Shibumi, very thoughtful post. If I may, allow me to explain the trading patterns of Rambus as a follow up on this discussion.
Rambus will spike up occasionally in order to draw in the day trader. Then, of course, it will sell off hard to screw the day trader.
However, there's one important feature of Rambus trading. Without it, you'll never make money on this stock. That is:
Rambus will exasperate you, bore you with light trading, and otherwise frustrate you for weeks, maybe months on end. That is what the market makers and institutions count on. I can guarantee you one thing though:
The minute you puke up your shares, it'll be up 10 points the next day. It absolutely never fails.
During the dark days last year, I was losing my a** on Rambus. I bought too much and they tanked it. I was selling bit by bit as it went down due to being margined. In one last gasp (futility driven), I loaded up on options when it kept bouncing off $35 1/2.
Then I started collecting my rewards in spades.
This is a very frustrating stock. There is no volume unless there's some major news. You can buy all you want of it, but you can't sell it until those days when the daytraders come back in.
Thus, my recommendation to all is to put a small % of your portfolio in this stock and stop watching it. Of course, that's easier said than done, but I don't see any other way around it.
Note how the size of the bids and asks are consistently 100 shares. You never see big bids/offers, even when a 10K block goes off. It's just the nature of the beast.
I think it borders on being illegal, but as you know, the cards are stacked against the little guy in the market. You just have to go with the flow.
I am in pain with it right now but I haven't sold a single share.
And I won't.
<ggg> |
