| The market continued its tear this month. The DOW and S&P both rose 7.4 percent for April (on the back of similar incredible gains last month), while the Nasdaq climbed an amazing 12 percent.
Unfortunately, about mid-month I had bet against the financials via FAZ (3x Short Financials) and am sitting on a (paper) loss of about $64,000 for the month (financials as a sector were up . wait for it . a whopping 22 percent this month). Still, I believe I'll be vindicated in the end, so I'm not selling (i.e., at one stage the losses were even higher).
Anyway, I closed escrow on my home and I love it! Since borrowing money is such serious business these days, I was very happy to see my home appraise (by the bank's independent appraiser and in this falling market) for $1,150,000, that is $80,000 more than my net cost of $1,070,000. It's a good thing too since I plan on doing some additional remodeling this summer, which will cost about $150,000 when I am done.
So all-in-all, quite a financially momentous month for me. |