Taking It Off the Table

What a benign environment! Oracle (ORCL Quote) doesn't get the Boeing (BA Quote) B2B business, and it doesn't get hit. Power Integrations (POWI Quote), a supplier to Motorola (MOT Quote), blows up, and it doesn't hurt Motorola. If you bought MicroStrategy (MSTR Quote) at the bottom, you are now closing in on a double. All of the secondaries worked this week. Heck, it is enough to make me want to buy Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Quote).

This is precisely the moment when you should take something off the table if you haven't already. You can get great prices for virtually everything. If you were upset with yourself that you didn't sell before the big selloff, take it off now.

Remember where I come from. I am not a bull or a bear. I am an opportunist trying to exploit market psychology. This is one of those moments when you can sell when you can -- why not re-liquefy now? -- into strength. This "take something off the table" call may seem counterintuitive, given that I like the market. But remember, bulls, bears and pigs. The latter get slaughtered. Don't be one.

Read my Smarter Money columns from this morning and last week. Don't be caught too long next time. Don't be caught margined at the top.

Have some cash on hand. You will never regret it.

One of my favorite readers, Laurette, last night emailed me and said her account, which had started in mid-six figures, had now vaulted to $2 million, in large part because of suggestions and ideas she learned from my column. I congratulated her, and then I wrote that if the market gets hammered today -- which it won't -- I wanted to know how much she had taken off the table, put away, where nobody, not the tax man, not the bear, could touch it.

I can't help myself. That's how I think. I cannot change. It is too right.

Random musing: Stop trading! A headline just runs saying, "Zixit (ZIXI Quote) up 11% after Huizenga Group Investment." I am a seller of anything that guy buys, not a buyer. Sorry.