Ramblings of a Portfolio Manager 6-22-2009

Ramblings of a Portfolio Manager or Another Manic Monday.

Well, looks like we’re back to the pattern of big Monday sell-offs. Admittedly, we were lulled into a false sense of complacency by the full two Mondays (not back-to-back God forbid!) during which the market actually went up. Not really, but we do admit pairing that tiny sample size of behavior with a sub-30 VIX to dare think that the market might actually have a very boring (read flat) summer. We was wrong! Today’s explanation: a strong dollar and a new World Bank forecast that cut growth rates for the global economy for this year and next. Incidentally, the Chinese, Hong Kong and Japanese markets were up today. Does anyone remember last week, when the World Bank upped its forecast for China’s economy for this year and next? That, too, resulted in a sell-off here. No good deed goes unpunished.