another new year begins, 2008, in the ongoing dubious times of my life
So 2008 has started. I’m already giving up financial hopes, dreams, inspirations, and drive for my future slowly 1 minute at a time. I think this year needs to be a rest year. A year off, to contemplate and understand what I have accomplished, what I keep doing wrong, and how to fix it to propel myself back into 12 cylinder muscle car like I want to work.
2007 reflection:
In Jan 2007 made +$8000 in the market
In Feb 2007 made + $31000 in the market
by March 2007 I lost all $39,000 + in profits due to a really silly and immature trade I made too fast to try to make double that.
by August 2007 I added money losing it again another -$4000 at least
by September 2007 I was able to drive around $3000 back into +$28,000 by mid October 2007. Lost ALL in mid November 07′
Somehow I thought it would be smart to buy out of the money same month call options on 2 options many being Apple (AAPL).
I had this whole genius wealth plan thinking there would be a real bullish run in November so at the end of Oct 2007 I put all my money in just to have a real minor crash hit me hard just when I didn’t expect it. Everyone else knew the market was starting to fall, but I thought it was going to move higher. Well boy was I wrong. $10,000 of that money was from my student to earn more to pay it off. Now I sit on $42,000 worth of new debt rising fast at 12% interest. Dumb move many would say, brave and stupid is my opinion. Okay I could of walked away with around +$16000 in profits for the year off of around $5000, but did I? No. That would of shown I could hold at least almost 210% profit. If I walked away for the entire year in Feb I would of walked away with around a 2000% profit on 1 single trade for the year. I guess I’m keyboard entry trigger happy. I love to trade so much I don’t know when to stop loving and start stepping away and keeping it a business relationship.
Recently my optionsxpress account is at $0 left, and I put $2000 into my scottrade account and have been trading hoku on up moves and currently have been up 100% within a month on 2 trades. I really don’t know when enough is enough. I made this goal probably just 2 months ago that I wasn’t going to trade anymore until I got a real plan down and stuck to it. I have yet to stop trading. It is no wonder money pours out of my skin like I have a bad virus in a heavy sweat, heart pulsing fast, and mind out of control.
So its 2008 and I’m already considering 20 years in the military something I would never want to accept because I’m just to assertive and go-getter to just do the same job, with ordinary pay, and get no real satisfaction from it. All I can do being broke again and more in depth is to keep working on my university degrees to fall back on. I dislike feeling this way, this heavy burden of stress and uptightness that I can’t get rid of because I feel I always have to try to be better then everyone else. I don’t even care to be better I just want some power? Some respect or feeling of greatness? Don’t get me wrong I love trading. This type of work is something I really enjoy doing I’ve just yet to be able to manage my really bad habits breaking all the cardinal rules of trading to keep your profits instead I end up losing everything I make from the markets.
So I’ll probably still trade no doubt. It’s in my blood. I feed on stocks like a dog needs a bone to be happy.
goals of 2008:
Pay off new car – currently increasing my monthly payment to $1200 from $400 up 200% to pay it off within 7-8 months instead of 2010, which might still be close.
Work on student loans – Since I will defer my student loans even though they are at a higher interest rate I won’t have to worry about that payment until I am out. I will rely on telling myself every time I do a trade that some portion of the profits NEED to feed the loan and since I lost the money in the market I need to earn it back to pay off the loan quicker. I know I have skills. I just need to sharpen my thinking and zoom in on what I do well and trade those stocks until I’m blue in the face and debt free again. Oxymoron “debt free”. Well maybe you get it. I do.
My rental income that usually accumulates because I pay the mortgage separately will now sit at around $2500 in the account and I will have my mortgage directly paid from it freeing up around $650 a month to give me better housing in Honolulu to “rest”.
That $650 will now be deducted from the separate account while the rent comes in. With any extra money I’ll put it towards my car since it is presently affecting me. I’m applying all my student loan money I’m getting back from the trailer park sale to be applied against the remaining $18000. So with my bigger payments around 6-8k it should be paid off soon then I’ll work on the student loan, then my house with a remaining balance of around $58000. I could possibly pay off that $40k in less than 2 years if I pay off my car really quick with every dollar I have left at the month. I could really do it and I’ll try.
