FinancialNirvana.com

With the markets just getting over the Chinese led sell-off and gaining recent momentum the worst thing that could have happened is domestic warning signs of slowdown in the United States.   This sell-off however is not unwarranted as subprime fiasco seems pretty serious.  Greenspan’s recent comments about recession look pretty serious now as well.  But the question is are people really surprised by all these homeowners defaulting?  We have been seeing exotic home loans for a while now and it was just a matter of time before it caught up to these lenders.  Delinquencies and defaults are up across the board and has even made some mortgage lenders like Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) stop offering no-money down loans.

The one thing I learned from the sell-off just a few days ago was to increase my short positions to balance my portfolio and protect myself from a considerable downside.  I still own highly valued (or some would say overvalued companies) like Under Armour (NYSE: UA) and Fuel Tech (Nasdaq: FTEK).  Although, I did sell Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) yesterday after earnings.  What I did do was buy put options on First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) and MEMC Electronics (NYSE: WFR).  If the sell-off continues I will again be looking for bargains just like I did after the China led sell-off a few days ago.  I am going to go back to the following list of stocks that I might consider buying.  However, I must add Focus Media Holdings (Nasdaq: FMCN) to the list. 

Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 were all down around 2% today and this was certainly going to cause the Asian markets to react negatively. 

As I write this the Asian markets are down across the board: 

• ^SSEC
  Shanghai Composite
  2,904.94 1:15AM ET
  59.85 (2.02%)
• ^HSI
  Hang Seng
  18,838.19 11:48PM ET
  494.95 (2.56%)
• ^BSESN
  BSE 30
  12,598.03 1:48AM ET
  384.95 (2.97%)
• ^JKSE
  Jakarta Composite
  1,772.15 1:48AM ET
  25.25 (1.40%)
• ^KLSE
  KLSE Composite
  1,159.73 12:32AM ET
  40.28 (3.36%)
• ^N225
  Nikkei 225
  16,640.83 1:28AM ET
  538.01 (3.13%)
• ^NZ50
  NZSE 50
  4,053.41 12:35AM ET
  52.31 (1.27%)
• ^STI
  Straits Times
  3,064.36 12:30AM ET
  94.54 (2.99%)
• ^KS11
  Seoul Composite
  1,407.05 1:48AM ET
  29.00 (2.02%)
• ^TWII
  Taiwan Weighted
  7,570.27 1:46AM ET
  113.73 (1.48%)

Disclosure:  I am long UA and FTEK.  I am short FSLR and WFR and hold no positions in CFC or FMCN