Is there any money out there?

There have been five days of fall in the current market pull back. It's fallen by just 3% to its lowest point (2.2% measured on the S&P). And then yesterday it staged a rally when prices were pulled to and fro throughout the day.

Hard to know what to make of this. The last pull back was 6% and lasted 17 days. The one before that lost 6.5% in 23 days of dramatic tension.

It is this push me pull you that is making it so hard to make money and so easy to lose it.

It's easy enough to say hold on and you'll make the money back after a pull back. But what if this is the big one, the crash that WILL happen. It's easy enough to say sit on the sidelines and wait. But what if the market takes it into its head to stage a new bull run. I cannot afford to be left behind.

You will remember that I did all that backtesting. So where has that left me? You may well ask. But there is nothing here that the back testing has not taken into account. We are in a period of heavy draw down. A time when the system fails to generate money. Instead profits are sucked out of the portfolio by a market that remains in a bull phase but is characterized by short term ups and downs.

You may remember that I introduced the ten day rule that reduced the drawdowns. Reduced but did not eliminate them.

Market manipulation

A friend has sent me a couple of interesting articles from people who believe that there is far more to these tricky market conditions than meets the eye. The main theory is that the Gold Exchange Act of 1934 specifically allows the US Government to manipulate the gold, AND any other market through its Exchange Stabilization Fund and that it does this in a clandestine manner through intermediaries. Therefore we live in a world where markets are rigged. These commentators believe that the manipulation favours super rich investors and preferred institutions (who have the capital resources to ride the waves) at the expense of the poor and the middle classes.

Not much we can do about this, if it is true, except to attempt to play even smarter.

What have I got left in my portfolio?

I have just three shares left in my portfolio, all in the UK. 

There's GVC which is set to grow its profits at 45%, has a prospective PE of 6 and yields 7% in dividends with a prospective dividend yield of 10% next year. I've bough some more of this.

GVC Financial performance

FSJ and CKN both of which are in the shipping business which appears to be on something of a roll.

There are two US shares that I would like to buy back. DRYS and GNK. Also in shipping. I foolishly picked them up when they had gone through a massive price increase and were due for a pull back to allow the price to breathe. I suffered all of that readjustment. I am awaiting my chance to jump back in.

Good luck everybody.