Thanks Anil -- for a thoughtful and timely post. I took advantage of it to sell a bit more energy and am now only about 1.15X. I have been lightening my energy for some time but sold one more position that appeared to have stalled out when it bounced up a bit today. On reflection I have been very overweight energy for 4 or 5 years (thanks in part to you) but it is time to backoff until the energy picture clears.

My guess is Alt. energy may be even harder hit than conventional energy and energy service companies because they have high multiples and are dependent on high energy costs

It was timely because I was focusing mainly on a different question -- why was the market celebrating the higher inflation numbers? I don't think higher interest rates are good for the consumer or mortgage rates. I don't believe the economy or the housing market are strong enough to handle anything more than a token rate increase. So I wasn't focusing so much on the Saudi meeting. I was focusing more on the G8 and whether they would really do anything more than jawbone the US$. Either way I don't see much in the current news for celebration as we are not out of this mess yet.

My portfolio looks a lot like it did at the start of the 2000 Bear except I have more hedges.