The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

I really like that movie by Clint Eastwood, whihc was the best of the "spaghetti westerns" - so named because they were made by Italian studios and had many Italian actors, but they were really filmed in Spain I understand.

The Good
Krypto Fund - down a mere 3.24% year to date. The gold & silver is really helping with a small assist from the fixed income investments (mostly TIAA annuity of Mrs. B).

The Bad
Alpha Fund is down 17.4% year to date. That would be worse except for the recent rallies of miners and oils like DVN. By the way, that is not my low of the year. In $ terms the pain is quite severe. I suppose the trading gods are punishing me some for my pride from last year's great gains.

The Ugly
I have big postions in WB and C and they really are stinking up my Alpha Fund. My C is down 37% on average and my WB is down 21%. I really bought too much of those two last fall and am paying for that "buck fever".

What to Do ?
For the Krypto Fund I continue selling gold and silver and buying stocks. I might buy more municipal bonds, too, if the prices are good. For the Alpha Fund, I will add more money today and might look for some stocks like the trannies that I sold in January to concentrate in the banks. The Alpah Fund is larger than I want, but these prices seem like generational lows to me.

PS: Warren Buffet agrees with Bunkerman on hedge funds - in the agregate they are losers :-)

PPS: I plan to accelerate my gold & silver sales - I still have as much to sell in $ terms to reach my desired allocation as when I started due to the continued rise in gold & silver prices.

Words of the Day - the '-jures' and more

"Abjure" - verb [$10]
Abjure means to renounce upon oath; to reject solemnly; to abstain from.
Sentence: Was George H. W. Bush lying when he abjured raising taxes with his famous "read my lips" statement ?

"Adjure" - verb [$10]
Adjure means charge or request (a person) solemnly or earnestly, esp. under oath.
Sentence: In a trial in the US, the judge will adjure a jury to do its duty under the law, but in the US, a jury is all-powerful and can deliver whatever verdict it sees fit.

"Conjure" - verb [$10 for this meaning, which is #5 in my dictionary and is pronounced con 'jure forthis usage with stress on the second syllable.]
Conjure as in con 'jure means to appeal solemnly to (a person).
Sentence: Will Hillary conjure voters in Ohio for supporters in a dignified Monday night speech, or resort to the crying that worked in New Hampshire ?

"Sapient" - adjective [$10] (accent is on the first syllable and the "a" is long as in "bay")
Sapient means extremely wise and discerning.
Sentence: In his testimony last week, Bernanke was not sufficiently sapient for the markets, as a sell-off followed.

"Moechian" - adjective [$10,000 ! ]
Moechian means of or relating to adultery. This word is derived from the Greek word for adultery. I saw it in the book, "History of the Byzantine State" by Gregory Ostrogorsky on pages 180 and 187. The usage referred to a divorce and subsequent remarriage by an Emperor which created a religous controvery in the Orthodox faith, called a moechian controversy.
Sentence: I saw a new movie has been made about the affair and subsequent marriage of Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII of England, which began a moechian controversy that led to the creation of the Anglican Church. This event was quite similar to the 8th century moechian controversies of the Byzantine empire. Analogously, in that situation two Byzantine emperors attempted to become the leader of the faith, as Henry VIII did and succeeded in the 16th century in England. In Byzantium, the attempt failed.