I missed last month’s update (August 2008) given that I’ve only managed about one post a week over the last few weeks. The last two months have been easily the most volatile I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve managed to have experienced some pretty volatile times in my short investing career.  In last 30 days we have experienced over 10 days where the market has moved more than 3%.   The only comparable periods with this much volatility are periods in October of 2002 and after the 87 Crash.   The fall of 2002 was a time of rally’s rather than declines, and excepting the one day crash in 87, the market was not all that bad the rest of the year.  We’re in an ugly market.   My personal feeling is that there still much to get worked out of the economy.   I think further declines are in store.  However, i do think the worst is behind us.  What I do not expect is however a quick recovery.   Stocks are not only being battered because of the financial crisis, but the state of the economy.   I expect the worst recession that I’ve yet to see in my adult lifetime which admittedly has been a time of very temperate economic conditions.

Below is my historical performance for the last 10 months.


Brokerage Accounts: Accounts in which I pick individual stocks and some mutual funds. My IRA account(s) are amongst these accounts.
Asset Account: Accounts in which I managed on basic asset allocation principles. These accounts accounts consist of my 401k and Vanguard accounts.
All Classes: Total from all accounts