Well for the past couple days I’ve been pretty fucking psycho because I’ve been wanting to get back into the market, but maybe I just got into the trade toooooo late. I bought put options on NFLX Monday at close and got out of my position Thursday afternoon. I had April puts in February so I wasn’t completely sweating but each time I looked at the chart I just felt I got into the trade too late. Story short, it just seemed at around $400 NFLX had been beaten down enough.
I only got out profitable (made $200 bucks whoo hoo for nothing but stress) and that’s ONLY really because of inflation news drawing down the entire market on Thursday with the Fed raising rates a half over a quarter percent, lucky me I guess. It’s the only reason NFLX fell enough for me to be positive and not slap myself for losing easily half my account.
I got into the trade after the run up move predicting continual downward motion but it went sideways and that’s when I went sideways psycho. I also learned being in “options”, it’s so not worth it. Even if in warnings season and bad news for NFLX even I was thinking “I love NFLX, their stuff is still better than their competitors” so I don’t know why even with the change in the big charts I got into a shorting position on NFLX. wtf Paul? And to be honest I put $5000 in my account basically to gamble it which is totally horrible because I don’t see the market anymore as probabilities and statistics. It’s really just a big gamble either it’s going up or going down (and going sideways counts as going down because of stock options time valuation – intrinsic value). Real estate is much easier just much slooooower.
So make sure you really believe in your trade or get out is my advice. If you can shove your pride away and sell when you realized you are wrong AND take responsibility for that you are on the road to a long prosperous future my friend. So when I get a chance next I am testing out real money on “covered calls”. Do you know in the 10-15 years now I have done trades I have never done what I was taught the only trade you SHOULD DO if you don’t do anything else. Hm. I was “told” by my teacher Gary Williams that you can’t make less than 5% on that trades. I guess I shall see. If you do covered calls what has your experience been? Do you get called out immediately if the trades move in your direction and make and easy 5%+?
Last time I blogged I was just in my second year of farming. Well, not farming anymore. I’ll be turning 41 this year. By 2019 I was ready to close my farm business and had already decided to put any money I had to buying and selling houses before I even knew flipping was a big thing. So I sold the last house I bought and took the cash to flip something in the Richmond, VA area.
So far I haven’t done so bad. In the past two years I’ve bought two ugly houses at a discount and turned them into luxury remodels. I’ve paid off all my old farm debt ($75k), paid off private lenders, and about to pay off my new work van before the end of the year. I figure if I can flip just one house a year I’m doing alright. In between flips I’ve done a cargo expediting business driving crazy hours half the year as a side hustle to make more money but I am closing that business by the end of the year as well to focus just on doing flips and building up a couple of rental properties. Every once in awhile I really think about my stock option trading days and want to do covered calls – basically buying the stock and options together to get called out for a low risk profit. In all the years trading options I never bought covered calls or puts. The stock mentor guru I paid classes from always said if there is one thing you get out of these classes and you don’t do anything else do covered calls once a month with a size-able account.
So 41 and almost out of debt. I’m also been working on my fathers war story memiors in comic form to publish for over a year now. Lots of projects. I even put a handyman ad out on craigslist to get jobs in my downtime. It’s a little scary but anything is until you do it a couple of times.
I still can’t believe how much money I lost in my twenties purchasing stock and real estate. None of it ever worked out. I figure I lost over $200k. It makes me scratch my head. I didn’t do anything really. No fun. Every bit I saved working tirelessly and living frugally didn’t ever make me a millionaire investing. So don’t believe everything you hear and ever dumb conference or guru that wants your money. You are well better off sometimes just following your own way even if it still loses. I think my own regrets in my 20’s and 30’s penny pinching and trying to be an entrepreneur too hard. It would have been nice to just spend a little, travel more, and just have fun. So that’s my advice. Don’t care about money just have fun and money will come if you are still willing to work hard, hustle, and keep taking action regardless if you reap what you sow or not.
Two years later gave up the MBA job search. Went on roadtrip. Started farming. Been farming running a local CSA (community supported agriculture farm business) for 2 seasons. Still no life. No girlfriend. I’m still 100% paycheck to paycheck or should I say customer to customer.
I’ve created some pretty awesome statistic spreadsheets for farmer CSA sales data. I launched and successfully raised $10k on Kickstarter which after all costs summed around $6k for farm expenses – that went REAL quick.
I’m still basically living off my parents at 34 years old. I hate to ask for money, but I always seem to need it. My 5.5 years left to 40 doesn’t look the brightest in forms of financial materialism things, relationships, family, ex. but my hands are hurting more, I’m getting more calluses, and definitely manning up in the aspect of the life that has evolved with all my adventures and misadventures.
I fantasize about surfing of all things. I miss the warm morning sand beneath my feet and gliding over water with my board almost effortlessly. Below is me wearing cap – Hawaii – Sand Island.
Oh, and for the most part I sleep in a bunk bed and usually a work exchange farmer co-worker sleeps above me. I would say all privacy has been taken away again not that I don’t mind it – having company.
A good evening after 12 hours of farm work 7 days a week is drinking a disgustingly cheap cold beer poured over ice to make it taste like it came off the tap watching a new Redbox film in my RV alone – only hearing cows moooooh occasionally.
And that about sums it up for the past two years. I wrote this because someone replied to a post I wrote about sleeping 12 hours a day. Well I’d love to do that again. It’s more like 6-7 hours now. My nightly dreams are usually cut short at the alarm clock. I thought about taking this blog down since I don’t even trade stocks anymore. I think that Google trade really showed me how bad my luck really was and I do believe in timing and luck and karma. I’ve stuck with farming because although financially I’m likely going to be broke until I quit it the karma and luck is overwhelming good and you know intuitively when good is happening. I know I’m going to trade options again one day but I’ll have to look at it differently and the money doing it will be so much smaller.
If you want to check out the farm I’m building and following the vision I’m creating you should stop by if you ever get a chance if in Virginia. Let me know you read this ridiculous blog and hopefully you learned something I missed – www.vafarmer.com
Working at Domino’s in Scotland while working on my worthless MLitt degree. (Halloween night – I missed out, but these nuns improved my night)
Well this morning was different. My sister brought me to a meeting with a Canadian Iranian guy interested in dividing his property lots and maybe he would be interested in letting me start a micro-farm on one. I found out he loved to talk, philosophy wise, and it wasn’t anything I haven’t heard before. Nice guy, but I’ve met guys like him before and although he doesn’t consider himself a dreamer or unhappy with what he has he totally seems to want to be American (nothing wrong with that). The whole content speech didn’t make me a believer.
Usually my day consists of filling out resumes, submitting to career websites, and sometimes even getting an automated response back that scanned my resume with a “Dear John” email. It seems the only ones that look for me our insurance recruiters or sales company that mislead their applicants with false write ups of job descriptions and salaries.
