Comments on Fund My Mutual Fund: Bookkeeping: Cutting Some Strong Positions to Rais...

Hi TM,Thanks for your comments. I was net short f...

2008-07-03T15:14:00.000-04:00

Hi TM,

Thanks for your comments. I was net short for most of the ride down, but reversed and went net long at the close last Thursday... obviously a bit premature ;) I didn't really mind the carnage this week, just wished I'd waited longer for the generals to come down to better buy points. It hurts to see a stock you've just purchased get a 5-10% haircut in a week ;)

This is my first bear market btw... The lesson I learned this week is that the level of oversold that typically marks buying opportunities in bull markets doesn't mean squat in bear markets. That said, one more week of heavy selling would put us at oversold levels last seen at the 2001 and 2002 bottoms. I'm actually cheering for this scenario to occur despite being net long. If we've come this far, might as well put in a bottom that's going to hold for awhile.

Hi Ben,I'd urge every investor to have at least 10...

2008-07-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

Hi Ben,

I'd urge every investor to have at least 10-15% short exposure and now its very easy. In the 2000-2002 you have to short individual names and you had no protection in retirement accounts (since you cannot short) - now with the ETFs you can short easily.

In a normal bull market I'd still think 5-10% is smart. In this type of market 15%+ is probably a good rule.

I had a lot of strength until this week, but eventually that had to end. But the whole month of June the Ultrashorts (except Oil-Gas and Basic Materials) were providing a very nice positive. And then those started to help out this week.

Honestly I think the market will be like this for a few years so I'd get associated with the ETFs - they are not as good as shorting individual names but they provide some counterbalance.

Link, hang in there. Generally when you feel worse it's right around the best time to buy. I can find almost no good news out there anywhere which probably means sentiment is approaching its nadir. The last thing to go was commodities and now we finally begin to hear "no one wants coal in Asia or Europe so they're going to zero" blah blah.

Only wildcard is this damn oil. apparently the whole world can implode but oil can go up on demand? Yep makes sense :)

Thanks, Ben. Started to think I was paddling alon...

2008-07-03T13:16:00.000-04:00

Thanks, Ben. Started to think I was paddling alone. I'm tempted to raise some cash by selling the losers. But, then what would I buy? Arghh.

I'm impressed you even have some strong positions ...

2008-07-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

I'm impressed you even have some strong positions to cut! My general-heavy portfolio has been bloodied this week.

You know what I like about today? A percentage dro...

2008-07-03T12:25:00.000-04:00

You know what I like about today? A percentage drop is a lot less money than it was yday. Trying to find a silver lining in by barf bag.