In All Cash- Waiting for the Market To Cool

GOOGLE at 666

Is it truly hell?

I exited all my positions today, mainly AAPL and DECK for about 2-3% gains. Judging by the way the market has gone today, I don't think there will be many set ups for tomorrow. But, if I find a perfect set up and all goes well tomorrow morning, I will execute it in the afternoon.

Still, the market has not shown any particular bullish interest. The DJI is down on about average volume. The low volume bullish Friday was not confirmed today.

There are plenty of opportunities to pick bottoms such as C hitting its low since 2002, but the way these stocks have been going, I'd be very cautious.

If I get around to it, I'll update some potentials for tomorrow. If in fact there are any.

Edit: WATG looks like a potential buy tomorrow.

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Staying Out of the Market Until It Settles

Last Friday's volume was unimpressive. I went through a bunch of stocks on my stock screener. Although I did find one stock that looked like a potential buy [STP]. If I enter a stock on Monday, that would be the only one. We'll have to see how it does tomorrow morning before I pull any triggers.

Since Friday's action, a lot of stocks look as if they are edging to rebound, but I will be waiting for more confirmation.

Keep your stops tight.

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RSS HUGGER

rssHugger is a new website developed to help bloggers promote their blogs and help visitors discover new blogs. If you own a blog, you can get your own page on rssHugger for 10 years for giving an review of the site on your blog. If you want to join rssHugger but do not want to review the site, you can pay a one time review fee of $20.

rssHugger will be the first ever quality, spam free, and viral rss directory strictly for bloggers. To learn more about what rss feeds are or how owning an rss page can benefit you; visit the About page.

rssHugger has a top 100 as well as random page to let the visitors get to your site. rssHugger is all about generating buzz and finding new content. Much like stumbleupon in that respect.

Now for Free!
It appears that the community has spoken and now rssHugger does not cost a thing if you write a blog post about it. If you still don’t want to write about it then just pay the $20.00 and you’ll get your blog listed. This should help the site grow quickly without the fee.

Buzz works! It can work for small and start-up businesses, as well. Why wait, join rssHugger now!!!

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Dying 47-Year-Old Professor Gives Exuberant "Last Lecture"

"To introduce Professor Randy Pausch, our first Journeys speaker, I would like to introduce Randy’s friend and colleague, Steve Seabolt. Steve has been at Electronic Arts for six years and is the Vice President of Global Brand Development for The Sims label at Electronic Arts. As you all know, The Sims is one of the most, if not the most successful PC games in the world, with sales approaching over $100,000,000. Prior to that, Steve was the Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Education at EA, bridging academia and Electronic Arts. His goal was to work with academics so there was an effective educational pathway for kids with building games as their dreams. It was in that role that Randy and Steve became colleagues and friends. Before Electronic Arts, Steve was the worldwide Ad Director for Time Magazine and CEO of Sunset Publishing, which is a very favorite magazine in the Southwest, and as CEO there, one of the things he started was school tours, because like Randy he shares a passion for inspiring kids of all ages to share their excitement for science and technology."

Google Video Lecture

Transcript

News

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Constantly Improving the Execution of My Trading Plan Because Talk is Cheap

Sometimes I let my gains run too long and then I give back too much and other times my losses become even bigger as I let them run for a day or two unconvinced that they are done for (at least for the time being). I work best when I am unemotional and execute trades when they’ve hit a predetermined stop. For the rest of this month, I will not second guess myself. In other words, I will take gains when they’ve hit a profit target and sell when they’ve hit my stop.

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Wild Stock Market Ride

Nothing is catching my eye for potential buys tomorrow, I won't be trading tomorrow.

It's a shame that I don't short.

I will probably be reviewing old trades and evaluate how well I've stuck with my trading plan.

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High Risk Generates High Rewards; Even Outside the Financial World

Invest your money in a money market, bonds, mutual funds, or stocks. How do you know which one is right for you? The general consensus is that it depends on your risk tolerance, profit goals, and sometimes even how old you are. When you are young (20s) you should have more of your money in high risk investments like stocks. As you age (30s-50s), you should gradually put more of your money in bonds and money markets. That’s the general idea financially savvy individuals usually preach.

These ideas extend outside of financial investing. One possible reason the rich are wealthy is because they were willing to take risks. People who work solely for commission give up the idea of (almost) guaranteed financial stability. But they have the opportunity to make more than people working solely for a salary. A salary based worker is capped at X amount of money every year (suppose you don’t get bonuses).

I have to build my risk tolerance, right now I am putting a lot of effort into doing things that I may or may not see a result for. I spend at least five hours a week, networking with individuals from the big 4 and other companies. My internship is taking time away from studying. What makes me uneasy is, when all is said and done, the time I’ve spent outside of studying may come back to haunt me. Of course it would be ideal to get top grades and still be able to work and network. In any event, I am going to keep doing what I am doing and put in whatever crap (is left at the end of the day) I have inside of me into getting those grades.

