1K Portfolio

Account Value $996.43
Money $221.43
Securities $775.00

As of 2007-11-30 03:00:09 PM PST

Put in another put order for PHM Jan 08 @ $10 for 0.95 but it did not go through. Thanks to Bernanke Home builders sky rocketed today — which meant this portfolio took a nose dive. TIVO pretty much held steady. I couldn’t find any more shorts on this stock (via www.shortsqueeze.com) so likely no more shoot up in value. Oh yeah — new graphs on the right side of the page! Took me 5 hours learn how to graph it with rrdtool. The concepts and syntax is still difficult to grasp.  Hopefully you’ll see more as I get more experience with it.  Pretty graph pictures are generated with rrdtool with data conversion done “by hand” (yes, very high tech).

Have a good weekend!

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Account Value $1,061.33
Money $221.33
Securities $840.00

As of 2007-11-29 03:00:08 PM PST

TIVO stock surged 20+% today! As luck would have it, my order didn’t go through yesterday. However, I still buy a put today (while it was at about 16% gain). There has got to be a pull back after a stock goes up 20% when there’s no buy-out announcement. Also set up some upside sell triggers. Haven’t set any downside triggers. I think I’m ok with my positions going down — but we’ll see as time progresses.

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Account Value $1,051.93
Money $381.93
Securities $670.00

As of 2007-11-28 03:00:03 PM PST

What a great day for the market overall.  In just two days, Dow up more than 500 points.

I took advantage of the up-tick to shed CSCO.   I can do this and buy it back (at the same price).  I’m not entirely sure, but this technique should save me taxes due on realized gains, but I can continue to have a position in CSCO.  Any readers out there know if that’s the case?  The costs are the two trading fees incurred.

MRVL took it hard after earnings.  Stock tanked about 10% and option down $0.50 today.  Isn’t too far off from my starting cost so I think I’ll hang on for a bit.

Bought a put on PHM — thinking a 5% gain today might warrant a 3% sell off  tomorrow.  Dividend yield of 1.70% isn’t too attractive for the value players so this might have some more room to slide.

Wanted to buy a put on TIVO too but lack of volume or interest before the day was over.  Expired.  It’s technology is matured.  DVRs and other similar appliances are everywhere.  Not much competitive advantage left for this pioneering company.  Growth is slow and in only one place — subscribers.  It doesn’t have much to warrant any jumps in P/E.  The way my friend puts it — “the end of an era”.  TIVO earnings were ok.  Might have to wait a bit to see how the market  reacts.  Longer term, it’ll be goodbye TIVO and hello CMCSA

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Account Value $1,048.79
Money $517.79
Securities $531.00

As of 2007-11-27 03:00:08 PM PST

KBH finally went my way. I got scared and sold off the first half too earlier.  (yeah yeah, *cluck* *cluck*) Even at $1000, losing money is not fun. But, I should have stuck with my initial trade and exit strategies.  I got too emotional.  This is good training to build my risk tolerance. This half I waited for it to go back. I lowered my trigger amount and sold at $2.50 instead of my original $3.00. So far it’s at $2.85 (so it would have hit my first target but not my second).  May have lost a bit of value due to time decay, too.  Regardless, I’m OK with it — I made out positive on those trades.

On another note, I found that Tradeking does not update or print out some of the account pages properly. It’s a bit annoying really. For example, I sold to close on KBH today, but the gain/loss unrealize page still has it listed — with the options current price — not the price I sold at.

To reduce confusion, instead of the “summary” and “gain/loss unrealized” pages, I’m going to post the “holdings” and “order status” pages. Those should give a better idea of what happens with the portfolio. The only issue is the holdings page prints out to the nearest $1. This would be ok if and when the portfolio grows (much larger) in value. At this point though, it’s not perfectly accurate — but will work better than the gain/loss page. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, yesterday I watched a few videos of Steve Smith (of TheStreet.com) and he seems to know quite a bit.  Gonna follow-up with his many other interviews and article.  Worth checking out.

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Account Value $1,044.05
Money $24.05
Securities $1,020.00

As of 2007-11-26 03:00:08 PM PST

Oh man! Remember this analyst from Citigroup? KBH just made me back all the money lost earlier. All of housing is bleeding badly.

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Account Value $892.05
Money $24.05
Securities $868.00

As of 2007-11-23 03:00:04 PM PST

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Account Value $958.05
Money $24.05
Securities $934.00

As of 2007-11-22 03:00:05 PM PST

Happy Thanksgiving!  US Markets are closed today.

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Account Value $958.05
Money $24.05
Securities $934.00

As of 2007-11-21 03:00:04 PM PST

Added a EWH call option for Jun 08 @ 22 for $1.95 today. This was set up yesterday evening and it executed today. Too bad I didn’t watch the Hang Seng index before hand because the index took a huge hit. Today’s US market didn’t help with it either. So the trade is currently sitting at a loss. However, I believe the ETF will rebound by Jun 08. This is not a 1+ year option but that’s the longest available. I really do think going up $2 is a piece of cake for EWH. Go Hong Kong! (see screenshot)

More selling equals KBH puts going up and up. It’s near my original first sell target ($2.00). If it passes the all important $20 mark, the price is going to go crazy. I’m contemplating if I should break the sales of the last 2 put options into two orders. Hmm… Let’s not get greedy. I’ll stick with the sell order for both at $2.50 Maybe after Jan 09, I’ll buy some shares for my IRA — yes, long term. KB stands for “Kaufman & Broad”. I remember them supporting KQED (public television channel) when I was in grade school. It seems the companies that support public education tend to be better managed companies overall. So KBH up for long term — but KBH down for short term.

In other news, MVRL will announce the Tuesday (Nov 27, 2007) after Thanks giving Day weekend. Seems some are bullish — enough to buck the down trend today. Options up.

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Account Value $869.65
Money $224.65
Securities $645.00

As of 2007-11-20 03:00:05 PM PST

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Account Value $849.65
Money $224.65
Securities $625.00

As of 2007-11-19 03:00:04 PM PST

Dow took a -218 hit today. More concern over credit. LOW hurt by housing. All pushed KBH below 25. I got rid of half of the put options at $1.00 and reset the rest to sell at $2.50. Attempted to get into the MOO (see screenshot) but no takers — very low volume for that strike price too.

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