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To: Ron McKinnon who wrote (16878)10/24/1998 2:54:00 AM
From: Johnathan C. Doe  Respond to of 53068
 
Good points Ron. My goal is to have a decent return by the end of the year mark - May 22, 1999. My past experience is that it won't be easy to pull off as none of this is easy money. Still, I've only spent 3 hours a week on this portfolio and done a very poor job trading it. Pulled the trigger on AWRE way to quickly for example. Buying a micro cap like VRTL was another dumb move. Anyhow, using $200,000 for a few weeks to pull my ass out of a deep loss of over $90,000 or worse was worth the money spent. Sometimes using the money just to get even is a return on investment. That $200,000 actually made something like 90k of profits and so the return on that money was excellent. The fact that it was burned up by the losses from the other half turning sour from a tech bear like I have never seen is just the way it goes. I've still got some formable losses left to deal with and less to work with at the moment. Things could well get worse before they get better and they may never get better. That is the risk of this all. As for not posting; there wasn't anything much to share. I couldn't trade anything and so it just swung in the wind. I wasn't ashamed of how bad it got. I just knew that till the wind changed direction, there was nothing I could do but wait it out. I put a new set of trades in place and waiting till they panned out to post. I did the same thing in my real accounts. At some point, it always ends up just being a measure of one's ability to handle patience. Thank God, the fear element is gone. I don't panic anymore. I've learned a lot since the past effort, although the portfolio is similar and is playing out very similarly to the old one which had its day in the sun after the demise of the old thread. I'm hoping to demonstrate this one to a successful fruition, but nothing is guaranteed. It is all just an exercise in possibility. Can a group of tech dogs be traded to profitable conclusion given fair time? Can tech dogs be profitable using just public info. and internet resources? That is what I am trying to find out. Nobody can make any money going long in these, so some skill in trading them is needed. I am the first to admit that I have done a half-assed job trading what I've picked so far.



To: Ron McKinnon who wrote (16878)10/24/1998 8:16:00 AM
From: Ron McKinnon  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 53068
 
a little exercise

got to thinking
looked at Last Shadows post
Mr Doe's fake portfolio
my own results
the market

so---

took many of the stocks that I have on my sector grid
looked at the performance from the 10/8 low to Fridays close

tried to remember all the various reasons that the "Talking Heads" gave for falling stock prices

bottom line:
the DOW IS NOT REFLECTIVE OF THE MARKET

being in cash during the massive fall and jumping back in at the low would have given 3 years worth of average returns in 12 trading days

the stocks/sectors that were beat up the worst gave the highest gains

a table is on my next post
might be worth printing out
keeping for future reference
something to ponder over



To: Ron McKinnon who wrote (16878)10/24/1998 8:20:00 AM
From: Ron McKinnon  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 53068
 

% RETURNS ARE FROM THE LOW ON 10/8 TO THE CLOSE ON 10/23

%
DJIA 13 7467-8452

HIGH TECH
recession, asian flu, over capicity
CPU 48
LU 45
CSCO 43
DELL 43
CPQ 26
ASND 25
IBM 21
MSFT 21
INTC 15
average 32

FINANCIALS
recession, international issues, interest rates
COF 86
PVN 74
KRB 46
BKB 38
CIT 37
FNM 32
JPM 29
FLT 27
average 46

LUXURY-TRAVEL
recession. stock market losses, asian flu
AVI 74
FS 64
CCL 56
RCL 48
HRZ 34
TIF 26
GUC 10
average 45

AIRLINES
recession, asian flu, corporate cut backs
AWA 43
LUV 35
AMR 33
ALK 28
DAL 20
average 32

OIL SERVICE
supply demand inbalance
TMAR 70
FLC 53
TDW 53
FGII 50
UTI 50
RIG 46
GLM 42
average 52

DRUGS
no significant issues
WLA 27
BMY 23
PFE 20
JNJ 15
LLY 14
MRK 7
average 18

NETS
general volitility, lack of earnings
SEEK 54
NSCP 46
AMZN 45
AOL 39
YHOO 25
XCIT 21
average 38

RETAIL
recession, no Virginia, there will not be a Christmas this year
HD 35
KM 35
TJX 31
WMT 28
FD 26
GPS 25
S 14
average 28

CHIPS, MEMORY, HARD DRIVES
yuk,yuk,yuk, every issue mentioned above
IRF 108
RDRT 61
VLSI 60
MU 49
NSM 41
QNTM 36
LSI 24
SEG 21
WDC 19
average 47

CASINOS
recession, over capicity, asian flu
CIR 52
HET 34
MGG 18
MIR 18
average 31

OVERALL AVERAGE 37%



To: Ron McKinnon who wrote (16878)10/24/1998 8:41:00 AM
From: Ron McKinnon  Respond to of 53068
 
OK Mr Mac

so I am not all that bright

I was not all cash going into the fall
I did not buy every stock at the exact low on 10/8
I kept a big cash position out of fear that this run was a head fake
I did not hold the ones that I bought; flipped many of them; gave up a ton of gains as they kept going up
held some crap that went nowhere
even bought some that went down during the recent runup
I have 25% of my funds in a margin account and 75% in cash IRA's

so what should I have made over the last 12 trading days?

well
the DOW is up 13%
Last's list up 27%
my sector list up 37%
so an average of 26%

lets say that we "only" got half of the 37% high return, so 18.50%
but leveraged some in the margin account
the 12 day return should have been about 22-23%

so overall a gain of say 20-30%, 25% average seems about right
did you get that from 10/8 to 10/23?
if not, why not?
time to re think the way you are trading?

if you got more than that, take a day off, go have some fun

PS
I may be out on Monday