Portfolio Holdings

I am now 90% in the market 10% in cash.

I just sold IFLO, it didn't manage to bounce off the 50 day MA & was the worst stock in my portfolio.

SWHC & EMKR are up around 5% from where I bought it at. I will continue to hold and see what happens.

Its a friday guys, I am definitely looking forward to the three day weekend.

[Continue reading...]

Managing Trades for End of August Part III

The market was up 200+ points yesterday. The majority of my stocks (SWHC & CRNT) bounced off the 20 day MA. This is a good sign because had they fallen below the 20 day MA, there would have been concern about keeping the trend. The oversold signals are not quite there yet, but they are getting there.

I will be on the look out for opportunities to add to my stocks.

Keep in mind, one of my brokerage accounts is 100% in cash. The other is all in the market.

If I am mentally and physically in sync and the market does well beginning of tomorrow, I will be looking to plunge into the market.

[Continue reading...]

Managing Trades for End of August Part II

It looks like my trades have been acting as expected. Most of them dipped under the 20 day MA and are in between the 50 day MA. For the one that dipped near the 50 day MA it is oversold in the short term. The others are just below the 20 day MA. The issue right now is that they aren't oversold yet, so there is a good chance they will fall today and Thursday.

If anything there will be a bounce on Friday, if not then the stocks are done.

My strategy is to see what happens to IFLO and use that as a gauge to see if there will be a bounce back up. In the long term, I don't have much to worry about just yet. But, if I am trading short term, which I most likely will not be with these trades, there will be some issues.

For today, I will watch the market. Any extreme moves will be noted and acted upon. Otherwise, sit through the storm.....

[Continue reading...]

Managing Trades for End of August

I am currently managing my trades. I haven't exited them because they haven't gone under the 20 day moving average yet. They've also stuck through the drop a couple weeks ago.

However, yesterday they tested the 20 day moving average, but they are not oversold yet. In fact, they are just coming out of overbought. Could this be a sign for me to exit or will there be a bounce back up from the 20 day moving average?

You can see by the below chart that one stock is nearing their 20 MA, but what isn't shown is that most of them are just getting out of their overbought territory.

I will probably have to see what kind of situation the end of today brings and decide if I want go long term with these or not. I am also 100% in cash in my second brokerage account.

[Continue reading...]

FIBA USA BASKETBALL 2007

The 2007 FIBA Americas Championship has been largely dominated by Argentina in Group A & the USA (Starting line- up: Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd, Leborn James, Dwight Howard) in Group B. USA has been on a tear since the 22nd of August. After making quick work of Venezuela and then Virgin Islands, 112-69 & 123-59 respectively, many believe the Americans' first test would come against the Canadians.

However, the Americans took that game 113-63. It was a fifty point game win over the Canadians. Yesterday, the USA went up against the Brazilians. After the first quarter, it seemed like Brazil would be the first test for the Americans with the Brazilians scoring 21 points and the Americans 27 . However, the second quarter was blown open with the Americans outscoring the Brazilians by 13 points.

With USA's preliminary round over, they look ahead towards continuing their dominance. I've had the privilege of watching every USA game from this site. You'll need Sopcast or an another P2P program.

Anthony shows the difference between NBA and FIBA rules.

[Continue reading...]

Expanding Knowledge

Going back to one of my first posts, I mentioned trying novel experiences to diversify your knowledge.

Just yesterday, I had an issue with my router. It started when my brother and I were vacuuming the house. By the time finished, we noticed that we might have reseted our wireless linksys router accidentally. As a result, my computers couldn't detect wireless internet. Usually when something like this happens, my father takes the router back to work and have one of the guys there fix it. There's no real particular reason, just the fact that he got the router there.

Anyways, regarding connection, what I did have was one computer with internet via the Ethernet Cable. What I needed to was access the router through its web-based infrastructure and then set up the security from there. I called Verizon and they gave me some bs excuse that my modem was too old. But, I didn't believe them so, I went online and looked for a solution. I stumbled upon this site. This was how I set up the security on my router.

It was a simple solution, but it took me a couple hours to figure out what I needed to do. Keep in mind that before hand, I had no idea what to look for and no idea what WEP, Mac address, or WAP was.

[Continue reading...]

Establish a Mindset, Accomplish a Goal

When you set a goal, ideally you are asking yourself to close the gap between your current situation and your achieved goal. You are a different person before you reach your goal than after. Would you agree?

