Housekeeping, market roundup and what I am thinking...

Housekeeping Time.

Lot’s of opinions and trades initiated here the last month and it is only fair to do some follow-up and housekeeping.

I am eating some crow on my awful art purchase at OneThousandPaintings . Based on the drastic slowdown in sales since I posted about the idea, I will have to take ownership of this “art”? It is not even that great a story right now as it died so fast. Someone must die or lose an ear quickly for this to regain momentum. Sorry to those that followed my lead here!

It looks like I should have been buying oil stocks a few weeks back. I believed the price of oil coud leak 20 percent and play catch-up to the declining stocks. Theory was o.k., but dead wrong as oil prices surged and the stocks caught a good bid.

I should have held on to my big gold trade a little longer. A few days makes a big difference in overall returns. I deleveraged a few days too early from Gold and Russia but both were still very profitable trades covered in many posts. Here were my thoughts and I stick by them .

I am happy to have traded out of most of my Apple in the 60’s and 70’s and explained in depth the reasons and why it is important to separate the Company from the price.

Tech IPO’s – Bad

Gold and Explration junior pools – Hottest topic of conversations in Canada. Funny how completely out of touch you can be when you move from your normal conversations to a new routine. At lunch today, I talked with Canadian Investment bankers who you would think never heard of tech. Drilling and ground yields are the lunch conversation in Toronto.

GPS – Good (garmin hits new all-time highs)

Blogging – Good, but maybe headed to rock bottom on the way to GREATNESS .

Google – Good (GBuy) Don’t believe everything you read in the blogosphere.

In case you have been away, Google is a mere 12 percent from it’s all time high depsite the bashing it continues to take from the tech nerds in my blogroll, and mainstream media.

Again, I urge you to look at the price action and behavior of the stock to the news – NOT THE NEWS.

The Google haters chasing page views on their blogs are fun to read, but almost always wrong. They are too close and conflicted to every Google announcement, much like CNBC is too conflicted to deliver good stock market information.

Google’s GBUY sounds like a huge winner to me. It needs a lot to happen, but it is a big idea. My favorite outline of the announcement and GBuy’s potential is here.

Charity – Good things happening – Bill and Warren’s most excellent adventure

Oil – $74 – This tax is going to have it’s day on us all. Don’t get complacent.

Rates – FED will cut by the fall if not late summer. My Canadian friends have no belief in this scenario as it unfolds in front of their eyes. The meltdown in the US dollar caused by the FED;s fight to save housing will ignite the last leg of the US housing and building boom leaving the global newbiews with high priced American real estate before the rug is pulled out in 2010, 2011.

Happy 4th of July!