October 2004

On the Beach

Rico Manna of Rome, NY., joins hundreds of others as they enjoy the sun on Indiatlantic Beach, Fla., on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004. Debris from Hurricane Jeanne litters the beach but hasn't detracted the beachgoers from returning to the coast. . (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

October 1, 2004

I discovered a couple of dividends from last month.  Maybe I will go back and change last month's page.  But not now.  It is really a lot of trouble to keep up the books. Maybe when I get to Ameritrade, and can do Quicken downloads, it will be easier.  

I still have a little cash, and I may put it to work.

Looks like a Good Choice for Florida, if You Really Have to Live There

A circular house built by Deltec Homes is shown overlooking Asheville, N.C., Tuesday Sept. 28, 2004. The circular design along with extra-strength connections that bind roof to wall to foundation back up a design that means none of the roughly 1,100 Deltec homes sold in the past 12 years have collapsed from high winds, which is a big selling point for people who are looking to build a safer home in high-wind or hurricane prone areas.(AP Photo/Alan Marler)

Nice day in the market today.  A sudden explosion to the upside.  I put my last $55,000 into RYMKX.  Now maybe there will not be any more sales until Ameritrade does the transfer.  As of close of business today the account is frozen.  I wonder if I got the RYMKX.  As of the close Monday, everything in the account will be settled, and the transfer can begin.  I just hope it happens quickly.

October 2, 2004

I did get the RYMKX.  My wife says now that the account is frozen, I can relax because I cannot trade.  I say that I will worry because the account is frozen and I cannot trade.  Different points of view.

Political Pumpkins

President George Bush's lantern, left, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's lantern, right, are seen during the Topsfield Fair, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004, in Topsfield, Mass. Pumpkin carver Hugh McMahon of New York City carved the lanterns. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)

October 8, 2004

Well, the market is down and my account is frozen and Merrill Lynch could have transferred it out sooner, but as usual that company cost me money.  Well, what can I expect from a firm that touted Donald Trump bonds for that hotel in NJ?  Nothing good, I think.

October 10, 2004

Excellent article on the situation in the war on terror.

October 16, 2004

Well, finally everything except RYMKX has transferred from Merrill Lynch.  I have no idea why that would not transfer, and it is probably a mistake on the part of Merrill Lynch.  In any case, I will ask for them to allow me to sell it and then transfer the cash out at some point.  Merrill Lynch has really cost me money on this - I would have had some losses anyway, but I would have gotten out sooner and with smaller losses.  Meanwhile, I would have sold RYMKX.

I did buy more GFI - and was rewarded so far.

At this point I have a few more things that finally moved over to sell.  Then I will look into starting some new systems, assuming that the market looks good.  The commodity-related stocks that looked so good suddenly fell apart when some of the commodities took a dive.  A lot of this does not make sense, based on the fundamentals, but why expect sense?

Most of the signals are on a sell.

The bookkeeping of taking care of all the closed positions is too much for me this month.  It would be really tedious, and I simply do not have the time.  Next month I will resume that.

October 18, 2004

Back to 100% cash (except for a tiny position in KRO, which trades so thinly nobody wants to buy or sell).  This market is just too crazy.  Oil goes up but the oil stocks go down.  Steel is up but the steel stocks are down.  Time to be on the sidelines to see what happens.  Gold goes up and GFI is offered a buyout on excellent terms, but it goes down.  No way to make sense of this market, and no point in taking any risks at this time. 

October 19,2004

Not sorry about the stuff I sold yesterday, but went in with a few buys today.  Market looked strong at the open, but then sold off some.  It looks like the insurance stocks are the main reason for trouble the Dow and S&P.  I did remove one stock from the list because by 11:30 it had not traded a single share.

October 20, 2004

Well, the jury is still out on the question of whether or not I should have put money into the market yesterday, but the sudden collapse of DDN is very troubling.  Maybe it is just the nature of this market, or maybe it is just this month, but stocks have a way of collapsing suddenly, even after good earnings.

October 23, 2004

Bought some stuff in the morning on Friday; then walked downtown to the gym.  By the time I got back, the market had tanked big time.  I should have gone to the gym earlier and then bought around 3:30, if at all.

The A-systems are based on Zacks Number 1 plus CNBC top stocks as of about a week ago.  The B-Systems are based on the same lists, but as of a later dare.  The S-system is based on Forbes 200 best small caps - with some very thinly traded ones taken out.  There is some overlap in the lists.  The date is the day the system was started - trading began on the next day.

Who Says Men Don't Kiss?

Boston Red Sox (news) player David Ortiz (news) (L) gets a kiss from manager Terry Francona after their World Series (news - web sites) win over the St. Louis Cardinals (news), in St. Louis, October 27, 2004. The Red Sox won the game 3-0 to sweep the best-of-seven series in four straight games. It is the Red Sox first World Series win since 1918. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

October 29, 2004

Not a good day, with surprising losses in CHH.  Lots of profit-taking, I think.  Overall, not a good month, and I estimate that the delay from Merrill Lynch cost me $20-30,000.  There are sufficient positive signals to where I might buy more things, but I have decided to wait until after the election.  We could easily have a terrorist attack over the weekend, or on election day.

Merrill Lynch still has about $9,000 of my money.  I wonder when they will transfer that.  [Ed. Note:  This turned out not to be true.  See November's Journal.}

Do you need to be protected from the terrible secret of space?