I hope you had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! 

We certainly did here in Sarasota.  The weather was very nice throughout the holiday and most of the weekend.  Yes, it was a little windy, but that’s much better than rain or snow!  As I said in the last Update, the end of the year is upon us.  Are you ready?  There are less than 4 weeks until Christmas.

The past month has been another extremely volatile ride in the stock markets around the world.  Even though much of our economic data here in the United States has been slowly improving and our stock market is gaining ground, the situation in Europe has continually thrown a “monkey wrench” into the works just as it appeared that we were recovering from the previous correction.  I am hopeful that the news out of Europe (for the past few days) may finally be adequate to sustain the markets for at least the rest of the year and perhaps into early 2012.  As always, we remain vigilant to adjust your portfolio as necessary whenever circumstances dictate.

One of the analysts we track, Tom McClellan, had some interesting comments in today’s “Daily Edition,” which is one of the market evaluation services we utilize (I didn’t include any of the charts and graphs, which can be overwhelming at times):

“Now it is still possible to have a price top with a reading like we are seeing now. But going with the odds, I still have to favor the bullish case here and the continued bounce up from last week’s truly oversold bottom. There is a cluster of model top signals due between November 30 and December 6 and I am figuring that the “first of the month” bullish effect should push that top late into that time window. I also do not believe that the effect of that top will be all that big, as there is a bottom cluster due December8-14 right after the top cluster, so there is limited time available for the bears to get the snowball rolling down the hill.”

On another note, I thought you would be interested to learn that I was quoted in an article published a few weeks ago in the Winter edition of Better Living Magazine.  It is generally available at local grocery and drug stores as well as the Herald Tribune offices.  The article is titled "Fight or Flight?" and discusses the effects of the market volatility on investor and advisor thinking related to investment strategy.

Finally, you should have received a post card from us requesting that you “Save the Date” of Tuesday January 17, 2012 for our Annual Luncheon.  It will be held at the Sarasota Yacht Club again and I hope you will be able to join us.  If you have a friend or relative that you think would be interested in our services, please invite them to come with you.  We would be happy to share the afternoon with them also.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything with me, please don’t hesitate to call or drop me a note.  Have a happy holiday season, and I am looking forward to seeing you in January, if not before.