Stock Investment Blog

Stock Investment :ISM Feb Manufacturing Index Falls

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:55:06 +0000

The U.S. manufacturing sector’s expansion slowed in February, according to data released Thursday by the Institute for Supply Management. The report followed disappointing data covering January consumer activity that led some economists to mark down their estimates of first-quarter

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The U.S. manufacturing sector’s expansion slowed in February, according to data released Thursday by the Institute for Supply Management. The report followed disappointing data covering January consumer activity that led some economists to mark down their estimates of first-quarter economic growth.

The ISM’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 52.4 last month from 54.1 in January. The February reading was the weakest since November. A reading above 50 indicates expanding activity.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the February PMI to increase to 54.9.

Factory surveys from regional Federal Reserve banks as well as the ISM-Chicago’s local PMI all indicated a speed-up in activity last month. Thursday’s ISM report raises questions about the strength of the expansion on a nationwide level.

Source: www.dowjones.com

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

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Stock Market Investment :January Consumer Spending Growth Weak

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:55:05 +0000

Consumer spending rose less than expected in January even as incomes improved, an indication that Americans may still be unsure about the slowly recovering economy.
Personal income increased 0.3% from the prior month while spending rose 0.2%, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

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Consumer spending rose less than expected in January even as incomes improved, an indication that Americans may still be unsure about the slowly recovering economy.

Personal income increased 0.3% from the prior month while spending rose 0.2%, the Commerce Department said Thursday. In December, spending was flat, but incomes rose 0.5%.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting both spending and income to rise 0.4% in January.

Source: www.dowjones.com

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Investment :My blogging break

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:55:05 +0000

Recently I stopped posting my trades on this blog. The reason was that I had very little time doing it and the second reason was that my trade results were not as I would wish and I slowed down in trading. At the end of the last year I was quite successful in trading and [...]This

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Recently I stopped posting my trades on this blog. The reason was that I had very little time doing it and the second reason was that my trade results were not as I would wish and I slowed down in trading. At the end of the last year I was quite successful in trading and lately, thinking what a great trader I was I overdone trading and lost all my profit, so at this point I am again where I was last year.

To me it means going back to basics and trade with limited risk at a time. For me it is hard to say, since I wish to be fully invested if possible. I want all my money work for me and not sitting idle in the account. But maybe some cash reserve is needed to protect my holdings. A few months ago I overextended my trading so much that margin calls almost ruined my account. At this point I am going slow down in trading as well as working on my trading plan and start posting here more when I achieve some consistency in my trading.

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Market Investment :New trade – ATI; Trade adjustment – SLB

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:11:22 +0000

I am going to open a new contingent order:
Allegheny Technologies
Long Puts
Contingency:
If the stock’s last price is greater or equal than 54.20 then:
BTO 1 ATI Apr21 2012 55 Put
Price: at market (expected price per contract would be .2)
Max risk: 0
Max gain: Unlimited

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I am going to open a new contingent order:

Allegheny Technologies
Long Puts

Contingency:
If the stock’s last price is greater or equal than 54.20 then:

BTO 1 ATI Apr21 2012 55 Put

Price: at market (expected price per contract would be .2)

Max risk: 0
Max gain: Unlimited (potential target: .70 or 70 per contract)

Update:
01/06/2012 – trade canceled, it didn’t meet the entry price

I am also going to adjust the following position by rolling up the upper body of the butterfly:

Schlumberger
Put Butterfly

Unfortunately my broker doesn’t allow me to roll over with one order, so I have to close the upper body first and then open higher part later:

1st step:
BTC 2 SLB Jan21 2012 60 Put
STC 1 SLB Jan21 2012 65 Put

Price: limit credit $content.25

When filled, 2nd step will follow:

BTO 1 SLB Jan21 2012 70 Put
STC 2 SLB Jan21 2012 65 Put

Price: limit debit $content.93

This trade will be taken on both my accounts: TD trading account and ROTH IRA account.

Update:
01/04/2012 – I talked to my broker and they do not allow me to open an uneven butterfly, so I would need to treat it as spreads. For that I do not have enough money on my account and thus I cannot finish this conversion. Thus I am considering this trade as closed with a loss.
I sold the upper body for credit $content.23, with the original cost of $content.78 this trade is a loss 70%

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Market Investment :New trade – GLD butterfly

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:11:22 +0000

When looking at GLD recently, we can see that it broke below its 200 day MA as well as it broke thru its long term trend. It seems GLD is poised to go lower. Today the market showed a bit weak trading (compared to yesterday’s big move), so I believe, GLD can get lower during

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When looking at GLD recently, we can see that it broke below its 200 day MA as well as it broke thru its long term trend. It seems GLD is poised to go lower. Today the market showed a bit weak trading (compared to yesterday’s big move), so I believe, GLD can get lower during this month. Right now it is attacking 200 day MA from which it may go back down to 0 or even lower.

