Stellium Blog

What To Do About Nothing

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:44:00 -0500

While news and views are mixed, the market hardly is. With every reason to do nothing, the market keeps doing something, and something is up! But, take care--when something is up and nothing is doing, even the best high-flyers can be overcome by inertia. And even Heaven on Earth can succumb to gravity if need be. Though there is little to be wary of, wary may just be your best bet for now. Put your money where your protective puts are as you otherwise throw caution to the wind, or lack thereof!

Thoust Treasury Taketh, And Taketh Away!

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:47:00 -0400

I absolutely love the way the "News" presents all Great Proclamations of those that rule the rubels--uh, dollars: "President Obama today announced new initiatives to give you more money for your retirement," she said gleefully. The low-down: Friends, you can now save YOUR OWN MONEY in the retirement account YOU HAVE FUNDED ALL BY YOURSELF with whatever little money YOU GOT BACK from your federal taxes from OVERPAYING YOUR THOROUGHLY DESERVING government in Washington, D.C.! Yes, you too can have more withheld from your taxes than you are required to and then save it (um, that was yours, right?) in your own retirement account, all without having to worry about Social Security, which we'd all rather you not exactly "count on." All of this is now possible because your Treasury has now granted you the liberating right to have your said tax refund directly deposited into your very own IRA! Wheeeeee! Isn't it just gooey? Oops, I almost forgot, you can have YOUR VERY OWN MONEY come back to you in the form of United States Savings Bonds. Now if that doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy then you're not all that red, white and blue, are you?! And to think it was all said with a STRAIGHT FACE quite sincerely into the camera. I nearly fainted. I don't know about you, but I'm planning to head right down to HR as soon as I get back from Labor Day (!) to have them change my W-4 to have more of MY OWN MONEY withheld each and every year from here deeply unto eternity so that I, myself, can have more of MY OWN MONEY directly deposited into my IRA approximately a year after I gave to the Treasury to hang on to for awhile, you know, and kind of warm up for me and stuff because this, most certainly this, will help me have a dreamy retirement. It makes me feel secure. How are you doing?

The Joy Within

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Determine to find your joy within without. As you make happiness more and more your everyday reality, you find that the manner in which this is done is relatively simple. Find those activities, sounds, sights, and thoughts that are enjoyable to you, and foster them, cherish them, challenge yourself to be with them, and open yourself to their influence. They are always there. The question is whether you reject them, hold them at bay, or draw them closer to your day-to-day existence. The choice is ALWAYS yours.

You may also find along this WAY that what you initially had believed was happiness or what was going to bring you happiness is much different than the actuality you begin and eventually experience, though what you experience is no less joy than that which you could have imagined. As you may currently believe that your happiness lies in material wealth and personal riches, you may eventually find that golden rays of cosmic exhilaration come to you through the oneness you experience with others, particularly the ("permanently" or temporarily) disadvantaged animal or human you happen upon in any single day. If Mother Teresa were asked (and most likely was) if she had a joyful life, undoubtedly she would have found it so, though she was surrounded--and chose herself so to be--by horrible suffering and doubt. But the ultimate faith is that the Universe wants and perceives your JOY. It will pull you through your suffering and that of others for a triumph of spirit and sharing of all forms of wealth in the end. So you must gather your wealth around you, transmit, and disperse it. But enJOY it so that you have something to bring to the table, for others are yet starving to share in your Great Happinesses.

In The Heavens Above Shine Stars Of Light. All These Shall Be Yours.

All This Talk About Capital Gains Taxes . . .

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:48:00 -0400

...when nobody has any anyway! If Obama or Clinton actually believe they can balance their budgets on the backs of America's investors, they'll have to find some with those illusive gains those earlier Clinton years took for granted. Latter-day Bush days are seeing none of that, along with five-dollar gas in California and one-thousand-dollar gold at the drop of a bracelet (which most Americans are now scrambling to scrounge up out of their rarely opened jewelry boxes in long forgotten drawers)! Ain't no sunshine when it's gone! And it IS going, going, ...

On a happier note, your bank notes are sitting right where they belong if you are sticking with Stellium. Our Five-Star Stock Portfolio went to cash 1/11/08, and--given market events since then--apparently for very good reason! Stay tight--the course will again be clear, but as Hal David once wrote: "Weeks turn into years, how quick they pass. And all the stars that never were are parking cars and pumping gas" at astronomical--and we know astronomical!--prices in San Jose and the rest of the world!

For Whom The Fed Bails

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:36:41 -0400

Well, somehow I don't quite feel that it was ME. How about YOU? A very Stearn message in a very Bearish market environment, don't you agree? It is one we could do without, but which JP Morgan will take at somewhat less than face value. The sky isn't falling quite today, but extremely ominous very dark, dark clouds are forming! The prospect of our Stellium Five-Star Portfolio jumping back into this fray (from the cash we wallow solemnly in) is dim. Cash should only be given up to gold at this point, and even that very little with a hawk eye on the proceedings. I wish you all good tidings and tidy, if modest, profits until things (or a November election) sort this market out.