September 1, 2010 volume and a gain?

BAGAKOAA;

September 1, 2010 volume and a gain?

 I had to interrupt my day at the office today to do something I very seldom do. We took profits. That’s right, that happens, (pay attention kids as this is very unusual) when you sell a stock for more than you paid for it. I know, it sound weird, but it can be done.

Here is what we did. I was watching the futures market last night when I put the blog to bed, and glowing news out of Australia and China had the market opening strong. That positive news along with (I am fairly sure) HFT (High Frequency Trades) in the ETFs buoyed the market up 2.5% by 9:30 am PST. If the prevailing theory is correct about the HFTs self correcting the market by days end we did the most logical thing we could. We took some profits.


Here is how we did it. As you know we have stops and stop limits on almost every position we hold. Again, that takes emotions out of play and protect our downside. We went into our key holdings that were up more than 2% on the days trading (there were quite a few) and we adjusted those stops for the newer highs, and reduced the number of shares in those stops to allows us to sell a small portion outright at the attractive gains we saw between 9:30-10:30 AM PST.


Example:


These are not actual numbers, but will illustrate what we did.


We had 100 shares of CVX, Chevron at a cost basis of $69.00. We had a stop limit order in on all 100 shares at $71.00 (Set from a previous price of 76.68 on or about July 30, 2010.) We went in and changed the stop order in the following way, the 100 shares was changed to 90 shares and the stop price was changed to 71.50 to reflect the current high today. We then went in and put in a sell limit order for 10 shares at 77 to catch the recent high taking an 11.5% profit on those 10 shares.


Now we stretched some of these limit orders so we did not catch them all. These limit orders were day only order as compared to the stop limit orders which are good till cancelled orders. The entire exercise took me about 20 minutes across 7 portfolios.


“You’ve got to be kidding me!”


I heard about this about a week ago and did not have time to check it out. I don’t proliferate rumors until I check them out. (Or if I really like the rumor.) Some of us lucky residents of California wonder what they do in Sacramento as they sure as hell can’t run a state. Here is an amazing effort by Assembly Persons Lieu (53rd district if you care) and Niello (5th district). It is called ACR (Assembly Concurrent Resolution) 147. It declares April 2010 Financial Aid and Literacy Month. Here are some of the highlights from the Resolution:


Declares April 2010 as Financial Aid and Literacy Month to raise public awareness about the need for increased financial literacy; and, encourages public and private organizations and institutions to provide opportunities for financial literacy education for all Californians and to collaborate with members of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, the California JumpStart Coalition, and others as they provide outreach and education. Specifically, this resolution makes the following findings, as students progress through school, credit card usage increases; and, 56% of final-year college students carry four or more cards with college seniors carrying an average of $4,138 in credit card debt in 2008. High school seniors taking part in a national survey of financial knowledge scored an average of 48.3%, a failing grade (I’d like to see what the score would be if they all took the test in Sacramento); and, in recognition of the importance of teaching financial literacy, the number of states that require high school students to take a personal finance course has increased from seven in 2007 to 13 in 2009. Financial literacy training may easily be integrated as a valuable component for elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, community groups, and citizen town hall meetings; and many groups are dedicated to increasing the financial literacy of Americans with a broad range of quality personal finance materials and curricula created for the purpose.


Now that is all good stuff, but perhaps the “parliament of whores” in Sacramento (who have permitted us to get 19.1 Billion in debt) should get the Awareness Training First. Or at least be consistent and pass a Resolution to have Charles Manson teach compassion, or image management by Mel Gibson, or maturity by Lindsay Lohan. But I digress.


In the Salve Lucrum Portfolio Today


We took position profits in KO, AAPL, CVX, GLD, SLV, MCD, and MDR. We took new call positions in INTC. It is an April 2010 12.50 call which we paid $5.95 for each contract making it an expensive call, but we are buying a lot of time being 287 days out. We would be in the money at $18.45. INTC close up today 3.2% ($18.14)


AAPL news today.


I know many of you hold AAPL and as you know I have been in and out of AAPL more than a Rhagoletis pomonella (Apple Maggots). Jobs excited the crowds with new features on the iPod, and new operating system and some new bells and whistles for the iPad. What I found exciting was the launch of the new AppleTV device. It sells for 99 bucks, and there will be 99 cent downloads to AppleTV of your latest and greatest TV shows. We have been AppleTV users for about 5 months now and it is cool. In one place through any decent TV/Monitor/Home Network we have our entire music catalog of 5400 songs, as many photos you need (we have about 600) that make a great screen saver for the TV, internet access, and our the ability to rent or buy over 30,000 movies and TV shows at a click of a button. We feel that this is the razor of all razors and AAPL is set to become the biggest razor blade seller of all time. (Keep an eye on Netflix and now Amazon) We took some profit today in AAPL after the $7.00 gain today. Look for a correction tomorrow and if it gets close to or below $250.00 consider some more.


Did she really say that?

 You might not know the name Christina Rommer, but she WAS the Chairperson of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors. If you do know her name, it’s because she was extremely vocal in supporting the 787 Billion dollar stimulus program as an ASSURANCE that unemployment would not go above 8%. Oooops. In her swan song today (She is returning to halls of academia) she support the request for more stimulus and called for a hard line not to let the Bush era tax cuts remain in place one more year to address fears that additional deficits would not be good for the economy. So in essence in the same address she said that the 787 billion dollar stimulus was good for the economy, spending 27 billion more now will be good for the economy, but letting people keep more of their income, be they old fat nasty republican people like me, is somehow bad for the economy. I encourage you to click on the link of her name (above) to see her Bio and ask yourself, how many hours has she ever spent in the real world. IE, outside the halls of MIT, William and Mary, and Princeton.


I don’t think I am a narcissist, but if I am, I am the best one out there.


In a recent survey by a young researcher at York University in Toronto, people who use social networks and write blogs have narcissistic tendencies and self esteem issues. Many of you know me and know darn well that I am not narcissistic and have the best self esteem of all of my friends. Now I will admit that some of these posts are some of the best blog posts I have ever read in my life. Don’t you think? Although more of you could send me e-mails telling me how good they are. Not that I need that stroking in anyway shape or form. But just in case you have some nice things to say about the blog, which I know you do, I can be contacted at

(we originally provided about 7 e-mail address for me but was advised to remove by a bright technologically savy reader-THANK YOU) or you can just post the glowing remarks in the comment section of the blog itself. I know some of you are shy and might need help wordsmithing these comments, so I will do a great job of editing for you. Or just call and I will be happy to write something for you.


Had The Good Scotch Tonight

Yeah we had two good scotches tonight.  One was with a good friend and reader of the blog.  Thanks for dinner Ben.  It was a good day in the market.

The White House Basement Gallery

We all know that POTUS has to where many hats, but did you know he had so many chairs?  BTW what you say we all chip in and get him a coat rack?

Salve Lucrum