24/03: Markets; catching-up

Quite too long since my last post; I had ambitions of running a daily account. Perhaps going forward I will be more successful.

Much interesting travel experiences in the last three weeks to eventually recount, including journeys to Dubai, London, Denver and Chicago. But those will wait for another day.

Some thoughts on the financial markets. As is self-evident, the last ten or so market days have witnessed a significant shift in sentiment, with the Dow up ~1000 points, or about fifteen percent, from its intra-day low. Chart patterns have been providing strong support for the rally, and the charts look promising for further market advances.

My own ability to profit from the action has been mixed. On the one hand, I took well-timed long positions in an aerospace firm and an airline just prior to the market bottom, holding them through some tumultuous periods of loss and finally selling (in dramatic fashion, from my Dubai hotel's public computer) for a handsome gain of nearly twenty percent -- though that's with the effects of leverage; I should add that I trade on a margin account. For the last week-and-a-half, though, I adopted too cautious a stance, reluctant to re-enter the markets for fear of a turn-around in the sudden bullish sentiment. I finally jumped back in today with a long position in a major bank, only to be rewarded by a precipitous decline of the share price into the close. We'll see what the coming days will bring.