Most mornings I’m up at 6:30 or so.
That gives me plenty of time to have coffee, read the New York Times and check on the pre-opening bell news.
For some inexplicable reason, I slept in this morning. But not only did I sleep in, I missed the opening bell for the first time in a couple of years.
As I’m hurriedly trying to make up for the time that can never be recovered, I’m not getting much inspiration. I haven’t, though, checked the Obituaries yet.
So far, the predominant coverage in the Times is the role and value of torture. I prefer, “harsh interrogation” methods.
Although I’ve been searching, I haven’t been able to find any derivitive trades off of torture. Those must all be privately held companies.
Torture, I suppose, comes in many forms.
The picture to the left is entitled “Chinese Torture”. That kind of torture may also come in the form of their IPO offerings. I believe that the ingenue pictured was a RenRen friend.
That’s why I’m so proud that I have no friends in my Facebook account.
But I have had my share of tortuous trades in the past.
Some of them were in companies that had the dubious distinction of being the largest percentage loser for its year.
I once owned L.F. Rothschild, a scion of investment banking.
Look that one up. It’s too painful to relive.
It is also painful to not have time to accept the fact that the market will be opening way down. That’s the problem with sleeping in. It was a little bit of a shock to see that the market was down 100 points before I even had a chance to fire up the computer.
Much less have any coffee.
I did get one trade off so far. I bought back some Textron $26 call options. That’s the second time for that particular trade for the May 2011 cycle.
But as I watch those shares of ZSL, the leveraged silver short shares, I kick myself for having covered those shares, as well.
Missed opportunities can be tortuous as well, but still, I’m not likely to give up any valuable information.
My real concern this morning is that I’ve noticed a very substantial decrease in the number of new Osama Bin Laden jokes hitting the internet.
I’m not much of a historian, but I think that the last time he died, that marked a market top and sudden reversal in fortunes.
I may be wrong on that count, but I’m willing to stand by it, as I watch my own fortunes fall this morning.
At this point, as we approach noontime, and man, it’s great to not have to work, I’m still not getting the inspiration I need. There really doesn’t seem to be anything special about today. No unique character, no defining theme.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a moment of boredom intrude on the rapid fire lives we live.
I’ve decided that for today, I’m just going to sit back, continue sipping away at the lukewarm coffee and wonder what happened to that piece of Cheesecake Factory dessert that was in the refrigerator.
That’ll keep me occupied for the rest of the day, at least until my wife gets home.
That’s when the harsh interrogations begin.