From the song, "Where have all the flowers gone?", I realized it has been several days since I really posted. It is actually one of my longest non vacation breaks in service.

I had to do the homework on the song. The first versus were originally written for a magazine, "Sing Out", in 1955 by Pete Seeger. Or you youngsters he was a folk singer from the 40s and 50s and a member of the group The Weavers. He and other members of The Weavers were deamed communists by some guy called McCarthy. (Makes you wonder how he would have dealt with Madonna and Rodstat now adays).

Seeger was a reader of Russian folk literature and may have borrowed some of the words from either the Russian poem "Tovchu, tovchu, mak" or the Russian novel "And Quiet Flows the Don". It is ironic that the song which would become considered on of the top 20 all time political songs originated in Russian literature. But I Digress, squared.

Yeah, it has been almost a whole week since I did a proper blog.

Devin and I have been slammed with every conceivable service issue in getting ready for the new house. So many people have helped, we could not have done it with out you.

Here is a short list of the people who have come and gone in the last week. Gardeners, AV people, carpet people, wood flow people, lighting technicians, cabinet makers, gas company, draper cleaners, alarm people, automatic gate people, fish pond people, water filtration people, painters, herb guy (I will get to that one later), and of course our ever present foreman Antonio who is been worth his weight in gold.

Despite all that chaos, we have really enjoyed almost every minute of the project. Saturday, we actualized realized this is a special place and it became really real when we received a flyer asking if our home was available for movie and television locations shooting and wedding services? Weird?

Ok yes I have solicited the services of an herb guy. Devin and I like using herbs and fresh vegetables in our cooking. It offsets the tremendous amounts of fats and cholesterol we using preparing all the tasty stuff. I can kill dandelions so I was not going to kids myself that I could grow vegetables and herbs.

The previous owners had a nice 25 foot by 16 foot herb garden and I thought I would call someone and ask how to get started.

Mike arrived and while Ben patiently waited Mike explained I could build some 4 foot by 8 foot planters. STOP! I cannot build anything. He then said they could build the planter for me. I said OK. He then explained the planter would be raised 12 inches. STOP! Can I get them higher and he said yes, they could build them 36 inches off the ground, and I said OK.

Then he said I could plant the planters with chives, tarragon, basil, . . . . STOP! I asked can thy plant the planter for me and he said yes. Then he said once a month I could cultivate and clear overgrown areas. STOP! I asked could they do that and they said yes.

He then explained how I could change out my plants with the change of seasons. STOP! I asked can they do that? And yes they can. Then he said I could go down each day and harvest the vegetables and herbs we would be using for dinner each night. OK, I can do that.

I was so excited about my herb garden. I told Devin and she just laughed. I do not have an herb garden, Mike has an herb garden. I told her that all we have to do is harvest the veggies and bring them up to the house and eat them.

My lovely wife looked at me and said, "I am a rancher or a cowgirl. I am not a farmer." She then asked me if I really though I was going to walk all the way down by the barn to pick chives for our baked potatoes? STOP!

The saga continues, but it is late and we must talk about this marvelous misguided market.

Stalling Before Falling

The DOW finished at another new record. We have added about 6 or seven new readers in the last month so I will temper some of the market speak down a bit.

Why does the market continue its creep up at this moment in time?

In essence, the economic data is, in general, very good. It has been decent for about 10 months. Jobs slowly continue to improve. Home sales and home prices are creeping up. The Beige Book (an anecdotal summary of surveys put out by the Federal Reserves 12 districts) today said some very positive things about car/truck sales and employment.

Inflation is curbed. Corporate profits continue to grow, but not at the pace of the last two years.

All of that has generated incredible profits for those who got in the game in 2009-2012. Unfortunately that was mostly big bucked funds. Many of the retail investors sold at the bottom of the trough and are now interested in getting back in the game.

Billions are now shifting from cash and bond accounts to equities and the trend is expected to continue for several months. Despite all the angst about the budget (which will get kicked down the road till September), and all the uncertainty in Europe, and the possible new worries about Venezuela, the euphoria of the markets high will get a lot of folk into the market.

Today, someone said to me, "I just wish I understood the stock market better." Participating in the market is not a difficult thing to understand. Here for many of the new readers are some simple things you can do to get in the game.

Read a book or two about the market basics. O'Neil's, "How To Make Money In Stocks" is a great start. Also read Cramer's Real Money. Both are real easy reads.

After that, start paying attention where you and others are spending money. You get up in the morning and you put on make up. Where did you buy the make up? If you happen to have shopped at Ulta Cosmetics, do you realize it is one of the hottest stocks of the last 18 months?

Do you like the new Blond Blend at Starbucks? After some serious setbacks, SBUX (the ticker symbol for Starbucks is steaming hot again.)

Have you used Open Table to book or check out a reservation for dinner? OPEN is one of the hottest stocks because you like to use them and restaurant owners find them easy to use.

Dominos, Walmart, Hess Oil, Home Depot, and TJX all have something in common. They all recently agreed to pay you more for owning their stock.

Without too much effort you can find companies you like to shop at that could be good investments.

So pick one of then and understand if and how they make money. Read a few reports about their latest earnings report and understand if they had a good quarter or a bad quarter.

The books you read will teach you how to do a basic evaluation of a company and its value.

Then decide how much you can afford to play in the market. Before you do, be sure you have good medical and disability insurance. If you have a company 401 K program, MAX IT OUT before playing in the market.

Then, do your homework on the price of a stock. Pick an entry point which might be below where the current price might be. We just waited about four months to get into RMD Resmed. Monday we got our entry price we wanted. We immediately set a safety stop to get out if the stock took a turn for the worse.

Making money in the market has a lot more to do with managing your risks than actually making money.

You also want to know where you will get out of the market. Recently, we had to suffer through a lot of ups and downs to see out 10% gain in MPW Medical Property Trusts.

Know when to get in, set a safety stop and know when to get out.

It is that simple, but most people will not put the time into reading and doing the homework. Many will get into the market now because the DOW is at an all time high. Most of my stocks are in positive territory at the moment. Many have double digit gains at the moment. As clueless retail investors start getting back into the market, that will be my signal to start taking profit.

We saw some of that today. Despite the euphoria today, the casino bosses (Hedge fund money and mutual fund money) was doing a lot of selling causing a bit of stall though the market inched up.

Am I saying this is a bad time to be in the market? No. I have a green flag flying and more people are entering the market. Just pay attention to signs that a correction is coming and be prepared.

  
Since 3/4/2013
Y to R 2/25/2013
G to Y 2/21/2013
Y to G 12/31/2012

I am not a professional investment adviser. Anybody reading my blog and investing accordingly must be out of their minds. I have made more money than I have lost. Except for a nasty VXX trade is 2012.   There are many more qualified people than I to actually tell you how to invest your money.

BAGAKOAA=Boys And Girls And Kids Of All Ages

Salve Lucrum=Latin for Hurrah for Profit.

Brian's estimate :

2013 Year Ending

Dow 14,361

S&P 500

1,610

2012 Year Ending

Dow 13,073

Actual 13,104

S&P 500 1,358

Actual 1,426

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