and by some I meant 10% already

12/1/2008 9:54:37 AM

i'm kinda hoping for the 7ks.

or at least to see SRS back to 300.

which would take my 401k from -25% for the year to +10%

12/1/2008 9:55:39 AM

Damn, I'd love a -25% return on the year right about now.

12/1/2008 9:58:48 AM

^^ You can invest in individual stocks in your 401k?

12/1/2008 10:11:55 AM

^yep, we have to sign all kinds of waivers, but we have a self directed option that lets us invest in anything you can with a typical online broker (except we are barred from trading company stock).

mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, options, etc.

I typically stick with stocks and ETFs though.

^^ i was -40% in august when i moved everything to money market. In october i started using double leveraged ETFs to ride the volatility, and i've clawed back up to -24.9% as of today.

12/1/2008 10:17:06 AM

I bought a couple hundred of FNM at 0.34 and a few thousand at 0.68

12/1/2008 10:21:13 AM

Yeah I needed one more day to push a few stocks to sell points before heading to the 7k's though

12/1/2008 10:24:05 AM

Probably a good entry point for todays market if you're single day trading. I'm not gonna play today because I don't have the fortitude, but if I we're, I'd probably enter into some SSO or FAS for small gains today.

12/1/2008 11:33:23 AM

in a roth ira - can you trade a stock w/in 30 days and not get penalized? i'm not taking the money out of the roth ira...

12/1/2008 12:28:27 PM

no penalty for trading within your roth, other than the charges for trading given by your brokerage.

I use scottrade, and daytrade it like a mofo.

12/1/2008 12:44:45 PM

I couldn't stand it and waded into FAS at 22.9499 for 100 shares.

Looks like the market is trying to hold around this level. Hopefully I see a bit of a bounce up from here for a small gain on this play.

12/1/2008 12:45:48 PM

why not do FAZ while the market drops? think financials only going up?

12/1/2008 1:16:29 PM

Just playing the intraday swing, which is why I'm fuxing with these 3x levered ETFs. I wouldn't be shocked if we push down from 6% in this market but I guess i'd be a little surprised given how things have been behaving lately. I won't hold it overnight and I'll take a loss if I have to at the end of the day to get out of it. But you're right, given the runup from last week, a longer term play (ie a few days - week) would be FAZ.

I'll wait until the market moves out of this mid band between the recent "bottom" and the upper resistance bands to get into something a little longer term than a day.

So far FAS looked like it was gaining a little steam but now it's back to about where I got it.

[Edited on December 1, 2008 at 1:25 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2008 1:22:11 PM

Im sure this has been covered before...probably numerous times, but what services are yall using? Ameritrade? Etrade? Etc?

thx!

12/1/2008 1:56:08 PM

I got back into JBHT as well as picked up some FAS.

12/1/2008 2:26:13 PM

Scottrade

12/1/2008 2:32:58 PM

TDA

12/1/2008 2:37:05 PM

scottrade

12/1/2008 3:11:51 PM

USAA! They gave me 30 free trades, so it has been pretty sweet thus far

12/1/2008 3:16:24 PM

scottrade

USAA member too...might activate a brokerage acct with them, too.


Bought 428 shares SSO @ $23.25

12/1/2008 3:27:42 PM

These growing pains aren't easy. I contemplated setting a trailing stop as soon as I was breakeven, should have listened to myself. I got out of FAS at 20.58 for a $250 loss today. That means there is a great chance it will run back up to 23 before the day is done.

12/1/2008 3:39:58 PM

yeah, i clearly bought SSO way too early. oh well, time is on my side.

12/1/2008 3:43:43 PM

Yeah, this sell off is relentless. I don't feel too terrible, FAS has touched 19.36 in the couple of minutes since I posted.

Unreal, make that 18.49 as people pile in on the dump.

I won't be wading into this shit again until it gets back near the previous lows. Dumb idea to try and play the intraday on a 3x etf stock on a monday.



[Edited on December 1, 2008 at 3:47 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2008 3:44:54 PM

(-9.3522%) /cry

12/1/2008 3:48:38 PM

Damn S&P just touched -9%

12/1/2008 3:59:52 PM

Yikes. Brutal drop to close the day. FAS closed at 17.50, so I don't feel so bad now about getting out where I did.

12/1/2008 4:03:17 PM

shoulda bought FOZ dammit! oh well, gonna hold off on purchasing til tomorrow morning

12/1/2008 4:05:23 PM

Won't be long, Bobby will be in here gloating about that great SRS call.

