Thoughts

It was a slow, range-bound day for most of the market.

The financial sector shined.

"I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown."

- Jim Morrison, The Doors

30-Year Auction Notes

The auction went well.

Another iPhone promotion -- this time BBY appears to be giving them away.

The one constant in 2010 (and in many previous years) is that optimism (on the part of strategists and investors) expands when share prices rise, and pessimism rises when share prices decline.

That helps to explain why the crowd usually outsmarts the remnants.

Case in point: the bond market.

Throughout the last six months, I have called shorting bonds "the trade of the decade."

I laughed out loud most of the day listening to the breathless commentary that the U.S. bond market should now be exited.

With the yield on the 10-year having risen from about 2.35% in late summer to 3.35% this week and the TLT dropping from 110 to 92, one could justifiably ask, Where the hell have these people been?

long AAPL