Buy Your Winners: Postmarket Update

Much like when I stepped onto the ice last night, I came into the office this morning feeling like shit.  I hobbled all the way from the subway and just felt like crawling into a hole.  By the end of the day though the pain in my leg was no longer bothering me and my trading book had seen one of its best days in a long time, especially given this tough tape.

$STEC finally gave it up today, plunging more than 10% at one point this afternoon and closing down $2.20.  I’ve seen a lot of people nail this short, and good for them.  STEC has 22 written all over it.

My other equity short position $LDK got smacked around after hours as they reorganized their management.  It’s now trading down 5% after hours.

My long book lit it up today with $PCX, $AU, and $AMZN leading the way.  Gold and crude also surged pushing my profit in $GLD and $USO further into the black.

I sold $GNA in favor of $CLF today.  When looking for exposure in a certain sector or industry, always go with the strongest issue, don’t screw around with playing stocks to “catch up”.  Buy strength and sell weakness, it’s that simple, CLF is acting stronger than GNA.

So by 5:30 PM my day had turned out pretty excellent.  $INTC reported ahead of the street (which still doesn’t say much) and futures are flying.  You might say, shouldn’t you book some profits on a day like this?  To that I reply, No.  I’m not running an investment portfolio here, I trade.  Yes, I do limit the amount of total risk taken across the portfolio, i’m not too long or short at any one time, and keep exposure to certain sectors within limits.  But when it comes to taking profits I live and die by the teachings of Jesse Livermore.  The boy plunger remarked that it is always prudent to add to positions that show you a profit and cut those which aren’t.  So on this day when my book felt a little frothy, I added to my crude position by buying another lot of $USO.  I’m now very long crude, and feeling like an asshole hoping that all of you fuckers have to pay an extra 2$ at the gas pump next month.

Full Disclosure: Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice, research or an invitation to buy or sell any securities, please see the Disclaimer page for a full disclaimer.


blog comments powered by Disqus