Recent Market Action (gold plunge, market drop, etc.)

As I typically do, I had been lightening up on stocks heading into April, as stocks tend to not do well in the April to June time frame (at least, if not the whole summer).  For the last little while, I have only been 40-45% invested in stocks, with the rest in cash or t-bills.  My main goal at this time is preservation of capital but I also want to have cash on-hand to buy back into stocks when they are cheaper (at some point).  Since I trade on momentum, using moving averages, once stocks pick a direction (up or down), I want them to keep going in that direction for at least a few months.

That said, I HAVE some securities in my portfolio right now - mainly ETF's.  I am in one UP ETF - for natural gas (HNU) and it has done very well since I purchased it in early March at 12.29 (even with the drop today, it is well over 16.00).

I am mainly in the DOWN ETF's - those that go up in value as the underlying security or commodity goes down.  I am currently in the down ETF's for Canadian financials (HFD), the TSX (HXD), oil (HOD) and just today I bought some of the down US S&P (HSD) in anticipation of a correction in US markets.  The HSD purchase was made more on sentiment and seasonality than on the moving averages, since HSD is approaching a buy signal but has not reached it yet.

I am also in LW, a retirement home REIT that has a good payout and seems to do well when the markets are in turmoil (presumably because people are looking for yield).  I also bought some DEE today - a stock that I had made money on recently and that I bought back at a lower price (1.19) than I last sold it at (1.31) and it actually closed higher today, at 1.24.

I am in no hurry to put any more of my money into action but I may buy more of the down ETF's if this trend continues.  For now, I am happy to not only have huge losses as the market corrects, but I actually MAKE some money.