Have Closed Out My Positions

Oil
Took a 12% profit on my USO position and nicely hedged my fuel costs with $ to spare.

Gold Short
Took a 6% profit on my DZZ holding before the run-up in gold chased me out. I still am
interested in this trade and will be back at some time.

Long Treasury Short
Made 10% on this leveraged trade. Thought I would do much better (See 8/19, 8/24 posts).

SP 500
Caught the 6/30 and 8/30 lows on the broad market. Two of the best long side short term
trades I have done in a while. Was lucky on the 8/30 trade which I did mostly on the basis
of extraordinarily negative sentiment then prevailing (See and end of month posts for Jun.
and Aug.). I closed out my long participation today as the market is now heavily overbought
in the short term.

US Dollar
Wanted to go long here, but never found a comfortable opening. USD remains deeply
oversold.

My habit near the end of the year is to close out positions ahead of the holidays, especially
if I am running solidly in the black. Two of the worst trades I've made in over 40 years of
trading occurred over the holidays -- leaving me superstitious.

Although I am going to enjoy my retirement here for a few weeks, I plan to post regularly.