My thoughts are with the families of Connecticut

Aside from profound sadness, the feelings of powerlessness and helplessness sum up how I feel, and these feelings probably resonate in most people as well.

Why powerlessness? Because no one truly will ever know how to help these families recover from such severe trauma. The experts and doctors cannot undo the empty bedrooms, and restore the laughter that is now silenced. Their lives are shattered.

Why helplessness? Because as unspeakable as this tragedy is, we all know this will not be the last. We are being naive if we believe otherwise. Security systems, gun control laws etc... cannot stop an individual if that individual is determined to inflict harm.

I always believe that the feelings of pain magnifies exponentially, when that pain is being inflicted on someone you truly love. It is why a child's passing is the greatest pain of all. The child bears the hearts of the father and mother, and all the hearts have stopped beating.

My thoughts are with you.

Tax loss selling

This week I started to clean up my investments. Tax loss selling, reducing number of holdings, and writing call options are my objectives. It is funny that I listed those I wanted to sell in the summer, but waited only until this week to act. This procrastination is costly. Atlantic Power, Extendicare, and Veresen stock cratered in November and fell into the toilet in December. My two Horizons ETFs, one an inverse ETF the other a VIX ETF, lose value everyday. It proves that once a sell list is made, just sell.

Sold Empire Company with a small gain after they reported strong earnings. Held this for a year and the stock has gone nowhere.

Sold the two Horizons ETFs and Atlantic Power at steep losses.

I still have dogs Veresen, Pengrowth, Innvest, Extendicare, all underwater. Pengrowth is the worst. I inherited it when it bought NAE. Should have sold. Valenar Gaz Met looks dead and the BMO Covered Call Bank ETF is second rate. All these are distractions not worth my time.

How the times have changed for Encana. The steady uptrend that started in April is broken. Guess I will add this to the sell list.

Canada approves Nexen and Progress

Thank goodness I didn't buy Nexen put options ahead of the announcement. Was thinking about it because had serious doubts about the deal. Missed completely the price volatility between 3:20 to 3:30 before the stock triggered the circuit breakers. Maybe next week Encana will benefit from this news.

Sold a Lorillard Jan $125 call. Wanted to sell a McDonalds call too but missed the desired price, and then the stock kept slipping into the close.

Had kept an eye on Harry Winston. Despite reporting disappointing numbers and a poor outlook, the stock held tight. It must be the background noise about the divestiture of the luxury division. I will look to sell some calls on this.

Wondering about Nexen

December 10th next Monday is the deadline for the Canadian government to announce its decision on the controversial Nexen Cnooc deal. Today Nexen's shares surged into the close on rumors a decision will be announced tomorrow after the market close. A lot of commentators have speculated that the deal should be approved, although there is still a meaningful 10% risk spread implying significant doubt.

The government is in a no win situation, because supporters and opponents are almost evenly split, and both sides have valid arguments. And this certainly won't be the last, because for sure other Canadian resource companies, being undervalued and underfunded as they are, will continue to attract foreign buyers.

Which begs me to wonder, what would the Talismans and Nexens and Progress Energies be like if the government did not eviscerate the energy income trust sector in 2006? During those times, a lot of investors, domestic and foreign, were bidding up Canadian energy trusts and in the process created one of the biggest sectors in the financial markets. Progress Energy used to be an energy trust and Nexen monetized its chemicals business by turning it into a business income trust. Would the Canadian energy companies be as undervalued and vulnerable today, if this invaluable source of capital was still there, before the government destroyed it?

Hostile takeover of Primaris reit and Freeport McMoran's foray into energy

Although I don't have shares of PMZ, I still enjoyed the collateral effects of the takeover news, because I have shares of other reits like Calloway, Artis, Dundee, Cominar etc... all of which rose nicely, after three months of steady declines. I wanted to buy Killam and H&R too but still think reits in general are expensive and I already have a lot.

Freeport pulled the rug from under everyone's feet by suddenly venturing into energy. Its shares fell 15%, on top of an already dismal year. Shareholders should revolt. I am steering clear.

Not sure why Corus Entertainment rose so much in two days. It could be investors speculating that Shaw Communications would finally acquire the company, after a related company, Shawcor, announced it is no longer for sale. I of course sold calls on Corus just before it rose another dollar. Oh well.

I am interested in Shawcor but for two days my bid failed to get hit. Will try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, the under the radar Evertz Technologies fell in response to okay earnings. Was also of thinking of increasing my position in this. Management owns over 50% of the shares so it is unlikely to be taken over like Miranda Technologies, its competitor.