• Brian G on S&P earnings horizon changes — he points to 3 segments:  Tech, Financials and Healthcare.  … those are the 3 majority segments in my taxable equity portfolio (TEP from now on.  https://seekingalpha.com/article/4098494-whatever-markets-issues-s-and-p-500-earnings-definite-positive
• Doug Short’s graph of the week … the catalyst for this is obvious  
  • Jeff Miller’s weekly indicators     
• i started to look at IBM; freaked out momentarily as i hold CSCO, INTC, & ORCL as old tech companies transitioning … can i tolerate 1 more transition risk?  at a valuation perspective, IBM is compelling; here’s somebody else’s view:  https://seekingalpha.com/article/4098448-10-reasons-now-time-buy-ibm
• i just do not know what to do with this information, but the comparison of EU junk bond to US treasuries shakes me.  Need to re-look at EU exposure.
• I love open-ended questioning http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2017/08/10-questions/

Commentary

• Open question:  Is it time to adjust annual return expectations for the next couple of years to <5%?  – i have a fairly low risk master portfolio and pegged returns on average to ~5% including dividends.  Upside surprises are nice, but is it time to even plan for worse (at least one major scenario)?
• Two small portfolio adjustments this past week:  a) purchased another slice of LTC after the price declined nearly 10% on the week (this is a really well run organization and my position is in IRA.  i will build it further as price passes rationality)  The news of the week seemed to be one tennant of LTC being in default with a maximum 5% bottomline hit.  Lower price exceeded the mark imho.  b) i exited out of OHI in my taxable account.  I did not want losing position there as it was a temporary park for dividend and possible appreciation.  OHI still has several tennant issues to work thru as well as the larger macro confusion on fedral healthcare policy.  I have not decided if i will build out position in IRA.