In Search of the Perfect Investment

It will pass. Bad days — like yesterday — have happened before. I hate them when watch my net worth evaporating. But then I eye this chart:

It’s happened before — and in the last year. Look at those many dips in the chart above.

How much will it fall? Late yesterday afternoon, CNBC had this nice man with his nice chart:

He said stocks move in channels. He showed the S&P’s movement in the channel from the low point in March 2009. You can see it’s breached the top of his channel.

Hence stocks will fall from here. Said CNBC’s guest,  “We’re down 3 1/2 % so far. That’s nothing. If we move to the middle of the channel, that’s about a 12% decline. If we go  to the bottom of the channel that’s a 20% decline. 12% is a typical giveback.”

So, prepare for more pain.

As for today’s strategy? Sit tight. The world is not coming to an end. This will pass. Sit tight.

Meantime, for your weekend reading:

If you really want to feel better, check out the New Highs on this web site. Click here. Here’s the top bit of the chart:

Schwab doesn’t get it, yet. I’m asking Schwab PR about their reaction to the Heartbleed bug.

You can’t publish a strong letter from Mr. Schwab and then not do anything about it. Should I advise my readers to migrate to Interactive Brokers and TradeStation — two brokers who have agreed to let you direct trades to IEX? Ask Chuck. This is serious stuff. Read his letter. It’s on your site.

He writes back:

Hi Harry,

We do take this issue very seriously and we are actively looking into it. When routing client orders, our primary objective is to seek price improvement and near instantaneous executions where possible. We need to look at the level of execution quality, speed, and service when determining where to route orders, and that is something that we are currently looking at closely at IEX as well as other venues. But, at this point we are still assessing this very carefully and it is still too early to share more detail.
Best regards,
Erin Montgomery
Charles Schwab
Corporate Public Relations

I email back:

Erin,

Schwab is missing the point. If Schwab customers want to direct their trades to IEX, that’s their decision – not Schwab’s.

What am I missing?

No reply yet.

Carlotta Gall is brilliant. She just wrote this book:

This week she was on Charlie Rose:

She’s really worth watching. Click here.

Best 25 city destinations in the world from TripAdvisor. The number one is Istanbul:

Sydney, New York and San Francisco are on the list. Click here.

Looking for a new backpack?

If not for you, how about for your granddaughter? The backpack actually contains a padded sleeve for her laptop. Totally brilliant. Comes in two sizes —  one for $32 for four-year olds and one for $48 for all of us. Click here and here.

I have Republican friends. They send me “jokes.”

A union boss walks into a bar next door to the factory and is about to order a drink to celebrate Obama’s victory when he sees a guy close by wearing a Romney for President button and two beers in front of him.

He doesn’t have to be an Einstein to know that this guy is a Republican. So, he shouts over to the bartender so loudly that everyone can hear, “Drinks for everyone in here, bartender, but not for the Republican.”

Soon after the drinks have been handed out, the Republican gives him a big smile, waves at him, then says, “Thank you!” in an equally loud voice. This infuriates the union boss, so he once again loudly orders drinks for everyone except the Republican. As before, this does not seem to bother the Republican. He continues to smile, and again yells, “Thank you!”

So just to make his point one more time, the union boss once again loudly orders drinks for everyone except the Republican. But, as before, this does not seem to bother the Republican. He continues to smile, and again yells, “Thank you!”

Frustrated, the union boss asks the bartender, “What the hell is the matter with that Republican? I’ve ordered three rounds of drinks for everyone in the bar but him, and all the silly ass does is smile and thank me. Is he nuts?”

“Nope,” replies the bartender. “He owns the place.”

I will admit that Obama is the not the president we had hoped for. So where’s the alternative for next time? Ah, there’s the rub.

Harry Newton who loves technology. His dentist has got this new machine which takes pricey panoramic x-ray pictures of his mouth. Here’s yesterday’s view — pre-$2400 implant.

Show this to your kids and grandkids and tell them sternly that if they don’t floss and clean after every meal your mouth will look like Harry’s. There actually are two teeth which still have their original roots. See if you can find them. See if you can also figure where I got yesterday’s implant. Hint: it’s on the top left. As my wonderful dentist, Nancy Ekelman —  God bless her — once said, “Your mouth is not a disaster. It’s an annuity.” She bought the machine — a Vatech Digital Panorex — for $35,000+, from Henry Schein (HSIC).

If you receive an email of my blog, be aware that the formatting is slightly messed up — especially as to indenting. I’m trying to fix it. Oih. It never ends. It looks better on the site itself.

Please change all your passwords you use to access your bank and brokerage accounts. The Heartbleed bug is serious. Email your bank and ask them if they’ve fixed their site — if they haven’t, changing your passwords won’t do you any good.