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Pastimes : Daytrading and Stock Trading Addiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sword who wrote (255)	1/17/1999 4:55:00 PM
From: James F. Hopkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 330

Hi Sword; For the most part I agree with all four of the posts, I doubt many people can be day traders, ( I'm not one ). If I were to go that route I doubt I would have the time to post on SI, but I don't see myself ever becoming a day trader. There was one of the post that don't fit my style, I do play distressed stocks, ( very distressed ) and that's not for every one, I couldn't believe how they took SME to a 1/4 and let her sit there..I took on a ton at 5/16th, no way she wasn't going to bounce. I do use the web , short term position trade, and exploit pain. Learning to exploit pain requires having felt some, and looking at how you goofed at the time, then learning that no matter what you say others are going to make all the mistakes you made, and some one is going to make money off them. By Short term I mean from 2 or 3 days to 6 months. If I get caught having to hold for 6 months you know I don't like it, but it happens. I never step all the way in at once, any more, as I have had to do what every one says don't do; I will average down till it hurts. <G> AND don't second guess yourself. The toughest one for me this year was CMO, I bought to soon and had to double down twice more, but I rode her to the bottom, and fought off all the bashers, and did what they say don't do, and even sold puts, and it saved my ass. As it is when she bounced I lighten up and sold calls on the rest, turning that lemon into lemon-aid. My mistake on her was trying to grab the bounce to soon, it was stupid and I knew better at the time, it was really an oversight, on my part, I forgot at the time about the likely hood the lawyers would jump her bones, still it didn't change the basic reason I bought her to start with, So after the ambulance chasers banged her on down and shook every one out, I loaded the boat. The only reason to dump a pick you make ( not if the price falls ) but only if the basic reasons you made the pick changes. So I do tend to play some cheap stocks ( But NEVER OTC:BB stocks ) but I look cheap ones over hard, and try to wait until all the bad news and lawyers and down grades have slammed them to below CASH on hand. Any one with a drop of sense had to know SME would get an extension on her missed loan payment, on top of that she had the cash to pay it. She may not have a future but she came up 400% off her low. I see plays like that a lot safer than buying options. As for option buying I did enough to know a few tricks, but learning the tricks was expensive. All in all calls will do better than puts, but the more time you buy the cheaper the premium, my best hit this year was CPQ when she went to 23, I loaded up on JAN 30 leaps, and they were cheap too..<G> Not all stocks have "good" options, in fact 90% of them are over priced. I will also bet against the small time shorts that pile on a issue if the numbers get right. FP is one such stock that is now over shorted. I don't care how low they drive her I'll buy more, in fact I'm begging them on Yahoo to short more. Same with CMO, I'm begging them to short her back down..<G> I'm still staying clear of the oil service sector, and think any rally in Brazil will fizzle. If the market turns more south from here I will re-short the MDY. I like the SPDRs, and some no load funds, and play baskets more than individual picks. Some funds are fun and you can position with them with less risk, but you do have to do some work, you can't count on tips you pick up scanning SI. ------------------ Jim