The Kirk Report

Bend, Oregon

As the market fell last Friday, we were out playing in the leaves in Bend, Oregon!

It was a nice trip, helped out in great part by a fellow member who was kind enough to share his insider insights on the best places to eat during our short trip. Thank you Mark!

We have been wanting to go back to Bend since we passed through on a road trip through the Northwest back in the summer of 1999. And, we were happy that we did. Bend is a nice place to visit, especially if you like outdoor activities (hiking, fishing, golfing, skiing). It was also very interesting for us to see how the colors change in the high desert in this area of the country, something neither of us have had the opportunity before now.

While the weather in the high mountains reminded us of winter in Minnesota, it was still quite beautiful.

All in all, a good time to get away and spend some time away from the market.

I know many of you found it interesting that once again the time I'm away on vacation the market takes a dive. That certainly has been the case this year both in July and now in October. Fortunately, I'm not planning any more trips other than at Christmas so we should be ok until then!

Pride of Hawaii

While it is nice to be back, we were able to enjoy the past couple of weeks away. For her Christmas present, we took my mom on a cruise. We sailed on the Pride of Hawaii through NCL which visited four islands (Big Island, Maui, Kauai, and Oahu).

Though we enjoyed the trip, I can't say we loved the cruise. NCL's "freestyle cruising" isn't something we liked. Overall, NCL offered poor service and food especially when compared with another cruise we've been on. I also think that if you really want to get to know and see the islands, taking a cruise really isn't the right way to do it. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our trip and I have uploaded a few photos for those who are interested (including one of me and mom in Kauai).

I should also say that because many know that we love visiting the islands, I'm often asked on travel suggestions and recommended activities when visiting Hawaii. If you plan on traveling there my suggestion is for you to pick up one of the guidebooks (one per island) by Wizard Publications before you go. We've used the guides religiously during our visits and found them incredibly useful. No doubt, you'll discover as we have that there is no better resource other than friends who currently live there (who also, by the way, use the same guidebooks).

Don't Mess With My Crackberry!

I'm reluctant to admit that I've finally joined the smartphone/pda revolution. Last week I ordered and received my very own Blackberry 7250 along with Verizon's BroadbandAccess EV-DO. I've had it about a week and frankly I'm not sure how I managed to live without it. (My wife already calls it my crackberry).

My reasons for buying one include the fact that I needed a backup high-speed wireless access so I can trade and access the Internet whenever my Comcast broadband goes down (which always seems to happen at exactly the wrong time). In addition, I have found that dial-up access, even when I'm on the road, just is no longer feasible. I've been traveling much more in recent years and I'm out of the office a great deal more time than in the past. So, ultimately I needed a much better solution.

Based on my conversations with many of you and after I started shopping for a new laptop (after my last one died on the trip to Hawaii), I found myself also looking into these devices. The Blackberry I ultimately purchased (which isn't the latest and greatest model, but sports a full qwerty keyboard which was important) allows me to feed Verizon's broadband access directly to my laptop or desktop computer for internet access when I'm on the go. While not as fast as my regular cable broadband, it is about 5 times faster than dial-up which is great. While my blackberry won't replace the need for a regular laptop, it certainly comes close at least for a backup. To be sure, Verizon's data service is cost prohibitive. Unless you can figure out a way to claim it as a tax write off (which I fortunately can), you're probably still better off waiting. In a few years I think Internet providers will figure out much more affordable solutions (perhaps through WiMax and widespread WiFi) which will help all of us stay connected wherever we are for whole lot less.

Dave Mabe, author of "Blackberry Hacks," was kind enough to send me a free copy of his book when he learned that I have one of these devices. Yesterday I spent a lot of time reading it and I found it to be extremely useful. The time shortcuts he provides there are alone worth the price. Those of you who don't know Dave may be familiar Stocktickr - a portfolio tracker that enables you to share your watchlists with others.

While I've never been a big fan of these PDA's or smart phone devices, they have finally arrived to a point where they merit some consideration especially if you need access to the Internet and your email out of the office. This is particularly true if you have discovered, as I have, that dial-up internet access on the go is no longer acceptable.

