Monday, June 18, 2012

What D'You Do If The Glass Is Neither Half Empty Nor Half Full......It Is Bone Dry

Ugh, ugh, I know I should blog, I really do want to blog......actually I think I have to blog or I will forget how....or worse yet..... people will lose the will to check in on me from time to time.  So what does a person do when there is not a crumb of thought in the so-called brain that is worthy of being cast out there for human consumption?

(Omigawd, I notice that I just cast my beloved folllowers in the role of a flock of Mrs. Moon's chickens......scratching in the dirt for worms and grubs, etc.....I swear that is NOT the way I think of you.....honest.......what a dreadful choice of metaphors.....aaarrrggh.  You should be able to tell from that what a low and pitiful state I am in.  Please forgive.)


I just did get a workable idea.  Perhaps I can use this opportunity to ask for help in solving a puzzle that has  been perplexing me for lo these many weeks........how in the hell do you enlarge the blog font permanently, or at least till you change your mind down the road?  One of the reasons I do not  blog more frequently is because it has become a monumental chore since I decided that the type size was too small and needed  to be bumped up.  Yes, yes, I do click on the font size icon and it obeys......briefly. Then, the minute my back is turned or my attention is distracted it sneakily restores the old font size.  If I happen to be scrutinizing the words I type that is not so bad...I can catch it in the act, but if I am gazing at the ceiling in a frenzy of deep concentration while my fingers are flying wildly across the keys it can be disaster.  Whole paragraphs have to be scratched and rewritten and  ooooooh......I hate it when that happens.


I know most of you out there have the answer to this one so please don't trample one another in giving me the answer.  But you have no idea how grateful I will be to get it.........I might just offer a prize for the first or the best answer.......or would that be disgustingly low class?  Anyway, while I decide on that conundrum  for myself and ponder what I might have to give that anyone would want, hasten your words of enlightenment for this poor soul who continues to be at the mercy of the Formatting Tyrant.

On other fronts, I can report a further state of befuddlement which is threatening the very foundation of my belief system.  As some of you may remember, about 6 or 8 months ago I flung myself into the shark infested waters of the Stock & Options Market.  Until this past April I was considering myself a pretty smart cookie as I watched my manipulations increase the balance in my account and somewhat smugly planned on what I would do with my ill gotten gains.   Then, suddenly and without much warning (though it should have been obvious to me that such good fortune could not continue indefinitely) the market tanked and sank about 6% taking with it most of my lovely profits.  I remembered, too late, the rule...."don't forget to periodically take some of your profits off the table."  After a bit of hand wringing I bravely sucked it up, studied some more and began to approach things from the bear market side.  
That theory was sound, except that it took a while to learn  the proportions of things from that angle and, my maneuvers were not robust enough to counteract the continued deluge to the downside.

  I did capitulate a bit and took some of my losses, just to get rid of some of that red ink which offended my delicate sensibilities and resigned myself to waiting out the down move before giving up on my brash plan.  Recently, I have noticed a strange phenomenon..... when I do almost nothing the situation seems to improve.  At the moment, I am close to being back even and am now torn between closing out all my positions tomorrow and considering myself a lucky damned fool, or cautiously proceed with what I continue to learn to see what the next few months bring.  I can hear all of you out there screaming, "get out....get out" the way the audience used to do in the old movie thrillers.  The trouble with that is,  what else is there in the world that could get me out of bed at 6 am or at all for that matter, and what in the hell am I going to do with all the time I now put in studying and learning some of the intricacies of this new world........ and worse yet......what in the hell am I to do with my new vocabulary of strangles, straddles,bull put spreads and iron condors.......oh, the pity and perplexity of it all.  I guess until I find some other path to stimulate my interest I may just hang around here stubbornlystudying candlestick charts and identifying  dojis, haramis, shooting stars, inverted hammers and hangman symbols.


At least, you must agree, it keeps me off the streets......

14 comments:

  1. The new Blogger interface changes font size, or color, or whether or not you want italic or bold, every time it thinks that what you are doing is not a continuation of what you've done before. At least that's what it seems to me.

    Example, if i am typing away, and go bottle feed a kitten, then come back and simply start exactly where i left off, all is well. If i move the cursor at all, it thinks i'm doing something not related to what came before, and i have to reset stuff.

