Deep Value Letter - Banner Ad / Email Capture

Friday, October 02, 2009

Life Rolls On

So the time is upon us and the end is nigh. As we all do pass to where we do not know and dare not ask, the regular season is coming to its end. The orioles have been god awful bad this season and again we end on a weak note. There are signs of promise but we need one arm and two bats to actually compete I shall watch the off season closely. Now I turn my eyes north with the fond hope the Yankees kick the shit out of Boston and take it all. Who else would I pull for? The Phillies? LA? Not much chance of that. Give me the legacy of Ruth Gehrig mantle and DiMaggio as we move to the playoffs.

We have play off baseball and football this month. As a sports fan it is hard not to love October. The Ravens are good, Navy is average and Maryland sucks but we shall enjoy it all. Flacco looks like Unitas out there and has the same proud humility. It will be fun watching the season. I have MD season tickets but have only watched one quarter. They are truly terrible. Love the fridge but he may have to go. Navy took one to much if a schedule this year but I think we get six wins and beat Army so that is a good year.

The market? Are you fucking kidding me? I have been wrong since March but right since 2007. The real estate and employment situation are still horrible and they are the keys to everything. How can you be bullish in an economy that is 70% consumer driven and the real unemployment rate approaches 20%? Achieving earnings targets by firing people is not a healthy solution. I catch a lot of shit for being bearish but fuck em. I am up over 60% with my too cheap not to own stocks and I never got over 40% invested. The bulls can buy the ticket and take the ride but do not bitch to me or ask for a loan when it all goes to shit. You have to be a fucking idiot to believe we are okay right not. We are not.

Stick with the cheap shit. You wont lose money with stuff like FLY,CRE and SGI. Cash on the books is comfortable. You can sleep at night and not lose money. Given Marty Whitman’s approach to distressed debt and track record you have t be an idiot not to put money in his new credit fund. But buy the market? Why not just hit yourself in the crotch with a hammer? Might hurt less in the long run.

Enough of those topics. Life rolls on and it is good. The poets rhyme and the singers sing. The books keep being written and the sun sets with a colorful display of life and its possibilities every night. There are smiles and the greetings of friends. Each day there is a daughters laugh and a sons smile to reinforce the feeling of a job done well and right. I do not claim to be a great parent bit I did not fuck up too badly as the lives and determination of those two attest. Soon they won’t need me any longer. Although that has been the goal I may still shed an imaginary tear or two when that day arrives.

I am living a dream I never thought I would have, I write. I trade and life is good. I have friends that most people never will. I have lived my dream the past two years. If it ends tomorrow at least I had it for awhile. I do not think it will as it turns out I am pretty good at this. I will ride it as far as it goes and try to expand it further. We have on going talks about a fund or newsletter or a combination therein, by years end I will figure it out.

So on it goes. Life is incredible right now. There is a woman who makes me smile every time I think about her. She is very private so I cannot talk about her much. Suffice it to say that the last time I was this happy and thrilled with someone gray hair was nowhere near the issue it is now. No names or details , just smiles.
Life goes on. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it dances. Markets go up, markets go down. The sun rises (so I am told I like sleep too much to ever see it) and it sets. Even when it hurts life it is glorious.