Technical Difficulties

The website is having technical difficulties today, so I've been posting to the members' only website instead. I hope to have the issues resolved soon, but it is currently out of my hands. :(

Investing Crossword

I'm not a big fan of crossword puzzles, but for something new and different, I thought I would create one for you based on the stock/investment theme. I hope you enjoy it, and more importantly, that you're able to come up with most, if not all of the correct answers.

ACROSS
1. Dealing in two or more markets at the same time in the substantially identical assets to take advantage of a temporary disparity in their prices.
5. Slang for an investment that yields disappointing results.
7. The money honey
9. A buy transaction to close a short position.
10. Known as the father of value investing.
12. Order of less than 100 shares of a stock.
14. An economic policy advisor that promotes the maintenance of low interest rates.
17. My favorite Hawaiian island.
18. A slang term for the FTSE 100 index.
20. A security whose value depends on an underlying asset, reference rate, or an index.

DOWN
1. The price at which a trader is willing to sell a security.
2. A measure of the volatility of a stock relative to the market.
3. The man behind Berkshire Hathaway
4. A pre-packaged food diet firm.
6. The oldest technical market-timing system still used today
11. Trader on the floor of the NYSE who is in charge of maintaining a fair and orderly trading in a stock.
13. A temporary recovery from a prolonged decline or bear market, after which the market continues to fall.
15. Portfolio managers really love this stock.
16. My favorite restaurant stock.
19. Finance professor turned investment-letter guru turned money manager.

When you're done, here is the list of answers.

Another Update

It is nice to see the market doing so well in my absence and I hope you are profiting from it! The news from here isn't nearly as positive. Unfortunately, the doctors currently think that the time my father-in-law has left is only a matter of a few hours to a few days.

The good thing about trading for a living is that it provides me the opportunity to be flexible enough to be with family during these difficult times. The bad thing about this website is that I've taken on the responsibility to help others navigate this market and when I'm not around, I feel that I've let you down. Obviously, I know from the numerous emails I've received this week, that you are very supportive of me and my family, and I appreciate that more than you'll ever know.

In time, I will return and we'll get back to business as usual. Until then, know that I appreciate the email and know that I'm looking forward to being back with you when the time is right. Hopefully that will come next week, and until then, enjoy life, be happy, and hug your family! And, best wishes for a very Happy Mother's Day!

We're Off To Mayo

This morning, shortly following my last post, I received a call informing me that my father-in-law is in critical condition at Mayo clinic. He has been having health issues of late, but the gravity of the situation changed for the worse overnight.

They say when it rains, it pours. And, for the time being, that is the case for us. My sincere apologies all around for the lack of posts on this "important" day for the market. We are headed off to the hospital and I'll return as soon as feasible.

No Blogging Until Thursday/Friday

Due to feeling under the weather, I will not be blogging today. :(

My goal is to return tomorrow or at least by Friday morning. In my absence, please feel free to look through my archives. As always, I hope you're trading well in this very difficult market. See you soon!

My Home Office

One of my goals this summer (beyond making a killing in the market), is to finally put our new home together (i.e. organize, decorate, buy furniture, etc.)

As many of you remember, we moved last July and even though we've been here for 10 months, we've done very little to actually settle in and make it a home. It isn't entirely my fault. My wife works full-time as a high-school Spanish teacher and for the past couple of years, she has also been a full-time student in a Ph.D program. Since I work +60 hours per week, it is difficult to find the time. I'm sure many of you understand. I can't imagine how some of you manage to do it with children running around!

Part of that goal also includes setting up my home office in the way I would like it to be. In the few free hours I have, I've been researching things like graphics cards, flat-panel mounting solutions, to multi-screen displays. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a desk that meets my needs completely. I may have to go the custom route, but that tends to be far too expensive.

If you're a serious trader and work at home, and would like to share your tips on building a perfect trading setup, I'd love to hear your thoughts. In fact, if you care to send me a digital photo of your current setup, I'd really like to see it. With your permission I may even post your photo in a followup post. Hopefully, by the end of summer, I'll be able to share a photo of my home office!

Tee Time This Afternoon

With the market in a continued funk, my golf partner Vince just called to let me know that he's got a tee time for us in about an hour. It is rare to be able to get a round in before April, so this is going to be a real treat. I'm sure it will be a comedy routine out there since I haven't swung a golf club for 5 months. But as the saying goes, a bad day at the golf course is better than a good day at the office. Have a great day everyone!