Often times, we understand the actions necessary to reach our goal. I always hear my friends say to me, "Kevin, I am going to go to the gym and begin to eat right so I can lose weight". My friends understand actions they need to take, but what usually happens? They end up going maybe going to the gym the first week and end up eating junk food the second week. It may take another six months before they begin to think about losing weight. Why do you think this is so?You can argue that its discipline, lack of commitment, or what not. But the bottom line is my friends aren't fully believing that they can reach their goal. Their mindset is not that of one who has already accomplished their goal. This is understandable because they haven't reach their goal! But how many times do you hear professional athletes envision themselves finishing their race? Almost every race! Why is it so much easier to complete a goal or task the second time over? The reason is because you understand what it feels like during and after reaching your goal. All you have to do is imitate the steps and mindset along the way; you've been there before.

If you want to make a million bucks, you have to feel like a million bucks. Right?

[Continue reading...]

Eye-popping Pictures of Maldives Resort

Now this is where I'd like to be. If anyone can find any information about booking a trip there let me know! I am still very amazed by the color of that water. How is it possible that it is so clear? Its possible that up close it will look different.

I stumbled upon this pun intended. I decided to show everyone what an amazing vacation spot this place would make. After some google work, I found out that Hilton Hotels owns this resort. I could be wrong though. Let me know what you guys think about this place!

[Continue reading...]

A Day Going on Sales Calls

Sales Calls = visiting different businesses or existing customers at their location. In doing so, you put a face on a business and develop the potential for a business relationship.

Today, I went with one of the senior sales and hit up his "territory".

I Learned how to approach gatekeepers & get to the right person-in-charge (PIC).

When we arrived at one of the businesses, we noticed marquees on the side of the building. It had a catchy phrase: "I will do what I can when I can". Immediately after entering the building he said to the receptionist, "I really enjoyed looking at your sign outside. It gave me a laugh" After noting that fact, the gatekeeper lightened up. You could see the receptionist become more comfortable. This is important because he or she will be more likely to help you find the right PIC. We ended up getting to talk to the PIC because the receptionist went to go look for the PIC. If we hadn't lightened the mood, the receptionist might have simply sent us away. We didn't have an appointment, so she did us a favor.


If you have a commonality with them, talk about it.

After entering the PIC's room, we noticed that on the walls hung Laker calendars and pictures. Instantly, my senior sales brought up information about the Lakers, how they were doing last year, and the different trades that could have happened during the year. By appealing to the PIC interests it opened the door for comfort and further discussion.

Although my senior sales did not secure any accounts today, he did build worthwhile relationships and set the foundation for potential business in the near future.

It was a worthwhile experience. To this day, I'd say the most important things I learned are networking, relationship building, and selling yourself.

[Continue reading...]

Menial Jobs & Internships

"There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes."

-- William John Bennett

Ironically, there are menial internships. Many internships require databases development. That alone is similar to grunt work. What they do is search online data and existing raw data to ultimately create a database for their boss.

I've been through the "menial job" being a parking attendant. Eventually ascending to the second level and then quitting after 2 months. I spent about a year as a parking attendant. What It did for me was develop work ethic and it gave me perspective on life. However, in the end it was a dead end job and I quit.


My second job was at an investment real estate firm. It was an internship and I did mostly pushing papers and database management. However, my other duties included filtering clients for my boss to secure accounts. I learned a tremendous amount of information about the real estate industry from commercial to residential real estate.

Having been in both worlds, internship and menial jobs, I feel I have gained humility & character from my menial job. For my internship, I gained professionalism & technical skills. Most of the skills I learned in both jobs were interrelated and many times the skills I learned from my 1st job were applicable to my internship.

I definitely believe doing more and different things gives more and different perspectives in life, which can help in making friends and relating to different people.

Ben Casnocha: The Blog

Touches on this topic.


The picture is there just for eye candy.

[Continue reading...]

Portfolio Stock Picks for 20th of August

All Entered.

EMKR @ 8.95
SWHC @ 19.73
IFLO @19.55
CRNT @ 15.15

The market still looks volatile. I put in small positions 10-20% of what I usually enter.

Update: up 0.81%

[Continue reading...]

Steve Pavlina "Personal Development for Smart People"

Steve Pavlina is a personal development guru.
His work has been featured on New York Times, USA Today, and Self Magazine.
He possesses an extraordinary amount of knowledge about how to live consciously, healthy, and happy.

Some excerpts from his latest work:

"Don’t settle for a life you know isn’t working. Change it. If necessary do something radically different. Fire everyone who doesn’t make you feel good about yourself. Quit everything that makes you unhappy. Reboot your life situation. If other people whine about it, screw ‘em. They’ll get over it."

Steve Pavlina provides the basis for understanding what needs to be done to achieve your desire state of mind. The rest is up to you.

Take that leap of faith~
Don't Settle~

[Continue reading...]

Sewell & Marbury Global Markets and Investment Banking Group

I watched Bourne Ultimatum and googled it!

Company Information:

"Sewell & Marbury Global Markets and Investment Banking Group, is one of the world's largest and most prominent investment banks.

