This past month has been a wild ride, not only for my stocks, but for the market as a whole. If anyone out there has paid attention, and especially if you have money invested in stock, odds are you have gotten sick to your stomach and wanted to get off this roller coaster at some point. It seems like there's no such thing these days as a slight gain or slight loss; it's all "Go big or go home!"
Both of my stocks are terrific showcases of this. Radian (RDN) alone has had a couple sessions where it would change 5+%. That's over 5% in one day! Most of this volatility has been caused by the fed's lack of clarity of what it will be doing with it's bond buying program it has been doing since the financial crisis. Obviously a policy like this was needed at some point, but just like when a patient in the ER gets better, there's no reason to keep them on life support when they're ready to be released.
Of course, other things have attributed to this: good and bad news in the housing market, employment reports, and, most recently, the turmoil in Egypt. But none of this is to say that it's a bad time to jump in on the market. You just have to time those leaps.
Which brings me to my next issue: my purchase of Facebook (FB) and what I do from here. I know I said before my plan was to stick to the course, but I'm not sure that's where I want to be anymore. I wish I could go back to that day in May and convince myself to wait for something better, even if that something better is FB for cheaper. If you've been following along, I bought FB when it fell to $24.60, thinking that was the bottom for it. Just over a week later, the same stock could be had for somewhere in the mid-$22 range. Had I done that instead, I would have earned a solid $2 per share or about 9%.
So here's my plan: I'm determined to not lose money on this no matter what I do, so I'm selling it at a price that's figuring the cost of both trades. Basically, by selling it at $25.43 per share, I wipe out that $4.95 per trade fee that Tradeking charges, and I'm able to wipe my hands clean of FB. They're expected to release earnings for the quarter on the 22nd of this month, so my hope is that the stock goes up on positive speculation (redundant, I know). So as soon as the moment that the stock reaches this glorious price is finally here, I will be free from Zuck and his sideways trading stock.
Where I go from here is a bit uncertain: I'm a bit late to the Cisco party. CAT and MKC are close to levels where I could see myself being a buyer, as is VZ. Maybe I could jump in on an airline like Delta before they take off. I had considered going with a financial stock, but I feel like it would be too tied to the housing market, thus days when there's bad news on the housing front, both of my stocks take a hit. Whatever I end up doing, I believe I've got time to think about it, and probably don't want to go after it right away again. Like last time...
No comments:
Post a Comment