Thursday, September 25, 2008

Never...never..take things for granted

As an Alpha Strategist, I'm afraid I let my gaurd down this week.

Hurricane Ike decimated the Houston Energy infrastructure, in response I filled the tank to the brim, the crisis seemed to pass, facilities were back and operational fairly quickly.

Alas, that is true, but not the whole truth, it would seem that my region was at the bottom of the list to have gasoline delivered to the pumps, after two weeks, I'm running on empty, there is no gas to be had without a 1 hour wait time.

Needless to say, I'd be out of gas long before I made it through the line, so in a counter move, it is shanks mare and a ten speed bike to make up the difference, if a real emergency hit, I'd be reduced to Fourth World level unable to transport to the hospital or the pharmacy.

The lesson from this one is, never trust what the media says, or what is "normal" that is a huge mistake in a crisis, and failure to forsee these sorts of things will cause inefficiency.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fire! Death! Murder! Well...not exactly

The Wizards of Wall and Broad have finally cooked their own gooses, to many years of high risk, medium profits and bad loans...they got burned, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and a cavalcade of others, all no longer exist..

Hundreds of Billions in value....gone.

The Death of those Noble Houses of finances were no surprise, the effects will be felt for decades, centuries...eons...err...no it will not, the weak fail, that is one of the laws that cannot be legislated against, like gravity and God's Laws of personal behaviour, sure you can violate them, for a time, but the end result is...bowing to the inevitable (eww...grim...).

Murder! Which is what will happen to the average Go-Go 2000's family, their budgets are about to murdered in the contraction that will take place, we could see some minor deflation of commodities as losses in the US scare money out of the market and deflate prices.

Of course, as that money flees jobs go along with it, meaning if you have stocked the larder in your affordable dwelling and kept your bills low, the Alpha Strategy will pay dividends in the event of job loss/lowered income.

I see the Gurus on TV proclaming this a short term adjustment, they are quite wealthy enough to make that statement, but don't buy it for a second, this event will take time to be swallowed up in the rhythms of life, the easy credit Big Screen TV gas guzzling SUV life is about to face some attitude adjustments.

A bit of adivce though, if one is a Alpha Strategist, do not simply turn your back on Opportunity and gaze at your Alpha Savings Account, yes, it is nice security, now is the chance to go bargain shopping with that cash that is horded via bulk savings.

For myself, I can see some solid opportunities really solid ones, now that the preplanned Alpha Strategy is in effect, the next step is to look at one's own strategy for the next three years out in the face of Market that is cash strapped but value enhanced.

In 2002, I saw some historic lows, I still kick myself today for not dropping at least some money on companies that will not only pay a dividend, but also will appreciate.

Alpha's have won this round, it's the next round that should be looked forward to, don't fight the last war.