Sewell & Marbury acts as a financial advisor to some of the most important companies, largest governments, and wealthiest families in the world. It is a primary dealer in the U.S. Treasury securities market. Sewell & Marbury offers its clients mergers & acquisitions advisory, provides underwriting services, engages in proprietary trading, invests in private equity deals, and also manages the wealth of affluent individuals and families."

Update: Blog WAS mentioned in Wikipedia
People edited the entry and took out any blog links.

[Continue reading...]

FRIDAY

Looking to see if SWHC is enter-able tomorrow.

Oversold Bounce from the 50 M both in the 5 & 14

OBV looks good

[Continue reading...]

25th Hour

Awesome Movie. 25th Hour.

"Monty Brogan is about to start his last day of freedom before turning himself into the authorities and serving a seven-year term for drug dealing. He's a charming young man who had always dreamed of being a fireman, following in the working-class footsteps of his father, who has had to put up his bar in Queens as bond so that his son can stay out of jail until his sentence begins. Monty, named for Montgomery Clift, does not know how he managed to get himself into this predicament. It was easy money and it carried so many perks, and you'll feel more than a little sympathy for this young man who has managed to kill his own dream for courtside seats at Madison Square Garden. But before he goes to prison, Monty wants to have one last night out on the town with his two best friends. Frank Slattery is a bond trader, one of the best and most successful risk takers in a very risky business. The other is Jakob Elinsky, an English teacher who envies his friends' lifestyles but who has no intention of ever giving up his job for the easy money, despite the disillusionment of teaching high school students in a tough school. The three young men enjoy the night into the early morning as they eat, drink, and visit the hottest spots in town. It's a sad night for Monty, but he has a plan that neither Frank nor Jacob know about--and it makes for a shocking ending to this brilliant and disturbing story. " Written by {jlevin@nhpd.org}

Exited Position Today.

Monty Brogan: Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends.

[Continue reading...]

Done Deal

Its not a done deal till the deal is done.

Its not done till its done.

Let down your guard & do.


*For as long as I've known, I've always had a tendency to be negative.

[Continue reading...]

PGA Championship 2007

"I focus on what I need to do, where I need to place it, how I need to get it there and go do it," Tiger Woods said.

"No matter how good you get you can always get better and that's the exciting part”

“One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it.”

“You've got to stay patient, stay in the moment, keep grinding, ... You never know what can happen. And it turned out well.”

[Continue reading...]

Updated Stock Annotates

Noticed: Most of my entries are good.
Its the trade managements & exit lessons that are becoming costly.

Take one step forward, two steps back.

Stuck between this stage where I am letting psychology and money overtake good strategy.

Making progress though.

Follow trades more closely. Trade less , manage and exit better.
I know what to do, need to execute.

Looking forward to see where TRCR is going to take me next week.

[Continue reading...]

ENTERED!

TRCR ENTERED!

Lets make some money!

Gonna catch up with some reading...

[Continue reading...]

Quotes

Mentality Shifting. (BTW: Didn't touch the market today! =])


“When one door closes, another door opens: but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us” - Alexander Graham Bell

“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” - Ghandi

[Continue reading...]

Scanned Stocks

Went through about 100+ stock screens after they were filtered of course.
Didn't really see anything I absolutely had to jump in on.

Hasta Luego!

[Continue reading...]

Tuesday

Exhausted. I entered a TTPY. Lets see how it does tomorrow, then I'll decide what to do with it.

Opportunities to buy are out there. Just have to be careful.....

[Continue reading...]

Quick Monday

-Monthly Sales Meeting with Dallas, Salt Lake, & Phoenix Sales
-New Warehouse Opening in Long Beach Lunch
-Partnership with Eimskip Meeting

-Expand stock market knowledge
-Still 100% in Cash

-Screening stuff today... see if there are opportunities for tomorrow.

[Continue reading...]

Resting Day

Today I...

Updated my resume.

I will be screening stocks to get ready for next week.

Currently Listening to: Goo Goo Dolls: Slide

[Continue reading...]

Currently Reading

Robert Cialdini: The Psychology Influence of Persuasion

Tom Wolfe: The Bonfire of the Vanities

Joan Didion: The Year of Magical Thinking

[Continue reading...]

Internship Glimpse

Before I send out my quotes to my customers, I bring them to the sales manager and he reviews them. The majority of the time he finds a better rate in the service contracts or he finds some sly way to offer the customer a much lower price.
(*Prices need to be calculated they aren't stated in the contract explicitly because there are charges and exceptions; there are ways to manipulate prices)

Lets say I am looking for the best rate from Shanghai to the customer's door in Ontario, CA for the commodity: furniture.

