leejo

Bought 100 Schlumberger (SLB) @ 98.77

leejo

OK another trading week has come to a close, and the market seems decidedly more upbeat. The market still seems to be going sideways a lot, but the mood continues to improve. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds good, doesn't it?

How's everyone doing? I finished the week up 5% (account value is 105k).

leejo

By the way, if anyone is feeling lost/stuck/frustrated let's talk about that and see if the group can share some ideas and tips.

SmokingTarpan

Well, I'm up 2.2% overall so far ($102,200); it's not much, but it's on the positive side so I'm happy. I still have $13k in free cash, just waiting for a good buy.

I've realized that it's going to take time to understand even a small part of how the market works, so most of my investments are made off of pattern analysis, seeing how the charts have moved over the past 6-12 months. I've got several investments that are in sideways-moving troughs, with the expectation that they'll hike up long.

Ford, Costco, JC Penny and Snap On ended up being really solidly performing investments for me so far, and any other gains are kinda just fillers. Several companies that I thought would be good investments based on what's going on in their area at the moment have instead become drags. I bet on Gamestop's rise with the GTA4 release and CENX's continued drop, and neither of those have done as I guessed they would. Win some, lose some; at least my gainers are bigger than my losers.

__________________

[squadl]
"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo

War.mongeR1

I'm up 1.7% for a total gain of $894.30. Not much, but I feel good that I'm not negative. I've been getting used to the waters slowly, so I still have almost $48,000 left to invest. This is still a pretty fun game and a good way to learn about the economy from a corporate perspective.

__________________
"Common sense is not so common." -Voltaire

leejo

I love watching CNBC in the mornings. Some of the regulars they have on there do a wonderful job explaining the relationships between the various markets, and you'll get a steady diet of economic data fed to you. I think it's fascinating and I feel like I've learned a ton.

xTYBALTx

I'm down 15.5%.

__________________
Current Tybalt theme song: Mason v. Princess - Perfect

SmokingTarpan

Well, was it just me, or did the market step on everyone's nuts again today? From what I poked around at, looked like the market had another downswing today like it did a few weeks ago.

__________________

[squadl]
"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo

Drizzid

Bought 1000 shares of Alcoa (AA) @ $37.29.

I think this stock has the potential to double in the coming months. With the price of steel continuing to soar more and more foreign countries are going to start searching for cheaper alternatives.

__________________


TG-Drizzid
Yifios
Phoenix (87:55)
Marble
colony
Danetia
Menzo (86:55)
Wine
ColonyII
Rayiatia
Paradise (87:54)
Sulfur

leejo

I'm slammed with work this week and haven't been able to post. I'm taking a massive haircut on Yahoo May 22.5 put options. Trying to unwind without too much pain.

Bought 500 .YHQQX @ .48

I tried to get cute with the weekend's news and took out a huge position in options, which I don't understand. Fortunately, I'd never have done that with actual money.

Remember, Greed and Fear. This was greed, and now the battle is between my fear of losing more money and my fear of looking stupid.

SmokingTarpan

Two of my stocks stopped out yesterday, bad week for me:

Sold 1000 BBI @ $2.69
Sold 200 GME @ $51.45

I don't understand what the heck is going on with Gamestop. Just had one of the most successful releases ever, and has a few more big titles coming up, yet the stock seems to have gone over the falls.

__________________

[squadl]
"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo

leejo

Dood, I have had the mother of all bad weeks. The market cut my little heart out and squished it right in front of my children.

OK so I said Monday morning before the open I put .50 limit order for the Yahoo May 22.50 put option - it executed at .48. Shortly afterwards, it short up as high as $1.50, but unfortunately I was in a meeting and by the time I had a chance to check the situation, it was back down to .28. So in about 3 hours I'd already lost $13k.

I spent the rest of this week trying to unwind with as little damage as possible.

Sold 100 @ .12
Sold 100 @ .20
Sold 150 @ .26
Sold 150 @ .14

So yeah, I lost about $20k on that trade in 3 days. Right now my account balance is $84,546. Ouch!

Shoulda woulda coulda but if I'd been sitting at my computer instead of "working" I would have made about $40k in less than an hour. Dagnabbit!

Drizzid

Well this week has actually been pretty good for me. The Alcoa purchase has been solid for me so far going up 2 full points since purchasing but down today. Sirius has been up and down and had reached a high yesterday. I almost sold but I wanted to wait and see what happened today. It has fallen but I am still in the plus as for Fedex they are down almost 4 full points and Oriental Financial group is down almost a full point. If I can get those two stocks to rebound a bit I think I am gonna sell them and move on. Sirius will be a wait and see for the next projections and Alcoa I will continue to hold as I think they will be huge in the coming months. I am up $1,412.22 total

__________________


TG-Drizzid
Yifios
Phoenix (87:55)
Marble
colony
Danetia
Menzo (86:55)
Wine
ColonyII
Rayiatia
Paradise (87:54)
Sulfur

bkelly

*smiles* Are you sure you're not married to housing stocks?

Meanwhile my bearish, volitile ETFs seem to be neither. I'm down %4 overall.

bkelly

leejo

Well everything I own is looking pretty peaked except for AAPL and GS.

Here's the damage:

Apple (AAPL) - 1793
American Capital and Strategies (ACAS) - 252.50
Bank of America (BAC) - 122.00
Colgate Palmolive (CL) - (44.00)
Conoco-Phillips (COP) - (691.00) (shorting 100 shares)
GE - (GE) - (31.00)
Goldman Sachs - (GS) - 1227.50
Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV) - (1090.00)
Monsanto (MON) - (525.00)
Nike (NKE) - (256.00)
Proctor and Gamble (PG) - (399.00)
Pulte Homes (PHM) - (865.00)
Slumberger (SLB) - 624.00
Toll Brothers (TOL) - 27.50
UBS (UBS) - (262.00)

Lots of red ink this week. As I mentioned, the Yahoo options really did a number on me. Oops! Account balance is $84.4k