Portfolio performance for a calendar year can often be improved by simply selling the worst performers at the end of January.

If forensic analysts confiscated your calendar and e-mail records and Web browsing history for the past six months, what would they conclude are your core priorities?

In the near-term, the market would prefer a Bush victory because he is familiar and represents lower taxation on equities,

Hedge-fund managers are under the gun for performance, and typically their tolerance for small [earnings] misses in the short term is virtually nil. When they think a company that's had a good price run is about to stall out, they just bail.

One forgets that part of one's performance is one's history—or sometimes the lack of it. You're playing against what an audience knows, what they expect. This seems to be true of all performers; there's baggage that gets carried into the venue that we can't see.

Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.