Down goes the Dow

Down 2.78, but how much gain did you miss out on by not taking a plain-jane total stock market index fund? That's often the real kicker - missing out on favorable market gains.

In graduate school I had a textual literature class taught by one its premier scholars, Hershel Parker. In Parker’s work Moby Dick as Doubloon he recounts this story in his research. At the time Herman Melville was writing Moby Dick the novel was following the format of his previous South Sea tales. Melville then went on a picnic with Nathan Hawthorne and their wives where they reportedly disgusted metaphysics, heavy topics like original sin. Anyway, after the meeting the manuscript was revised to the classic it has become.

Thanks Sally and Seattle. The tile work is 2000 along with the rest of my house. My nephew found it a little too 90s, but fits our decor.

In regards to the cleaning, the muriatic acid 4-6 parts water to about 1 part acid still requires multiple coatings and scrubbing to remove the soap scum. That was the hardest part. The resealing worked best work with no more than about 8 tiles. That way the excess is easily wiped off with a damp rag or microfiber shop towel (on sale now Costco 36 for $13.50).

I liked that period of literature a lot. So much so, that I did a double major in college including Literature. I wasn't very accomplished in it, but I enjoyed it.

Of Hawthorne, I remember reading his short stories - Twice Told Tales> I think I may have also read his House of the Seven Gables, but The Scarlett Letter for sure,

Good stuff.

The neighbors remodeled their bathrooms with the units promoted on TV. Also, covered tile with laminates, and used the same material over their living room and kitchen hardwood floors. I thought it a shame personally, and far more expensive than if they took care of what they had. Any tub can be painted professionally, look new, and last a decade.

I should read more than I do currently. Just doing other stuff, I suppose.

On another side note, the Moby Dick story likely originated from the sinking of the whale ship Essex by, you guessed it, a whale. Again, part of Hershel Parker ‘s work.

en.wikipedia.org

Essex (whaleship)

Essex was an American whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, which was launched in 1799. On November 20, 1820, while at sea in the southern Pacific Ocean under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr., the ship was atta...

Open link

Loved Benito Cerreno.

I kept all the original stuff worth keeping including mosaic tile floors, which are a nice detail. To keep it brief- I went overboard on ours - with salvaged old growth vertical grain fir for the wood, built everything, including a wainscoting made with an antique beading hand plane i bought. I used the classic subway tile in the bath/shower. Orig. wdo's are multi-sash, and I restored them and refitted the panes with semi-obscure handblown art-glass panes for privacy. And like you said, I had our original cast iron tub repainted, and it's still holding up well to this day.

I guess If I had to do anything at this point, it would be to rework a couple of details.

A decade?! What kind of tub do you have that only lasts a decade?

Seattle,

I love that detail. There is a reason they build houses today with the minimalist “form follows function” or Scandinavian architecture. It is cheaper. Roof lines simple, eaves shorter. I was raised in a house like that, designed by my father. Like something out of Sunset magazine. My wife’s family lived in a 1946 California cottage style house. Their furnishing were traditional, homey to me. When my parents transitioned or passed away I was more than happy to give most of the Henry Miller style furniture to my brother, save a few that went to our daughter. On the other hand I have refinished multiple hand made pieces from my wife’s family that others passed on.

Igy

I'm a big fan of "Scandinavian architecture".

Tomorrow will be interesting, NVDA reports after close!

I actually like this analyst - worth following. 9ish months ago he thought the economy would start slowing because of that the Fed was doing. Hasn't happened yet! The US economy is proving its 'supertanker' status. It takes a mighty force to knock it off course.

Bob Elliott
@BobEUnlimited
My guess is today will mark the top in the ‘no landing’ scenario narrative.
Market based tightening with much more duration supply coming. Tighter for longer Fed. And cyclical sectors starting to turn back over again.
A recession is coming. Sooner and harder than most expect.

6:29 PM · Aug 24, 2023
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527.2K
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a year ago with over a million views:

unusual_whales
@unusual_whales
Stan Druckenmiller has said: “I’m sitting here staring in the face of the biggest and probably the broadest asset bubble, forget that I’ve ever seen, but that I’ve ever studied.”
10:51 AM · May 11, 2023
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1.3M
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and

“Our central case is a hard landing by the end of ’23,” Druckenmiller said at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Investor Summit in New York City Wednesday. “I will be stunned if we don’t have recession in ’23. I don’t know the timing but certainly by the end of ’23. I will not be surprised if it’s not larger than the so called average garden variety.”

May 2024:

So what were Druckenmiller’s biggest moves among well-known stocks? His largest addition was call options on the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) , establishing a position equal to 15.1% of his portfolio.

now:

SP500 +circa 29% since Druckenmiller called it a bubble. He was wrong in an investing sense, and has since established a very large position in small caps. Good to admit you got it wrong.

You rarely see that.

Did somebody say something about Nvidia announcing earnings today? Hmmmm, checking.....

Well, I guess that "bear market rally" won't be ending just yet.

I thought Wall Street was supposed to be mindlessly optimistic all the time.

A year ago - doubling down on predicting a recession that we now know never came:

Carl Quintanilla
@carlquintanilla
B of A: “Economists have been talking about recession risks for more than a year now and yet it never seems to arrive. Is it time to throw in the towel? .. not close .. consensus sees a 65% chance of a recession in the next 12 months, and [we] assume a similar probability.”

10:32 AM · May 23, 2023
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30K
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Pretty much everything with a price on it is down today...except big tech. People are selling just about everything to raise cash to buy tech. Stocks, bonds, gold, BTC.

Very difficult for allocators (like me. )

I am guilty of that. I have a lot of mutual funds/ETFs/stocks and the only ones I track are the high tech stocks. The others will go up as the market goes up.

Funny you should mention that because I had the urge to clear out some lagging non-tech stocks I have with the notion of reinvesting in more tech, but tax considerations are restraining me. But there was definitely that urge, so I think you're onto something there.