GETTING READY TO RING A BELL!

The week of July 16th 2007 is the anniversay of note. 3 years ago around this time the mlp index hit an all time high of 340.11. It has been quite the trip as we went from there to starring into the abyss in early November 2008 when we hit 152.06 on a closing basis and fell to 145 intraday. Now here we are at 330.40 on the mlp index..up over 4 yesterday. We are 3% away from all time highs and if we adjust for distributions which have only been growing through all of this for many of the mlp majors, we are already there. Its a nice place to be!
And now of course we have officially become "trendy" as this Forbes arcticle points out. We have gone from no ETN's or ETF's to 5 now out there. I have stated repeatedly that this is a double edged sword. As long as the spread between MLPS and treasuries remains around 400 basis points, mlps will continue to attract money. That spread only gets supported by the usual distribution hikes that have been coming along quarter after quarter. As long as the music continues to play we can continue to walk around the chairs. 340 is the obvious next stop here and its been a wonderful trip up. Play on but remember with the advent of popularity comes perhaps volatility when any correction comes. And it might be volatility like we saw back in 2008 with 15 and 20 point down days on the index. No sign of that happening now so let us play!

Markets as I indicated yesterday were gearing for a strong finish and it worked out that way. The dow looks like it has built a complex bottom in here so we will have an additional tail wind for awhile. No corporate news so far this morning and no upgrades or downgrades. Stock futures are a little higher pre open. Energy is up and rates are flat.