Seems Like Wednesday

Not much is going on ... the semi-holiday on Monday had made today a slow news day.

Corruption continues: WSJ - "America's largest public-pension fund, Calpers, revealed that a former board member had reaped more than $50 million in fees for arranging investments that could saddle state taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The disclosure deepens concerns that alleged conflicts of interest are undermining state retirement funds."

New Ways Still Fail: WSJ - "Fewer than four of 10 fourth- and eighth-graders are proficient in mathematics, according to a highly regarded federal test given in early 2009, adding to recent evidence that the U.S. drive to become more economically competitive by overhauling public education may be falling short."

I suppose spending half their young lives playing video and other electronic games is part of the problem.

Perky Overseas Business: FT - "A Hong Kong property developer has sold a duplex apartment for a world record price, less than three months after the territory technically emerged from recession."

Don't be Americo-centric, listening only to US doomsayers. FT - "The recovery in China’s economy gained new impetus on Wednesday with figures showing a sharp improvement in the country’s exports and imports in September. The trade surplus also fell last month, providing evidence of some rebalancing of the economy at a time of persistent trade tensions over cheap goods from China, which is likely to become the world’s biggest exporter this year. "

Actions

I took some "sugar" yesterday as the strategy and tactics of the call option book paid off, for the correct reasons, no less. Specifically, good earnings at companies with significant overseas revenues were reported and continue to be anticipated. I sold the CAT calls for a 100% profit. A few days ago I had sold the GOOG calls for 100%+ profit, too. I plan to hold the rest for their earnings reports, but if they ramp up prior thereto, I'll take the sugar.

Dow 10,000 means nothing. A recovery of S&P 1200 does mean something, as that is the pre-panic, pre-beefer-Viking raid level.

Word of the Day

"Malefactor" - noun [$10]
Malefactor means a criminal, an evildoer.
Sentence: More and more malefactors are exposed in the world of finance. A crisis removes the easy money, so covering up their wicked schemes becomes impossible.