Any future big money I make in the market I want to apply to my home to pay off the mortgage or buy tax liens. If I was able to get homes by paying their taxes I could really score big in equity, but that’s farther into the future.
I’m not entirely stupid, I just don’t know when to stop (mostly trading and business purchases gone bad). I still might have some freedom as a young 29 year old if I can pay all this off even if I have no money left or saved. If everything is paid off I can really work on my trading.
This brings me to a story of when I started surfing. When I started I constantly wouldn’t give up because I loved it so much. Even though I wiped out and couldn’t stand up for almost 2 weeks, when the time was “right” I stood up and surfed my first real wave and from there on I kept catching waves and got better with practicing and “time” + patience. Trading as a profession should be any different.
Trailer parks, stocks (HOKU scientific), and assasinations
Pakistani President being assassinated with riots afterwards. I’m not so surprised. Do even Americans care? Do we? Is it just another scare tactic? Another cover-ups for something else? I don’t know who to trust these days, particular not the news. It definitely made a hit on our financial markets with our major averages down -1% today.
The only stock holding up in the positive was Apple Inc (AAPL @ $202). Impressive. Its new blockbuster deal with Fox to sell more selection of movies on its iTunes is really going to boost the stock price up into the Mac Expo Jan 14th then earnings I believe Jan 18th. My price target I think it will hit is at least $220. Up another 10%. I think we could see $300 or a big stock split by next year.
Another wild stock is HOKU Scientific (HOKU @ $11.81). Currently down around -7%, but it had a major run up of +20% so I’d expect some pull back. It made another BIG white candle showing there is major support and it is ready to move higher then $15 in my opinion and what I see on the charts. If it holds above $11.50 today I think we will see it hitting $15 first week of January 2008 and I will be sold out of my Jan 15 Call options up around +200% or more. I’ve been trading HOKU since around $9 then to $12 sold, then bought at $10.58 and waiting for it to move higher with my options to sell at a good price.
Trailer park news is in. The previous owner who sold it to me first offered me $3000 to buy it back. I Negotiated $7000 then we met at $5000. So I did it. Okay it didn’t work out. I probably lost around $15000 on the deal. What’s new? Well nothing new besides no girlfriends, no luxuries, no nice bachelor pad, or paid off debt to pursue my business ventures until I get one that sticks and works well. Some people might feel irritated or mad about this, I just gulp it down, and thank God already for when something really does happen for since I know it will. Just when? I’ve been reading the Bible lately. I don’t know if this has affected the owner actually offering me money to buy it back or not. In a weird way I feel I lucked out not just offering it back to him to get rid of the ongoing loss. This is the way I look at this: I’ve owned the park for around 6 months and made a total of $1500, lost a total of around $22000 (this includes initial down payment of $10,000 + $4200 worth of mortgage payments + $7000 worth of repairs and renovations). I’m only getting +$5000 back, but if I hold onto it for another 6 months with the little tenants I have an keep incurring bills I will actually lose another $6-7000. So in retrospective if I sell it back to him now and accept +$5000 I’d actually be gaining really +$12000 back. I look at this as a losing stock. I can either cut my losses now while I can see the picture and its not earning me any money and continually since I’m not there I have no control over getting the units rented or I can keep it and continually lose more and more money that I could of applied to pay off existing debt. I think my biggest problem here was that they were small trailers instead of single or double wides. About 1 month after I bought the park it hit me hard. Then again, with my risky investment ideas, I take full responsibility for buying the park without seeing it, without inspecting the trailers, and over valuating it. I guess I learned another hard lesson in my seventh year of continual business losses.
So now that the park is done for and I can move on with my life I plan to take any money I have left and apply to my car loan and pay it off first. Student loans second, and then put the rest in a savings account. If I do buy another piece of real estate it will strictly be a single family home or duplex. I found that even though buying a mobile home park can be very profit worthy, unless I am there to maintain it, advertise it, and do most of the repairs it will become more of a burden then improvement in my business ventures. I suppose I learn best by doing. Most people teach or talk about doing something their entire life, but never do it. I actually do it. So I guess I can expect more hardships and wise lessons.
Paul Meyer 