Shhhh!!!  Don't jinx the stock markets.  But we thought you'd be interested in knowing that October 2011 is shaping up to be the best month for stock gains in 37 years.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA, is up 11.9% for October through Thursday, 10/27, and its basically flat on at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.  so far. October is notoriously volatile, according to a CNBC.com report, and this month was exceptionally so, largely driven by the up-then-down-then-up events in Europe.  Fortunately, the month seems to be ending on an updraft, after European officials finally struck a deal for their bailout fund and reached an agreement with private investors, who will to take a 50% haircut on their Greek debt holdings.

[C-I Note: We may have been mistaken, but we thought we saw a couple of Occupy-Wall-Street protesters ducking into a downtown TD Ameritrade office on Thursday, looking like they wanted to place some buy orders.]

Stocks and commodities markets, correlated closely with the euro, roared higher in lockstep, as the euro gained more than 2 percent against the dollar. Behind that gain was a big short squeeze as traders who were short the euro, raced to cover.Dow is up 11.9 percent for October so far, its best monthly performance since January, 1987. The S&P 500, up 3.4 percent Thursday, is now up 13.5 percent for October, its best monthly gain since 1974. The Dow closed at 12.208, its first close above 12,000 since August, while the S&P closed at 1284, about 10 points above its 200-day moving average. Anyway, "what's good for the goose is good for the gander." But it's definitely not good for short-sellers, who probably are feeding into the market rally by covering their shorts. After today there's one more trading session in October - Monday, 10/31, Halloween.  The leads us to this final question:  Will it be a Trick or a Treat for investors? Guess it depends on whether we've been naughty or nice (sorry, wrong holiday).      [CNBC.com, 10/27/11]