Missed the Excitement

They say that timing is everything. As of late, I have been absolutely fascinated by the wild stock market action and the attempts by the government to stabilize it. I've been trying to get home by 3pm each day, so that I can watch the final hour of stock market trading. I've been trading stocks on a small scale for over 10 years (for fun) and have been predicting a new short term low of 7,700 on the DOW for many months. As the market approaches that level, I will be SLOWLY buying.

My day started this morning with a trip to my accountant. There were a couple of last minute issues that she wanted to discuss as she was finishing up my tax returns for 2007. After clearing up these issues, I returned home to watch CNBC and fly my radio controlled helicopter. I stayed home through lunch and then headed into town to do a little work on my rentals. My first stop was at Lowes to buy carpet for 2 bedrooms and the hall at one of my apartments at the Pink Elephant. Within an hour after arriving at the apartment, I had both rooms of carpet installed. These were exceptionally easy rooms to carpet as they were relatively small and perfectly rectangular.

My next mission was to meet with a tenant at another apartment building. She moved in at the beginning of the month, but is handicapped. I initially signed the lease with her son because she couldn't be there when they moved in her belongings. So, today, I met with her and signed the lease with her so that the paperwork would be right.

Having gotten the paperwork straight, I moved on to the next apartment building where I needed to install a new lock on one of the doors. I completed that just prior to 3pm and started for home (to catch the last hour of the stock market). However, just as I was putting the truck in gear, the phone rang and my accountant said that she had my taxes done. Therefore, I drove to her office to pick up the taxes. We briefly discussed the various returns and also discussed the current economic crisis. She is just about as frustrated with our government officials as I am.

By the time I was on the way home, it was already 4pm. I heard on the radio in my pickup truck that the DOW was down over 600 points! Wow! That means that the DOW is down over 2,300 points in the last 7 days! That's a major drop. I don't know what I will do tomorrow yet, but I'm sure that something will come up.