Is this it?

Is this any semblance of a bottom? Probably not. Even though Congress had the sense not to fork over $700 billion of taxpayers' money to the same fools who got the credit markets into this mess ... it still sucks for everyone, the rich, the working man with 401(k) plans dried up.

Here's how bad things went the past few months, and with another "Black Monday," where my formerly favorite stocks are as of today.

POT 131
ISRG 251
MA 168
FSLR 180
MCD 60
IBM 114
PTR 96
DIS 29
FLS 81
AAPL 105
CHL 45
NTDOY.PK 50
GOOG 381
RIMM 61
GS 120
FMCN 25
CEO 107
AMZN 63
FWLT 31
BIDU 231
NKE 65

Those are just some of them. They are in critical condition, but they'll survive.

What in the world ...

Several months ago, I just stopped. No more CNBC. No more drooling (or tweaking) over one stock, two stocks, 10 stocks. It just made no sense anymore, being awake at ungodly hours (Hawaii Standard Time) while the market teetered and tottered.

Guess what? Life has been life. Full of joy. Full of pain. Full of thankfulness. Full of regret. What I mean is, I've gotten to live without thinking twice, or even once, about this or that, about every freaking twist of this ridiculous market and economy.

Now that the Dow has plunged another 600 points, I can't say I regret not being a bull in a bearish market. It was worth it to be on the sideline. Things happen for a reason. Strange reasons sometimes. I think I'll stay out for quite awhile and just keep living. Enjoying.

Sooner or later, this market will turn around. The downturn won't go on forever. I hope I'll be ready then.

Believe what you see?

Is seeing believing? Apple stores were jam-packed with buyers of the new iPhone. I certainly wasn't one of them. For me, a free online game of Pac-Man is still blazing-hot and exciting.

For most of the tech-savvy world, though, the new iPhone is a must-have. So seeing is believing. Then again, once AAPL's earnings report came with a forecast of not-so-sensational expectations, the stock plummeted and opened on Tuesday at 146, down 16 or so. It wasn't that long ago when the stock was at 120. In May, AAPL was at 191. Which is the right price?

Both, probably. The market isn't someone I'd hang out with these days. Skittish. Fickle. Paranoid. At 146, AAPL was a steal, obviously, and has since returned to the 160s just one day after the panicked selloff. No iPhones necessary for me, but a few more shares of the stock might be the right order sometime soon.

Dead cat bounce?

The market could not tank one more day. At least not today. Apple has held its ground at 171, not bad considering the rocket ride from 120 to 190 in the first half of this year. Google has stayed firm above 500. Neither are bargains at this point though.

Visa slipped below 67 yesterday and is hanging around 70 now. Is V a bargain below 70? Maybe. MasterCard is also rebounding nicely today. Until there is a revolution in the transaction-handling business, those two will continue to make out like bandits. It's like gas prices. No point in bitching about them. If you can't beat 'em, might want to join 'em.

The picking is slim. So many stocks that were on Cloud 9 six months or a year ago have been torched. Pain is everywhere. But the survivors stand out even more now. I still wonder which of the alternative energy stocks will win over the long haul. First Solar is clearly the frontrunner.

Mr. Brown liked Visa then, but now?

Back in late April, my old pal Mr. Brown was severely bullish on Visa, though I was cautious. I warned about the eventual selloff that comes with any IPO (Google went from 120 to 80 in its first year) and preferred to wait. Well, Mr. Brown's bullish stance was proven right. V ran from 75 in April to 90 by early May.

Yowza. However, Visa has sold off some since. V has dipped three times, really, going to 75 in late May, running back to 88 before June, dipping to 77 and rising to 85 in June. Visa is currently at 72.

I'm more comfortable with the idea of buying MasterCard, but I can't argue against Visa. I'm not a fan of the whole concept of credit cards (and how they have most American consumers by the neck), but I am a fan of the way they churn gargantuan profits.



With Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae scaring the crap out of anyone with ties to financials, this may not be the best time to load up on shares of V. But at 72, this could also be a relative bargain.

No B.S. by Barron's

Back on February 24, I noted a Barron's story that feted oil companies that had interest in the Bakken Shale on the Canada-U.S. border. Not very big on this kind of stuff, I decided to start a mock folio to keep track.

Here we are, more than four months later, and four of the five stocks noted by Barrons are in the black since.

WLL | then 59 | now 102 | +72%
EOG | then 100 | now 119 | +18%
BEXP | then 7.13 | now 16.04 | +125%
CLR | then 25 | now 81 | +225%
MRO | then 51 | now 45 | -11%

Overall, on a weighted basis, this quintet of oil stocks are up a nice 86%. Amazing. Meanwhile, here in Hawaii, I paid $4.31 for a gallon of regular unleaded. That's the cheapest I found in urban Honolulu, aside from Costco.

Iron-y for Marvel

How cool is it that one of my favorite brands -- one of my reasons for living when I was a kid -- is rocking the free world today. Yep, Marvel Comics is now Marvel Enterprises and Stan Lee is king. The stock was interesting several years ago in the teens. In fact, there was a time when Stan Lee's status within the company was at stake (how wrong and evil that would've been). That's when I first realized they even existed as a publicly-traded company. But the issues worked out. Marvel's evolution into producing its own films worked out. The run from 24 in mid-March to 33 today is amazing. All because of today's bullish forecast by the company, as well as Iron Man, the $100-million superstar this weekend.



I can fret, and so can my lifelong friends who also grew up hooked on Marvel Comics ... but didn't go long MVL. But there will be a pullback sooner or later. No sense buying at these levels, up 37% in two months.