Sounds like a wise trade. Definitely potential to get burnt on this one. And fully agree that 2009 is going to be ugly. imo, We've had a bit of Obama-glow warm fuzzy the past couple months, but that'll fade quickly in early Jan when the media start reporting bleak Xmas commercial revenues and resulting business failures and more layoffs. I'm guessing there will be a lot of bargain basement stocks in the March-June 2009 timeframe. Question then will be how long til recovery.
In the meantime, keeping assets liquid (daytrading) or in Euros. Maybe back into gold, but Petroeuro is ever-more compelling at this point.
re: DVAX, one of the few I'll hold speculatively. I doubled my cost basis on the 2.20, so am willing to let my "free" 10k shares ride. Unlike most pinks, this is a clean 40m OS Nasdaq stock that Glaxo thinks might have $800m worth of investment potential. The fact that Glaxo gave $10m in cash up-front means they saw something they liked.
Time will tell, as it always does.
In the meantime, hope all is well with you and your family. I'll try calling you to catch up by phone sometime over the holidays.