JimL,
Sorry for the long post, but I try and give disclosure on trades of stocks I have posted about. I reserve the right to trade first and post about it later though, ggg!
This has been a rough couple weeks, family illness put me way behind from last week on, thankfully that situation has improved short term at least. But that and work prevented me from following the market the last week or so. I entered this week margined pretty well to the gills, but with ample cash reserves available from other sources as insurance. A look at the Asia charts Big Bull posted convinced me "margin city" was not a good place to be, as this could effect US markets, election or no election. Shades of 97?? I decided I didn't want to chance throwing good money after bad and that discretion really is the better part of stock trading valor.
Sold MDR and RRC for a profit early on and more importantly managed to squeeze a small profit out of some excess gold positions, barely avoiding wash sale complications. That was critical to me because I intend to reenter those positions in the near future. I still hold a fair amount of AEM, my favorite gold. My current opinion on gold stocks is similar to Slider's. In addition, IMHO, I believe it will be at least a week, more likely into October and most probably after the elections before any substantial rally takes place. That is my personal gamble.
Working with limit orders put in the night before proved awkward. It went OK on the above trades, but I missed some limit orders on TESCO.
ME SELL TESOF?
I'll say that this one hurt, even though I sold only 20% of my holdings, but because my limit orders were missed I later sold at a small loss and will have to wait the wash sale out before buying back. This was my own fault, a result of greed, I had accumulated TOO large a TESOF position for me to carry LT in face of a possible severe market correction. After seeing the Asian charts, I wanted no margin and I wanted my cash infusion from other accounts to be "bargain hunting" money. I suppose I could have hedged, but I don't like doing that with LT positions, which I consider TESOF to be for me. Anyone having any better ideas on money management under these circumstances, I would be glad to hear them. As you can see, most of my selling had little to do with the stocks and everything to do with my exposed market position.
Don't feel bad for me though, if (with my luck) TESOF has some wonderful news or a lucrative buyout offer and doubles tomorrow. I still hold a position in it equal to 120% of my total brokers account just a few months ago. Evidently, I still really like this company and also have done very well trading this summer,VBG! The fact that TESCO is safely out of reach of the gov't "Oil Nazis's" jackboots, as iso mentioned, is also reassuring.
BTW, I am going to contact TESCO to ask a few questions and try and get them to update their news, with which I have had some small success in the past. If anyone has any questions for them, fire away, I'll ask them and post any answers they will give.
Finally, this is all IMHO. A frank analysis of my trading patterns seems to show that I do an excellent job picking bottoms, but tend to flub up selling, too early usually, yet too late with major positions. I am trying to improve and hope I am not overcompensating.
Best Regards,
Roebear |
