Monday, September 22, 2008

Stocks Update, 9/22/08

After the big run-up last week, I sold some of my positions. Malaysia's political turmoil bothered me enough to sell EWM. If the news stories are to be believed, the majority Malay population appears to be having some conflicts with the generally more affluent Chinese and Indian citizens. Also, while politics can get bad in the U.S., you don't see a ruling party trying to jail their opposition through a criminal lawsuit involving allegations of sodomy. I feel sorry for the Malaysians, who have to see a wonderful country's image get sullied by these political troubles. Yahoo's (YHOO) decline is also bothering me. First, a hacker gets access into Gov. Palin's Yahoo email account; then today, Microsoft (MSFT) announces it is spending 40 billion dollars to buy back its stock, taking available funds away from a potential acquisition. I will sit tight with Yahoo, but this kind of continued mismanagement is troublesome. Prices below are mid-day numbers on September 22, 2008. My open positions track the S&P 500 exactly at a negative 11.21%. The list of trades below includes only positions involving at least 2,000 dollars.

Open Positions
EZU = -8.34
GXC = -7.97

IF = -22.1
SWZ = -12.68
YHOO = -4.98

[Average of "Open Positions": losing/negative average 11.21%]

Closed Positions:
Held more than seven days but less than one year (from May 30, 2008):
CNB = +10.0
EQ = -8.83
EWM =-11.61 [sold 9/22/08]
EWS = -12.98 [sold 9/22/08]
GE = -6.4
GLD = +8.61 [sold 9/22/08]
INTC = 0.0 (excluded from average; insignificant movement)
KOL = -10.36
PFE = -5.5
PNK = -16.7
PPS = -2.8
VNQ = +2.37 [sold 8/7/08]
WFR = +0.9 (approx; based on partial sales week of 8/4/08 in two separate accounts)
WYE = +2.4

[Overall Record for 7 days+ trades: lost an average of 3.92%]
[
-50.90 / 13 trades]

Held less than 7 days:
DUK = (0%, excluded from avg) [8/07/08 - 8/14/08]; GE (1.0%); GOOG (0.8%) [7/28/08 - 7/29/08]; GRMN (-6.2%) [Sold 8/5/08]; ICE (2.0%), MMM (0.5%), MRK (0.1%), KOL (13.2%) [9/17/08 to 9/19/08]; NVDA (8.0%) [8/12 to 8/13/08]; PFE (1.3%), SCUR (15%); SO (-0.3%) [Sold 8/5/08]; TTWO (4.3%) [partial sales on 8/5/08, 8/7/08, and 8/8/08]; TTWO (2.2%) [9/9/08 to 9/12/08]

[Overall Record for ultra short-term 2 to 7 days trades: gained an avg of 3.49%
]
[41.9 / 12 trades]

Daytrades:
PFE = +0.5%
GE = +0.5% (Updated on July 14, 2008; bought at 27.15, sold at 27.30)
XLF = +4.3% (Updated on July 15, 2008)

[Overall Record for daytrades: Gained an average of 1.76%]

Compare to S&P 500: losing/negative 11.21%
[from May 30, 2008 (1385.67) to mid-day September 22, 2008 (1230.30
)]

The information on this site is provided for discussion purposes only and does not constitute investing recommendations. Under no circumstances does this information represent a recommendation to buy or sell securities or make any kind of an investment. You are responsible for your own due diligence.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

After reading about how the hacker allegedly broke into Governor Sarah Palin's e-mail, I am appalled by Yahoo's lack of real security measures.

Click here
to read the story on Sci-Tech Today.com.

All the hacker did was allegedly reset Governor Palin's password with her DOB and zip code which is public information along with answering a simple security question such as "Where did you meet your spouse?" The hacking was so easy that a grade school kid could have done it.

That's a shame. For hackers, it's like being a kid in a candy store. For the rest of us, it's a nightmare waiting to happen. It makes you think about giving your DOB and zip code to services like Yahoo and answering a so-called security question.

Yahoo needs to abandon its current model and come up with real security measures that protect us.