Okay, I had to step in to the silver market today, taking a leveraged ETF play with AGQ.

I’ve owned silver, more or less continuously, since 2009 – in the physical form.

But every now and again I also leverage up the play with moves in the financial products. Now is just one such time.

Silver is a component of my 9th floor. I’ve used it in the limestone stucca that adorns my walls. I used it in the mortar to build the very foundation of the room itself. It’s a staple, because it is so undervalued, I can off the back of my hand say “silver is undervalued” at any time of the day, and probably be right.

I got into AGQ for $41.77. This is just for a trade.

The Fed is printing another trillion dollars, and the debt crises of the world are nowhere near the halfway mark yet.

Mull that over, why don’t you…

The walls of the room irradiate a faint heat absorbed from the hearth where a raging fire keeps back the winter tempest outside. Six stories below a fog is rising from the window panes. And the ground floor two beneath that is completely covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Going into the afternoon, I took the time to lighten up AEC. It had a great quarter, and taking advantage of the punch higher over the last six months, I took profits on everything I purchased when it undeservingly sold off last year. I’m back to holding my core position – which is about 10% of equity assets.

I now have core positions built in AEC, CLP, BAS and RGR. I have an equal sized hedge in EUO. All are equal to about 10% of assets. I have an oversized position in CCJ of almost 30%. Roughly 20% of my account is in cash.

This doesn’t count the silver I hold, which is about 15% of net value. Add that back in and all the position sizes drop a little bit; but not much.

I’m going to be very reserved about making purchases here. I’m rooting on the upside, but I’m keenly perceptive that this is the same old game being played. As prices offer me relief, I’ll just keep taking money off the table, a little at a time.

Winter has been very good to me so far. I’d be remiss to blow that.

Alright, there’s no sense to go crazy. The markets are busy making levels that haven’t been seen in years. My accounts are topping out, now brushing up against their old highs. There’s no sense being dumb.

I went through the positions (except AEC and RGR), easing each one up, until I got the cash amount I needed; dispersed equally across the lot.

CLP announced numbers, and the earnings were very good. However, funds from operations were down, which disturbs me. It could be a simple timing issue, as they just sold a few apartments, and haven’t managed to reinvest the proceeds yet.

Management claims FFO will be almost 40% higher from where it is today by the end of 2013. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Occupancy remains elevated in the multifamily space.

AEC reports February 5, I believe. I expect good things.

Alright, level headed, there’s no sense for me to gamble here, betting that Obama (the stealer of Hope & Change politics, and reelected on a message of “Mitt Romney Is A Dick”) is not an extortionist.

I’m up 20% in less than a month. Time to take the gains.

I expect Obama has very little chance of passing any direct laws barring gun ownership of any variety. But using executive orders, he can still harrass the manufacturers endlessly – federal agents and our outrageous tax code can be at least as stifling to business as the mob.

Make no mistake, I expect RGR to go higher from here.

But the other thing I know is – no good comes from political slime surrounding themselves with children.

I added a full position in RGR for $40.49 – 10% of net positions. I offset this purchase somewhat with small sales of CCJ, scaling out the profits from the latest recovery.

I read Feinstein’s position on guns, and it is what one could call “purely political bullshit.”

She’s made clear there will be a full grandfather clause. The rushed purchases being made right now are here to stay. No guns are going to be confiscated. And even if they don’t move to implement gun control, this event has sewn distrust amongst the population. The rush to obtain as many firearms as possible will be kicking into high gear; no one trusts Obama, the Democrats, or even the Republicans.

And the NRA has not even gotten in their say yet. Oh, yeah, absolutely, the world is just a different place now…

The NRA is going to steamclean the antigun crowd, with a torrent of statistics from Australia, Norway, and Sweden. They’ll wash it down with images from Chicago for good measure. The secluded college professors who have heretofore been given free control of the microphone won’t know what collided with the sides of their fat, pasty heads.

To say I am a gun ideologue is most likely accurate. But, this is also what I see developing – guns will be given a pass. There is much talk of reforming mental healthcare in the US, and posting marshals at schools, which will absorb much of the blows. And what assaults against firearms are coming, like Feinstein’s, are, as we say, ‘weak sauce’.

So my ideology and the real world should collide nicely, in cooperation and profits. Far too many emotional fools are forcing the hands of the calm and collected – such as The Fly’s relationship to his jackass client accounts.

I am very eager to pick up the pieces their effusive financing is so determined to leave strewn about the place.

While you were all comfortably stuffed, still sleeping in this morning, I awoke bright and early and tip toed softly to the landing and made my way winding up the stairs. At the top, I gently creaked open the door to the 9th floor office and passed inside to get some tasks done before the sun rose.

As the market bells rang, I waited patiently for the pricing I needed. And surely, a low volume morning surge grabbed RGR, sending it higher. I finally sold out at $54.70.

Not a bad 11% gain, for 5 days worth of holding.

I would normally have loved to wait into December for the special dividend to be issued – an extra $4.50 a share would have catapulted my gains to 20% – but why bother? When the market is so accommodating on price right now and the exercise date is so far away, I’ll just take my $4.50 now, plus extra.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays. Enjoy the leftover bird.