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Staying Focused Even When Your Plate Is Full

I’m getting used to my long days (6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., on some days I get back home at 11:00 p.m.).

A typical day for me consists of waking up at six thirty in the morning to drive to school or work (one hour drive with traffic; at times it can be less, depending on the day of the week I either have work at 8:00a.m. or school at 8:00a.m.). Half my day is spent at work and the second half is spent at school. The third half of the day (that’s how long my day is- there’s a third half) is spent networking with recruiters from top consulting, accounting, etc firms. In between all of that, I try to find time to trade stocks (usually in the afternoon) and blog.

You can tell that I constantly have to change my mindset; how I approach studying vastly differs from how I approach working. In addition, at work my colleagues include Harvard and Wharton graduates - 40-60 year old professionals. When I get to school it’s a 180 degree mindset switch. At school, my colleagues are twenty somethings without a clue as to what they want to do after they graduate. At night, I spend my time networking with 30 somethings trying to get my foot in the door to big companies. In the midst of all this, I have to stay calm and patient as my stocks ride the market’s roller coaster.

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Trading Journal for November 13th 2007; Actions to Take Under Particular Circumstances

GS – Stop at $205; STO still looks good; OBV looks decent; Target [1] 220 , [2] 230

AIXG- Stop at $13, STO great, OBV great; Target [1] $14, [2] 14.7

Potentials:

AAPL- Look for Bounce Back; DECK - Bounce Back (Good company); C –Tight Stop (Tight Profit Target)

Edit: Still don't like the last few days of activity with AAPL, DECK, and especially C. I will be looking for a confirmation of today's action tomorrow. My guess is that the stocks are up because the market as a whole is up. In any event, I hope I am wrong, so I can pick up some AAPL or DECK tomorrow.

Also keeping an eye out for confirmation for JASO.

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Trading Plan Revisions

Two months ago, I made some adjustments to my trading plan, but it is still too early to tell if my adjustments are driving my portfolio up or if it’s the market’s improved condition that’s driving it. Hopefully I’ll be able to see a more complete picture of how I am truly doing before the end of the year. One thing is for sure, I am more comfortable psychologically with trading and holding stocks than I was two months ago. Last week, I spent a couple hours reevaluating and editing my trading plan on a one page paper. One thing I did was that I looked at charts from my recent successful trades and identified common characteristics and adjusted my entry criteria accordingly. I’ve also lengthened my time frame for trades because I am limited in my computer access during the week. Prior to this adjustment, I was tight on my stops and now I can ease off a bit. You could say I am in a transition type stage right now with my trading plan.

Keep those stops tight, the market is experiencing some turbulence!

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Up, Down, Up more, Down even more

Today has just been one of those days. Ridiculously horrendous may not be a huge exaggeration. Every sector was down today, but luckily my portfolio didn't dip as much as it could have.

In addition to the bears controlling the market today, I am running into bumps here and there in life.

Just not my day. Hopefully we can see something good come out of the rest of today or at the very latest tomorrow.

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Quote!

Quote:

Pursue your life with integrity. Find what you're good at: that which so fits your values and interests that it expresses the depths of who you are. Out of that you'll find a career and a calling--whether it's trading or something else.

Everything else is illusion.

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Enhancing My Blog

I am looking for a way to enhance my blog. If you guys have any suggestions as to a particular topic I should post about or any feedback as to how I am doing, please let me know by commenting. It’s hard to know what the readers want when you don’t get any feedback from them or when the only “feedback” is the number of readers you have.

I will probably add more sections on the right hand side and bulk up those links.

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When It’s Time to Pull the Trigger, Don’t Hesitate

I am always looking for way to improve my trading strategy and mentality. For me to improve, I have to be willing to jump into stocks that present ideal entry signals. Often time, I buy days before it starts to make its big move. Naturally, the stock doesn’t go up that same day or even in two days. So, I have to be willing to hold through a couple days of turbulence. Usually by that time, I’ll know if that stock is going to run away with my money or sky rocket to new highs.

There have been times when the entry looked perfect and the stock had everything going for it technically speaking. But, I wouldn’t pull the trigger because I wasn’t familiar with the stock. So, I’d miss the stock running up and miss huge profits. What I have to do is: PULL THE DAMN TRIGGER!

I’ve also widened my stops. In this market, you are seeing a lot of dip buyers. In the short run the stock may fall, but in a couple weeks you could see it hit a new high. I will be looking to execute the previously mentioned tactics in this week. Keep an eye on APPL, GOOG, LULU, DECK, GS!

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