I will play this downtrend by placing a butterfly on GLD:

SPDR Gold Trust
Put Butterfly

BTO 1 GLD Jan21 2012 154 Put
STO 2 GLD Jan21 2012 150 Put
BTO 1 GLD Jan21 2012 146 Put

Price: limit debit $content.58

Max risk:
Max gain: 0 at expiration if the stock lands at 0 per share.

Update:
01/05/2012 – order filled @ 0.58

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Market Investment :New trade – UNG

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:11:22 +0000

U.S. Natural Gas ETF (UNG)
Long call
BTO 1 UNG Apr21 2012 7 Call
Price: limit debit $description.25
Max risk:
Max gain: Unlimited
Update:
01/07/2012 – canceled, it didn’t meet the entry price
This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks

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U.S. Natural Gas ETF (UNG)
Long call

BTO 1 UNG Apr21 2012 7 Call

Price: limit debit $content.25

Max risk:
Max gain: Unlimited

Update:
01/07/2012 – canceled, it didn’t meet the entry price

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Investments :New trade – DO

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:11:22 +0000

This trade shall open on Monday next week:
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO)
Iron Condor
BTO 1 DO Jan21 2012 66.25 Call
STO 1 DO Jan21 2012 61.25 Call
STO 1 DO Jan21 2012 52.00 Put
BTO 1 DO Jan21 2012 47.00 Put
Price: limit credit .61
Max risk:
Max gain: 1 if price is between

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This trade shall open on Monday next week:

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO)
Iron Condor

BTO 1 DO Jan21 2012 66.25 Call
STO 1 DO Jan21 2012 61.25 Call
STO 1 DO Jan21 2012 52.00 Put
BTO 1 DO Jan21 2012 47.00 Put

Price: limit credit .61

Max risk:
Max gain: 1 if price is between 52.00 – 61.25 at expiration

Update:
01/09/2012 – trade canceled – market maker unable to execute as condor combination, it may work as separate spreads, so I will review later if it makes sense to add as separate spreads.

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Investments :New trade – FCX

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:11:22 +0000

Freeport McMoRan (FCX)
Bear Call spread
BTO 1 FCX Feb18 2012 42.00 Call
STO 1 FCX Feb18 2012 39.00 Call
Price: limit credit .20
Max risk: 0
Max gain: 0 if price stays below at expiration
Update:
01/10/2012 – filled @ .2 (0 credit)
This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net.

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Freeport McMoRan (FCX)
Bear Call spread

BTO 1 FCX Feb18 2012 42.00 Call
STO 1 FCX Feb18 2012 39.00 Call

Price: limit credit .20

Max risk: 0
Max gain: 0 if price stays below at expiration

Update:
01/10/2012 – filled @ .2 (0 credit)

This is a post from: www.hellosuckers.net. If you want to know more about investing in stocks using Reverse Scale Strategy or my Portfolio performance visit www.hellosuckers.net blog today.

If you are reading this post anywhere else besides Hello Suckers! blog, then it has been shamefully stolen.

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Stock Investments :Shame On You Mahathir, Marcos, Mubarak – Gaddafi’s Worth 0 Billion

admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:37:47 +0000

When Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak was overthrown from his kingdom after 30-years of iron-fist rule, his fortune was estimated at somewhere between US billion and US billion. In terms of earnings (corruption) per year, that was more than US billion to US billion, perhaps the most

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When Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak was overthrown from his kingdom after 30-years of iron-fist rule, his fortune was estimated at somewhere between US billion and US billion. In terms of earnings (corruption) per year, that was more than US billion to US billion, perhaps the most profitable job on earth. In comparison, Forbes 2011 official richest man, Mexican Carlos Slim was worth billion, Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates was worth billion while Warren Buffett was worth billion.

