144. Lost Weight Before Thanksgiving

I followed through and lightened up my common stock portfolio the last two days before Thanksgiving as I noted I would in my previous post. Then the Dubai credit event on Friday gave me the opportunity to fill by IRAs with high-interest bearing preferred stocks at even lower costs. I believe half of the drop on Friday was Dubai related, while the other half was my expected beginning of a down market. How will the market react Monday? Confused! We might even see it edge back up (for a while) because people might have believed all the drop was Dubai related. Most likely I'll be heading into a short ETF on any rise in the market anticipating a 3-3.3% drop thereafter. Had sold options against some of my other common stock, but bought some back Friday. Will be selling options again Monday. This whole Dubai event might shift my expectations by about 3 days. I now expect the next low to be between December 4-8 followed by the last 2009 high around December 20-24. So, plan your year-end taxes. Remember, don't buy mutual finds in a taxable account until January and take your losses before year-end. Hope you are having a prosperous year.