Some readers are upset that I'm not brief enough. Yesterday 3 of them wrote to complain about how long and detailed my writing up a company result turned out to be. They were annoyed at the number of data-points I included in my writeup of a Spanish company's Q4.

It's as if they are annoyed with Robert Jordan hanging around the Sierra de Guadarrama in For Whom the Bell Tolls trying to decide whether or not to blow up the bridge to stop the Franco forces from besieging Madrid. They will not give him a chance to think about what doing so would mean to his lover, old Pablo, himself, and a lot of others. While not writing fiction, I am also not jumping to conclusions any faster than the American hero of the book.

Investing is complex and ambivalent as the Spanish Civil War was. If you don't believe me, read another classic, Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. And in case you didn't know it yet, financial jouranalists are not Hemingway-esque writers in any case.

My stock report yesterday was based on a crack-of-dawn conference call by three officials of the reporting bank who spoke in Spanish. I had to keep them apart despite their using the same English-translators who often messed up banking terminology. My job was to cover the company results, not to hastily jump to conclusions churning out investment advise not thought through.

KH, one critic, canceled his sub. But I hope other reader will give me a chance to show that Jim Cramer-style instant analysis does not pay off. A day later I have a view on the bank from Spain.

More today from the wildest markets on earth, and also about other closed-end funds, plus news from Canada, Britain, Colombia, Jordan, Argentina, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Brazil. Oh, and Britain.