So, today, I took my job search a step further. I went in for a Domino’s Pizza interview. I found myself sitting in the small waiting lobby with other white male’s in full business attire. I could never imagine in my life that I would be going in for a pizza delivery position again after all that I have accomplished.
What made it so much more depressing was that I was greeted by young enthusiastic HR managers right out of college likely only obtaining their bachelor’s that had never worked a day of fast food in their lives. I tried to act friendly as they fired ridiculous “what if” questions towards me. I’m thinking to myself, “here I have two master degrees and I’m a military veteran and I feel like I am on trial to get a minimum wage job”.
This leads me to believe that security is getting tighter in America and the job market is definitely becoming more like the UK (meeting tons of people with degrees in minimum wage positions and normal adults is the norm there). I went to every pizza joint and restaurant. I waited in one local restaurant I eat at that’s always late on the food and it even took them 30 minutes to just hand me an application. I was physically chuckling to myself thinking, “getting a job here or attempting is just as bad as the service!”. They probably won’t even call me back after I read on the top of the packet that you must write neatly. I’ll admit I have horrible handwriting. It has plagued me since elementary school, however I’m an extremely fast keyboardist!
The other horrible thing about getting a minimum wage job in the information enlightenment area is that everything must be submitted online. There is no real face to face hiring anymore unless it’s a real “mom and pap” place. I did go to one and actually spoke to the owner. It was comforting to say the least even though I’ll still probably go with a bigger chain for better tips. I despise online job submissions. And the “fast” and “efficient” online process only makes it slower and slower and slower to get hired. There must be research data on this somewhere. I’m sure their lunches are longer now that everything is online so I’d doubt things will go back to “human” relations.
Oh and one other thing is the hiring process in general. Now a simple hiring turns into this elaborate waiting and processing of background investigations, DMV records, drug testing, ex,ex,ex. What happened to hiring a clean, well dressed, and ready applicant on the spot? “Start this weekend”. Good luck! From my experience CEO’s smoke pot and I know them, but I doubt they got a drug test even with a million dollar salary. These poor workers need to do drugs just to stay motivated and survive their shift which won’t even pay for their rent! Seriously! I know too many. Without some type of pill or drug or alcohol working in a high stress low pay environment where you come home to a mailbox of problems is just intolerable!!! 😉
Lastly for you stock traders, I see all these internet tech stocks in the hundreds and now thousand dollar range. In-the-Money options must be rather high. I wouldn’t say a small traders game anymore, on the flip side the market looks like it’s going to go much higher from historical charts just taking a glance on Alex’s Wealth Management Blog. It reminded me of the countless years I pounded out charts and practice plays trying to get a solid read on the markets. I really miss it and waiting to trade again even if only $1000 bucks. For now I am so broke. I’m glad my sister lets me use her wi-fi for free.
Signing out,
Paul
P.S. Just clicked on a “random post” in my dashboard. This popped up. Almost 1 year ago. Trading account = $0. My luck in the market sure is crazy. This really changed the direction of my life for the worst in 2013. I definitely couldn’t predict this wild event. Thanks news release services!!!
So I cashed out my account in January to finish my house repairs and renovate an 83′ winnebago into a mobile studio. Both projects have had their ups and downs but with no job prospects after hundreds of resumes submitted becoming the crazy unemployed roaming uncle sounds like a new frontier to explore.
I still check the stock market daily. Some great down days for an intraday trade but it’s okay because like once said, “the stock market will always be there” so I can come back once I’m feeling in a luckier state.
As for now I guess I’m turning to an all cash world and creating businesses built from an RV point of view.
I sold my NFLX calls up 50%. It helped bring my account back up to $5000 while HLF shot up today with the billionaire taking board seats on the company. I stayed in my position because I figure it may give it 2-3 more days of buying because it’s particular strong news for the stock price. I’ve had a rough January and February trading. I don’t know how I’m able to lose money when stocks have moved to their highest levels in years. A good trader just trades the trend but my intuition yells a sell-off, a soon to be change in cycle but everyday stocks go up so I choose to just trading calls. Keep your eyes open.
The Ackman vs. Icahn billionaire investor battle over Herbal Life (HLF) has kept my interest since Dec. 2012 when it all began. I have made and lost money trying to figure out which direction the stock will go. I currently purchased a small call position going into earnings. From experience, actually being a direct seller in a network marketing company such as Herbal Life, I know they aren’t pyramid schemes as much as people like to accuse them of being. If that was true then our government and any corporate structure is the same visual pyramid looking scheme – a person on the top and then it fills wider and wider into the bottom feeders. After HLF earnings were released I was crossing my fingers for the best but since the stock didn’t jump 10-20% (because it proved Icahn won his bet and Ackman will likely lose his $1 billion short bet since the company isn’t going bust) – but since it didn’t pop it made me curious. All I could think up is that both stakes have already been priced into the stock with solid earnings. There is this 11am conference call tomorrow and everyone seems to be making a big deal over it even though the earnings were already announced today…It doesn’t add up. The top level managers aren’t going to say anything much different then what is already reported. HLF seems to have a lot of support and current trends show it moving up since Icahn went public on his larger stake. Within 3 days I should be sold out or it could be pumped and dumped over this anticipated event tomorrow afternoon…Yikes.
This brings me to trading and picking stocks in general. I’m horrible at it. I see stocks constantly moving up and up and up with no real technical indicators. They just move up and everything at least on the charts doesn’t show me any real entry/buying point. So what do I choose? AAPL. Apple continues to swing. It has been hitting this daily trend and bouncing back up. But I wonder is 3 falls a charm to fall further – harder – down down down? I currently purchased deep calls since technically it shows it is still going up a new trend even though it is still below the big falling weekly/daily trend. I’m predicting Apple will pop up 10-15pts within the next 3 days because if it doesn’t then I’m dead wrong and its head to fall 20-40 more points. This just doesn’t make sense for a company that is the big dog, most analyst sound bullish on it, and it’s popular with consumers. If anything when* it’s ready it will move up considerably and I’m waiting to get on that ride early.
Now stocks that I should be trading calls on but they move at a turtle consistent upward pace without much pull-back that it scares me to buy in which are GOOG and NFLX. Good grief. These damn stocks are making money and of course I’m not trading them. I have this bad luck. I’m not kidding. I swear. I get into a perfectly good trade with everything saying it’s moving up and then I swear as soon as I enter it falls! I don’t get it. I’ve found if I’m patient I can get out of it profitably – usually – but these two stocks have moved a lot and that keeps me away from trading calls on them even though they keep going up big every day. I’m only trading Apple because I feel it has room to move but in actually GOOG and NFLX are probably safer more reliable trades because they aren’t so talked about and hated for being who they are. AAPL, however, is currently hated for cash hoarding and lack of new products. Does GOOG or NFLX really have any new products? NO! But that’s Mr. Market for you.
