hooray for BAC this week!

5/7/2009 11:11:45 AM

^ i do not own & i regret that, but i've been busy at work & can't watch as much as i like

5/7/2009 12:16:13 PM

effin hell, bought 1000 of FAZ at 5.15 with a .10 trailing stop. It ticked up to 5.17 and eventually booted me out at 5.07, it touched 5.06 and hasn't looked back yet.

5/7/2009 1:17:31 PM

5.61

5/7/2009 1:23:17 PM

i took 2 shots just before that at both FAS and FAZ, knowing there was a trend there somewhere, either the market was going to keep getting driven higher or it was going to start a slow selloff. I had another shot at it with FAZ. I actually got in at 5.15 and initially set the stop for .15 It moved up into the 5.20s or so, then was headed back to trigger at 5.12 or something. I canceled, waited, then set it to .10 only to get booted out shortly after.

No matter, I'd much rather have a little slippage than get my beak pushed in again riding stupid shit down.

At some point in the next 30-hr the mild sell off will reverse and drive higher into the close.

[Edited on May 7, 2009 at 1:27 PM. Reason : .]

5/7/2009 1:27:10 PM

5.82

craziness

5/7/2009 1:43:25 PM

630 shares of FAZ at $4.75 this morning, out at $5.75 this afternoon

5% stop loss set at $4.51, risked $150 made $630

probably the cleanest trade I've made in a long time

5/7/2009 4:32:30 PM

^ I don't understand the math on that one.

5/7/2009 9:57:25 PM

He would have lost $150 had he been stopped out, he made 630 for the 1 pt gain on the stock.

5/7/2009 10:13:49 PM

ah, thanks.

Quote :

"Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2009 to 05/06/2009 is 7.5%*"

5/7/2009 11:40:32 PM

i wish i had the nuts to pull of trades like that

i like playing things too safe

5/7/2009 11:51:31 PM

FAS @ 11.13

5/8/2009 9:36:06 AM

I've had FAZ since 4.75, i think im gonna hold into next week

5/8/2009 11:06:16 AM

I've been stopped out of FAZ twice today. I'm going to pull the trig on it at about 3.59pm, should be able to get it in the 4.30 range, sell Monday morning on the gap up near the 5 range.

Currently holding some DIA puts for the mild Monday sell-off, just wish I would have waited a little longer to get them.

5/8/2009 2:44:48 PM

tight trailing stop got me out of FAS @ 11.62... oh well.. i couldn't watch it from 11:30 until now anyway

5/8/2009 3:17:21 PM

time to start familiarizing myself with ERX

5/8/2009 3:51:44 PM

Anyone here use Tradeking? Do they make you wait 3 days after selling to get your money? Zecco is terrible.

5/8/2009 4:14:30 PM

anybody here use vectorvest? i start a new job with them on monday. i don't know much about the stock market (yet) but i'm curious if they are generally known or not

5/8/2009 4:44:35 PM

the case for EDC

http://tinyurl.com/p7h4qh

5/10/2009 10:54:31 AM

^^ congrats on the job.

all i know is that they have a commercial on CNBC every 5 minutes... their main value proposition seems that the overall market direction trumps everything technical, fundamental, etc

5/10/2009 11:01:55 AM

does vectorvest work?

does anyone here use any subscription services for analysis and stock tips?

5/10/2009 12:31:29 PM

^ I've been contemplating it with Phils Stock World

https://www.philstockworld.com/membership/signup.php

I managed to land a a free Report Membership Package (normally $50 a month) where he sends out daily (but not intraday) trade setups and I've made a couple of winners on his recommendations though it's kind of screwy because in some of his daily notes he mentions convos and comments from the previous day that I don't have access to. Friday, he said he'd be buying May 82 puts on DIA at .40 and would be happy to get more at .30. I bought some at 40 and more at 35 and imagine we'll see a down open to start they day and I should be able to sell out of them for a small profit (would have been better had I just waited and got them for .33).

There is another guy that is newer and smaller that I subscribe to that posts his weekly returns and he crushed it in early 08, managed not to lose it at the end of the year, did very well in the turbulent part of this year up to the rally, and has been just smoking the rally as we go. He is a technician, which is what has been working over the past year and what will probably continue to work for another quarter or so until we settle into our years of muddle through when fundamentals will once again start to work. This was his performance this past week and he is currently offering a 10 day trial of his alerts, not sure what it costs after that:

