I made three updates to My Trader’s Journal over the past couple of days. 1. I’ve started keeping a MTJ “Stock Market Sentiment” rating at the very top of my home page. This will generally be based on the charting of indexes I do every weekend, but can change mid-week too if a large macroeconomic factor hits…
Barron’s Stock Picks, 10-15-2007
For those who don’t read Barron’s (you should) the format is pretty basic. It generally comes in two sections unless there’s a special. Each section starts with one or two long articles summarizing the past week’s market activity. Following the summaries are more in depth articles on individual stock picks or pans and some follow-ups….
Dow Jones ($INDU) Chart, 10-12-2007
I’m charting trend lines for the Dow ($INDU) again this week. For the second week in a row the Dow closed above the July intraday high. I’ve drawn three major up trending lines. The top line has acted as the ceiling and the bottom line has been the floor. They aren’t quite parallel, but both are…
Costs of Cover Calls
I just can’t seem to get my rhythm in my IRA like I can in my taxable account. I stopped selling covered calls only to see my stocks pull back. Then I started to sell again when I briefly thought the market wasn’t going to rally only to find I picked great stocks. I’m going to have to…
I have a name!
Yesterday I closed above the $75,000 balance mark in my brokerage account for the first time. I’ve finally decided to use this arbitrary number as an excuse to start using my name on my blog. I’m Alexander Fotopoulos. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? I’ll just go by Alex. Actually Alex is my real name and Fotopoulos should have been…
Rookie Mistake: Sold Boeing (BA) Naked Put
I was eyeing Boeing (BA) for a naked put late this morning and just happened to hit refresh one last time before I entered my order. BA went from $0.14 down to up by $0.85 and then came back down just as quickly. Volume was insane compared to the rest of the morning. I…
Determining an Exit Price for a Stock
I had a hard time when I began to invest in stocks in deciding the best price to sell my shares, exit the position and quantify my tax calculation. Figuring out the entry point is only part of the challenge. Knowing when to get out is where returns are realized. Until an investor is out of a position the gains…
Understanding Downside Risks in Investing
I wrote a post named “What is Risk Worth” a few months ago and have thought of a possible better way to explain some reasons to accept downside risk in investing. This idea stemmed from thoughts left over in my head after writing my Four Stages of Succesful Investors series. I’ve had a fairly comfortable relationship with…
Stock Picks from Barron’s
Today’s Barron’s offers some stocks to ponder. While Kopin Tan and Michael Santoli gave reasons for a more bearish overall outlook, these stock picks might be ripe for investing if you listen to Barron’s other writers. I’m not so sure I agree on most of these. A few weeks ago I agreed with most of their…