Finally, someone else gets it!

Today while watching BNN a guy by the name of Barry Rithholz came on the air. Some of you market junkies may be familiar with this guy. Anyhow, when I heard him speak I could have sworn he was reading my blog! Lol! He mentioned how this rally since March has been so hated and disrespected by so many people given their beliefs of Goldman Sachs manipulation, the PPT and what have you. He said that even the hedge fund guys he knows who are long are what he called "cynic longs" that truly don't believe in the rally and will bail at the first sign of trouble.

Bulls markets typically go through 3 stages: skepticism, optimism and euphoria.
In my view we are still in stage 1 with traces of stage 2.

Regardless of my view, I will not for a second drop my guard and be married to this view. But the fact that I feel this way also adds to the wall of worry doesn't it? I have to admit, I have lingering doubts about the bull thesis I'm proposing in the back of my mind....and you know what? I find that this is a good sign that I might actually be on the right track. Anytime I have felt very comfortable with a particular thesis or trade with no doubts more often than not I turn out to be wrong...or at the very least, my timing was quite off. Has this ever happened to you? The best trades I make often involve a little bit of sweating and hesitation and gritting of teeth but I'm becoming somewhat desensitized by it now so I suppose that's one of the downfalls of experience!

As far as the market goes in the ST...I don't see a good edge either way. The low hanging fruit was when the market got extremely oversold and now we've worked off that condition. The gap and run action isn't what I like if betting on multi-week move up but the market doesn't have to act according to the will of nodice. Remember the rule I once mentioned....accept the market for what it is not what you want it to be. If something about the action doesn't feel right, fine, don't play... but don't bet the other way just because of this.

Tomorrow is likely going to be a boring choppy day given there is no major economic news or earnings reports and that it's Friday.

On an off topic note, today I attended a funeral. It was my Aunt's brother (who is not my uncle because this is an Aunt through marriage). He died of a stroke but he was in his early 50's. I've known a few people who died suddenly in their late 40's or early 50's due to stroke or heart attack. Is it genetics, stress, lack of exercise, bad diet? Probably a bit of each but I gotta tell you...stress is a killer and if it doesn't kill you it will age you. Just look at the huge differences in the appearance of any president who takes office from the time they start to the time they leave office.

Trading/investing can be very stressful and so I urge all of you to shut down your computers after the bell and hit the gym, grab a beer with buddies (but don't go doing this every day now!), go for a walk or even just lie down and relax on the couch for a while.