On Saturday I took Sidewalker Jr. and Little Miss Sidewalker out to visit our friends in Red Bank, and then the two families went out trick or treating. Having not grown up the United States the whole trick or treating thing was as new to me as it was to my kids. Off I went with Mario and a little Zebra in close attendance to separate the local neighborhood from its candy.

I was under the impression that you just go to your surrounding houses and ring the door bell whilst shouting ‘trick or treat’. However as we approached the target area I saw a mass of people dressed in a variety of colorful costumes. Apparently the street we were in is a very popular location to go trick or treating, and people were being shipped in for this sweet-toothed heist! Wonder why there were so many people there so I asked a passing Witch why, she replied “because the houses are close together, and we cleaned out Toms River last night.” So I concluded the people of this neighborhood have to spend a lot of money each year based solely on their proximity to their neighbors!

However some houses were clearly not participating, one such house we approached had a big sign on the door: H1N1 NO CANDY.

I thought that was a very inventive way of repelling the costumed hordes, until a passing Zombie told me it was her piano teachers house and she had Swine Flu. So if you are a sick pianist in Monmouth County and you are reading this, get better soon.

When we returned to home base we were shocked to see that the candy we had left out in a bowl had been cleaned out. Historically we have had one, maybe two, visitors; but this year the whole lot had been taken. Is that an economic indicator? Is there someone out there that will be dinning on candy corn until Thanksgiving?

In other news, we added 4c to the Sidewalker Fund as well as getting enough candy to last a lifetime…

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $24.29

Days since inception: 638
Cash balance: $22.55 (all time)
Cents per day: 3.5345(since inception)
Predicted day for $1,000,000: Sunday January 18th 77,339 AD

9/30/2009
$1,000,000
= 993.54 oz of Gold @ $1006.50 (as per Nymex close near month)
= 14,220.70 barrels of oil @ $70.32 (as per Nymex close Light Sweet Crude near month)
= 60,808.76 oz of Silver @ $16.445 (as per Nymex close near month)

Although I did not reach my target of $23 by the end of September, I fell 45 cents short, I did manage to knock 7,000 years off my predicted completion date. I started off the month at the U.S. Open. Also, this month marked the first time we found paper money on the sidewalk when Mrs S. snagged a buck in the parking lot at the Malibu Diner in Hoboken. Is this further evidence of inflation? My Shopping with Sidewalker feature showed a month on month decline in prices, is this further evidence of deflation? And by the end of the month I had dogs living with cats, and cats living with dogs (see post below). These are indeed interesting times as we, as a nation, seek our ‘new normal’ in a testing economic environment.

For the sake of nice round numbers I will make my target for the end of October $25.In the next couple of days I will post about the investment decisions we have taken for the Sidewalker Fund. Let’s hope the fun we had in September continues on into October and the Halloween season.

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $22.55