The markets have been in steady decline since the first week of June. The fact that I was mostly in oil & gas stocks saved my skin to a certain degree, however I did take a little hit as the O & G stocks didn’t go higher as crude oil hit record highs. It’s usually a good rule of thumb to unload or lighten up on commodity stocks when they fail to reach new highs with the underlying commodity. That’s precisely why I unloaded my entire portfolio and went short.
Going forward, I don’t see too many clear skies in the future for the stock market in general. The ongoing credit crisis still has far to go before all the problems are resolved, high crude oil prices continue to drag the economy down, and consumer confidence is very low. Stagflation anyone?
Again, I don’t try to make any predictions, but rather I just try to go with the flow. And every indication tells me that we’re headed DOWN. If I am correct, then my short positions in the TSX (via Horizons BetaPro ETFs) should perform nicely in the coming month(s).
