AUGUST PUNCHED

Markets closed tomorrow but oil markets opening this afternoon so someone can trade the oil markets and help the CME make some money as others may suffer.

And how about that GOP keeping Dubya and Cheney away from the Minn. Why wouldn't anyone want Cheney to go?

Speaking of suffering- check the returns on various indexes/widely held stocks for the first 8 months of 2008:

SPX -12.6%

DJIA -13%

NAZ -10.7%

RUT -3.5%

MID -5%

XLE -5.9%

OIH -2.7%

XLF -26%

BKX -25.5%

XBD -27%

SMALL GROWTH -1.7%

SMALL VALUE -8.4%

LARGE GROWTH -10.5%

LARGE VALUE -14.9%

AAPL -14.4%

C -35.5%

CME -51.1%

EFA -19%

EWA -17.2%

GE -24.2%

GOOG -33%

GS -23.8%

NYX -53.8%

PG FLAT

WMT +24.3%

XOM -14.6%

Also some interesting ytd numbers on some pretty pretty well known mutual funds:

CMGFX -11.43%; (Heebner)

DODGX -14.5%; (Dodge Cox)

FAIRX - FLAT; (Berkowitz)

FLVCX -5.78; (fido leveraged)

LLPFX -12.2%; (Longleaf's Hawkins)

LMVTX -28.29%; (Legg's Bill Miller)

MXXIX - 17.2%; (Marsico)

OAKBX - FLAT; (Oakmark Balanced)

OAKLX -9.03%; (Nygren)

PRWCX -1.1%; (TR Price Cap Ap)

TAVFX -15.67% (Third Ave Whitman)

WGRNX -13.3% (Wintergreen)

WWNPX -23.88% (Kinetics)