S&P 500 set for best month since 1974

S&P 500 set for best month since 1974

The S&P financials index surged 6.2 per cent, led by big commercial banks Citigroup , up 9.7 per cent to $34.17, JPMorgan Chase , up 8.3 per cent to $37.02, and Bank of America , up 9.6 per cent to $7.22. Investment bank Morgan Stanley jumped 17 per cent to $19.41.

WTF! Should anyone be impressed? How about we look at the results for the last three months not one. How spectacular must they look ... oh, it seems over the last three months the S&P is practically flat, in fact, it's down a bit. How can this be, when we just had a Spectacular Month.

Does anyone believe the shit they write any more? Do they believe it? Things must be going great this month. No! Just everybody panicked two month ago and sold everything. Now they've bought it all back, and we're right back where we were two months ago, 'cept some brokers got lots of sales commissions.

Oh, and the Greeks. They got a sweet deal! They get to write off half their debt. Wish I could get that deal from BofA.

I'm getting nowhere in life ... I'm just going round in circles ...

... isn't it great!

Moved offices again. I'm now in pretty much the same 'cube' I was in 10 years ago. That was somewhere between 2 and 6 companies ago - depending how you delineate the "companies".


Full-size

Can't complain about the view though: mountains, blue skies, Moffet Field. Yeah, it's not quite ocean views.

Weekend Bike/Hike at Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve

Went for a bike ride at the Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve today, but unfortunately, it turned into a hike.

The ranger didn't take kindly to me riding the trails without a helmet, and threatened me with a $160 fine if I didn't take my bike back to the car!

I think he did us a favor really. Ben would have had a hard time on some of the steep climbs. The climbs (when we were hiking them) weren't that long, but they were steep, and all uneven, unpaved hiking trails.



Great views both out to the ocean and also over to the central valley. I swear you can see all the way over to Pacheco pass. Couldn't see the ocean, due to low lying cloud/fog, but the fog bank was impressive all the same.

Here's an estimated Google Earth view out East to Pacheco pass.


Horse-shoe lake is interesting. It's only a small lake, but when standing on the damn and looking south into the valley, I got the impression that it's pretty deep. The terrain map gives the same impression, it could be surprising amount of water in it. Don't know if it's a reservoir or what.

Got the original bike ride idea from this site, which seems a pretty good source for future ride ideas: http://bayarearides.com/


Here's the route over in Google maps.


View Bike/Hike Skyline Ridge OSP in a larger map

After the hike we headed back down Page Mill Road towards Palo Alto, then took a Left along Arastradero Road to the Alpine Inn. Not been to this place in years! In addition to getting a great burger, Ben also learned how this place was the venue of the worlds first ever Internet EMail (allegedly). A plaque on the wall tells of how researchers from SRI sent a message from a table outside the bar, via a wireless network to their lab in Palo Alto, where the message was relayed over ARPAnet to Boston. Hence, the birth of the Internet.

This would make an awesome pet!

Jumping, bee eating spider. That's even cooler than a talking dog. I could have hours of fun playing with one of these.



Unless your a bee keeper, then they are probably a bit annoying.

Better get myself down to PetCo and see what they can do for me.