Still Surfing

I’ve been spending a lot of time surfing these past few days, and have neglected everything else.  Well,almost everything.  Last week, I bought FRE and FNM at fire sale prices.  My rationale, (and it wasn’t a gamble), was that while the rumors of them going belly up were all over the place, I looked at their paper and the spread with treasuries hadn’t widened a whole lot.  Since I figured that the bond market was yawning at the whole thing, I figured that it would be a good time to buy their stock. You know, the old saying, ”Buy when there’s blood in the street, sell when the trumpets are blowing”  Today, I got in from surfing, and while the trumpets weren’t blowing, sold both stocks at the opening.  I know it’s probably premature to blow out a stock that doubles or triples in a week, but I saw a lot of money on the table and took it.   

 

We have a good company here in Sarasota called Sun Hydraulics(SNHY) that’s known for making quality products. A local group of investors that I know want to start messing around with the stock, and invited me aboard to handle the logistics.  I respectfully declined, as I don’t really do the stock manipulation thing, and wouldn’t want to bear the wrath of the SEC anyways.  Plus, I don’t work for investors, having learned that lesson the hard way.  I should probably tell the story of the one investor (friend) I helped, made him a ton of money in three years, and ended up in a lawsuit where I ended up losing, suspended from the exchange for 30 days and paying a large fine from the CFTC.  I don’t do investors.  I’ll tell that story another time.

 

Enough for this lunch time post, as I hear the siren call of the waves.   The surf has been really, really good for a week.  John has been hitting the waves pretty hard also.  We’ve enjoyed surfing together, and have matching sunburns to boot.

 

We’re going over to Cocoa Beach in two weeks, for a couple of weeks vacation.  The place has been rented, and I’m pretty stoked.  I’ve been having a wild hair for awhile to go buy a shack on the beach over there for awhile, and might look while we’re over there.  The neighborhoods at the beach over there(south side) haven’t been gentrified like ours have, and most of the houses are from the late 50’s early 60’s.  It’s a kind of trashed out neighborhood, but then again, I don’t mind trashed out. 

 

I wrote a piece the other day over at Daily Speculations(which is on my blogroll to the right), about misleading surf reports, which is pretty interesting.  You ought to check out my blurb.  I called our local surf shop and they were calling the waves 1′.  The reality is that it’s 4-6′ and glassy ground swell, pretty epic conditions.  I’ll probably spend the rest of the afternoon hitting the waves.  I’ll probably spend tonight nursing a sunburn, and working on my book.

 

Speaking of my book, I’ve selected iUniverse as my self publisher.  It was recommended to me from some friends who know those kind of things.  I will be giving away a number of copies.

 

I’m getting the art itch again.

 

Jeff