The Best of TRB: August 2011

I just want to thank you guys for making August 2011 a record-breaking month for visits to the site.  A blog is only as meaningful as the people who come back to it to read, comment and share the material – this interactivity is one of the key attributes that separates blogging from other forms of writing.

Out of 200 posts, these were the ones you reacted to the most this month…

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My crash rules were obviously apropos of the market’s activity in the first half of August…

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/19/downtowns-rules-for-surviving-a-crash/

And when the double-dip talk started getting louder, we took a look at the multiple recessions of the 1930’s…

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/04/think-1938-not-2008/ 

In the wake of Google’s out-of-the-blue buyout of Motorola, we talked about the difficulty in shorting stocks…

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/15/shorting-is-a-blood-sport/

And then I hit upon what I believe is the key to understanding this market right now:

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/15/the-only-thing-worth-knowing-right-now/

In ain’t easy being a renowned money manager like Berkowitz, the more success you’ve had, the harder it is to do your thing in the markets…

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/16/the-pain-of-running-money-publicly/

Did you grow up comforted by the Man Behind the Curtain’s existence?  Did the debt ceiling fiasco remind you that he simply isn’t there anymore?

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/06/the-man-behind-the-curtain/

Repeat after me: “Sell-side research is marketing.”

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/22/adventures-in-sell-side-research-hewlett-packard-edition/

If we knew all the bad news on employment and Europe for two years, why did it all of a sudden start to matter this month?

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/07/and-then-all-of-a-sudden/

I got bearish at the end of July and started lowering stock weightings and taking trading accounts to 100% cash.  It felt very uncomfortable to do as I relate below:

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/02/leaving-the-party-early/

And my personal favorite thing I wrote this month, about time and my inability to handle its swift passage through my fingers…

http://thereformedbroker.com/2011/08/14/i-might-lose-it/

Thanks again for reading this month and enjoy your Marxist holiday weekend. – JB