I found the terminal position I want, but it has nothing to do with coal. I bought a half sized position in ETP for $56.64.

Energy Transfer Partners, LP is a storage and distribution partnership that specializes in a diverse number of business lines, including (1) midstream, interstate and intrastate transportation and storage natural gas operations, (2) gathering, compression, treating, conditioning and processing of natural gas, and (3) purchasing and marketing natural gas and NGLs.

They’ve been making a flurry of acquisitions, their cash flows seem proper, and they seem cheap relative to peers. They also are paying me 6% in annual distributions to hang out. I like their market position and think the next 10 years will be big for them (same as BAS, same as HCLP).

This is right where I want to be. I’ll refocus energy on coal later – for the moment, I have half assembled positions in NRP and BTU.

Of course, at this stage in the game, it’s going to be hard to hit the kind of returns I got for BAS and HCLP. The market was just so negative about those positions and now since September of last year, it’s getting so expensive. But this is still a good buy here.

I admit it is getting a little harder to find positions to buy. Price to book of companies certainly looks heated, although that’s not the only measure. There are certainly some positions out there priced to fail, like EPD. And coal companies in general look terrible. It wasn’t just tech that got bid up last year.

But there are still lots of positions that are growing revenues and earnings just fast enough to keep that risk threshold around a 10 year horizon. It’s not the 5 year break even points you could have picked up in ’08, but what do you want?

Some of these positions are going to be stealth winner. I think coal names are artificially expensive, but really quite cheap. You have to consider how much of the “expensiveness” is being driven by low coal prices forcing write downs on entire proven reserves. So is the company selling the whole operation for that price level? That’s the big question isn’t it. If you get a coal price recovery, suddenly these operations are all trading <1X book with robust earnings growth.

95% invested.

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The indices are lower and I don’t care, because for me the bull market is back.

HCLP is up 3.5%. BAS is up 2.3%. UEC is up about 8% after being up 21% yesterday. NRP is up 1%. CCJ is up 1%. Silver is up 1%. Nothing I own is even down today.

The rotation is at hand, into my hand as luck would have it.

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BAS has completely reversed yesterday’s move. All hope is now lost.

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If not for Basic Energy Services turning on a dime and sprinting away from the rest of the trash that comprises this trading session, I would be having a pretty bad day.

UEC is down over 50% since I bought it. Mind you, as I have stated repeatedly, it is a small position. At its peak, it was under 5% of my account. So I’m not panicked here. But damn it, that was my 5%.

Give me my money back.

The trouble with the uranium miners (and the reason I’ve been very adamant up until now to just keep it simple and avoid the smaller businesses) is pretty forwardly summed up in UEC’s latest filing. They sold $0.00 in revenue in the first three months of 2014.

That’s $0.00.

The 2014 YEAR OF URANIUM BLISS (or whatever the hell I called it) …has been cancelled. Uranium spot just nosedived this week and, even though I suspect this flash crash is nearer the end of the turmoil, that kind of godless price action can only portend one thing.

Somebody is about to get liquidated.

I just pray it isn’t UEC.

CCJ is treading water daily. It’s all she can do to hold the line, but one false move and it’s a quick list to the side and down she goes.

The rest of my positions are holding up fairly well, actually. The multifamily theme remains tantalizing, particularly now that the primary argument against them – a resurgence in homeownership rates and a drop in occupancy for rentals – is such obvious bunk. AEC and MAA should continue to perform.

NRP has held up decent enough, following the 25% washout it took this year. That’s probably been my worst idea so far in 2014. But they are getting things under control, I have a hunch coal may be a terrific investment here, and I get to collect 8% annually while I wait.

I’m definitely not +10% for the year anymore, but there’s another 8 months to make something happen yet. My fear isn’t my positions, it’s what consequence an entire index of investors getting their combined comeuppance will have on me.

The NASDAQ traders got stupid. Real stupid. Will that spill over to me? It’s looking likely.

Like it or not, the stock market tends to take on a real flare of the vineyard effect. You pop up five vineyards next to each other, they all do well. Plenty of room to visit each, for the patrons. In fact, it draws in more business.

But if one of those bastards let’s an infestation go unattended; suddenly you have nothing but tears and reek wine.

Tesla earnings are out after the bell. Let’s see what happens there.

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I added more HCLP for $39.55. Do I need to explain myself?

Cash stands at 13%.

HCLP and BAS have surpassed CCJ as my largest position. Those three now account for just under 60% of my book.

Rebalancing will probably come soon, but not right now. HCLP is going to punch through brick walls first.

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We open our week where once beloved technology companies continue their unfolding tragedy, sinking otherwise well to do enterprises and frustrating the market at large.

I shouldn’t even have to deal with this crap, do to a longstanding decision to shun big multiples tech firms and keep that trash out of my portfolio. Sadly, thanks to a wanting of such self restraint on the part of co-shareholders in the positions that I do have, I get to participate in the selling right alongside the rest of you; as if I owned a start up tech IPO that was knee-capped to the tune of 50% out the gate, anyway.

BAS was given a relief rally of about 4% today, which of course cratered into lunch. That led TheStreet to confidently assert that BAS is merely “dead cat bouncing”. Of course, TheStreet has been equally confident that BAS was dead money from $14, so my personal opinion of their articles related to BAS should be easy enough to guess.

The only positions I own that aren’t dragging me lower seem to be the multifamily themes – AEC and MAA (and technically speaking my hedging…but only because the losses on my PGJ and TSLA puts have already been had).

In summary, the 9th floor is smarting today and I find myself fearing a bloodbath, derived solely from a selloff in positions I would never own anyway.

Huzzah…

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