12/1/2008 4:07:22 PM

hehe

well, i didn't sell.

so it's probably going to open about 50 bucks down tomorrow morning

so no gloating just yet.

12/1/2008 4:21:30 PM

yeah, I have some ground to regain before profiting on SSO this time...but I can't even use the money for 4 more months even if I wanted to. I'm pretty confident that I'll see a nice rise above $23.25 at least once between now and then.

12/1/2008 4:30:11 PM

I wouldnt buy SSO until it was under 19 again which is what I plan to do

12/1/2008 4:58:15 PM

I'm all out of the market as of this morning, just barely into the green for the year thanks to Freddie Mac and Genworth Financial

Time to sit on the sidelines for a couple weeks until I see some more good clearance sales.

12/1/2008 5:13:03 PM

Ouch, just got a chance to check the markets.

12/1/2008 7:33:47 PM

so is now the time to buy this FAS nonsense you people are talkin about?

eh?

12/1/2008 7:37:57 PM

id sit out tomorrow too, looks like another 500+ drop based on the foreign markets

12/1/2008 10:07:18 PM

Ummm, no, the foreign markets have been lagging us since this whole thing started.

^^ I wouldn't touch FAS just yet. I picked it up mid day thinking there was no way the market would give up another 3.5% to close the day and it certainly did. I paid attention to too many folks thinking this rally would extend well into December and approach 1k on the S&P and didn't listen to enough folks thinking the contrary and we did an impressive job of wiping out last weeks rally. I'd stay on the sidelines until we approach the Nov 20 lows. This market is trading on technicals, so if it holds near that level, we'll probably see a short term pop, in which case the levered funds will give you a nice gain. However, if that support level doesn't hold, we're going to find a new low to test. See 02-03 for examples of what a market looks like as it does this.

12/1/2008 10:34:05 PM

I just want brk.b to go back to 2500. I want to shoot myself for not buying in more at that price

12/1/2008 10:37:29 PM

yeah, no kidding. i was too busying working the quick buck on SSO, but I want some long term BRK.B from $2500/share.

12/1/2008 10:59:00 PM

Quote :

"just barely into the green for the year "

If you have been actively trading since January 1 (at least a couple trades a month) and you're up for 2008, you should just submit your trade log to any equities firm and they'll give you the keys to the vault. I mean to be up during the economy's worst obstacles since the great depression? I'm guessing you've only made a couple short term trades or shorting on a regular basis?

[Edited on December 1, 2008 at 11:46 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2008 11:45:39 PM

^I made over 150% on a pretty big trade with FRE, and about 50% on another trade on GNW

Haven't traded all year long, mostly since the market started to really head south. Got burned pretty bad on several trades in a row, my portfolio was down almost 50% at one point, and I made it all back on my last 2 trades.

[Edited on December 2, 2008 at 12:31 AM. Reason : /]

12/2/2008 12:31:17 AM

I know people who have turned 2k into over 100k since August in this market, it was all about buying puts and shorting stocks however. Those are the next 2 things I am reading up on in hopes to become a more complete investor so I can make money no matter what the market is doing.

12/2/2008 8:55:54 AM

got into FAS below 17.

SRS down 10% for the day

12/2/2008 10:10:35 AM

Better get the gain now while you can.

12/2/2008 10:29:52 AM

out at 19

woah RIMM at $36

[Edited on December 2, 2008 at 11:22 AM. Reason : ]

12/2/2008 10:57:49 AM

bought into FAZ at the close at $63.46 - hope i'm right

12/2/2008 3:59:49 PM

I bought a batch of FAZ at $75, and immediately sold Dec $75 calls for $18 each. If it dips again tomorrow I might buy them back and sell again on the next rise.

12/2/2008 4:19:28 PM

FAZ pre-market at 71.50

12/3/2008 9:11:18 AM

Quote :

"but what services are yall using?"

Roth IRA - Smith Barney
Money Market - Smith Barney
401(k) - John Hancock (This one is through my company so I had no choice in the matter)

12/3/2008 9:21:03 AM

out of FAZ at $70, missed my limit of $18.50 on FAS - now at $21 - shoots self in head.
FAZ below $62 again.

these ETF's are fun

12/3/2008 10:41:53 AM

Yeah, with the ungodly amount of volatility these days, if you get on the proper side of a 3x fund you can make some nice gains in an extremely short amount of time.

12/3/2008 10:47:20 AM