Bookkeeping: Lightening up on Positions both Long and Short

I continue to do some trimming ahead of this meeting. While I feel the fascination and potential reaction to this meeting is way over the top - it is potentially a major market moving event. And no one knows the reaction.

Hence the odds of being right for anyone is 50/50. So that takes you to pure gambling, instead of investing where you want the odds in your favor. Nothing major but trimmed some of the positions that have ramped well the past few days, and cut back the ETF shorts as well. Honestly I really don't like this type of environment where 'outside events' can move the market on a dime, instantly, without regard to individual company fundamentals. All I care about is the specifics for 50-60 names, not the other 10,000 - but it's an environment where extracurricular activity can impact your positions quite severely.

Basically what's been strong today is energy and agriculture - which are global plays, not domestic so it makes sense for them to sort of trade in their own separate world to some degree...

I've sold about $25,000 worth out of 5-6 positions this AM, bring cash level up 2% to 25%. While the economic reality would infer a drop based on the backdrop of bad news, I don't want macro visions to cloud what is happening on the ground. Which for now and as of late, means some decent rallies (although breadth and volume are not impressive). Once again, the averages are all at major resistance/support levels technically so its just a standoff for the next 27 hours. I will let the market decide what it wants to do at that point and then follow along. If the market doesn't like what it hears, I will get back into positions at lower prices; if the market decides ignorance is bliss and every bad shoe to drop is already priced in the market and Big Ben can pull us through I will just buy back at higher levels. While I place the odds of the latter as low, thats just 1 opinion in a sea of millions.

Also with the 'black box' that is the investment banks, it's going to be nearly impossible to decipher what 'good earnings' vs 'bad earnings' are. I'm pretty confidant you are going to hear some superlative spin out of these companies - most of the interesting action is going to be on the balance sheet not the earnings report and with the mass investor chasing the headline number only (ABC company beats estimates by blah blah), it is possible that the can could continue to be kicked down the road. Right now it comes down to trust. Comments from some head honchos in UK are that if everyone just opened their books we could get back to an environment of trust and intrabank lending will happen again. Financial institutions refuse to do that. So that makes one think....