Last MJNA, Medical Marijuana, which I have followed for 3 months. I almost invested $7000 which would of turned into $30,000 over 1 month but I didn’t do the trade – I traded stupid Apple and others which ran me more into the ground. The stock has fallen and currently has received criticism calling it a scam company. I have a feeling the guy who wrote this lengthly article claiming everyone in the company to be a scam and “pump and dump” (which I couldn’t agree more on the second part) was likely pumped and dumped himself on the stock. I usually find angry analyst/stock traders that lost on the trade. He likely bought it high and now it’s half. He’s pissed and letting it all out. The company definitely has real products and patents. It’s not really a product stock it owns patents and earns royalties off them. I think any company in the growing marijuana industry is currently being pumped and dumped because they are hot items. I still would like to invest in this company as soon as the stock starts moving up its trend again. I think I’d purchase it above $.40 but since I’m not interested in holding stocks it probably wouldn’t be worth my time even if it doubled/tripled in price in which I would also dump it on new investors. It’s much easier to trade options on a stock that moves then a penny stock that will waste your time. I’d rather wait for it to be $100 and trade options on it once it moves daily.
On the record people who invest in the market should realize and not be so stupid that real estate and stocks are constantly being pumped an dumped. Buy low – sell high. Sounds great, but buying and the right entry is critical so do your best. hahah. You just might get dumped.
Until next time reporting on my AAPL & HLF call options…
Sold out around 9:50am in the morning for a +50% trade (+$2000 but actually only to my existing start since Jan 13′ so I’m neutral once again). I’m glad I set my alarm and woke my ass up. My puts closed at around I sold them but I know right after 10am as the stock moved up I would of sold for a smaller profit so it’s good I didn’t get greedy. Apple didn’t fall hard into the next trading day which gave me another insult to my prediction and watching it for 15 minutes early trading it felt* like it was resisting to fall which gave me an immediate reason to exit. Now, what would have been super fantastic is that it would have opened gapping much lower 8-10 points but this wasn’t the case…So what’s next? I’ve been following a penny stock that went from .09 when I thought about purchasing it and went to .50. (a big +$20,000 gain) but woulda coulda didn’t happen. Now at .44 I’m going to just have to pass it even if it does move to $1.00. Just not worth the risk now. Damnit. I really wanted to pay off those credit cards I swear! The stock market sure does hit you hard when it plays hard to get.
The market is suppose* to pullback. We are going into warnings season so if this does happen* within the few days it pulls back hard I’m going to buy a favored tech stock calls thereafter likely far out of the money. Until then… ciao.
Okay, today was a roller-coaster ride trading Apple (AAPL). At around 11am I saw it down -5 and everything in me said trade it. By the time I got in at 11:30 it was already down -8.5 going in the direction I wanted. I purchased Feb 475 Puts in-the-money at $7.60. In less than 10 minutes I was up +$700 at $9.40. So this is the point where if I was highly intelligent and disciplined I would have took the $700 smart money off the table IMMEDIATELY. I don’t even earn this in a week, actually I don’t even earn this period because I’m currently unemployed. I was watching the charts and within 5 minutes the trade was already going against me and I was in a negative position. All the big charts scream SELL on Apple and were forming bearish looking technicals. I almost sold around 12:30pm for almost -$1000 loss! Yes, you heard that right up $700 then down $1000 probably in no less than an hour. So, I felt it would be my job today to sit and stare at my computer screen all day and only get out if it went above the major downtrend. Well it never did. It was just light afternoon trading going up. As soon as the real traders got back from their lunches AAPL immediately started to trade down again. I’m glad I at least had the patience to wait it out but I’ve waited trades out before and lost thousands of dollars so I prefer not to.
Guess what? Although Apple traded -12 points down for the close I decided to be patience and stay in the trade. From the research I looked at from the big trend and every time there is a big red candle at the top of the 3-5-20 day close a second down day should*** follow. Now what I didn’t take into effect was the Presidents State of the Union Address tonight. SHIT. But it seems historically the market pulls-back after it for Obama so that would be in my best interest. I’ll be watching AAPL closely likely to jump and then fall and sell out once it seems to hit some residence. It hit a new low today and under $468 which is why I stayed in it. I’m up +$760. If it continues to fall tomorrow and the entire market doesn’t rise up a lot then I should be up +$2000 or sell immediately if I’ve got the guts to.
I don’t even know why I’m trading at this point in my life. I need to just give up my dying dream. I think I’ve lost a total gains and deposited money of around -$15,000.
What’s more crazy is that each trade I have gotten into has been profitable within the week up 5-70% and I didn’t sell it. The trades of course reversed against me and I’m in losing positions – even in my Google trade. I bought in the money. I was up $200 bucks at most. Yes, should have sold. I went through earnings figuring it would fall, yes, staying in it and just letting the remainder of the trade go to hell (it was already 200% down). Well Google didn’t something I didn’t expect and gave me some luck. Now even though I’m back in the money my trade is still down 100%. It just makes me feel like shit to continue this disaster. It’s too bad they don’t have internships for this type of trading. All I ever wanted was to sit in an office and work with a mentor but it’s just not realistic. Everyone thinks their trades are a secret. They are not. They are just better at selling quicker than I am.
(sigh)
So I’m still in my GOOG trade. I recently was in a HLF, SWN, and AAPL trades – all profitable at some point – and then somehow they got away. You know I even got my QCharts account back up to see if that would improve my trading. I think it actually made it worse. I traded better on a whim of intuition being brainless than all technical/fundamental. It’s crazy how the stock market is like a gambling game you throw darts at. Sometimes they hit sometimes they don’t.
This brings me to a film FLIGHT. After watching this film by then end I finally accepted that I need to go to an Anonymous Gambling group. I admit I have a problem, I must have. Who else would trade and trade and trade more than a decade to lose everything they’ve got for the game? Just a losing gambler.
Yes, you read that right. I will soon be posting my typical year in review. This one is going to be quite more painful then the last. So you damn trollers let’s get it all out before 2013.
I’m going to post a question and I hope random people like yourself reading it will try to offer some reflection in a comment. My basic question is:
Is it truly possible to change the way us American’s do business in which sharing and the social good will is achieved over capitalism greed?
I could have probably phrased it better, but I admit I’m no English scholar. I’m on a small quest to do research on businesses right now trying to mesh in earning a living while retaining less of their profits that would be put back into the social good. My definition of “social good” is basically returning profits into upgrading neighborhoods and other businesses, improving structures, improving lives, and increasing an entrepreneurs happiness through giving back more than holding back. I know this might sound crazy because we live in a society where you want to save as much as you can in which you CAN retire. Who really wants to retire? This is another good question. Once a person truly stops working their life stops and they die. I know there are statistics on this. I know too many elders that were healthy and had a purpose to go to work and once they stopped its as if their heart stopped.