In 1992, once Philippine’s powerful and dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s wife, Imelda Marcos couldn’t hide the pressure (or seeking publicity?) and claimed that her fortune came from Yamashita’s Gold – a staggering 7,500 tons of gold. The booty was estimated to be as much as billion at 1940 rates, and is worth well above 0 billion today. Even when the dictator fled in a hurry in 1986, the U.S. Customs agents found 24 suitcases of gold bricks and diamond jewellery hidden in diaper bags. Marcos was easily the richest dictator during his 20-year ruling Philippine, at least during his era.

Mahathir Mohamad, the former Malaysian Prime Minister who ruled the country for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, was another dictator whose fortune was speculated to be in the billions. We may not know the exact figure but the fortune can never be lower than what Mubarak had amassed so anything between billion to 0 billion is conservative figure. Now, before your jaw drops, the just captured-humiliated-shot-dead dictator from Libya, Gaddafi, was reported to be worth a mind-boggling US0 billion (*whoa*) – instantly put the past dictators, Marcos, Mubarak and Mahathir to the hall of shame.

Col Gaddafi’s 0 billion in fortune was in the form of bank accounts, real estates, corporate investments, hidden cash, gold reserves and whatnot. If this figure is proven accurate, Gaddafi was indeed a genius – the only dictator who ripped off about .76 billion per year over a period of 42-year-rule. Obama administration quickly froze about billion in Libyan regime accounts last spring, after they were stunned by the huge amount of discovery. Already, governments in France, Italy, and England Germany had seized control of another billion. Investigators estimates that Gaddafi had also stash another billion elsewhere around the globe. That’s a total of about 0 billion alone, mind you.

However, Gaddafi was said to have secretly sent tens of billions abroad for many years while making investments in nearly every major country you can possibly think of, from Middle East to Southeast Asia. Although most of the money was under the name of government institutions such as the Central Bank of Libya, the Libyan Investment Authority, the Libyan Foreign Bank, the Libyan National Oil Corp., Gaddafi and his family members could access any of the money if they desire. This raise the question of why was Gaddafi was so stupid as not to flee Libya earlier, just like how Marcos fled Philippines.

In fact, Gaddafi was so rich that he parked a personal fund of €1.3 billion alone with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, about 2% of the Portuguese bank. Known as Gaddafi Incorporated, Gaddafi family’s tentacles are everywhere from oil and gas sector, telecommunications, infrastructure development, hotels, media distribution, to consumer goods distribution and whatnot. Gaddafi often “speaks out publicly against government corruption” but at the same time distributing fortunes and granting direct access to lucrative business deals to his family members and other elite group. Gee, doesn’t this sounds like the same SOP that the present Malaysian government is adopting?

However, if there’s one mistake that Gaddafi had made resulting in his death, that is he was probably too greedy in his attempt to stay as long as possible in Libya to take all his fortunes out (instead of taking the first flight out) or hoping to win the war against the his own people. In the end, not only his corpse is decaying without a timely burial as demanded by Islamic law, a video was also released in what appears to be a person inserting a thin piece of wood inside Gaddafi’s bottom (sodomized). Heck, there was actually a spectacular of people queuing to view the decaying body of Gaddafi despite the stench, but few Libyans were troubled by the public display.

That was how much the people hate the brutal dictator Gaddafi. From the moment of his capture to the moment he was shot dead on his head to his body awaiting a proper burial, Libyan people who were subject to his 42-year of brutality actually do not mind about humiliating Gaddafi a single bit, and that speaks volume. Besides sending a strong message to the remaining dictators in the Middle East, will other dictators elsewhere such as those walking the corridors of powers in Malaysia receive such message with trembles? A of now, Gaddafi is the undisputed King of Kings, as far as nation fortune plundering is concerned.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

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Stock Market Investment :A little about the blog

admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:37:45 +0000

So what is Story Stocks? Another financial blog? A stock blog? A blog with something interesting to say about financial markets, global politics, news, and other blogs? Yes. Story Stocks is another trading and investing blog. As if we do … Continue reading →

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So what is Story Stocks? Another financial blog? A stock blog? A blog with something interesting to say about financial markets, global politics, news, and other blogs?

Yes. Story Stocks is another trading and investing blog. As if we do not have enough of these already.

We do endeavor to leave our mark and that is by helping ordinary investors to make money in the market. It seems that the ordinary investor doesn’t have much of a shot these days, not the 21st world in which high frequency automated traders churn through the turnstiles buying and selling and creating a lot of confusion in the process.

It is true that there has always been an unlevel playing field. Professionals have always had the advantage over amateurs. This is still the case. It is worth pointing out that this isn’t to say that professionals are very good. Actually most professional investors, the kind that our audience has access to — mutual fund managers, mostly, are dreadful at their jobs.

