This and That (Mostly That)

Some thoughts for the VIXophile in all of us:

• Bill Rempel has the second installment in his “Deconstructing the VIX” strip tease (no tipping allowed)
  
  
• The dk report weighs in on feline symbiosis and what it means for the VIX
  

…and the AndMoreophile too:

• The CXO Advisory Group concludes that the CPI does not provide useful trading signals and the Leading Indicators aren’t much better
  
  
• Menzie Chinn of Econbrowser offers a post-mortem on post-modern macroeconomic policy
  
  
• …and Econbrowser counterpart James Hamilton has an interesting look at the effect of tax changes on the economy
  
  
• Toro’s Running of the Bulls on the decline of corporate cash flows
  
  
• TickerSense takes a look at home price forecasts. It’s not pretty, of course, but for once my local San Francisco market looks better than most
  
  
• …but also notes that yesterday’s record new highs for 2007 is bullish, at least for the short term
  
  
• Stephen Dubner at the Freakonomics Blog with the amazing story of “How the Crack Dealer Became a Chef” – at the Bellagio, no less
  
  
• Paul Kedrosky of Infectious Greed has a chart that is guaranteed to revert to the mean
  
  
• Uglychart.com has a possible solution to the nation’s debt problems

Finally, some have wondered what I did about my ‘all in’ bet on VRTX last Friday for the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. Well, I took a beating on Friday and for the better part of yesterday, but when it rallied to almost fill the gap late yesterday, I decided to hold on rather than jump into an earnings play, so my patience is being rewarded today. My thinking was along the lines that I always look very closely at the second day of price action after announcements of FDA decisions or key clinical data for biotechnology companies; I saw yesterday's reversal as an opportunity not only to confirm a 15 month low, but signal the 10+ million short shares that it was time to cover. While I may make a little money today, I am not closing the gap on the leaders and time is becoming my enemy. Now it looks like it is time to roll the earnings dice…