9/15/08 Stock Position Update - Market Turmoil Continues

Last week, I continued to take no further action based on my buy list and short list of 7/7/08. So far I have taken four long and one short position, which has been closed. Given the volatility of the market, I continue to be cautious for both purchases and selling short.

Due primarily to today's market losses of around 4%, the holdings have continued to decline. The overall portfolio is down 15.0% and the remaining holdings are down 25.6%, achieving a new low. The only positive still has been the gain from shorting Las Vegas Sands.

For reference, the stocks on my 7/7/08 buy list were: Potash (POT), Research in Motion (RIMM), Bucyrus (BUCY), Williams Cos. (WMB), Southwestern Energy (SWN), Hess (HES), and Range Resources (RRC). On August 8, 2008, the system gave a sell signal for Williams Cos. and it has dropped off the buy list. On 8/22/2008, Range Resources also received a sell signal. The stocks on my 7/7/08 short list were: Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Sears Holdings (SHLD), and Life Time Fitness (LTM).

	From My Wealth Builder 7/7/08 Buy List
Stock [purchase date]	Shares	Purchase Price	Price on 9/15/08
Range Resources(RRC) [7/10/08]*	50	$58.17	$41.58
Potash (POT) [7/18/08]	10	$215.09	$154.10
Southwestern Energy (SWN) [7/18/08]	50	$39.46	$29.96
Potash (POT) [7/24/08]	10	$192.02	$154.10

*Range Resources received a sell signal on August 22, 2008. I plan to sell it once it reaches the original purchase price.

At this point, I will continue to hold these stocks. Although I am extremely tempted to buy more as the stocks decline, I will make no additional purchases at this time.

	From My Wealth Builder 7/7/08 Short List
Stock [short date]	Shares	Short Price	Price
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) [7/7/08]	100	$38.10	closed 7/11/08 @ $33.69

I have only able to short Las Vegas Sands so far, which I have closed. I won't be shorting Sears Holdings and Lifetime Fitness since both stocks need to be "rented" from a shareholder for about 0.1% a day and a minimum of $50,000 needs to be shorted. Too expensive for me to short. I need to find other stocks for shorting.

On 8/15/08, Las Vegas Sands closed at a short term high of $56.30. It closed at $35.33 on 9/15/08. It appears I may have missed the opportunity to short this stock again.

The market continues to be choppy. All three indices have been in bear market territory. As of the close on 9/15/08, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices were respectively down 17.70%, 17.81%, and 18.77% year to date. The three indices are below the second bottoms of 15.2%, 15.58%, and 14.63% in my 7/14/08 Stock Position Update. Unfortunately, I don't think another bottom has been reached yet.

I continue to believe that the probability of a recession in 2008 is relatively high, if we are not already in one. The multitude of negative factors will eventually outweigh any actions by the government and financial institutions. Originally, the Fed interest rate cuts and other actions led me to expect that the bull market would last through summer, 2008. However, the economic data of the first half 2008 has caused the bull market to end earlier. I expect the market to continue to be choppy in 2008 with many short term rallies and declines.

For now, I am shifting to more cash and I will also try to create a short portfolio in my trading account. I will continue to maintain my holdings managed by our financial advisor, and plan to sell a duplicated funds during any strong rally which may occur.

Disclosure: At time of publication, I am long Range Resources, Potash and Southwestern in my trading account. The managed accounts are long Research in Motion, Range Resources, Williams Companies, Hess, and Sears Holdings.

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