Alphas

When the stock market turns upward, you want lots of alpha. If your portfolio goes up today and it only went up by 2.5% at the moment, don't bother telling the cleaners.

Likewise, when the market goes down and your portfolio follows suit by the same amount, you have nothing to feel despondent for.

My 2 main portfolios are up 5% and 6% so I have every right to gloat. But the damage has been bad so the gloating is only for one day! While my portfolios have been hit harder, the difference is I buy when the market is down. Those stocks I bought on last Friday and Monday have gone up by around 5-10% today. No desperate idiotic sellers on Tuesday so I missed out on the trough.

Anyway, this could be a dead rubber cat bounce. But I doubt there is a depression around the corner. China and India are still powering ahead but slightly slower. And Japan needs a lot of raw materials from Australia for reconstruction following the tsunami and earthquakes.