1) First of all, you have to find a way to narrow some twenty different service contracts down to a manageable amount. It would take far too much time to read through or even scan 20+ contracts. You can do this by finding out if your customer is looking for fast transit time/ service or lowest price. There are three tiers of carriers ranked by service/ transit time.

2)Lets say you have narrowed down the carriers to six. Then you look to see if there are commodity specific bullet rates in all six contracts. Special bullet rates are for specific commodities and are almost always much cheaper than FAK (Freight-of-all-kind) rates. You sift through the contracts and compare which one has the cheapest rates after all the charges are added on. Most of the time the search ends here and you find the best rate. This sounds simple, but keep in mind every contract is organized differently and have different terms. (e.g. some are in excel sheets some are in word format. Some are ordered commodity specific by groups some are ordered by origins.)

3) You look to see if there are any rates you might be able to "manipulate". We have a rate for furniture from Shanghai, China to Chino, CA at $2000 for a 40 foot container, but we want a rate to Ontario, CA from Shanghai, China. (*The 40' container has to go from Shanghai, China to Los Angeles Port via Ocean then its trucked from LA Port to Chino, CA) Our trucking contract shows that the trucking rate is $300 from the LA Port to Chino and our Ontario rate is 250 then we know that in theory we can use the Chino rate because it covers our Ontario rate. However, we need to make sure that the steamship line is able to do this and it is allowable.

In the water transportation industry it can get complicated....Just something to think about.

OFF to the weekend!

[Continue reading...]

Day in a Life of a Logistics Consultant Intern

Day in a life of a logistics consultant intern:

8:30am- Arrive at work
Filter list of business associates (Using software + manual recognition)

Some of our clients are handled by overseas offices in Shanghai, Xiamen, Ningbo, Taipei, etc.
Because the list consists mainly of old sales leads, I filter them out before I call them. That way, I don't step on anyone's toes. You wouldn't want to cold call an existing customer. Despite having screened each sales lead, I still inadvertently cold call existing customers. When that happens, they usually freak out and ask what is going on and I have to play it off as a courtesy call. Basically, letting them know everything is fine.

9:30am- Hit the phones, adjusting my pitch (words, tone, subtle approaches)

When I cold call businesses, I am extracting information about what their current international imports situation is.

*Which logistics companies or company they using
*How their current services are working out or not working out for them.
*Whether they are having their freight pre-paid or their pay for it themselves.
*Where they are shipping from (origin) and to (destination)
*What they are shipping (commodity)
*On occasion, I find out how much they are paying for their ocean and air shipments.

Basically enough information for me to effectively screen my company's service contracts to provide them with the best quote (prices). Example: If they are shipping Garments from Shanghai to Long Beach Port and they want a fast carrier, I can offer them steamship lines accordingly.

Each quote is an open file. Like with cold calling in any industry, you are going to run into nasty people, nice people, and wrong numbers. In the water transportation industry, the target market is business owners who import from Asia. Many of them immigrated to the U.S. and prefer to speak Chinese or Korean. Because they have no idea who I am and what I look like; I wear many hats. What I mean is I can be as fearless as I want. There's no way you can lose. If the call goes sour, they are not going to know you and you never had their business in the first place. What you gain is experience and knowledge on how to better approach the next customer that throws something similar at you.

Now, I do this (talk on the phone) until lunch.

12:00-1:00pm Lunch

1:00pm- 3:00pm More phone time

Sounds boring right? Not at all. I am meeting new people and learning about different industries. The furniture, snorkeling/scuba diving, garment, toys, plastic goods, etc. industries. Sometimes when I cold call them, they think I am someone they know. Thats when you just start to mess around with them and play it off. Yes they eventually find out you aren't the person they thought, but you get a good laugh out of it. Especially your co-workers. I get paid by the hour, so why not have some fun. This is not to say, I don't try to be professional.

3:00pm-5:00pm Quoting customers

I am reading service contracts (over 20) & looking for the best rates for my potential customers. When you quote someone, you are looking for what origins they are shipping from and where they are shipping to, their commodity, and what kind of service they are looking for. Not every steamship line is going to provide fast transit time. These contracts are sometimes fifty pages long. How do you read through it and find the best rates? Experience and ctrl+f.

*Granted...If I had customers I would be dealing with problem cases and helping my customers through out the day. On some days, I may even go meet my customers. Meaning driving out to where their office is located and visiting them. The full time consultants do this and it helps them build a relationship with their customer. In this industry its all about prices and relationships.


Anyhow! 180 switch! Stocks!

Middle of the week. I am 100% in cash right now. Probably screen some stocks tonight and see if there are any plays I can make.

Long day at work today.

I did get a new book to read: "The Psychology Influence of Persuasion".

[Continue reading...]