Sometimes I think that Colorado is not such a bad place - geographically. No hurricanes, few floods, no earthquakes. Just fires. Oh, we all have our problems don't we? That inferno in Colorado Springs last year was enough to shake most of us natives up. We even had an order to be prepared to evacuate in Boulder where my daughter lives. Fortunately that didn't come to pass. Mother natures ability to wreak havoc is well documented just as man's ability to do so is as well. Adversity is always around us. I empathize with each of you dealing with this latest tragedy.

The markets meandered through the day after yesterday. Little conviction to go up or down. Some would say that was a victory. Maybe it was. What I always consider is time as an enemy or a friend in the markets. Right now it is the friend of the bears, not the bulls. If too much time passes without a serious lift out of this malaise that favors the bears, not the bulls. Time eats away the extremes. It gives the market time to catch its breadth. It cleanses the stretch marks from a leg up or down that was overdone.

So, with today Thursday in this shortened week of pain and havoc, we have lots of earnings data being crammed into three rather than five days, an employment report tomorrow and the need to vote next Tuesday all in the context of grim faces and a lot of rebuilding. It is what it is though and how the market either does or doesn't respond is always what you are looking for.

Amidst all the selling, there are some stocks that continue to flourish. Members got a list to buy yesterday and again this morning. There's always opportunity and risk but you never make money by taking no risk. At some point you have to put the trades back on. We'll see ...