My parents, in their late 70’s now, still work and I’m proud of them. I hope to be healthy enough to work until I die. I do believe in retirement, but you should still have some type of work passionate or not (hopefully you DO enjoy it) in which it keeps you 100% active.
So, I know there are businesses currently that have cooperatives to share all the profits with businesses, but I’m interested in taking this idea or concept a bit further. I’m not talking about your average donations here I’m talking about taking it all and reinvesting into the community. This sharing of wealth at least I think would reap internal reward and external improvement especially in lower income communities where I have learned much that friendships and something good to eat is more important than a big house and flashy materials things.
So if you know a community/business that takes what they need and gives back everything else please comment or share your thoughts on how it could be possible – if it’s possible in which sharing/community could work with each other. This of course is without government handouts – grants, food stamps, ex.
Sometimes I think I have the worst luck. I’m trading a bullish support pattern in-the-money trade on Google entering into the late afternoon to get out before the close (earnings). I change windows and by the time I look back I see these red numbers changing like the speed of sound. I’m so confused. I think a bomb just went off and the markets are in a complete panic – no, Google just released its earnings unexpected during the mid-afternoon – just 10 minutes after I entered my CALL option trade. My $11,000 trade went from profitable to $0 in about a minute. I couldn’t even get out it happened that fast. My body feels quite sick at the moment and my head is hazy. So now I have to start ALL over again damnit. The world of pain I live in and my mother wonders why I just want to be a hermit in the woods.
Break-down of this trade: Enter 12:27pm, Google release earnings at 12:30pm prematurely instead of after the close of the day, my account is wiped clean in about 1 minute. I watch in confusion and panic as Google drops so fast I can’t get any order to go through to sell out and take any type of loss but $0. Damn these unexpected releases! It doesn’t feel ethical to the small investor.
Did you feel any of this afternoon pain from Google? Share your bitter sadness….
Okay, so yesterday with $4500 in my account I took a BIG bet on Apple’s stock that since it was swimming around $630 and not dropping that it would move higher. It did move higher into the close so I double upped big time on AAPL OCT 670 CALLS @ $.23. Now, I bought 1 contract of AAPL OCT 670 CALL @ $2.71 only a few days earlier. I think only 2 days earlier. So $3 to $.18 cents isn’t that promising to just JUMP into, but I felt the bear gunslingers in this trade were getting tired and the bulls were regaining energy. I mean, how much positive news does it take to make Apple move again??? All good news and the stock was just constipated sitting on its ass. Once that poop went through it would run again. Well, I was in luck today because although there were always rumors finally luck came my way with an actual fact that Apple was going to show a product in the next week. Apple went from +$5 to +$13 making the out of the money calls suddenly more volatile and quickly change from snails to rabbits immediately as the market maker saw the opportunity to make money. Believe it or not this happened in less than 45 minutes. My option doubled and I couldn’t even be sold out of my GTC because I had an ALL OR NONE on my price of $.50 with the current bid/ask of $.67-.70. In a helpful way that ended me gaining another +$3000 profit as I cancelled it and did a limit price opening it up to partial fills taking around 1-2 minutes of complete thrill as I saw it being filled up at $.80 instead of $.50 (+248%). I wanted AAPL to reach $650. This was my target to sell out but I was able to sell out quickly around $647-648 with my option target above what I wanted. I didn’t wait. I wanted to be out of this trade BADLY. I like big fat tech stocks but not in near death $0 expiring options. I know what happens at the end of expiration when you wait – and HOPE – nadda – zero – sorrows – and lack of discipline that only leaves you unable to stay in the game. I told myself if Apple didn’t do shit today I would sell out at a bigger loss if it ended at $.10 to $.18. However, today I really got lucky and the support on technical charts which I saw a crater forming over the 5-10 day chart make Apple finally pop – however Apple could have just continued to fall – so I WAS lucky on this one even though Apple really was constipated in price. I would have stayed in the trade if my options weren’t near death because it’s a high probability chance that AAPL now will move even higher tomorrow with a big white candle with a kicker bullish chart setup. I’m happy with the cash I got and I’m on to a less risky in-the-money intraday trade. I’m better at trading intraday – smaller profit – less stress – no worries what the price will be the next day.
My currently account status
August 15th, 2012 – began trading again and started with $2000
October 15th, 2012 – into my tenth trade with an ending balance of $12,500 (up 525% – 60 days)
I should of looked at the big picture, but even that would of not stopped me trading on a solid streak. Well I’m down around 50% for Sept-Oct. 12′ so far. I should of knew better. Everything I was taught was to warn me about warnings season during this time. Even with all the positive growth and cash flow I still took a hit on my GOOG calls which were way in-the-money. I had 2 changes to cash out making some money and I sat on the piano waiting. I’m really pissed at Apple Inc. right now but they really don’t care. Apple has been dragging down tech in every way imaginable – which is plenty of a reason not to be buying CALLS in any tech. No matter the good news if Apple is having bad news everything will be brought to its knees. This makes me really think the big picture again – Apple can’t stay big and profitable forever unless is cross’s over into more products… more like Google. I’m still waiting for Facebook to really profit from its 1 billion users. Well, it’s not the end of the world.
I’m going to a stock options seminar in two weeks and bring my mom. I’m leaving the credit card home because I know I don’t need any specialized stock system to make good trades you just need discipline. I figured I go to learn some new strategies and just get me pumped to do better. I know I can. It is just a matter of focusing on what I do best and stay away from what I do worst. I’m still figuring that out, but what I do know is that I trade better intraday in the last 3 hours of trading 1pm – 4pm than any other time and doing it consistently even if its smaller gains. I’m becoming an old fart and I really don’t want a day job.
I took $2000 of some money I got back from my school and felt the timing was ripe to trade some stock options. During this time I was deep into renovation a rental home and in full force finishing my MLitt in Film Studies dissertation project and essay. This was hardly the time to be trading volatile stock options on large cap stocks that move violently day to day. My main goal was to just earn enough to pay back, well everything, my total debt is around $130,000. I’m not afraid to say it. Most people hide it, but I hide nothing. I’m not proud of it but sometimes you make bad mistake after bad mistake or in my case I just consider myself likely somewhat handicapped in the entrepreneurial department. I would go as far as thinking I am mentally and business retarded at times making irrational decisions to achieve my American Dream – which now I know is definitely not greed for money but greed for personal freedom/desires (Which still cost money).
So here I am with $2000 to basically lose even though I need it for repair costs, credit card bills, yada yada. I see a great trade on Priceline Inc (PCLN) when I see it got crushed after a report on possible lower revenues. This stock has a solid cash balance sheet and great EPS/PE. I bought it around $559. I have been trading CALLS on it ever since and have done pretty well. Every time I get in it my main goal is to be out of it within 24 hours or less. For the most part I have achieved this. The other trade is with Apple Inc. (AAPL). I’ve traded some PUTS and CALLS on it. They have been mostly quicker trades the PCLN. For the most part if I wanted to I could be in and out of AAPL within 2-4 hours earning on average $500-1000. My last trade earned me around $3000. I’ve only done I believe 5 trades in the past 30 days. This is inline with Gary Williams trading rules to only trade 5-10 times per month maximum. I’m taking a break now so I can let my run cool and re-focus on my next trades. I am not as eager to trade as when I was 23-29 years old and I think that is because I am wiser at trading more now at 31 then when I began at a young 18.
