25/02: Markets, and my upcoming weekend travel

I've been sitting on cash for the last two market sessions and will likely do so tomorrow also, given a lack of free time during market hours. It's a pity, as the trading opportunities over the last few days in financial services stocks -- and particularly in Bank of America (BAC) shares -- have been extraordinary. BAC has been having epic intra-week price swings and unbelievable liquidity, epitomized by today's volume, which settled in excess of half a billion shares. Most promising of all, BAC's price movements are not altogether difficult to judge; the hypotheses of trendlines and support / resistance levels are being vindicated more often than not. To be sure, I'd not venture into a stock like BAC and then go hit Starbucks for a leisurely coffee break. Still, with a sharp eye to any price movements detrimental to his strategy, an investor can make money with BAC.

Shifting to travel, I have an ambitious schedule planned for this weekend. I've booked my first transcontinental journey on a Skyteam carrier, a move to take advantage of a recent status match to Northwest's Worldperks program, and I'll be visiting the cities of Minneapolis, Seattle, New Orleans and Portland, OR.

In contrast to my flying patterns of years ago, I no longer strive to fly to far-off airports only to return on the next flight out, a strategy that I once employed to rack up maximum miles while minimizing incidental costs. Nowadays, I like to enjoy my destinations, albeit at a frenzied pace.

I plan to arrive in Minneapolis around 10am on Friday and venture downtown on the light rail connection to work for several hours at a coffee shop. I'll then continue onwards to Seattle on a 5pm departure, where I'll hop onto the speedy 194 bus into the International District near downtown where some fabulous independent espresso bars are located. A red-eye to Detroit will await me afterwards, followed by connecting flights on Saturday morning to Memphis and onward to New Orleans. After visiting with a friend and overnighting, I'll continue on the home-stretch of the trip: westward to Portland, OR (via Salt Lake City) on Sunday morning for another day of working at coffee shops before jetting to Washington on a red-eye via Atlanta, arriving on Monday morning.

This will be my first succession of four transcontinental journeys in a row (after years of racking up too much experience on mere back-to-back transcon flights), and I'm excited. Of course, I'm also thrilled to soon sample the products of two airlines that I've hitherto experienced little: Northwest and Delta.