Unfortunately, life is what it is. For me, work has just gotten too hectic for me to maintain this blog. While I have enjoyed the last 4 years with all of you, I just don’t have the time to post any more.

Feel free to comment in this last lonely thread, or you can go to Marshall’s blog, MFI Diary. He is a good guy, and a savvy investor, so I think he will take good care of you. While I may not agree with him on every stock, most of his picks are pretty good, when they aren’t awesome.

I am not giving up on investing. To the contrary, this blog has been a wonderful learning experience, and I would recommend it to any of you. My main advice to anyone starting a self-investing blog would be: Maintain a thick skin, and be prepared to listen to a lot of suggestions that just aren’t you. In other words, people will frequently give you tips that won’t suit your style. If you follow those tips, your results will probably show it. But there are also people whose investment tips will suit your style. And that brings us back to the purpose of setting up a self-investing blog: To really learn your own style. I feel comfortable in my investing “suit” now.

Mind you, this doesn’t mean my own style won’t continue to evolve in the future. At the moment, I have a comfortably conservative daytrading scheme (which is still evolving) combined with a long-term value approach. A year from now, this could change.

I wish you all the best, and I appreciate all the time you folks have dedicated to me and my blog. Farewell, and God bless.

Reminder: U.S. markets will be closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Time for the long weekend open thread, where you can talk about whatever you like.

For the last of this summer’s one-hit wonders, I am going to push the limits a little. Murray Head originally reached #14 on the U.S. charts in 1969 with Superstar, from the play Jesus Christ Superstar:

Head played Judas Iscariot in the play. But he had a much bigger hit 25 years later, in 1984, with One Night in Bangkok, from the play Chess. The song reached #3 on the U.S. charts, and #1 in 10 other countries:

The music for One Night in Bangkok was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA (who knew a little bit about writing international hit songs), while the lyrics were written by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice. Rice is known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber (i.e. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita). So One Night in Bangkok has a good artistic pedigree.

Unfortunately, this song also gets a William Shatner award for worst cover, from Mike Tyson (yes, THAT Mike Tyson) in the movie Hangover 2:

However, there is a runner-up for the Shatner award: Robey, an actress (best known from the syndicated Friday the 13th tv series) who thinks she can sing:

At least Tyson’s version was mercifully short, and played for laughs. Robey doesn’t even have that excuse.

Enjoy your long weekend folks, and I’ll see you next week! I am outta here!

Ed’s IRA: -0.22%
DJIA: -0.25%
Nasdaq: -0.26%
S&P 500: -0.17%

UPRO: -0.14 to $122.14 ( -0.11% , -0.38% overall)– bought at $122.60

Ed’s IRA: -0.11%
DJIA: 0.09%
Nasdaq: -0.02%
S&P 500: 0.00%

UPRO: -0.32 to $122.28 ( -0.26% , -0.26% overall)–bought at $122.60

Ed’s IRA: -0.12%
DJIA: 0.17%
Nasdaq: 0.29%
S&P 500: 0.11%

In case you are wondering, I am letting the UPRO run overnight, and possibly into Thursday, as the daily momentum is still bullish.

Ed’s IRA: 0.00%
DJIA: 0.44%
Nasdaq: 0.41%
S&P 500: 0.48%

This week we return to my previous theme of “summer of one hit wonders” for the weekend open thread, where you can discuss any topic you like.

Today, we look at Nick Gilder. Although he did chart as the lead singer for the band Sweeney Todd, his solo career had only one number one hit, Hot Child in the City, back in 1978:

According to a Rolling Stone interview with Gilder, this is why he wrote the song:

“I’ve seen a lot of young girls, 15 and 16, walking down Hollywood Boulevard with their pimps. Their home environment drove them to distraction so they ran away, only to be trapped by something even worse. It hurts to see that so I tried writing from the perspective of a lecher — in the guise of an innocent pop song.”

I question whether taking the perspective of a lecher provides a view sympathetic to the poor girls involved in teenage prostitution. Regardless, it does make for a good song, even if it screams for a Marilyn Manson cover due to the evil nature of the lyrics (sadly, he never covered it).

Speaking of covers, there haven’t been any covers of the song by big name acts. However, most of the lesser acts which have covered it seem to have little trouble (Note: If you are in a band just starting, this is a great song to cover!). But standing out from the crowd takes some work.

One of the few that does is a band named Int’l Male, whose version has a 70’s synthesized sound to it, and includes a cute little spoken riff in the David Lee Roth style (stolen almost verbatim from the Van Halen song Panama) which suits the song perfectly:

Enjoy your weekend folks!

Ed’s IRA: 0.29%
DJIA: 0.36%
Nasdaq: 0.12%
S&P 500: 0.29%

Ed’s IRA: 0.03%
DJIA: 0.35%
Nasdaq: -0.02%
S&P 500: 0.25%

No action from me today. I was buried in stupid people today. You know the kind: They look at a report dated a week ago and wonder why it doesn’t match the info in the live system today…

Ed’s IRA: 0.00%
DJIA: 0.48%
Nasdaq: 0.43%
S&P 500: 0.50%