LONG CDNS at 5.6 Sold CDNS at 5.45 = -2.6% Swing trade from friday

LONG HTE at 5.28 Sold at 5.49 = +4% Day Trade

LONG ZEUS at 22.3 Stopped out at 21 = - 5.8% Day trade

LONG HERO at 3.77 Sold at 3.78 = flat Day Trade

LONG QID at 35.92 Sold at 35.7 = -0.6% Day Trade

LONG TZA at 27.8 Sold at 27 = -2.8% Swing Trade

LONG HTE at 5.28 Sold at 5.92 = +12% Swing Trade

LONG WRES at 2.35 Sold at = 2.6 = +10% Swing Trade

LONG FEED at 4.1 Sold at 4.3 = +4.8% Swing trade

LONG STP at 16.5 Sold at 16.83 = +2% Swing Trade

LONG FTK at 3.08 Sold at 3.23 = +4.8% Swing Trade

LONG MMR at 7.08 Sold at 7.25 = +2.4% Swing Trade

LONG CPE at 2.16 Sold at 2.24 = +3.7% Swing Trade

LONG PRGN at 4.69 Sold at 4.7 = flat day Trade

LONG AXL at 1.52 Sold at 1.65 = +8.5% Day Trade

LONG HW at 4.03 Sold at 4.3 = +6.6% Swing trade

LONG FTK at 2.6 Sold at 2.62 = flat Day Trade
LONG TZA at 25.85 Sold at 26.6 = +2.9% Day Trade
LONG FAZ at 5.07 Sold at 5.3 = +4.5% Day Trade

SHORT FRO at 23.66 Cover 23.62 = flat Day Trade

SHORT CLF at 29.75 Cover 29.4 = +1.1% Day Trade

LONG HW at 4.25 Sold at 4.39 = +3.29% ONH

LONG STP at 16.75 Sold at 17.35 = +5.5% ONH

LONG TZA at 26.5 Stopped out at 26 = -1.8% Day trade

LONG TZA at 27.1 Sold at 26.9 = -0.7% Day trade

LONG SRS at 22.96 Sold at 21.6 = -5.5% Day trade

LONG STI at 19.63 Sold at 20.15 = +2.6% day trade

LONG XTXI at 3.82 Sold at 3.98 = +4% Day Trade

LONG PQ at 4.22 Swing Trade Still Open

LONG SGY at 7.22 Swing Trade Still Open

[Edited on May 10, 2009 at 10:41 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on May 10, 2009 at 10:43 PM. Reason : .]

5/10/2009 10:36:40 PM

Bought FAZ at the close Friday for 4.50 and sold out of it at 4.85. Bought 40 of the May 82 puts on the DIA for a .38 average and sold out of those for .47.

Looks to be setting up for a strong correction today which would probably double my profits on those positions, but I've been abused so much lately I'm just going to take my 8% and 24% gains and be happy.

5/11/2009 9:41:12 AM

I had some lucky picks today. entered into YGE at 8.40 and FEED at 3.88 yesterday

5/11/2009 2:58:46 PM

^ FEED -- interesting. don't know why i didn't have that on my radar

5/11/2009 4:56:08 PM

^ I've been in and out since around $2.00, I jumped ship when swine flu hit, but it didn't phase them at all.

5/11/2009 5:00:21 PM

If only I had the patience to hold on to some of my stocks a little longer....

11/21/2008 GNW BOUGHT 2620 SHARES OF GNW AT $0.8501
12/1/2008 GNW SOLD 2620 SHARES OF GNW AT $1.2604
5/11/2009 GNW was at $6.18 per share

3/6/2009 HIG BOUGHT 650 SHARES OF HIG AT $3.4118
3/9/2009 HIG SOLD 650 SHARES OF HIG AT $4.00
5/8/2009 HIG was at $18.16 per share

5/11/2009 8:20:07 PM

Yeah, I bought 1000 of FAS at 2.75 on March 9, was previously holding 800 of it from 4.85.

5/11/2009 8:24:58 PM

^oh yeah, that reminds me...

3/6/2009 FAS BOUGHT 920 SHARES OF FAS AT $2.39
3/5/2009 FAS BOUGHT 600 SHARES OF FAS AT $3.30
3/11/2009 FAS SOLD 1520 SHARES OF FAS AT $4.25

5/7/2009 FAS was at $13.27 per share

5/11/2009 8:43:36 PM

won't FAS and FAZ just just asymptotically approach 0?

5/11/2009 8:49:27 PM

yes they decay towards 0 because of the volatility, but Proshares will do a reverse split once it gets low enough

not a great idea to hold them long term although it can work out well sometimes

5/11/2009 8:52:15 PM

^^ read up
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/975-Personal-Responsibility-In-Investing.html

[Edited on May 11, 2009 at 8:53 PM. Reason : .]

5/11/2009 8:53:10 PM

I went into safe mode at the end of last week parking most of my money in mcdonalds at 53 until I see what the market decides it wants to do. Figure thats a very non volatile play with potential upside and not a lot of downside at 53 so until I get bored and wanna play with some risk again or until MCD heads about 56.50 Im living the boring life lol

5/12/2009 3:48:59 PM

Good article ^^, it basically says if you invest $100 in the SDS (S&P Bear 2x) and 100 in the SSO (S&P bull 2x) and the S&P goes up 5% on day one, the SDS is at 90, the SSO is at 110. On Day 2, the S&P goes back down 5%, somebody might be thinking, no problem, we're back to where we started but actually, 5% @2x of the SDS at 90 is 9, so it's at 99. Now with the SSO, 5% @2x of 110 is 11, so the SSO is at 99. So you have two trading days were there is no net move in the S&P and both the SDS and SSO are less than where you started, pretty much explains compounding interest. Probably why people day trade it and don't hold it. Although anything you went bullish on from early March is doing nicely.

