| Retirement |
[Aug. 3rd, 2006|04:02 pm] |
According to recent data from the Employee Benefits Research Institute, more than two-thirds of workers have less than $50,000 set aside for their leisure years, and more than half have less than $25,000.
That's a scary thought. My tax money is going to go into helping these people retire in some amount of years while I'm still working. |
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| Realogy and Wyndham |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|03:30 pm] |
Too big for my taste. They are both being added to the SP500, if the spinoff doesn't go well, it might be worth watching to see if they fall off the SP500 which might make them a really good value.
Morningstar is a good place to search for spinoff candidates.
Windstream Corp was a recent spinoff of Alltel, something worth looking at.
Tim Horton from Wendys
Phillips Electronics spinning off its semiconductor. |
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| Realogy and Wyndham |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|10:49 am] |
Spinoffs from Cendant
Realogy is NYSE Ticker H
Wyndham Worldwide is WYN,
Trading to publically commence on Aug 1, shareholder distribution on July 31 |
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| Spinoffs |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|09:26 am] |
Looking for Spinoffs
*Altria may be spinning off Kraft
*Halliburton spinning off KBR, Kellogg Brown & Root, 6-9 months from now
*This one is interesting, Verizon is spinning off its verizon directories business, there's some complex debt along with it, but its worth some study, by year end. "Verizon Information Services"
*First Data and Western Union, needs more digging.
*Cendant to spinoff Realogy, its real-estate business, in June or July. By October, Cendant will be gone, replaced by four "pure play," publicly traded businesses focused on real estate, hotels, rental cars and travel-distribution services.
*Sara Lee Corp to spinoff Hanesbrands, HBI. (HBI is also the acronym for Heartless Bitches International and others) |
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| Options |
[Jul. 20th, 2006|03:11 pm] |
Horrible horrible options month
The FTEK 15 Calls I bought at .55 are not worth nothing
-100%
The Ctrip 45 puts I bought are now worth nothing
the GM 27.5 puts I bought are now worth nothing
Sold the IWM 69 puts today at .85
-60%
Well folks, that was all the money I made available for options, Mr Market bent me over and gave me a whollop. |
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| Sold More VPL |
[Jul. 17th, 2006|02:59 pm] |
I sold a bunch more VPL today from my ROTH. Turned that money around and into LGBT UTI RSTI and PXR. The reduction in international exposure I think will help my returns. I see a lot of volatility in the international markets especially the Asian ones in the next year or so. The small growth stocks I've held in my taxable account have done well in the past 6 months, holding their own against the tide. Almost all the indexes I held have done very poorly. I'm concluding that what I need to do is hold individual stocks over the long run.
On the options front, I'm still holding my IWM and GM puts, I'm still hoping for a little more downturn before friday. I'm hoping IWM will go down to about 66. I don't have that much hope for a GM profit unless we get a good downturn tomorrow, though atleast I can take some decent money out if GM hits 27, albeit a slight loss. |
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| International Exposure |
[Jul. 17th, 2006|01:17 pm] |
I realized my international exposure is a little too high. I sold off some of my VPL shares infavor of investing in some good Hidden Gems recommendations, I've got limit orders in for BPOP, UTI, and NUAN. I like the prospects behind these companies, I think I'll probably look toward holding them ad infinitum. These were all listed in July Hidden Gems, and are all below the rec price.
I also traded my IWC shares for SPY shares, only afterwards realizing that I should have bought a different SP500 fund. SPY is no longer the best deal for the 500, oh well, the differences are very subtle, .02% expense ratio difference. This is another fund that I should hold to infinity re-investing dividends, I may trade it in for a mutual fund of the same index, but currently I don't have the $3000 min to allocate to it. |
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| UP |
[Jun. 29th, 2006|03:30 pm] |
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Things are up everywhere after the feds raise, and while my investment portfolio looks good, my puts are starting to degrade in value a lot. I'd really like to see another temporary low to cash in on the puts and put the money into some good investments on the cheap. |
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| Nuan |
[Jun. 19th, 2006|12:03 pm] |
Sold july 7.5 calls NUAN at 1.35
+24%
Limit order for July 27.5 puts GM at 2.05 |
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| IWM |
[Jun. 15th, 2006|11:17 am] |
Bought July 69 IWM Puts at $2.20
If the fed increases the rate, small caps take the worst hit, plus this is insurance against my portfolio a bit, since almost my entire portfolio is small caps. |
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| SPY CTRP |
[Jun. 15th, 2006|10:44 am] |
Sold 123 June SPY Calls at $1.6 +58%
June 126 SPY calls will expire worthless I suspect. Coulda sold them last Friday for a profit but funds settlement wouldn't let me.
That puts my total for June SPY options at
+22.5%
Bought July 45 CTRP Puts at $1.8 |
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| JOSB |
[Jun. 15th, 2006|10:14 am] |
Sold June 30 JOSB calls at $1.65
+1.43%
I think the mistake I made yesterday of purchasing those calls at $1.3 made it easy to come out of those calls breaking even. *whew* |
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| Lots of green |
[Jun. 15th, 2006|09:52 am] |
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Seeing lots of green this morning, I've got limit orders on almost all of my short term options, heres hoping a few of them sell. If JOSB and SPY could edge up a bit I would be very happy. |
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| June Hike |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|11:28 am] |
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I don't think Bernanke should raise the rates, even he has published articles on the lag between interest rate hikes and their effect on inflation. Futures on the rate hike are near 100% probability. Personally I think a little inflation is ok given the increases in fuel prices we've seen. Let your hikes have some time to take hold Bernanke, no more rate hikes, those of us with investment portfolios are hurting already. |
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| SPY |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|09:44 am] |
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SPY June 123 Calls at 0.95 |
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| Sold SPY |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|03:54 pm] |
Sold SPY June 123 Puts at $1.55
+39%
Bought July JOSB 30 Calls at 1.30
This was actually an order mistake, I didn't want to buy them I was putting in a limit order to sell my JOSB calls and somehow it went in wrong. Well in anycase, this allows me to limit sell at a lower price and still break even. I think I might have caught a falling knife on this stock, silly me. |
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| SPY |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|09:35 am] |
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Long SPY June 123 Puts at 1.05 |
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| EEM |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|05:09 pm] |
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I might grab some EEM puts for insurance, since I have quite a bit of exposure to the Emerging markets in my other investments. |
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| Nuan |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|04:03 pm] |
Long Nuan July 7.5 Calls at $.75
Same as I bought before, but at a better price. I am still pretty sure this will go up. |
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| Sold SPSS Puts |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|03:07 pm] |
Sold the SCSS Puts at $1.45
+156%
Since I'm trading in my IRA, I have no taxes, but I also have no margin, so I left some money on the table. SCSS split last week, and the options are undervalued, there is an arbitrage opportunity here that is not being taken advantage of because of the options converstion. But I can't exercise the option because I have no margin, and I don't have the cash to buy the underlying stock. Oh well, still a good profit. |
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