Interesting. Core-Satellite is pretty popular among the private bankers I know. Out of curiousity what is the average hold in your Core? And is your Core an asset class-based, mean-variance optimized portfolio or is it more a discretionary macro Core?

Thanks for sharing.

I would like to thank all of you for the high quality of the posts!

I had "sworn-off" forums due to several factors:

• Forum trolls
• negative people
• sound bite - no thought responses.

I am impressed with well thought out contributions here.
(You guys make it tough for me to keep my resolution of no forums! LOL )

( MUNIS and MBS)...WOW!!!

I'm beginning to scale into some shorts between 1238.50 - 1240.75 basis ES 03-11.

Top Ten Reasons I'm Getting Short

10) VIX on lows
9) Spain/ eurozone
8) rising interest rates
7) rising energy costs
6) 25% equity rally since July 1
5) bullish sentiment at its highest level since the Nasdaq bubble / put-call ratio indicates longs are un- hedged
4) low volume on upticks
3) NYSE TRIN at its lowest since before the 1987 crash
2) Relentlessly negative NYSE TICK action / one of the lowest Cumulative TICK closes of the year
1) economy still sucks

It's Rally Redux as Mr. Market jumps ahead during his nocturnal jaunts, only to rest, rotate, and revert, during the light of day. Having taken my shot at shorting this market, I can't help but feeling a little like Bobby Fuller, but it just goes to show ya, you can't fight the trend, you cant fight the man in the red suit and white beard (seasonality), and most importantly, you can't fight the Fed.

" It's time for the Fed "one trillion" hats- as of 2:00 pm Eastern, the Fed's Treasury holdings have surpassed $1 trillion. Add to this the well over $1 trillion in MBS and agency debt held by the Fed, and there is your perfectly quantified reason why the S&P has just hit a two year high, and why the Nasdaq bubble is alive, back, and will soon retest its 2000 highs. Basically, with the Fed the de facto purchaser of all securities with a yield of under 4%, the entire definition of a risk-free rate per the MPT has to be scrubbed. " from Zero hedge.

However, a cautionary note should be sounded for the New Year, as the banks have been taking the Fed’s POMO money and depositing the funds back with the Fed itself. With the the PDs At Rest, it could be Bull Remembered, as early as next year.

It's Rally Redux as Mr. Market jumps ahead during his nocturnal jaunts, only to rest, rotate, and revert, during the light of day. Having taken my shot at shorting this market, I can't help but feeling a little like Bobby Fuller, but it just goes to show ya, you can't fight the trend, you cant fight the man in the red suit and white beard (seasonality), and most importantly, you can't fight the Fed.
..
With the the PDs At Rest, it could be Bull Remembered, as early as next year.

Just for fun:
Est High= 1256.00
Est Low= 1248.50

Hi Everyone,

I'm planning to sell a gold coin (for cashflow) before month end, perhaps Wed 29th at the latest.
It's looking sleepy in the ES as we close in on Xmas with Thursday probably more cabbage - narrow range choppy trendless.

So I'm wondering if someone with wonderful foresight has an idea if we will get a Eurocrisis spike in gold before month end pushing it to 1425 area ? (1386 level at the currently)

Thanks in advance to all the sooth-sayers for their crystal ball inspired guesses!

After watching the cartoon video "Buy the dip" - thanks to whoever posted it, so funny so true - and connecting this with what you said;
don't fight the fed
don't fight the fat man
the reality, and unreality, of the situation is just so strong.

At another forum, there was a teenager who has made 4 pts every day on the ES for months! (hyperbole included gratis). I congratulated him, setting off a firestorm of 'watch out sonny there could be a big crash'. He responded that the Dow would have to fall to 7,800 to wipe out his profits. (THEN the firestorm really took hold). It calmed down when he explained (re-explained) that he spread bet (in the UK) and has his leverage set at 10 pounds per point - so 8 pts = 80 pounds. But the curmudgeons didn't like it - the nerve of this youngster out trading them.

He would just buy the dip. Then he placed his sell (about 10 points higher) and left it - no stop that I know of. Overnight, one day, two days -0 whatever it took to get filled. If it went down again before being filled, he'd buy another. No worries no stress off to his job at the pub to come home and find 8 crisp new 10 pound notes deposited in his account.

He's accumulated $48,000 (?) in profits. "Good old ES - gotta love it"

So the line from the cartoon, by the girl, "I've lost so much money shorting this market, I'm afraid to go long and have the market crash and wipe out what little I have left."

I have been totally convinced "this is the top" from 1147 (?). 100 points later and unbashed printing of money (oops Big Ben said not to call it that -stay away black helicopters!) I still enter the day with "This could be it - the big chance" - even though I tell myself logically I am unbiased - to once again suffer though another slow, demoralizing, relentless grind higher.

So as it inches to 1253 (about 10:15CT) I venture forth with hope once again for a medium to wide range day, knowing in my heart of hearts they'll out do themselves with another day narrower than yesterday.

Based on past experiences, whenever you hear of amateurs making hand over fist effortlessly like this, you know the game will be over soon. I've witnessed this so many times. Most recently it being Real Estate which has since taken a beating and IMO, hasn't finished the down trend. Stocks are right there in the mix of froth and ironically the entire move was caused by a false sense of demand just as real estate did with the help of the FRBNY providing daily liquidity to the PD's via POMO and allowing them to goose high Beta stocks giving the impression of a rally.