    So i learned to just do it all in one font, one color, etc, until i am done. Then i go back and highlight the whole thing like i'm going to cut and paste it, and instead i chose a different font size or color or i highlight a section and click on bold or italic.

    It's one way around it.

    As for your stock market decision -- if you have a small sum you could lose without weeping and gnashing of teeth, and you want to play with it, go ahead. If every loss might mean missing a meal, you may want to stick with boring old growth stock mutual funds with good, long track records.

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  2. Well, messymimi's advice bears repeating, so just re-read what she said! I basically do the same thing because there seems to be a flaw in Blogger's font control. It still beats the typewriter and carbon paper; don't you think? Did we think about fonts, before?

    So far as the stock market is concerned, ditto. My daughter and SIL got very involved in the market, have four 25" monitors attached to their computers, attended a very expensive course delivered by a guy (my opinion) making money off the attendees as opposed to helping them earn in the market, and have made little or no profits in the last four years. I think it has to be your profession and other people's money to take the stress out of the job. You could certainly create a blog a day on each of those incredible market terms and enlighten us -- either through true knowledge or tongue-in-cheek refurbishing that you do so well.

    Your call. Come visit when you can.

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  3. Lo- whatever brings you joy. Do it! Whatever gets you through the night or up in the morning- do it!
    And I love the idea of all of us being chickens scratching for tasty bugs. Of course, I love my chickens and their scratching delights me so...

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  4. The stock market is just a little bit more sophisticated slot machine. It's gambling without the guilt of pulling the handle. Only invest that which you can afford to lose...and only that money that doesn't matter if you lose.

    I have had some successful investments, but more than likely, people will lose. It's best to invest in a sure thing (whatever that is nowadays!), slow growth is best as per messymimi's suggestion, however, for short term - it isn't going to make you much and time is of essense. I am not sure what to invest in anymore.

    I have been the most successful with real estate, however, in the USA (esp depending on where you buy) - it's probably not as good as where I live.

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  5. Sorry ~ I'm no help with either question! Just wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you ~

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  6. If it gets you out of bed and you can afford it, go for it.

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  7. As I'm sure you've noticed, Blogger has many, many flaws, not the least of which is that there is no way to contact whoever is in charge. Considering the trouble we all seem to have with it, I can only conclude that being unreachable is the way they want it.

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  8. Hi Lo, it looks like you have got the font sorted out.

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  9. Our programs are now smart. They try to predict what we want. Good luck trying to change that!
    Even your market uses AI to keep things from crashing though I doubt that will be possible for the long haul.
    Funds go up and down and we really have little control. We just want to believe we do.

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  10. Due to auto spell correct I deleted a comment and will try again . The crumb brain combo you refer to at the start sent my imagination into a forest and by the end I saw Hansel dumbfounded as he watched birds eat his means of getting home. Gretel was scared. Both were being watched. Grimm tale.
    If our brain does that how well can any smart computer jump in and change our direction?
    Someone is likely working on the math to figure it out.
    Scary idea!!

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  11. Sweet Lo, I'd be a chicken if it meant finding bits of your thoughts for the pecking...

    Live. No matter what. Don't screw with stable, but live.

    xox

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  12. Har - Lo! I have my cell phone set to awaken me at 6:00 a.m. each day which gives me a half hour before the market opens. I *SO* hear you in this post. It's hard to take those big losses (I've taken some whoppers) so right now I have whittled my holdings down to cash, some mutual funds (4), and two stocks - one of which pays a whopping 12% dividend. Since the dividend is paid monthly, I'm a happy camper with that one. Otherwise...I'm still sitting on losses. But I think you are right. Doing nothing seems to work best. OR.. when you are UP - don't forget to put some stop-loss orders in to protect some of your gains. Maybe you are more sophisticated at this than I, however. I don't play with options. And I never sell short. And I never buy on margin. EVER. If I can't afford to pay for something, I just don't buy it. SO good to see you this morning. And I also feel as you do about posting to my blog. I actually do have something new to post in a couple of days (or three or four) but really, nothing much is happening here. We are considering moving to California (or, at least, purchasing a winter place down there). Sick of all this gray, icky weather in WA, I am. Signed: Yoda.

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  13. Keeping you off the streets is what it's all about.

    :-)

    Hugs to you, Lo!

    Pearl

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