I almost took my $7000 profit to buy a sweet badass 1965 mustang, but instead I settled for an ever cooler 1990 Bronco with a failing engine for $900 which I didn’t have to pull any money out of my trading account. Hahaha. Come on, just laugh! The back top comes off and it turns into a muscle jeep. My mom owns my loved diesel Jetta and I hope to get it back or just buy myself one once I have a more stable income. Currently I’m finishing my MBA, working on starting a mini aquaponics fish farm, trading options again, and among all this trying to now edit my first non-fiction book with a friend to publish and sell on all digital readers. So, I don’t know what my future of trading holds for me, but I do know I’m on a good run and I don’t want to give it up so easily.
Oh, if you are wondering about the Toke n’ Toss business ventures, well, it’s completely over. Now I understand why they say choose your partners wisely – marriage or business. Let’s just say this was another $5000 business lesson, but this lesson was one on one truck/stand vending for concert goers. Learned a lot, but learned the most that people that aren’t willing to budget and chip in on expenses should be left on the side of the highway as soon as they start complaining that a twelve pack of beer IS a business expense and YOU are going to pay for it because the partner doesn’t have any money.
However, with GOOG I find an exception because it hasn’t moved back up as quickly like AAPL and PCLN. GOOG seems like it is a turtle slowly going down a hill whereas AAPL and PCLN are like college frat kids jumping off into deep blue lagoon abysses.
After Wednesday I initially thought GOOG out of the three would have been the best practice trade to follow in and trade on real money, but after two seeing all three continue to fall I’d say it’s safe that all three are in for a short-term stock price correction.
Now on Friday even the MSFT did well in earnings I don’t think it’s going to affect my stocks. All three stocks will likely fall another 10 points into next monday.
Currently here are the 3 practice put options I have in play:
(bought on close of the 16th – the better trade would have been the close on the 18th)
AAPL 555 MAY PUT @ $20.44 / currently at $16.55
GOOG 610 MAY PUT @ $19.40 / currently at $19.50 (still likely the weakest and best put play)
PCLN 655 MAY PUT @ $20.50 / currently at $12.17
And I’m going to add an QQQ NASDAQ index put option due to how heavily these 3 stocks can weight on the QQQ index because it is ALSO at it’s peak high which has been squatting at the price of $65-67.
Buy QQQ 66 MAY PUT @ $1.42 (close of 4/19/12). QQQ’s are slow but likely the least amount risk out of these 3 larger options as seen just by the movement of the options except for Google because it hasn’t moved much only slowly falling. However, if GOOG continues to drift downwards it could have a sudden couple of big falls.
In my previous post after the continue trending change in AAPL, GOOG, and PCLN I see them moving down further. News articles have already come up to scare off Apple investors. A bounce back from its previous sharp fall is normal. We’ll truly know a peak has been hit if AAPL big +30pt move dies by the end of the week. However, practicing these 3 helped me pick out the weakest of the litter – Google. Google has been moving like a slug in the crowd and falling harder when taking hits. For this reason out of my 3 practice trades I would trade my life on I would choose Google put options. I intuitively feel it has the most loose too because it has tried so hard to become everything and take over large markets. It is still a search engine and advertising engine, but it’s beginning to spread itself thinner and get into more trouble. Also it doesn’t really MAKE anything. Everything is digital even though it did buy Motorola it sounds just like to make them stronger instead of actually innovating a product line with a whole lot of money.
See chart below – As you can see GOOG moved the least with it’s friends.
My current practice options must be down at least -80% but that’s okay because I’m smart to be practicing my theories instead of using real money like I use to. My expected bounce back on Apple that I knew was going to happen but could’t confirm did happen today. For the most part if a stock takes such a big dive, it’s still worth tons in free cash, and it’s a top tier company it DOES bounce back however from YEARS of watching the market if it is at a super high run up peak if it isn’t able to recapture it’s highs investors and big traders start considering to make million$ trading the other way down because ladies and gentleman you can earn just as much as not more shorting or put options on a stock – some awesome instrumental tools as a knowledgeable trader.
It’s too bad Yahoo! Fantasy Finance doesn’t let you short or trade options on stocks in your portfolio. I’m currently up 14%. Nothing to brag about compared to leaders supposedly with up to 150% gains in the past 30 days. I don’t know how they are doing it but I can only assume they are trading penny stocks or stocks only under $2.
See shot:
Some BIG OPTION PLAYS I’d trade my life on which I think at the moment are definite risk/reward worthy are put option trades on AAPL, GOOG, and PCLN. They have been trending down for the week 5-20% off their highs. I’ve been waiting and waiting for some big institutional sellers/investors to start taking some profits and selling. I believe this is finally happening as stock analysts re-think Apple. I think it’s run up with Google and Priceline are currently in a stock value correction. The company’s have moved up so quickly a stock correction was bound to happen. Now I’d trade my life on a definite ongoing correction probably another 10%. However, from experience, this could also be a quick buying/selling opportunity. Whenever a high talked about stock like Apple falls 20 points as it did today then next morning it can have a volatile swing upwards confusing any type of trader. So a correct entry point is crucial and very short-term trading profits are important – meaning if I was going to trade puts on any of these companies once I’m up 50-100% in a day on a contract it would be smartest to get out and just get in/out when the timing looks right on technical charts and watch how investors are reacting/how news is changing.
Even with the stocks hit hard today I can bet they will actually be positive tomorrow.
However I feel a put trade over 1 month will have definite positive results. Since I have no money in my account. I will trade as if I only have $2000 for each option. (A total of a $6000 account).
Here are my 3 BIG OPTION PRACTICE PLAYS on AAPL, GOOG, PCLN.
Bought end of close 4/16/12
AAPL 555 MAY PUT @ $20.44 (This is the closest to in-the-money I can buy – although way out of the money with only having $2k towards trade however this option is moving fast with big swings).
GOOG 610 MAY PUT @ $19.40 (Surprisingly, GOOG is higher and I can buy in-the-money puts for $2k)
PCLN 655 MAY PUT @ $20.50 (Closer to AAPL’s option pricing – out-of-the money with $2k trade)
Very short-term such as the next 1-2 days I expect the stocks to pop up, however if I’m right on trending and more importantly – FEAR of losing money for many holders – the stocks should continue a down trend and the more that sell the sharper the decline until a big guy steps in and stops it buying back changing direction – a new market correction. So check back in a week for a post update on this practice trade.
