Most likely I am preaching to the choir but I sure wish President Obama understood this. It is all too easy to blame “greedy Wall St.” What about the homebuyers, mortgage officers and most of all the rating agencies that really got us into this mess? And furthermore, how does any self-respecting economist expect to get us out by reducing incentives for top-notch work in the banks? Maybe it doesn’t scare you but hearing the government dictate salary caps feels like a slippery slope to me.

Today a very sophisticated systematic (quantitative) trader said “Discretionary trading wasn’t around before the 1980’s.” I am still stunned. Maybe he is 22 years old or something…. but can anyone explain this to me? He might have met “money managed in a discretionary manner” but still…….

At this point, it goes without saying – the entire world is gripped in fear. .. and for good reason. Forgive me for disagreeing with FDR but it isn’t that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” but “the only thing we have to fear is acting on our fear AT THE WRONG TIME.” Sometimes fear makes us act in a way that protects us – like if someone is about to assault us or we see a car speeding through an intersection (well okay in NYC we say to the car – “Dare you” – but that is – well – it is New York and we are “odd”.)

The facts are that no one knows what is going to happen and that it is clear, lots of people are selling. Does that make it seem like a good time to sell? Is it usually a good idea to do what most other traders and investors are doing? … The truth? It depends on your time frame. If like me, you sold today at 3:50 and covered at 4:00 then it was good to be doing what everyone else was doing. If you did what I did earlier, then it wasn’t (in fact I had some money to make back so thank god for that last swoosh).

Two questions you should always know the answer to -

1) What is my time-frame?

2) What is really driving me?

…the answers will always lead you to a better decision!