Again, I see way more opportunities in other sectors and jurisdictions than Ecuador has to offer. I wish them luck, and I really hope it works out for the best, but for me, it's over.

Let me just expand on that thought. It's been my experience that the worst thing you can do in a general decline is to sit on losses, especially if those losses occurred before the decline and have specific causes unrelated to the decline.

Right now, with everything so beaten down, the question to ask is, what sectors and stocks will recover first? Given that institutional money typically returns before private investment, the answer to me would be, large cap stocks with healthy balance sheets.

Another point worth noting is that the sectors that lead the previous bull rarely lead the next one. Of course that depends on whether you believe this is a correction in a bull market for commodities, or if the present cycle has ended. I tend to go with the former view, but I have to take account of market sentiment as well. Where the leadership come from next is a question you have to ask in light of the massive, across the board sell-off we've just experienced. I don't have the answer, but it's important to remember that half of investing is simply asking the right questions.

ebear