13 Oct 08 Market Bounce

So the stock market is up today. It seems all the usual doom-and-gloom prophecies were wrong (again). If you have any money at all, sink it into the market. Just pick a stock. You would be hard pressed to find a loser. I play the motley fool CAPS over on fool.com. It is sort of like the fantasy baseball league of stocks. You pick stocks that you think are going to win or lose, and then based on your picks, your percentage “member rating” goes up or down as a result. Your percentage is based on how well you are beating the other fools. Its a great ride and lots of fun. I was at 50% last Thursday (meaning I was crappier then half and better then half the fools out there). But I made some picks on Friday that I knew would get me back to my high 80% numbers. Today I was supprised to see my member rating at 97.41%! If only I was investing with real money!

Seriuosly, get your money in now. Fools buy low and sell high, and you would be hard pressed to find a lower time.

Tags: Motley Fool, Stock Market

08 Oct 08 Various Musings

I don’t have anything specific to say… but I do have some general ideas floating around up there. I thought I would just put “pen to paper” and see if I could organize them:

• The stock market is sucking. I sooo wish I had a few thousand on me right now. I would sink it all into the market. Everything is so cheap. I bet you could throw a dart at a random stock, buy 10,000 shares and in 6 months be richer for it. In fact, I just thought of random lettering (J,K,L) and came up with a stock called iShares Morningstar Small Value (ETF) whose ticker is JKL. It is currently trading at $56.53. Lets see where it is at in six months. So on April 7th, 2009, we will come back to my bet.
• I bet John McCain is pissed that George W. Bush just cost him a second election. Recent polls have McCain lagging behind whats-his-name. I think the most common reason is that people just can’t stand the idea of another republican in the white house despite the fact that they may like McCain. I would even argue that for as much as people hate Bush, McCain is doing pretty well. But it looks like he won’t win, and he can blame good ol’ G Dub for that ;-).
• Its October. Yeah, I know that is obvious. I bring it up because I love this time of year. The leaves are about to turn, and the air is cool and crisp. Campfires are the rage, and I’ll get to start snuggling with my love for warmth. Unfortunately it also reminds me that winter is coming. I can’t stand how in this state the wind only blows when its winter and freezing. In summer when its hot and sweltering, you can’t find a breeze to save your life.
• I need to get off my rear and get a new certification under my belt. I just completed my CCNP (Cisco Certified Networking Professional) in May, but I haven’t really studied anything since. I feel like I should get my CCDA/CCDP and maybe even the CCNA Security. I don’t know. My long term goal is the forever distant CCIE, but it just seems so insurmountable right now. It makes me think an easier certification might help and get me better pay in the mean time.

Well that is about all I can stand for now. I’ll try and keep my thoughts on track for the next one.

Tags: Certification, Cisco, George W. Bush, John McCain, Stock Market, Weather