Break a Leg for the Sunday Night Chat

I'm going to focus on a few health care stocks in the chat this Sunday night. Quite a number of you have already pitched in to help pay for the chat module, which I appreciate. Admin tells me he'll show no mercy to any freeloaders who show up, so don't say you weren't warned (just kidding).

Everyone's welcome, and I hope to see you Sunday night at 8 PM!

Sentiment Indicator Pinpoints Both Extreme Pessimism and Optimism

The Sentiment Indicator that I've created is not only useful for pinpointing times when the crowd is overly pessimistic, it also shows those times when folks are too optimistic. Remember that my indicator is based on a media survey and has no connection to the mechanics of the market.

SPY with MaoXian.com Sentiment Index, Weekly Chart

Down with DTP

We took Baby T to Beijing Union Hospital to get his final DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) shot and polio vaccine (oral). He doesn't like people in white robes so I demand that everyone he deals with take them off. He weighed in at 9 kilograms (19.84 pounds), which means he's still a chunk despite our daily exercise routine (I toss him around quite a bit).

Anyway, about an hour after we got home he broke out with a rash, mainly on his head and neck, including one sore on his right eyelid which closed up his eye. He was pretty good humored about it even though he looked like a fighter who had gone the full fifteen rounds and lost. I didn't panic (though I thought about it, lol) and the rash disappeared a little while later.

Inconspicuous Consumption

Amey Stone's latest article, The Get-Rich-Slow Scheme, is getting some wide attention. It hit the "Popular" list at delicious -- I've seen a ton of personal finance articles make the popular list, which shows you how much demand there is for financial advice. I'd amend her suggestion about making automatic investments in a mutual fund: be sure that you are automatically investing in index funds and not in actively managed funds.