Days since inception: 761
Cash balance: $26.39 (all time)
Cents per day: 3.4678(since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Thursday 10th April 80,960 AD

1/31/2010
$1,000,000
= 924.38 oz of Gold @ $1081.80 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 13,766.52 barrels of oil @ $72.64 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 61,747.45 oz of Silver @ $16.195 (as per Nymex close near month)

This month’s paltry additions to the Sidewalker Fund has seen the quest completion date pushed back another 2,000 years! Not even the double nickel find on Friday could lift the spirits around Castle Sidewalker.

In other news the Chief Bubble Blower, non other than Bumblin’ Ben Bernanke got confirmed by Congress to continue for another 4  years of monetary policy experiments at our expense. The markets dipped in the second half of the month leaving January with a negative return. I’m no doom-monger, I like to live life with my cup half full, but I see storm clouds gathering on the financial horizon, be wary and prepared.

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $26.39

Days since inception: 730
Cash balance: $25.78 (all time)
Cents per day: 3.5315(since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Sunday 29th February 79,536 AD

12/31/2009
$1,000,000
= 913.07 oz of Gold @ $1095.20 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 12,600.80 barrels of oil @ $79.36 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 54,445.96 oz of Silver @ $16.822 (as per Nymex close near month)

A few days late I know, but I think I can be excused because of the festivities. Well another month passes us by and yet another blown target on my quest. After this months numbers are in and the calculations have been made, I can tell you it has added a further 800+ years for Sidewalker Jr. and any future heirs to complete the quest, assuming they continue at the same rate as myself. I wanted to be at $26 by the turn of the year, but I fell 22 cents short. I think the only saving grace this month has been the dollar strengthening a little, as evidenced by the commodity prices above.

I think my coin finding is proving to be very seasonal, as soon as the days started shortening so did my coin finding totals! Perhaps it is because I use the car more in the winter due to the frigid temperatures? As we are coming into the coldest months, I will give myself the modest (and almost embarrassing) target of $26.50 by the end of July.

I hope the holiday period treated you all well. Keep the faith…

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $25.78

No self-respecting blogger can let New Years Eve go by without a list of predictions for the coming year. So I hope you are sitting comfortably and enjoy reading my ‘visionary’ list.

1. Eldorado, the lost city of Gold, is finally located and it’s location rather surprisingly is right next door to Castle Sidewalker. However the discovery is not made by me.
2. Amelia Earhart’s aircraft is found… at Newark Airport Terminal C  Gate 128 .
3. General Motors ceases to operate as a car manufacturer, but their re-issued stock rockets to $100 a share in a frantic day of trading when they announce they are going to become a health care provider.
4. Unemployment reaches 20% the same day that the S&P 500 reaches 2,000 on news that the unemployment number was better than the 20.0000001% expected.
5. The USA invades Italy in order to protect their oil supply for their two other wars, after 8 months of street to street fighting they discover it is oil of the olive variety. Don’t worry though the third war is good for the economy, so after discovering the mistake they decide to fight on anyway.
6. Tiger Woods doesn’t hit a competitive golf ball all year.
7. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is photographed by the paparazzi lying naked on a bed surrounded by Gold Bullion coins the day before he officially announces the devaluation of the Dollar.
8. Elvis releases his first album for 33 years as he is forced out of disappearance/retirement citing the economic downturn for his return from self-imposed obscurity.
9. Main Stream News Media re-brands itself as an entertainment/variety show in a vain attempt to survive when the general populace finally discover they have not been reporting reality for almost 3 years.
10. I don’t reach my goal of finding $1,000,000 on the sidewalks of America, so you are stuck reading this blog for another year!

Happy New Year everyone.

This year the pleasure has been all mine…

-Luke Sidewalker

-Current balance $25.77

Days since inception: 699
Cash balance: $24.91 (all time)
Cents per day: 3.5637(since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Sunday 26th August 78,835 AD

11/30/2009
$1,000,000
= 846.66 oz of Gold @ $1181.10 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 12,939.96 barrels of oil @ $77.28 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 54,068.67 oz of Silver @ $18.495 (as per Nymex close near month)

Another month and another target missed. I fell 9 cents short of my conservative $25 month end target. It has been a busy month at the castle with visitors for Thanksgiving and coin has been hard to find.

The completion date for my quest has been pushed out by approximately 1,400 years due to the lack of finds. I think I will have to have a very achievable target of $26 by the end of the year. I’m definitely swimming against the tide it seems. Do you notice the weakness of the dollar as measured against the commodity prices above. Our dollar buys noticeably less this month.

Happy hunting…

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $24.91

After two long days of nut scratching the Federal Reserve offered up its statement yesterday afternoon, and true to the form of the last few years it was once again laced with contradictions and ambiguity.  I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of it because it is not worthy of a detailed deconstruct, but here is the bit that gets my goat the most.

The Fed said they see an improvement in the economy (that is welcome and good news, if you believe them).  They then went on to say that they are going to keep interest rates low for an extended period of time. So what is it? If we are improving let’s raise rates to head off inflation, or is the economy still circling the bowl as implied by the second sentence?

