MCM Macro Year End: Q407' statistics, and a few thoughts...

As most of you know, i left working for other people on Wall Street at the end of October. Ironically, after 9 successful years in the business, the decision to leave was not my own. Since i was a teenager, i had never been cut from a team, or fired... so i needed to collect this as one of life's critical learning experiences.

At the time, the US market was testing new highs...

And, i guess, at the time, smarter people in the business than i may have thought i was too negatively positioned, too fundamentally bearish, etc...

However, as i said in what turned out to be my last meeting working from a New York City office, 'the beauty of this game is that its direction can change, very quickly'...

And that it did come November. A macro economic cycle and US equity market topping process turned out to be what i thought it was going to be;a process, not a point.

November 2007: Dow (4.0%); SP500 (4.4%); Nasdaq (6.9%)
December 2007: Dow (0.8%); SP500 (0.9%); Nasdaq (0.3%)
Q4 2007: Dow (4.5%); SP500 (3.8%); Nasdaq (1.8%)

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that:

"it is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. What is popular is not always right".

There is a major difference between making "great calls" in business, and being a "great man" in life. From what i can tell, becoming a "great man" in this world takes a lifetime. And that is usually not decided until one moves on from this world to a higher place. I'm turning 33 years old on Saturday. I'm a husband, a father, a son, a brother, and a friend - so i have plenty of hay to bail!

Along life's less travelled roads, all we can do is have conviction in a disciplined process that prepares us to capture life's great successes. Opportunities will present themselves - that is the highest conviction call i am willing to make.

Best of luck finding your great moments in 2008,
KM