So I went over some female Chinese students home to have dinner with them with another male roommate from Taiwan. The chinese dishes were great. We played a Chinese pattern/scrabble game and I won twice. My roommate still didn’t understand it and said I was a genius to learn it so quickly. It wasn’t that hard in my opinion. Just patterns.
Anyway, so after we ate I was interested to learn more of what they thought of their country, social classes, how everything is made in China, and how their government censors so much – being that it is still communist even if they practice capitalist ways. Well, they wouldn’t say a word – not one single world. My roommate tells me they probably thought we were both spies. They just basically said it’s all fine. I told them about only a decade to two decades back students risked their lives over freedom of speech in China and were mass murdered including female babies at a time if you weren’t a male. One told me the government tries to keep it a secret and censors things since they were born during that time so the government keeps it out of any information to learn of it. I just find this amazing. None of them would tell me what they personally thought as if they would be arrested and executed on the spot. It is crazy. We are maybe 7000 miles away and they are trained very well to fear their government and have no opinion. I guess America’s good fortunate of cheap factories in China will continue for a long-time so we will have cheap products with a high quality standard of living. One said extreme cheap labor will go on forever. I suppose all of these young female college educated women came from families of money and their parents likely worked for the government or higher management. To goto college outside your country your parents must do significantly better than their peers. It’s quite sad they can’t voice their opinions and just accept it. They said they just accept the censorship for not allowing global social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to not be allowed – to allow them would mean the government wouldn’t be able to censor the sites and the information being accessed quicker and voices heard faster and louder. It made me think of Nazi Germany with Hitler as a dictator – really not that different. It seems we might have a new Nazi Chinese country in the near future. It makes me worry. If people just take things for granted, don’t question what’s going on, and just accept things then they are basically a droid and weapon of mass destruction. I know this comparison is vast but is it really that different? Most Germans just believed in Hitler and just did what he said. Germans were going through a depression. I don’t believe the social classes were as extreme, however there is a large poor group in China.
It makes me wonder about our U.S. companies doing business in China and accepting being censored by the government. Is this really what a U.S. company stands for? I guess profits are profits. I suppose we can only hope the new tech companies coming out of Hong Kong and into China will fight for the people and democracy. I’m not saying everything is wrong in China. They have many things very right, but I do believe you should be able to voice your opinion without fearing the secret police at your doorstep.
So I thought I might as well apply and try to trade stocks. It’s actually seems more difficult to make money and trade a common stock then trading a more volatile option. My portfolio was down 3% and now it’s up around 1% after I changed my trading style. I sold all my winners and losers and have so far gotten into only stocks under $20 since being in Apple or Google no matter how much they move my %profit is so low. I need small stocks that are moving which are cheap bank stocks and new internet dot com stocks. I guess I’ll see how it works out. 3 stocks worth 33% of my portfolio is much riskier than 8 stocks with only the smaller stocks weighing in more. If you would like to compare my portfolio to yours my username is vabeachbizman.
In order:
12/16/11
ATI JAN 43 CALL bought at $3.60 currently at $3.90 ($4.00 would be 10% GTC)
PH JAN 70 CALL @ 7.00 (currently $75.02) on bottom of BB. Looks bearish but similar chart as ATI and last year stock was bullish into the new year.
BTW the PH & ATI D chart you show from qcharts looks exhausted for a PUT. It’s big sign shows DMI starting to move up. So are you saying on your practice trades you would trade puts as it moves up because historically it fell more? I think we will definitely know within two weeks if the market is going up or down (or at least we think we think). But your D chart shows it laying on the BB’s. I just wouldn’t be in Puts only there was long-term bad news on the stocks and I practicing it as if I know nothing about it – just technical.
12/22/11
sold ATI 43 JAN Calls @ 5.60 (+2.00 or 85%)
if you sold your puts I believe Monday/Tuesday you should have been profitable but since down -2.00 it has gained +5.00 so I’d assume it’s trend will follow what I thought and now move up again.
Bought QQQ FEB 54 Calls @ 2.89
price $55.50 (mid-day expect it to continue uptrend – market is up trending for the week)
Bought AAPL FEB 395 Calls @ $21.15 – christmas rally (moving qqq’s) apple has moved 20 pts in last 3 days and expect it to continue up to friday likely get out today or tomorrow morning – with this big move apple has actually broken a major daily downtrend with a big green candle
12/29/11 – end of christmas rally 2011
Sold QQQ FEB 54 Calls @ $3.15 (+.26 up 8%)
Sold AAPL FEB 395 Calls @ 24.70 (+3.60 up 15%)
Sold PH JAN 70 Calls @ 7.40 (+.40 up 5%)
Christmas rally for end of Dec 11′ has been good. However PH seems weak and not moving with tech.
From what I’ve watched all of NAS has moved into the positive. Tech sales are up.
Currently I’m 5/0 (win/lose trades and up a total of 113%) Post some practice trades. I’ll post new ones after new year.
1/4/12
I think I’m going to practice two specific stocks because I think their stories will do them justice soon.
First EA due to a new line of games that are selling extremely well, significantly the Madden 12′ game. It’s at a low and also being advertised to the public on CNBC with a high upside potential. Second, EBAY, due to the changing of its ecommerce site. It has changed a lot. Now there are more options to sell online in which it can be auction, buy now, rerserve, and online store (with longer amounts to sell a product). This increases the amount of sellers (buyers). It’s also at a low and “sold” to the public with upside. I think there is. I’ll put up some practice trades soon. I brought up two trading books you should read.
1/6/12 – second week jan. practice trades after christmas rally
The NAS January Barometer is positive. The first 5 days of the year were up in NAS. I compared AAPL with other big NAS stocks like NFLX, GOOG, PCLN, and AMZN and all are up at least +1% for the first five days. NFLX up the most +25% from better-than-expected streaming services – basically more people are renting from them again but for online services. They also are going to be producing their own $100 million series of shows + NFLX has been down 60% after the customer drop in Sept. So this is big news and a reason why it is being bought up again. It has earnings this month. Play CLOSE ATTENTION to the NFLX and AMZN chart since they have the most to gain being positive for the first 5 days in January. If investors psychologically see gains they could be pototential 100% gains – NFLX has already moved 25% in upside movement. AMZN’s daily chart shows a beginning uptrend into Jan. I’m doing a real $200 trade on NFLX into earnings. I also suggest we switching to my blog. I can change the settings to private like this if you prefer because when I post a chart here it just updates. Plus you can’t actively search old trades. I can’t say search on this page “aapl” and all my aapl trades come up. This is really useful if you actually journal your trades so you can see all your past practice trades. I’ll create you a private login and post it here.
