I spent a lot of time reading this weekend and in a rare moment of focused attention, I finished reading all of Barron’s before the weekend was over. I also read an aging Smart Money magazine I hadn’t finished yet. The whole time I read I kept a pen and piece of paper next to me and wrote down…
Month: September 2007
S&P 500 Chart 9-21-07
To mix it up a little this week I took a look at the monthly S&P 500 ($INX) chart for the past five years. I went back this far to try to get a better idea of where we stand in reference of this long bull market. I used the monthly chart to take out some of…
Naked Puts on Foster Wheeler (FWLT)
You might think I’d learn my lesson on FWLT. I’ve entered into two positions in the past year that would have been profitable if I had held on, but when it started to dip, I bailed. I haven’t taken much of a loss on those positions yet, but missed out on nearly $1,000 by not…
Options Expiration Friday Is Upon Us
As if the wake from the Fed rate cut wasn’t enough to cause major market gyrations, today is expiration day for September options. The trading activity is always interesting on the last day of options. The “big boys” can push a stock up or down to make it close at-the-money if needed to balance out their…
“Blog Rush” for Investing Blogs
I just added a new widget to my right sidebar which shows links to other investing blogs’ posts. The idea is for each time my page has a visitor, I get a syndication credit that will give me “advertising” on another financial blog. For each person who clicks on my widget (or here) I also…
Learning Options the Hard Way – A Reader’s Tale
I received the following email this morning from a reader who asked to remain anonymous, but thought his story would be a good lesson for many others who are trying to learn how to become better traders. ———————————————— First, I had 14K in PUTS I bought and lost 11K the day of the surge. My account…
Nokia (NOK) Review
Barron’s cover story for the September 17, 2007 issue was on the bright future of Nokia (NOK). I try not to trade on their cover stories in the first few days after they are written because they often get a short term bounce that washes away in a few days. This week added another twist with the 1/2 point cut by…
Exited CMCSA Naked Puts
Not even two hours after I said I would not trade any this week Comcast (CMCSA) did an about face and turned negative. I was short four naked puts that I had previously sold at .75 and received $287 after commissions. With CMCSA moving back below the strike I decided to get out while the…
What Now?
What a day to miss out on being at my computer yesterday. My interview went well. I’m not sure if I’ll get an offer, but think I did the best I could. If they don’t give me an offer then I’ll just have to believe there will be a better opportunity for me elsewhere that matches my skills…