As if that wasn’t confusing enough mix in the Treasury saying they are in favor of a strong dollar, as they willfully stand by as it takes a swan dive like a Mexican cliff diver, and anyone on the outside looking in would wonder what the hell is going on here.

At times like this I turn to the price of Gold, as I like to think of it as the ‘Barometer of Truth’. Because being an inanimate object  (it’s literally a rock!) it cannot lie or cheat us. I like to think the value of Gold is unchanged and all other goods, services and currencies are the ones whose value oscillates. So let’s check the barometer shall we? Oh look it’s at an all time high closing at $1092 last night. That means we can throw the ‘strong dollar’ baloney out the window, and anyone who thinks a weakening dollar policy is an easy pain-free way out of the credit crisis let me tell you it is your purchasing power that is getting eroded, therefore it is you that is paying the tab. A rising Gold price is also indicative of inflation, and if that is truly upon us in tandem with anemic economic growth, the good people at the Federal Reserve will have to have a few more bunny rabbits left to pull out of their figurative hat.

Sorry for the rant, but the inconsistencies from our financial leaders is starting to wear on me…

Oh and one last thing, I know the image on this post is a thermometer and not a barometer, but I couldn’t find any cool graphics of an exploding barometer!

-Luke Sidewalker

-Current balance $24.30

Days since inception: 577
Cash balance: $15.39 (all time)
Cents per day: 2.6673 (since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Monday February 19th 104,655 AD

7/31/2009
$1,000,000
= 1,047.67 oz of Gold @ $954.50 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 14,388.49 barrels of oil @ $69.50 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 71,864.89 oz of Silver @ $13.915 (as per Nymex close near month)

Another great effort in July has cut approximately 20,000 years from the completion date. It was touch and go whether or not I was going to reach my target total of $15 by the end of the month; with one day to go I still had a 2 cent deficit to make up. As you can see I made it with plenty to spare after a bonanza day in Red Bank, N.J. to finish off the month. I will cover the adventures of this trip next week. Other notable moments of the month included a positive article about the blog in The Jersey Journal by Troy Dreier, and of course the ongoing saga of the Starbucks gift card! I’d like to thank everyone for their words of encouragement, especially my followers on Twitter that are closing in on the 2,000 mark!

My target for August will be a little on the conservative side as we are off to Europe at the end of the month to see if we can find some ancient coins on the pavement there! I hope to have reached $17 by the end of this month.

Have a great weekend…

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $15.39

Days since inception: 546
Cash balance: $12.24 (all time)
Cents per day: 2.2418 (since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Thursday November 7th 124,137 AD

6/30/2009
$1,000,000
= 1,077.59 oz of Gold @ $928.00 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 14,271.44 barrels of oil @ $70.07 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 73,664.82 oz of Silver @ $13.575 (as per Nymex close near month)

The big push in June has sliced just over 17,000 years off the projected completion date. I have managed to get my cents per day rate since inception over the psychological 2 cents per day mark. I have some travel plans during the next two months, it will be interesting to see if the new hunting grounds will accelerate or derail my quest. I will give a few clues to my destination a little closer to departure date.

I have set myself a target of $15 in total by the end of July. I will have to get lucky with a few quarters here and there, but fortune favors the brave…

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $12.24

I’m going to keep it brief today. This is a post to reflect on the events that took place 65 years ago on the beaches of Normandy. A time to think about all those brave young soldiers who walked onto the beaches never to walk off of them so the likes of you and me can Tweet, blog and generally exist in a better world while they picked up the tab by making the ultimate sacrifice. If you get a chance today just take a moment to reflect and pay tribute to the massive undertaking that played out on the sands of Juno, Sword, Omaha, Utah and Gold beaches in 1944.

Thank you.

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $10.64

Days since inception: 516
Cash balance: $10.15 (all time)
Cents per day: 1.9670 (since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Friday January 7th 141,200 AD

5/31/2009
$1,000,000
= 1,020.30 oz of Gold @ $980.10 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 15,006.00 barrels of oil @ $66.64 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 63,492.06 oz of Silver @ $15.75 (as per Nymex close near month)

Well the May effort has slashed a further 13,000 years off of the predicted completion date, so the trend of reducing this date has stayed intact which is a positive. My rate of finding money has almost reached 2 cents per day, hopefully I can find enough in the next couple of months to get that “Cents per Day” stat firmly above two, then we should see the completion date really come in.

One worrying point is if you compare the commodity prices this month to last months report, you will see that the dollars I’m finding are buying less and less real stuff. I feel like I’m swimming against the tide…

-Luke Sidewalker

Days since inception: 485
Cash balance: $8.72 (all time)
Cents per day: 1.7979 (since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Tuesday August 11th 154,291 AD

4/30/2009
$1,000,000
= 1,124.86 oz of Gold @ $889.00 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 19,650.23 barrels of oil @ $50.89 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 81,037.28 oz of Silver @ $12.34 (as per Nymex close near month)

Well the good news is due to a decent April the predicted date to reach a million has come in almost 57,000 years from last months report! However it is a task that will remain to be completed by my heirs!

-Luke Sidewalker