See link http://www.cnbc…xt%7C&par=yahoo
Here are my practice trades for second week of Jan 1/6/12′:
Buy QQQ FEB 55 CALL @ $3.41
Buy AAPL FEB 420 CALL @ $18.25
Buy NFLX FEB 85 CALL @ $10.00 (play – earnings is Jan 25th)
Buy AMZN FEB 180 CALL @ $12.25
Buy GOOG FEB 655 PUT @ $28.00 (received downgrade and has fell thur-fri so I expect it to continue the trend monday)
Buy PCLN FEB 480 CALL @ $22.40 (play – earnings is Feb 20th)
Buy GT FEB 20 CALL @ $3.10 (play – earnings is Feb 20th – plus GM is in the Top 5 stock picks for 2012 on CNBC which should increase buying)
Buy EA FEB 18 CALL @ $2.26 (play – earnings is Jan 30th – plus chistmas gift money will go into buying games post-christmas on earnings)
Buy EBAY FEB 30 CALL @ $1.82 (play – earnings is Jan 18th – plus post-christmas buying with gift money)
1/9/12 – first year real money trade
REAL MONEY TRADE: Bought NFLX JAN 105 CALL @ $1.42 (around $92 stock price at 11 AM) I know it is out of the money but my reasoning is that I only had $198 in my account. I wanted to buy FEB 90 Calls. Netflix going into the Europe markets is a big deal and the charts back it up. The chart seriously at least tell me that soon NFLX is poised to pop high I think in the 120’s possibly by earnings if investors back the CEO. They compare NFLX now to how AMZN invested heavily into its worldly infrastructure, however, AMZN if it was able to get all the movie/tv libraries would likely put NFLX out of business. I think what NFLX really has is that it is the big dog in its niche market of online streaming/dvd. Currently it is the biggest and it wants to be the Amazon of movies/tv/possible future of TV on your computer/new TV’s. So while this news is big I’m playing it and its upcomming earnings + the technicals look very good (so far). My option within the first 3 hours is up 100% @ $2.73. My sell target is no later than this Friday. BTW GOOG also continued its trend over the weekend as I thought it would. My short is up big. Post your practice trades. We lost our competition but we have a whole new year to try again.
1/13/12
OUCHIE. someone in GS just took a hit today! And I told myself to sell out of my NFLX calls by Friday (today), however, it dropped for the 2 past days. Within the first 3 hours on Monday I was up 100%. I’m officially retarded. I might break-even selling now. My calls expire on earnings. I’m staying in until Monday. I’m worst then retarded for creating dumb rules like, “wait until friday to move higher” when I could of took a fat profit for a first confidence intuitive trade of the new year. Damn.
practice trades for 1/6/12 out today. Market looks to further fall through the weekend. All of these trades worked if I would of have sold on monday 1/9/12 but tue on the market fell.
Sell QQQ FEB 55 CALL @ $3.35 -0%
Sell AAPL FEB 420 CALL @ $15.95 -20%
Sell NFLX FEB 85 CALL @ $15.90 +60%
Sell AMZN FEB 180 CALL @ $7.25 -25%
Sell GOOG FEB 655 PUT @ $39.70 +30%
Sell PCLN FEB 480 CALL @ $16.20 -30%
Sell GT FEB 11 CALL @ $2.85 -10%
Sell EA FEB 18 CALL @ $1.35 -40%
Sell EBAY FEB 30 CALL @ $1.92 +5%
Up over 200% total avg. selling monday 1/6/12
Down -20% total avg. selling friday 1/13/12
For November, by chance, I came across this NanoWriMo.org novel challenge to write 50,000 words in 31 days for the month of November. How I come across these random things I end up applying myself to fully still seem to boggle my mind. However, I completed my 50,000 words in 28 days. I’m officially a NanoWriMo 2011 Winnter, well, for myself. It made me start actually believing I’m a writer. Ha Ha Ha. I’m also writing my postgraduate critical essays plus having to complete a 90+ page feature film script. All my professors ask me, “what about your school work? your reading?”, come on! I guess this where school and business get mixed up in my life. I personally would think it’s more valued and important to have a novel/non-fiction piece under your belt then write a dumb critical essay no one is ever going to see or is marketable as a product to sell! So now I have around 60 mini chapters of the most life changing pivotal points of my life completely typed out. It’s quite an accomplishment. I hope to turn it into fiction based book where the used can choose their own adventure within my life and possibly I might even offer some non-grim positive outcomes. I made it a goal to write 10,000 – 20,000 words a month for the next 6 months until I finish school. Why? I don’t know why. Scholars saying writing more each month makes you a better writer. I want to be a better writer because I’m usually, well, confusing to the crowd. For instance, I rarely get readers that realize I’m broke. Ha Ha Ha. Well, more like Donald Trump bankrupt broke.
Okay, earlier in September 2011 my sister and I made a stock market trading competition with each other. I’m pretty sure she has won although she hasn’t talked to me. This brings me to conclusion that she has money still remaining in her account, however, she likely has still lost a lot of money. I on the other hand have lost my entire account once again. Well, I still have around $300 in an option in Sprint (S) in the money that expires in Jan 12′. That was a stupid trade. I’m glad I’m not a financial stock advisor. I’m not saying all my trades have been bad but just enough to continually wipe me out of existence. I told my sister we both need another extended break from Mr. Market. Take off a year and then come back with a different outlook. If you are doing horribly and can’t trade worth shit you should consider this as well. Practice and research makes perfect right? Hardly in these strange changing markets (at least recently after 2008).
There are still patterns. It’s Election Year. I was 100% wrong about the rally going up in November. It just went sideways and fell. My QQQ option hit 100% on a few days but not enough for me to get out. Well, now its worth $0. My goal was QQQ to go over $60. It never did. It hit $59 but kept falling to 56/57 dollars. I wanted to hit myself with a frying pan every time it dropped because my intuition said it would jump again. I just kept missing opportunity after opportunity. I have no excuses. I give none. I just bombed on the trade. I sky dived, had a perfectly good parachute, and ripped it half way through the trade because #1 I was desperate for a big winning trade #2 I didn’t get out when I felt the stock wasn’t moving the way I planned #3 I bought into way out of the money options #4 number #3 broke every rule in the book!
First. I’m surely at this point I’m going to lose my trading competition with my sister. Every time the “market” hopes for the best and talks a good talk the rally runs for a few very good days. You think it will continue into the next week. It falls to where it started right when we were gradually moving in the right direction.
If you look at the technicals either the market is losing steam or its falling back to move only higher. Although, with todays -3% plunge dropped for nothing really. Sure, Europe is dying, but this has been a known fact for months. We know Greece and Italy have money problems. Do American investors really care about Europe? NO! They care about their homes, cars, college education, and fast food. Who doesn’t have money problems. If investing is going more towards short trades instead of buy and hold then this type of actions and constant changing movements is going to drive me nuts. It’s great if you can day trade it being in and out within 2 market days. But if you just want to catch a movement and wait for the trade to line up and BANG! Too late. You missed the trade and it took your money. Well, that’s how I feel right now. All I can tell myself to do is START practicing again, practice these short bursts of constant mini fall and jumping rallies, and then once I can just watch the markets during the day trade with confidence (unless the markets change again).
