Archive for October, 2007

Daily Status 2007-10-31

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Decided to close out 1 contract at $3.10 for MRVL options. The graphic on Tradeking’s main page shows the transaction but another page (the bottom section) does not. Realized gains of $116.26. I also took away the sell limit at $3.50 and letting MRVL ride. It’s a one year LEAP and I can see it going up up up. However, I need some free cash just in case a good deal comes along. Also got interest on the $42.07 that was sitting in the account. Woo hoo!

Account Value: $936.51
Money: $346.51
Securities: $590.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-30

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

Portfolio is pretty much unchanged. KBH options went down but was offset by MRVL options. MVRL up to $3.10 which is near my sell target. I think I’m going change my sells that you see at the top of the picture to sell 1 contract at $3.50 but set the other one to use a stop loss of $0.10 cents.

Account Value: $942.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $900.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-29

Monday, October 29th, 2007

Couldn’t get around to doing the updates for last week. Much have changed. The portfolio is not below the starting point again. On a brighter side of things — and I mean bright enough for even a blind bat — Tradeking has updated their web design. Frankly, I like the older “darker shade of blue” style better. The new design looks very cartoon-y in my opinion. Good thing their service is still top-notch.

Today, investors seem hopeful for a interest rate cut at the next Fed meeting. Markets are up. Portfolio has been helped today with the announcement of higher chip sales in the industry. This pulled MRVL way up. It now just needs to get over the $18.00 hurdle. The vision of this stock taking off is definitely helped by this NY Times article calculating how much Apple makes on each iPhone sale:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/the-831-iphone/

$831.oo ?!

On other thoughts, KBH has a dividend $1.00 per share. Currently it’s yeilds about 3.60% . According to this data, KBH at $20 doesn’t seem very likely anymore. Long-term, this is a good company. At $20 a share, that’s a dividend yield of 5.00%! That’s crazy nice. I’m up for some of that. So with this new bit of clarity, I may start parring my losses on the options. At the next big pull back, I’m going to realize the loss on some of it and let the rest go and see where it takes me. To hopefully counter the loss, I’ll may also take some profit on the MRVL options — jeeze up 59.47% overall.

Speaking of craziness, a friend showed me the new ETF: EWH (iShare Hong Kong). If you’ve looked at the 5-day charts on this thing, it’s like a step ladder leading to the top of a big pile of money. I’m waiting for a pull back and I don’t think that will happen. Maybe I should get in on it ASAP — but it’s growing insanely. It’s just not right… or is it?

And speaking of HK, Alibaba.com will IPO on the HK Exchange. Turns out that the jump in YHOO last week was due to the fact that it owns almost 40% stake in the parent company of Alibaba.com — Alibaba Group. It’s back down some today — tempting to get YHOO now, too — ESPECIALLY since we can’t buy Alibaba.com share directly. Yeah, yeah, some global trading accounts can. But I also here that the US has a 40-day cooling period for foreign stocks. Alibaba.com is a good idea and good company. It’s also has huge long-term potential. However, US investors will surely miss out on freebie opening gains. Pooh!

Reminder to self and others: Options are very risky and must be managed accordingly. With good management, it can really help grow your portfolio. With bad management, say good bye to your hard-earn cash.

Account Value: $942.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $900.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-19

Friday, October 19th, 2007

Oh my goodness! Markets are mainly red. Dow down 366.94! Amazingly, the portfolio is up 4 bucks.

Account Value: $1,046.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $1004.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-18

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

Stocks closed practically flat and mixed with Dow down, Nasdaq up, and S&P down. Oil futures above $90 — yikes!

Account Value: $1,042.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $1000.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-17

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

Nice action today. Tech up — way up. Driving MRVL. Bad housing news affecting builders. Tomorrow should also be an interesting day as AMD and GOOG reports.

Account Value: $1,002.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $960.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-16

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

Same market sadness today. MRVL remained fairly stable and thus, as predicted, the options dropped a bit today. KBH puts made up for the drop though.

Account Value: $876.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $834.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-15

Monday, October 15th, 2007

Bad day for the market overall. Good day for this portfolio. Gains due to the downgrade of KBH by UBS. Unless MRVL picks up a little tomorrow, these options might also drop $0.10. Overall up $70.00 today. Still down quite a bit but looks better than before.

Account Value: $862.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $820.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-12

Friday, October 12th, 2007

Moody’s dropped the debt rating of three home builders to junk status today. That dragged KBH down about 2%. Bad for them. Good for this portfolio.

Account Value: $792.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $750.00

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Daily Status 2007-10-11

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Market was favorable to the portfolio today. Not too nice on the rest of the market though. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Account Value: $772.07
Money: $42.07
Securities: $730.00

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