October 2011 was somewhat weird, considering the negative sentiment which pervaded stock markets and the economy from August to September 2011 seems to have somewhat dissipated. In fact, in an embarrassing turn of events, the local market has rocketed up more than 10% after I wrote my piece on “My Second Bear Market”, and is a testament to how difficult it is to gauge and predict short-term market movements with accuracy. Apparently, that post is now irrelevant, but I assure that the lessons learnt are still applicable and the fact that I am able to say that my financial position has improved should at least be of some comfort to me. I am also proud to admit that I have absolutely and completely no skill or special foresight in predicting market movements, so for readers who have somehow stumbled upon this blog looking for something akin to the Holy Grail, ......