Yesterday, the market was up a lot on lower volume. Today, the market was down, on generally higher volume. This is not a good omen. Nothing is certain when it comes to predicting the direction of the markets, but the odds are that the downturn still has some way to run. No change in the portfolio for tomorrow.

The market soared today but the volume was less than impressive. All-in-all, not a performance that inspires confidence. I’m still in the game, though. None of my funds have hit sell points and my stocks were mostly sold for gains. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

The Dow was up. The S & P and the Nasdaq were down. Where do we go next? Nobody knows. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

The selling has ended, for one day, at least, though I wouldn’t get optimistic. The volume was down, which indicates something less than confidence on the part of the institutions. Still, every new uptrend starts with a single up day, so we are allowed to hope. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

A miserable day on high volume, the fifth down day in a row. The fact that the European debt crisis is not over is finally coming (again) to the market’s attention. Couple this with the poor jobs numbers and fear has overtaken greed. Safe to say we’re now in a correction. Three of my four stocks hit their stop and were sold today. None of my funds have hit a sell point yet, but they’re all getting close. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

It was a lousy day in the markets, presumably fueled by Friday’s lousy jobs report. The market is looking increasingly shaky here and so I’ve raised the stops on my four stocks. If we have a good day tomorrow, then fine, but if we continue to go down, I don’t want to lose the nice gains that I’ve accumulated. None of my funds are close to sell points yet, so aside from raising my stops on the stocks, no changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

A few up days, a few down days. The market is back to where it was 3 weeks ago. This is not necessarily bad because we’ve come a long way in  the past few months, but this sort of action, while it does not induce despair, does not induce confidence either. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

A very bad day in the market, fueled largely by renewed fears regarding European debt, Spain this time, not Greece. Since the European debt crisis is nowhere close to being resolved, I suspect that we’re going to have a lot of days like this in the future. The question is whether there will be enough of them in the near term to derail the uptrend, or whether the whole thing will simply simmer along at a low enough heat for the uptrend to continue. We’re not yet at a sell point, but a few more days like this and we will be. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

The market was up today but the volume was unimpressive. Most such markets soon find themselves going down unless the volume picks up. Still, a good day is always better than a bad and it’s way too soon to declare an end to the bull. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.

The first quarter of the year is over and it was a very good one. Since we are only about 40% invested in stocks and stock funds at the moment, we shared in the uptrend but did not match the market’s performance. This is not a problem. We are defensive investors and our strategy is primarily designed to participate on the upside but also to avoid big losses on the downside. If the bull persists, we will judiciously add to our stock positions, and will thereby participate more in the future. However, we have been going up since October and this is a long time for a market to go up without a correction. Friday was a mixed day and we’ve been backing and filling for the past two weeks, with little real change. What will next week bring? No way to know for sure, but we’re in an uptrend until the trend changes. No changes in the portfolio for tomorrow.