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I need to post something so as to remain in this contest;
my Mom died a few days before Christmas,
and I haven't accomplished much of anything lately;
in American culture one is probably not supposed to admit it,
but I've lived home with my parents my entire life;
my Mom was 87 years old, and my Dad is now 90 years old;
well anyway, its been especially difficult for me emotionally
I believe that there is a philsosophical concept about
trying to shift negative experiences into something positive;
or to at least learn something from experiences in life;
and this is a stock market contest, so:
I guess that an analogy can be found
about the stock market environment,
people have a tendency to become rather complacent
believing that the comfortable market environment
will always be there;
it tends to be rather difficult to admit that things change;
actaully, it would seem that the entire universe
is rather dynamic in nature
one needs to continue breathing for life to continue
when the dynamics stop,
well the universe doesn't seem to favor such situation
I went to college for engineering
(and also banking finance and investments)
the concept of entropy is based upon such dynamics
well anyway, markets go up and down,
and the differences in opinion is required
for there to be 2 sides to every trade
I believe that I read an editorial in Barron's (DowJones) magazine recently
which explained the former president Harry Truman
was quoted as saying that what he wanted was
a one armed economist
all his economic advisors always viewed the economy as
"on one hand this", "but on the other hand that"
well, on the concept of trying to find credibility
in a society which would seem to be based upon
politics of each politician explaining how
the other candidate is no good,
but yet one of the various "no goods"
becomes the next "leader"
I'm personally chosing to believe the
one side of the opinion which seems to
predict economic "slowdown"
(I don't believe that the term "downturn"
is politically acceptable with the current political administration)
I also am anticipating inflation catching up with the
easy money policies which caused the housing bubble
I'm expecting $100/barrel oil pricing to hold,
and am also expecting $100/ounce gold to be the norm
my understanding is that even though
the price of oil has tripled ($30 to $100)
the higher pricing has not caused
any significant decrease in demand
I'm investing in oil refiner profits
such as VLO (Valero) and WNR (Western Refining)
as well as owners of oil COP (Conoco Philips)
although it might sound strange,
I am also investing in
airlines such as LCC (US Airways);
although airline profits are effected
by the cost of their fuel,
I don't expect an end to air transportation
I expect that people will get used to the higher oil prices
and those costs will eventually be passed along to consumers
(like I said, I'm also expecting inflation)
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