[Edited on May 12, 2009 at 11:52 PM. Reason : .]

5/12/2009 11:51:47 PM

small amount of EDC @ 69

[Edited on May 13, 2009 at 10:24 AM. Reason : ]

5/13/2009 10:24:18 AM

400 shares of FAZ yesterday at 5.38. Saw it XLF start bouncing down off of the 5 day MA resistance, and couldnt help myself.

Keeping my stops tight at this point, although I probably shouldnt be holding this overnight. Guess only tomorrow will tell.

5/13/2009 4:04:14 PM

Bailed on McDonalds today and moved into walmart at 49.65 before earnings will see how it decides to treat me

5/13/2009 4:39:44 PM

I feel like punching myself in the face. Still new to the game I jumped in early on the drop in retail bandwagon and the coming CRE blow up by playing BBY short and SRS long. I was holding SRS at 35 for 400 shares and after it seemed around the 20 level was support I was wanting to double down on a plunge one day last week, the market was about to close and I fat fingered a sell of those 400 shares at 21.50 instead of a buy of 400. Finally, the GS and ML pump of the REITs is abating and SRS closes at nearly 25 today. That's only a $2800 mistake. I suppose I could have just bought 800 shares and wasted a whole $5 in commission, but by that point, I guess I was finally glad to be rid of the SRS hell.

Quote :

"Saw it XLF start bouncing down off of the 5 day MA resistance, and couldnt help myself.p"

I don't know that I have seen any technician use a 5 day MA as an indicator.



[Edited on May 13, 2009 at 5:24 PM. Reason : .]

5/13/2009 5:22:33 PM

Quote :

"Probably why people day trade it and don't hold it. Although anything you went bullish on from early March is doing nicely."

I've done very well with option trading on the 3x ETFs. There are ways to make money on them, but buying it and putting it under a mattress is almost sure to bite you in the ass.

I'm sitting on some XLF, but I've forgotten why that's in my portfolio.

5/13/2009 5:40:38 PM

401k

Quote :

"Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2009 to 05/12/2009 is 10.1%"

I rode gold the first part of the year and energy/china/asia the last few months...


I'm making a big natural gas and energy play today on the pullback.


I don't know what my brokerage account is up % wise this year but it's pretty big since AAPL and POT are my two largest positions.... I try to be a lot more conservative in my retirement accounts...

5/13/2009 6:13:36 PM

wow, i lost 4% today, and that's without any current Proshares holdings...just regular stocks and a couple of ETFs.

5/13/2009 7:34:02 PM

^stop bragging, i lost 20% today

5/13/2009 11:46:49 PM

I was down a good bit, but it was down enough to let me close out some covered calls that expire Friday and were near or barely over the strike price.

On the next decent up day I'll probably sell June calls on the same ones. This volatility is great for anyone who does options.

5/14/2009 1:24:58 AM

The VIX is down a ton compared to some of the record highs we saw in the past six months. There is still some premium there to make the ole time decay strategy still work for you, but with this markets tendency to really start moving with momentum in one direction or the other, you have to be a bit careful about which ones you're choosing to sell.

It used to be you sell covereds on FAS/FAZ and you had so much downside protection that even big moves didn't really shake you too much, now it seems the premiums aren't quite as healthy to keep you comfortable when the trend changes. I know I looked at some June 12 FAS calls last week in the mid-upper 2 range that would already have you under that cost basis point if you got it at an elevated price. Though, if you've been holding it for awhile, then the premium was still nice, but these things decay entirely too much for my liking now.

5/14/2009 7:09:14 AM

putting tight trailing stops on nearly everything...


...


as of the time of edit, most of the sells have already been triggered.




[Edited on May 14, 2009 at 9:56 AM. Reason : update]

5/14/2009 9:41:25 AM

bought some FAZ here at 5.55 ... (solf my 400 shares from yesterday at 6.05 this morning) ...

in for 1k shares

5/14/2009 3:23:45 PM

I picked up some SIRI to sit on. I did some reading today and it might head back to >$1.

5/14/2009 4:01:38 PM

I too decided to hate money again and bought 1000 of FAZ at 5.5980

5/14/2009 4:03:14 PM

Does anyone here use SogoTrade? They offer $3 a trade, $1.50 a trade if you pay them $10 a month. I'm getting sick of E-TRADE's asinine fees of $12.99 a trade.

5/14/2009 5:57:14 PM

Sold out of all my FAZ at 5.70, market looks a little tepid.

5/15/2009 9:47:46 AM