The 9th floor welcomes you, friend. I hope I find you well on this cold, Fall morning.

The weekend was a nice respite for me; my family gathered in the North where we drank chilled German beer and ate sausage and sauerkraut. There is something tranquil to sitting around a fire, in ones nicest holiday sweaters and scarfs, enjoying the company of loved ones to quality food and drink.

My positions are splitting two directions here. The downdraft is being pulled by BAS, which has denied the breakout. Thankfully, I unloaded a good chunk of shares in the mid $16 range, and can claim a mild victory in the event, despite the losses.

On the other side, you have CCJ breaking out. I have watched CCJ for more than long enough to dare declare this a pivotal moment. The company is ranged bound with a $3-5 standard deviation, creating >20% displacements. Every other quarter is a crash or bull run, depending on if you’re disciplined enough to withstand the onslaught.

Beyond that, preparations are being made for the feast. The Thaler clan is being hailed from the four fingers of Michigan – we will gorge ourselves in the ancestral home of a distant cousin this year. Scotch will be plentiful and wine will flow freely.

Hi-Crush Partners LP is down 3.5% this morning on an announcement of a secondary offering. However, the title “secondary offering” is largely formality, as this sale is not anything like a traditional secondary.

The shares are not new issuance, but rather come from a controlled group arrangement with another sibling/parent entity, Hi-Crush Proppants LLC. Since Hi-Crush Proppants LLC was already entitled to a share of all earnings anyway, this secondary will not be changing the outstanding dynamics of HCLP.

Unfortunately, that also means that HCLP will receive no funding from this offering directly, and it does not benefit my partnership units in any way, shape or form. I generally feel that concerns over new capital raises in fast growing or leveraged markets are overblown, so I would not have been bothered much to see HCLP raise more money.

This announcement should be treated as merely a declaration of a very large seller coming to market. There is no ownership dilution taking place, though nor are their any benefits to existing partners in the form of expanded business capital.

There’s a good chance I’ll be putting money to work in HCLP on the selloff. This is an excellent opportunity to get in.

AEC is the latest stock I own to go bananas on nothing. It’s up over 10%, shrugging off the indices.

BAS is the only notable correction I’m experiencing. NRP and silver are both down a bit, but nothing really leading a charge lower.

TSLA meanwhile is rolling over hard, as a multitude of technicians knife one another in an attempt to call the next bounce point. If I had to put my money on one of them, it would be our own ChessNWine.

If TSLA can dip below $100, there is a strong likelihood that I will sell my $100 puts (reserving final judgment for such time) and use the gains to zero out the cost of my other puts (expiring between 2014 and 2015 with strikes around $35-45). That would give me essentially free options to make huge gains out of nothing.

Like a modern day Rumpelstiltskin, I adore spinning gold out of straw more than almost anything else – unless it’s the blood of your firstborn.

For the moment, the TSLA position is still a money loser. But at just 3-4% of my account, how can you pretend that I care?

In summary, the Tesla fanatics are getting quiet, and many a junior in college is starting to sweat.

I bought some shares of UEC for $1.71. This is not a full position. It is just a couple percent of my account.

I consider this a leveraged addition to my CCJ position. That CCJ position is quite large, banking on a recovery in uranium. I wanted to add some more, but diversify a little, with the potential for a big payoff.

UEC recently secured a finance deal and have done very well bringing operations on line. They’re exceptionally small, and I cannot condone buying them in size. Small fluctuations could snuff them out.

However, I am a believer in uranium. Forces around the globe are converging. My main play is CCJ, but if pricing recovers, UEC will skyrocket in ways CCJ could only dream of.

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Update: here’s UEC’s capital spending on projects. Look at all the projects they’ve brought online in just a few years. There are good things coming down the pipeline.

I had purchased additional shares of BAS in late July through early August, between $11.55 and $12.40. Those shares were up 30-40%, so I sold off half of them. The remainder is added to my permanent position.

I love the name, but having followed it for quite some time, it’s normal deviations are in the 20-30% range. I’m happy to see it breaking out to new highs, as that jives well with my own expectations. While buying the initial stake in BAS, I called for a price target of $18 at the time, and feel this company is well positioned to experience above average growth for the next 5-10 years.

However, back to the wild price swings, I don’t trust this stock at all. So taking a bit of money off the table makes sense. If I can’t buy back in lower, I still make a fat spread on a major position. But in all likelihood, the stock craters back to $14, and I load up all over again.

My current positions are CCJ, BAS, HCLP, AEC, MAA, NRP, RMCF, TSLA puts, and physical silver.

BAS is now up 12% on the day. I share my elation with each and every one of you.

This is what makes it all worth while. The 9th floor will be serving up fresh baked apple pie tonight with hand ground cinnamon, to celebrate (INVITATION ONLY).