WINDOW DRESSING, chop and slop...

OK, finally a nice easy day. I was beginning to wonder if I'd feel like that ever again, hehe! It's been a couple tough weeks, even for top notch traders, and yeah, even for me - waxieeeeeeeeee!

Thursday we had a big fat gap down and sweet reversal! Market rocked and closed at its highs. Very nice trend day off the gap down, those are about the best trading days we can possibly have. Once a month and you can make a living off just those days!

Friday we should get some choppy digestion action off Thursdays big move and into the weekend. I think you have to buy the open on a gap down on no news. A must buy here, and I would look at GOOG and BIDU in particular to buy. I was thisclose to calling PALM for earnings but unfortunately talked myself out of it! Hate that! :)

Tough day for Icon's, I tell ya. When have you ever heard about 3 major iconic figures all passing away within 24 hours basically? Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Ed M. the only one who lived a longish life. Farrah, what baby boomer didn't have that poster with her in that red top and her smile and, well, everything else! She was my first love, and for that I will mourn her if nothing else. I never met her, I never met any of them, but they all represent(ed) different eras, and different demographs, and all will be missed. Michael Jackson always seemed such a tragic figure. I'd have paid to get inside that dudes head for a day just to figure it all out. Maybe I woulda rewired him a bit, but who am I to judge anyone? Hey, if you want to make yourself look like Diana Ross, I'm not gonna stop ya or judge ya. I'd like to make myself look like some people, but I just don't have the cash to make it work, so I'll have to stick with what I have. Such is the tragedy of my life!!!!

I don't know, I watched Bernanke testify and then I heard all the talking heads. I mean, I'm not an expert in human mannerisms, but I would bet my bottom dollar the guy was lying like a freakin' RUG! I love that one dude who said something like "I've overseen many committees over the years and one thing I know is that at times people say they don't remember in order not to perjur themselves, are you doing that Mr Bernanke?" Of course the answer was that he REALLY couldn't remember, but it was pretty funny that he remembered exact conversations one after another, but the one that might get him in a lot of hot water he can't remember. Hmmm.

And, I love this idea that he is somehow above the law because we can't afford to rock the boat! Let me tell you something, and this is my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. During Bush's tenure this same logic was used to stretch international laws and our own integrity as a nation in redefining what the US officially was allowed to do in interegation - namely torture. Why? Well, the rationale was that it was special times after 9/11 and it was in the nation's interests to use these "techniques" to elicit information. Now, some may agree with that logic, and I respect that, I don't agree, but that's part of what makes us such a great nation, we can have discourse and agree to disagree.

Fast forward to what's going on now and here we are bending the rules and the rationale is that these are extraordinary times and that its in the nations best interest to use these "techniques" to twist CEO's arms to get them to complete deals they might not otherwise have done.

I am nowhere near perfect as a human being, or a trader. I make a lot of mistakes and have and will continue in my life. I'll be first to admit that. So, I don't like to sit in judgement often, but I think that using these excuses and invoking "national interest" in order to do something goes against the very integrity and beliefs this country was born of. Breaking the constitution because its conveinent or because its easy to say "its national interest" in my opinion is a very bad precedent to set. And, invoking it now but then condemning what someone else did is hypocritical in my view. Is torture worse then arm twisting? Yes, most assuredly if I was to compare the two for myself, but boundaries are something that once you break them, it's hard to go back and unbreak them, and it gets easier and easier to break them again. It's my biggest problem with the whole too big to fail notion. It has become easy to bail out anything and everything now and long term, I fear, we are creating a nation that doesn't hold itself accountable. That, my friends, would be tragic and a very bad idea.

One thing I love about trading is that you get to make mistakes and then redeem yourself and then make more mistakes and redeem yourself again. You get to remake yourself over and over again, each trade is a new start. But, if I lose, I lose, no one says "oh, you lost, here ya go, Waxie, we'll take that loss and you keep the profits!"

I make money, I keep it and pay taxes. I lose money, there are consequences, trust me. I have less money when I lose, its very simple.

So, I have to focus and treat it as a business. If in the back of my head I thought "ya know, if i lose its ok, the government will bail me out anyway!" it makes it much easier to lose focus and make stupid mistakes (I make my share as it is, hehe!).

Capitalism must be preserved. Hey, I don't know if Bennie has made good choices or not for sure. I don't agree with most of what they are doing or have done, and I know they just keep saying that the world would have blown up if they didn't take the actions they did (which I find disingenuous, fyi). Maybe this is all true, but the longer this culture exists, it will continues to stretch the system to the point of no return. AT some point we need to hold ourselves, all of us, accountable for our own actions. In my opinion, when that happens as a nation, we will move forward positively and be much much better off!

And, if you disagree, its totally cool. Again, that's what makes a great nation, and I certainly could be wrong, or right, or maybe fall in the middle in the end.

In the end YOU need to RULE, and rule with us!

Best to all and to all a good night!

Waxie