the market is way too sexy for most people. It should be so much more boring. The only people who should buy 1000 shares of anything are those with millions of dollars. The little people should have little pieces, and take forever to turn it into a fortune. The rest are just gamblers, and I love their business. It's not at all that I gain when they lose. It's just the opposite. I'm rooting for them. But it's a tough game.
If you are buying 1000 share blocks, you have to jump in and out.

Maybe we have turned. Maybe we are headed for some steady prosperity. I can't be sure. It hasn't hit me yet. Those with the billions, the hundreds of millions, even tens, have to turn on the spigot. I'd love to find out what goes on in the head of a billionaire. I'm so desparate to just relax until I get so bored I have to do something, I can't figure them out. I know you can't do that and become a billionaire, but once you have the billion in the bank, you absolutely can. Most of them don't. I like to imagine I'd give so much away, I'd wittle myself down to 100 million, and enjoy burning the 900. We'll never know. On that note...

see you Tuesday. It's golf and the pumpkin patch for my Columbus day.