monday malaise, page-16

Babypie,

I'm firmly in the short bias, and have been for awhile now, despite the charts roaring higher, and the world citing "green shoots".

However, being short is dastardly difficult, especially when you are not infront of a screen to manage your positions.

Ideally, when you are short, things fall away and you buy them back at a lower price at a later date. However, the market being as choppy as it is, there is a great amount of luck/skill/anticipation in which markets/instruments you choose to short.

For instance, XJO may not react at all to a Dow fall, or may preempt a Dow fall by falling further during the day. If one is not at your screen taking full stock of multiple markets to see how they react to any given day, its best to clear everything and walk away. I suppose I could have maintained a small short position while I am away, but there are too many things that can go wrong.

Ceteris paribus, the market should decline a fair bit while I am away, however as always, there is an outside chance that something, someone, somewhere will have some news that will send markets sky rocketing. It's okay if you are on the ball and can react accordingly to change your view, but when you are hamstrung watching CNN (the only news cable here) and refreshing Hotcopper while you alternate between looking at the lycra-clad fauna and snoozing, its not the ideal position to run a multi short position.