Gyroscopic Investing

I took advantage of yesterday's closing rally to close out some of my VP equity positions and lock in some long term capital gains.  Anyone else back in cash?  I closed out AAPL, ARMH, and some MCK.  The only VP position I am holding open is GDX.

I was able to lock in between 40-60% gains in these positions, although the last 2 weeks losses of 10-15% did not help.

I believe we are seeing the unwinding of a very long bear market rally that started in March 2009.  The bear market rally has been artificially levitated by Fed manipulation through QE, so now we are just beginning to see the realization that the secular bear market in equities is intact.

Storm wrote: I closed out AAPL...

I'm tempted to buy AAPL puts:


http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2 ... -king.aspx

"In the middle of the day, Apple briefly passed ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) to become the world's most valuable company. Afterward, Apple slipped back a bit, but make no mistake -- we witnessed the passing of the torch today."

Storm wrote: I believe we are seeing the unwinding of a very long bear market rally that started in March 2009.  The bear market rally has been artificially levitated by Fed manipulation through QE, so now we are just beginning to see the realization that the secular bear market in equities is intact.

It has been one of the most beautiful cyclical bull markets within a secular bear market that you will ever see.

Storm wrote: I took advantage of yesterday's closing rally to close out some of my VP equity positions and lock in some long term capital gains.  Anyone else back in cash?  I closed out AAPL, ARMH, and some MCK.  The only VP position I am holding open is GDX.

I was able to lock in between 40-60% gains in these positions, although the last 2 weeks losses of 10-15% did not help.

I believe we are seeing the unwinding of a very long bear market rally that started in March 2009.  The bear market rally has been artificially levitated by Fed manipulation through QE, so now we are just beginning to see the realization that the secular bear market in equities is intact.

Watching momemtum indicators using basic technical analysis, (not a seriuos TA fan other than trying to understand where we are in business cycle), then another way of looking at stocks is that the secular bear market started in 2000, and we have just witnessed about March near the level where MT was calling the top, the top of a cyclical bull.  Since March the bull has been decelerating and is now accelerating downwards heading into a cyclical bear within the secular bear.

More by good luck than judgement,  was selling stocks up until March, and am now cautiously starting to buy again.  However it may be premature to go in too heavily at this stage if the TA momentum chart is correct.