I look forward to the end of the year ending. I get tired of all the sappy commentary and the best and worst of 2007 crap. Most of all, I look forward to ending all the portfolio management nonsense that goes on during December in the absence of meaningful volume. HEDGEfolios analysis since Thanksgiving becomes an exercise in trying to figure out what not to analyze so I don’t overreact to temporary changes. It is extremely important that YOUR end-of-year transactions are based upon YOUR needs and not in response to the all the fluctuations caused by other people’s tax planning and dressing up their year-end financial statements. Consequently, my performance suffers during this period each year as I try to avoid ending positions based on moves that look questionable and similarly, I avoid beginning new positions for the same reason.

2007 ending means that I will do a year end performance review in the next few days. Don’t worry, it won’t be filled with a painful rehash of what happened - hopefully you’ve had enough of that crap elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s very healthy to reflect on what happened and what we learned from it. But we should be doing that all year long and not just wait until some calendar tells us it’s time to look back. And as for 2008 beginning, I will not be writing a New Year’s Resolution list. I try to set loose goals throughout the year - doing so helps maintain a realistic and focused perspective on performance and failure. I have a feeling that is a significant contributor to the consistent performance that HEDGEfolios has delivered while the market gyrates.

For me, investing is a continuum. I don’t look at the past few weeks as a special reason to change what I am doing and I don’t look at the first few weeks of the year as a motivation either. Endings and beginnings happen every day and every week or wherever and whenever we choose to find them.