How 'bout that stock market?

"What do you short for your hedges? I watch SCO SCC ultra shorts"
SKF, FAZ, QID have all performed well in the last 2 weeks, volatility is where the money is...
 
FITB can't fall a hell of a lot farther! Sheesh, glad I didn't jump in at $4 :). $2.96 now. It was $19 not all that long ago, that's just nuts.
 
My hedges are adjusted depending on the rest of my allocation. Since I took a lot of profits in energy and have not bought back in just yet, my oil hedge is off.

Right now hedges make up 20% of my portfolio, each levered roughly 2:1. It's a mix of SDS, QID, and SRS depending on what I have. I was heavy AAPL and ATVI after buying more when they got beat recently and pre earnings. So far that has worked out well. When I take profits on those I'll be letting go of QID on the next market downturn.
 
Does anyone have software that can overlap daily charts through a given time period? I have some stuff at work but it's a PITA and I have to basically input all the data through excel from yahoo finance.
 
Does anyone have software that can overlap daily charts through a given time period? I have some stuff at work but it's a PITA and I have to basically input all the data through excel from yahoo finance.

Any good trading software can, I have used CQG and Tradestation and like them both but you get what you pay for.
 
Does anyone have software that can overlap daily charts through a given time period? I have some stuff at work but it's a PITA and I have to basically input all the data through excel from yahoo finance.

Multicharts supports this as far as I know. But you have to be able to provide data to it.
 
Old RIG took me out back to the wood shed this morning. Made a partial recovery with some JPM pref but damn that $hit is hard work. I'll probably be working the rest of the day to end up flat unless I get lucky with some high dollar stuff.
 
I've been on a ROLL lately - over the past 7 trading days my portfolio has gone up over 21% while the market has fallen over 4%. Today I closed out the GS I bought on 1/15 for $61.00 at $73.00 and have watched my AUY (biggest holding) go up 11% due to gold going way up today. There are also increasing rumors that they will be bought out soon at $12-20/share, maybe higher. It's in the 7s right now... :eek::biggrin:
 
abqbup.jpg


Scared yet? We should be.
 
I make some real money last week and was down every day except today and yesterday this week. Today I broke my all time highest pay day. The bank preferred stocks were trading like complete insanity. I was crossing 15-20 cent spreads with 1k lots, throw it up 50-75 cents and getting hit in less than 10 seconds. Not sure if you guys can but look up BAC-L, C-V, sh*t any of them will work. There was supposedly something like a million share repeater on BML-H (BAC) that kept it out of the rally for a little while. Also shorted BRK.B from 2500 on the opening print and rode it for about half of that move down, still got triple digit points out of it. A guy in the office got over 200 points out of it short with 400 shares ($2500 stock). He was short a dozen BRK.A too.
 
I have not been trading much. I sold of some options today a whoping 8 contracts for a 1800 gain. It's been pretty bad for me. Down 980,000 dollars over all.

I have been really busy trying to get the deal closed up on the new lake house. What a PITA getting a mortgage is. I swear they want to find a reason to deny anyone.
 
I have not been trading much. I sold of some options today a whoping 8 contracts for a 1800 gain. It's been pretty bad for me. Down 980,000 dollars over all.

I have been really busy trying to get the deal closed up on the new lake house. What a PITA getting a mortgage is. I swear they want to find a reason to deny anyone.

I hear you steve. Don't focus too much on how much you are down pal. My personal funds are still down 20+% too, I have barely traded it besides taking any spikes and turning them into cash. I think I've traded my personal money maybe a dozen times this month, usually it's 75-150. I'm 55% cash with my only long positions worth mentioning in LINE, BP, AAPL, YUM and ATVI (and SRS if you count that). My new rule is it has to yield 8%+ with clean balance sheet or if it's growth it needs no debt and 30% of market cap in cash at the time of purchase. All the above fit but YUM as it's a little bit of a combination. That thing is rock solid though, I'm still up in that and I bought it over a year ago. That's what has kept those stocks up though. Looking to pick up some VZ if it drops a few points in my LT but it looks like it's too popular right now. Might pick up some BRK.B if the life insurers look to hold up and it gets near 2000/share.
 
Been really busy lately finally got though my mid term week. Finally a relaxing weekend with light workload. I wish had just took a year off and just focus on trading.

I have been trading a lot lately with exception of Tuesdays and Thursdays, I got out of inverse SKF, SRS, FAZ, and covered short positions on TCK and DRYS today. I was glued to the TV today and caught the news and got rid of SKF, SRS in lighting speed even before it hit my freshly updated sell stop, and hopped onto URE for a sweet ride. I did paid a lot of tuition for this round of hard lessons, the moment I accepted the fact, it was the moment I realized it is not a big deal.

Despite incredible down run, many stocks are actually holding up really well during this round of hard hits and still up for the year, FCX, GME, STLD, AUY, ANR, BTU. Both bears and bulls are cute as long as gains are taken before its gone and losses are cut early.

Whichever direction the train is heading, I like to ride with it. I welcome each direction, standing in front of it is crazy. I gladly admit I was crazy at one time, I live to learn and learn to live.
 
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Fell asleep this morning, woke up and received a pleasant surprise in an otherwise horrible day.

One of my holding went up 300%+ today, bad news is that I only had 1900 shares and I paid a bit more than last Friday's low, but still took in over 100%+ profit. I held this position due to that it was too late for me cut loss and I did expect a mild pop once it announced refinancing of new loan, but never did expected a take over offer.

