On Monday evening, after a grueling 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of a computer, barely moving from the spot since I was contemporaneously dealing with my normal life (writing posts and trading) and my very abnormal life (screaming blue murder at my hosting platform for all the technical troubles we were having), I treated myself to cleaning a large pot in the kitchen sink that my wife had used earlier in the day to cook our dogs a big helping of chopped-up steak.
See, I like cleaning. We’re talking Felix-Unger-levels of enjoyment. So, I set about the task, scrubbing, rinsing, scrubbing, rinsing, and then with just a little water still in the pot, I swirled in enough white scouring powder to really do the job right.
I let a little more water into the pot, and I swirled the bristle brush along the smooth inner rim at the bottom, giving the entire thing a nearly mirror-like finish. I rinsed it out a few final times, grabbed a fresh cotton towel hanging off the oven’s handle, and vigorously dried the inside.
After an absolutely wretched 36 hours grappling with computer issues, putting a perfectly clean pot away was easily the highlight of my day. You have no idea how therapeutic it was to have total control of the situation. I didn’t have to beg the water to come on. I didn’t have to pray that the powder would come out with I shook the container. I didn’t have to plead for something to dry the pot with. It was all there, ready to use and working as designed, and I was in total control of the situation. Finally.
Pot-cleaning notwithstanding, the only other decent aspect of Monday was that, in spite of another rage higher in Chinese stocks, my entire portfolio did great. I held out hope, however, that – – fittingly – – the ancient Chinese expression that trees do not grow to the sky would hold true here and, as I stand here now on Tuesday morning, that once again seems to be the case.
Almost instantly, an entire week of wrong-headed, ill-advised price gains in Chinese stocks were blown to smithereens. I notice that the bearish instrument YANG, an ETF I didn’t even know existed until a few days ago, was up about 35% pre-market. Of course, anyone with a lick of sense would have known that, once a certain pudgy, bald blowhard uttered the words, it would soon be over.
The world being what it is, I can see that they’re already trying to undo the damage to China, but I think it’s going to be a futile effort. As I’ve been harping on about, what’s taken place in the past couple of weeks is the equivalent of the Dow going up 18,000 points in the same span of time, and it’s just plain dumb.
JD.com is getting destroyed (which is a good thing).
As is PDD Holdings…….
And Yum China, whose business model is shoving horrid crap from Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell into the poor, unsuspecting mouths and bellies of Chinese citizens.
It isn’t just about China, however, pleased as I am about that. The U.S. market as a whole, in spite of its government-sanctioned thrusts higher, is STILL engaged in a steady series of lower highs, illustrating the waning strength of the market.
I sense a good day ahead. If not, there’s always another pot to clean.
Bon Ami
