I'm doing better than I was. I flipped my APH traders as often as I could and held on to my core. The value of my APH portfolio is down but it is money I don't need so it can sit in APH shares all through 2009 if it has to.

I sunk all my APH profits since September 2007 back into APH stock. This didn't lower my CPS, but it substancially increased my position for the same amount of investment I started with.

The smartest thing I did was not trade this summer. This left me in a good cash position for the unexpected meltdown we are going through and I have seized it as a buying opportunity for several good stocks on the TSX. I found CLL.to very attractive and have accumulated 6000 shares in the past two days.

Yes, I will have a good laugh to myself in a few weeks because the markets always recover. If this had happened two years ago, I would have been another panic seller.

I place the blame for this fiasco on the US Federal government for not regulating the mortgage industry and banks. The Feds should have stepped in and pulled on the reins.