So I have been watching what happens on Monday-Tuesday trends and it seems like a regular trend if on Monday is very positive for the most part it follows up to Wednesday and this also applies if Monday falls. I’ve seen this happen a lot and have traded off this patter many times. However, what I’m a bit confused about is this October 2011 rally. It has gone up so quick as they say it should come down just as hard. I figured with the up movement and the majority market buying up we would have a very good November 2011. I still think we will, but usually the first of the month are positive days due to be portfolios buying them in the beginning of the month. I think this Greece news is bullshit. We are already affected by our own problems here in America. We will survive without Greece. If by the end of this week this current -5% hard down isn’t recovered we may see a profit taking unhappy Thanksgiving including my call options which are in the red again expiring worthless.
So I somehow stumbled upon NanoWriMo which is the yearly Novel writing quest for the month of November. Basically you try to write 50,000 words in 29 days and whatever comes out of that. I’ve had a funny business book idea for awhile so I’m trying my best to type it all up and get it published for young adult entrepreneurs. It is going to be a cartoon-comic styled storytelling novel of my complete chaos and future fictional success.
So I sleep in around 12-15 hours a day. Since there are only 24 hours in a day I’m actually only consciously currently living realistically only around 8-12 hours of the day. I moved to Scotland to get out of New York City. Everyone I call and talk to tell me how excited and fun they would think it would be. I didn’t even really think that way when I considered moving her on a spontaneous random whim. I really don’t understand myself. I Just don’t want to wakeup to my reality.
Sometimes I think I am dreadfully depressed. With this thought I really want medically marijuana just to get high and laugh really hard at sitcoms and comedy movies being fuzzy and high. However, I don’t live in California and I really don’t have any great weed hookups anywhere. I’m not even a pothead. I suppose I’d prefer natural high over medications that have a list of side effects just to make you less depressed.
I find myself to level headed to consider myself a depressed person. You see, that is the problem. When you are not either or you are in a constant dilemma with your mood. Sometimes I just want to shout, “Someone help me! Someone hug me! Fuck me! Be my friend and hangout with me!” blah blah blah. I’m sure you have been there. I dread being so lonely and unexcited about my environment that is suppose to be so exciting told to me by everyone that learns of the position I put myself in.
I’ve thought about suicide. I’m a complete ultimate fiasco of a failure by any American success story. I suppose since I was brought up Catholic and all I know of the more spiritual world and reincarnation is that is suicide really worth it? I really don’t want to goto purgatory and be stuck in my current thoughts. I also don’t want to be reincarnated as a mentally challenged, disabled, or bug. No thanks. I want to die being free and maybe just get to chill out for a few centuries with some hot babes that are angels. I thought if I did just end this silly life I’d do it by sky diving. I have a fear of heights, but it would be pretty almost to fly and drop down for a few minutes before I flattened myself like a pancake.
But I must get it together. I must finish my writing, a film or two, continue to trade the stock market, and continue to go mad going after the American dream I’ve been brainwashed so well with growing up watching Saturday morning cartoons. I don’t know it just might be Scotland weather…
Okay so I’m half way through my trading competition with my eldest sister and she is about to quit trading all together. She actually traders smarter than me, but I suppose after trading and focusing your life around practice trading for over 7 years and you still aren’t making money you throw in the towel. I told her after our competition to take a year off. I take 6 months to a year off when my trading just sucks.
Currently in the competition I’m down -50% in my QQQ and S trades. I bought so out of the money expecting the early rally in October to continue but it never did. Well it has but more less gone sideways. I really see the QQQ hitting $60 so I ridiculously bought Nov 63 Calls for $.09 trying to make a small fortune within 2 months. So only time will tell if my options hit between $.50 – 1.00 which is my target sell price. Sprint (S) is going through hard times but I really think opening it up to selling iPhones might get more traffic through their stores and since they are in every RadioShack it gives them double the exposure. You know they were the first to come out with 3G and 4G. I don’t think the company gets enough credit. So far the stock after I purchased Jan 2.50 Calls has been rather soft and bad news/negative news has come in. I usually NEVER purchase a stock under $20. It seems anything under this price moves like a snail and just has problems politically or financially within the company. However, I figured if the QQQ and DOW would move up than S should move along up with it. I don’t plan to make a killing out of it. I have 3 months to be right or lose $700 in the trade.
I hope my big sister doesn’t give up trading. When we started learning together we were told its about trading a lifetime. However, for most normal people trading a lifetime if you aren’t making money will basically ruin your life. It sure has ruined mine. I think I have over $40,000 in student loans I traded and ended up being at a loss. But fuck it. I’m going to show all you fuckers I can beat this game if it’s the last thing I do alive – of course if I die then I got beat. I trade with less now. I’m not going to make my 8 years of trading and paying my market tuition go to waste.
So me and the big sister are in a competition to see who’s account will double first for the next two months. I was currently up 25% but just got hit -50% with the latest swing in the market upside playing puts. My goal is to take $2000 to around $4000+. If you would like to join the competition post a comment and be ready to show your brokerage statement Dec. 1st.
So yes it still kills me that had I waited one more day holding my options I would of made 50% instead of lost it, but I stuck to my plan. SWN did fall below $37 to 36.67. However my sell point for my option only made it to .70 and not .75 so I would of had to been watching the market. The option ended up closing around .49 where I paid for it. So it’s a good thing I just sold. It does drive me nuts that I was correct in my thinking the market was due for a harder sell off but oh well I always have another day to trade my $380. I went to a meetup.com group last night for late night computer hackers. It was pretty cool. I kind of couldn’t focus because there were so many beautiful women. I’ll definitely have to go again. I wouldn’t say I got much done on my projects, but I got a start. SWN has started to regain some today. This Irish bailout is a new one to think about with China’s currency deal. They seem to be the biggest news pieces lately.
We can help you sell your home fast in Petersburg, Chesterfield, Midlothian, Henrico, Richmond, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach
(757)-204-1777
We have over two decades of real estate experience helping home sellers solving problems simplifying the process relieving the stress and headaches buying homes at a fair price fast. Let our experience help solve your real estate problems.
No matter the condition we will buy your houses fast As-Is no conditions or contingencies or commissions!
We buy ugly houses and beautiful homes from Richmond to the oceanfront in Virginia Beach. Always As-Is to help you sell your house fast for cash quickly!
Stuck in your mortgage and can't make the payments? We also offer to take over your payments to relieve you of your monthly payments, help sell your home, or purchase it in cash quickly. We offer options for all types of home sellers that need to sell fast. Fill out our form and contact us today to learn more how to sell your home fast to us.
Paul Meyer 