I have had positions that went up 300%+ within a week, but 300% pop in 1 day was a first and it felt FANTASTIC in otherwise down beat environment.

Nova chemical, NCX made the jump thanks a company owned by the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi announced a friendly deal that will result in NOVA being acquired at $6 a share. $6 is still quite far away from its $30+ 52 week high.

I got out of SRS and SKF last Friday, wanted to get back in but I wasn't able to monitor the trades today, so it was not worth the risk.

Set your sell stops and sleep better!
 
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If ya'll are interested in what I'm long, I just finished building LT positions in:

Brinks Home Security (CFL). Very cheap valuation, no debt, growing nicely with the potential to really ramp up its subscriber base this year. It's a potential 5 bagger (18 mos). Soros and Pequot are also in it.

Napco Security Services (NSSC). Cheap valuation. Potential to see nice revenue growth if security products market keeps heating up. Potential 10 bagger (18 mos).

These, and Smith & Wesson, are my only longs.
 
Ski, I remember you talking about putting on that angle. I think it's going to work, and work well given the firms do what they are supposed to. S&W has been a disaster for a while from the equity perspective but I haven't looked at it in a long time. I went ahead and got out of half of my SRS near the close. Those ultra shorts are trash anyways. I was barely up 20% in that thing and I bought it when IYR was way higher than now. Another good day trading though so no complaints here.
 
If you don't mind, what made you buy NSSC against the competition and have you already established your full position? Pretty tiny market cap but if it made it even half way back to 10 you'd be in excellent shape. Do you think you will get another chance to buy CFL in the 14-16 range again? I think this could serve as an intelligent hedge.

Have you been keeping up with the european issues? My latest data is extraordinarily grim, I see nearly a dozen governments more or less financially collapse in that area alone. I also predict the U.S. will bail out many of them, probably through some back door deal with Germany.
 
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If you don't mind, what made you buy NSSC against the competition and have you already established your full position? Pretty tiny market cap but if it made it even half way back to 10 you'd be in excellent shape. Do you think you will get another chance to buy CFL in the 14-16 range again? I think this could serve as an intelligent hedge.

Have you been keeping up with the european issues? My latest data is extraordinarily grim, I see nearly a dozen governments more or less financially collapse in that area alone. I also predict the U.S. will bail out many of them, probably through some back door deal with Germany.

NSSC is kindof a barbell equity strategy. Buy the market leader (Brinks, or ADT owned by Honeywell), and a laggard like NSSC. A rising tide will lift all boats but NSSC, priced where it is, could move a lot more % wise. The cash-on-cash return from an NSSC run back to 10 is better than 2 or 3 other competitors (that are also really struggling and leveraged). I also LOVE the fact that management owns 35% of the common, so I'm not at all concerned that the accounting issues that drove the stock down are indicative of anything really bad.

Yep, Europe is a total wreck right now. China is probably much worse, we just don't know it -- it's a labor based economy (as opposed to capital, like US, UK, GR, Fr, etc) so in the slowdown, it's people that bear the brunt rather than capital.

I don't think CFL will get back to the mid teens. Too much tag-along $ that will copycat whatever Pequot and Soros buy, and they are in, most likely, at the offering price of around $22.
 
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Did some sneaky buying. Got ETP as soon as it starting going up in the morning and bought BP on the open on the first green candle. Had a good trading day as well. Didn't get rid of my SRS by 10 damn cents on my limit order. Figured it hit and didn't both checking. That was expensive.
 
etfs getting ready to blow up. If anyone is in the oil etfs I would suggest getting out now!

Dear Customer,

Effective February 25, 2009, Three Times (3X) Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds will not be marginable. Additionally, options strategies traded on the underlying leveraged exchange traded funds will be limited to the following:

Long Call
Long Put
Covered Call
Debit Spreads
Below are the 16 leveraged exchange traded funds affected by this notice.

Ticker Symbol Fund Index / Benchmark Index Symbol
BGU Large Cap Bull 3x Shares Russell 1000 RIY
TNA Small Cap Bull 3x Shares Russell 2000 RTY
ERX Energy Bull 3x Shares Russell 1000 Energy RGUSEL
FAS Financial Bull 3x Shares Russell 1000 Financial Services RGUSFL
DZK Developed Markets Bull 3X Shares MSCI EAFE Index MXEA
EDC Emerging Markets Bull 3X Shares MSCI Emerging Markets Index MXEF
TYH Technology Bull 3X Shares Russell 1000 Technology Index RGUSTL
MWJ Mid Cap Bull 3x Shares Russell Mid-cap Index RMC
BGZ Large Cap Bear 3x Shares Russell 1000 RIY
TZA Small Cap Bear 3x Shares Russell 2000 RTY
ERY Energy Bear 3x Shares Russell 1000 Energy RGUSEL
FAZ Financial Bear 3x Shares Russell 1000 Financial Services RGUSFL
DPK Developed Markets Bear 3X Shares MSCI EAFE Index MXEA
EDZ Emerging Markets Bear 3x Shares MSCI Emerging Markets Index MXEF
TYP Technology Bear 3X Shares Russell 1000 Technology Index RGUSTL
MWN Mid Cap Bear 3x Shares Russell Mid-cap Index RMC


For additional information, please contact OptionsFirst Customer Service.

Thank you,

The OptionsFirst Team
 
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