Now, that’s not to say that mutual fund managers, investment advisors, financial planners, etc are not smart people. On average they tend to be smart, in the top quartile in intelligence from my interactions with them. However, there are several reasons why that’s not near good enough to actually do well at managing billions of dollars.

There are other folks, people working at very large money management firms, hedge funds for instance, who are not in the top quartile in intelligence but the top percentile. These folks tend to give an individual a better chance at making a good bit of money in the market, but sadly they are also likely to blow up the wholewideworld since they are smarter than everyone else and everyone knows that supersmart people come up with really dumb ideas.

In any event, the merits of hedge fund honchos and their analysts is really beyond the scope of this blog. Story Stocks is a blog about how regular people can make money in the stock market in the 21st century, at least in this decade. (Good luck as the century progresses.) If you have access to a hedge fund manager, then go away, you’ve already bought your guru.

For the rest of the world, like the remaining 99.something percent of us, we have to make a choice. Do we want a financial planner or mutual fund manager to play with our money or do we want to do it ourselves?

This blog is for people who want to manage their own money, grow their wealth and net worth through intelligent investment, and do so without paying some professional to take a cut of your money.

For people who are of the independent spirit, and honestly most people are not of the independent spirit, it is important to survey the field and see where you can get an advantage and how you can make money in this environment.

What we focus on more than anything else is something that most stock picking amateurs do not really realize (at least they don’t think about it this way) about the stock market. The stock market is people (mostly, still, for now). And people are more or less the same as they were 10, 20, 50 years ago.

Decisions about money are decisions about security, literally we see them as life or death decisions. Because of this, because of people, the stock market will always be inefficient. There will be many smart people who will tell you that this is not the case. Feel free to listen to them if you want. In fact, just buy a giant index fund, dollar cost average into it over a few decades, and then move your nest egg into a more ‘safe’ haven. After this you don’t need to go and find a smart person to listen to because that’s what they’ll tell you.

Also, you don’t need to pay a financial planner to invest your money in an index fund. You can do this yourself quite easily if you want to. But, people who plunk their cash into index funds are not who we write this blog to attract.

First, there is nothing inherently wrong with index funds or ETFs that track an index. On the contrary, the problem is that buying and holding is no longer a smart move. We’ll talk a lot about why this is no longer the case in our opinion. If you want to succeed you are going to need to be nimble and you are going to need to do more than simply accumulate shares in the total stock market. That’s our position, anyway.

Back to people: Because investing decisions are made by people they can be understood through the lense of human psychology, particularly evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuroscience. We are not scientists however, but the ideas of these disciplines are actually things all of us are already instinctively aware of, they are principles we all act on.

What we are saying is that these same principles apply to the stock market.

For instance, why do beautiful girls get asked to the prom more often than homely and obese girls? Who cares, they just do. For this reason certain stocks are more likely to rise in value, they are beautiful. We call them Story Stocks. If you can sum up a company’s business in two sentences and the idea sounds both interesting and easily understood, you have a potential story stock.

Of course there is a lot that goes into making a decision about investment. We don’t look for stocks that are the ‘prettiest’ and invest. There are three components to our method that all individual investors should keep in mind.

1. Easily understood businesses that can capture the imagination can gather critical mass and make you a lot of money.

2. The realities of economics make certain investments unsuitable to the big boys (for a while) but provide an advantage to the small player. We can get into a small company that a mutual fund simply will not invest in. The won’t invest not because the company’s stock isn’t necessarily a good buy but because of structural realities, this company is not an worthy of their time.

3. If you look at the field and play the odds properly you can win at this game so long as you understand the rules. Always play the odds and cut your losses. All investors, speculators and stock-grubbing computer algorithms are wrong. They are wrong a lot. The key is to be not so wrong when wrong as you are right when you are right.

So that’s a bit of an explanation about how we plan to cover the market for our readers. We will look at individual stocks, options, and combinations of stocks and options. Also by stocks we refer to issues traded on the exchanges during open hours, they may be treasury-related securities, REITs, commodity-related securities, ETFs — We’re calling them stocks for ease.

Expect to see some fundamental analysis as we look at the investing landscape and try to anticipate opportunities for profit. Expect us to be wrong and wrong often. Of course being penny-wrong 100 times doesn’t matter if you are dollar-right just once.

Thanks for reading.

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