Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Taken over by Regulators
Ooooh boy. Let the fun begin. I’m watching the 11am news conference by Hank Paulson. More info once its released.
Update: Here’s the shortened version of the story as I see it. The government’s taking over Fannie and Freddie, removing the CEOs of both companies, and eliminating both preferred and common dividend. By eliminating the dividends, I don’t think there’s any interest in holding the stock. Does that mean that FRE and FNM are headed to zero Monday? My guess would be yes but you never know.
The fallout from the takeover may result in a nice little pop come Monday. But I’d have to agree with everyone else out in the blogging financial world. The rally will give great opportunities to short the market and stocks in general, but I can’t see it lasting. What the government’s done is effectively made the public foot the bill. On top of everything else, I don’t see how the public can afford any more debt. Just wish the public would assume my student loans…
Tomorrow should be a fun day. Dow +300 tomorrow? Nah. I think the bears squash the rally tomorrow. I’d even be inclined to say we fall hard the latter half of the trading day tomorrow. But in a bear market, anything goes.
Personal update: PhD qualifiers are Sept. 20th. Once the 20th comes and goes, I’ll be back full time. Hopefully in good spirits.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Blog Income and Traffic Report – April 2008
Man did April fly by. Guess that means it’s time for another quick blog income and traffic report, brought to you by the great people at Mario Kart Wii, because without it, wii’d be bored during the summer months.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Making Visa My Bitch
Over the past few months, I’ve seen my portfolio whittle away to almost nothing. Granted, I started with practically nothing (in the market’s view) but still. After trading for nearly a year, I still have quite a bit to learn. However, some folks at thinkorswim have given me a task in order to refine my trading skills. In short, in order to be a great trader, it pays to be a specialist. That is, if you want to become an options trader, trade only options and nothing else. Futures trader? Same thing.
There’s a twist to the homework assignment. Now that you’re focused on being specialized in a vehicle, take that one step further and specialize in a single underlying and just that single underlying. Learn how it moves, how it trades, what items affect it. Learn it for an entire year. While that seems somewhat excessive, it does appear to be a good exercise in focus and trading refinement. That’s why I’ve decided with the transparency of my trades, Visa will now be my project. That’s right. Visa will now be my bitch.
I will try my hardest to trade Visa exclusively. There will be times I will deviate, if only because some setups out there are so blatantly obvious or the Option Addict is on a tear (when is he never?). So starting tomorrow, here’s the game plan for Visa now that I’ve sold what May calls I had left on it.
There’s the short term game plan for Visa. I’m waiting for a short term pullback near the $83 region. With the recent $15 run-up in 48 hours, I’m expecting some sort of a breather. The other alternative is to buy on a breakout of $87.50, or today’s 52-week high and maintain a tight stop. With May options coming close to expiration, I will most likely be looking at June calls, somewhere in the 90/95 area. I don’t forsee Visa heading below $80 any time soon to be quite honest.
Let’s see how the game plan works tomorrow. Good night!