"Bullish BHP" or "Bullish BHP?"

 

 

Donald Horne originally wanted to publish his 1964 book, "The Lucky Country" with a question mark: "The Lucky Country?" I have felt the same about the title of this post: "Bullish BHP?"

After steadily climbing over several months to a new 52-week high of $65.98 on 17 June 2026, BHP's shares started dropping and dropping and dropping. Instead of selling at or near their 52-week high, I hung on, hoping each fall would be the last, all the way to Thursday's $56.87.

On Friday they began to recover, with two more small lifts to today's $58.71. Now, CommSec's daily market report suggests that "the stock price may rise from the close of 58.71 to the range of 67.00 - 69.00".

"Bullish BHP" or "Bullish BHP?" If CommSec is right and BHP shares get back to their former 52-week high of $65.98, I won't make the same mistake and hang on for a few more cents or dollars. I will sell out!

 

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Ruhe in Frieden, Schrankenwärter Laumann

 

* 16.1.1942 ✟ 1.9.2023

 

Der wohl bekannteste Schrankenwärter in ganz Deutschland und der Welt, Alfred Laumann, starb am 1.9.2023. Er war 81 Jahre alt.

 

 

Er wurde berühmt durch diesen YouTube 'clip' aus dem Jahre 2006. Damals war er schon für viele Jahre Schrankenwärter in Groß Düngen gewesen, denn laut seiner facebook-Seite schrieb er von dort im Jahre 1997, "Hallo, mein Name ist Alfred Laumann ich bin 55 Jahre alt und komme aus Bad Harzburg. Seit 37 Jahren arbeite ich für die Bahn als Schrankenwärter". Also wurde er Schrankenwärter im Alter von achtzehn Jahren als andere noch von Abenteuern in fremden Ländern träumten!

 

 

Sein Schrankenwärterhaus ist jetzt als Sehenswürdigkeit auf GOOGLE Maps markiert (siehe hier) wo man ihm das obige Denkmal aufstellte.

 

 

Jetzt bewacht er wohl einen Bahnübergang irgendwo oben im Himmel. Ruhe in Frieden, Schrankenwärter Laumann.

 

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I have a confession to make

 

For more about Schrankenwärter Laumann, click here.

 

I confess that there are days when I feel like Schrankenwärter Laumann and I need to remind myself of what one of my ex-colleagues from my New Guinea days keeps telling me, "Peter, you've done enough for at least two lifetimes."

Schrankenwärter Laumann's weekly highlight is Tuesdays when he checks the readiness of his signalling horn (2:32); mine is on Thursdays when I wheel out the garbage bin for next morning's collection, which takes care of two days of the week as I wheel it back in again on Fridays.

As for the rest of the week, I read books on Sundays, and also on Wednesdays and Saturdays and Tuesdays and Mondays. Ocassionally, I break my schedule and ponder what the hell made me retire so early instead of working on challenging overseas contracts for another ten, fifteen, even twenty years - enough years for at least a third lifetime!

No more navel-gazing! Today is Thursday when I wheel out the garbage bin for Friday morning's collection, after which I wheel it back in again.

 

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It'll probably outlast me again!

 

 

Australia in the 1960s was a country of teedrinkers. If you wanted coffee, you had two choices: International Roast or none. International Roast came in a huge tin which, in Barton Hosue where I was living, was so rarely opened it outlasted the two years I lived in that boarding-house.

On the rare occasion when I feel like a cup of coffee, I still look for the old International Roast, which usually comes in a user-friendly 100g-tin for six dollars. Today I found a big 500g-tin for fifteen dollars. That's five times the contents for only two-and-a-half times the price! Given that the value of my share portfolio has been dropping like a stone ever since BHP's 52-week high of $65.98 on the 17th of June — they are trading at $57.25 as I type while enjoying my first cup of International Roast — I couldn't afford to pass up this money-saving bargain, and so I took the big 500g-tin, even though it'll probably outlast me once again!

On that happy note I shall fill a thermos with some more International Roast and go to "Melbourne" for a quiet afternoon among the gum trees.

 

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Cogito ergo sum

 

I have called my little cabin "Melbourne", so that, if someone asks for me, Padma won't have to tell a lie when she tells them "He's gone to Melbourne" to make them go away.

 

It's important to have a place to shut out the world and all its demands. A place to collect your thoughts, a place where you can think, relax, be honest with yourself; feel tranquil when needed, and stimulated when not. Somewhere, however small, that gives you a sense of solitude and is a sanctuary for your private thoughts, and where visitors need not be welcomed.

Solitude means being alone without feeling lonely. We all need periods of solitude. Periods of time to think. Thinking really means talking to your self. It involves both the speaker (I) and the listener (me).

Descartes, the 17th-century rationalist and father of modern philosophy, famously said cogito ergo sum, which means I think therefore I am. He believed thinking starts with the eye and came up with his immortal line when he was alone in bed. He must have really liked his own company.

 

To explore this famous thought experiment further, go the to wikipedia page

 

I did a lot of talking to my self last night in my own special place, "Melbourne", far away from the rest of the world. I thought I might spend the rest of the night there, but then there was a knock on the door, and 'she-who-must-be-obeyed' said that dinner was ready.

 

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