Friday, October 27, 2006

Some recent transactions

My best results (remember, I'm an amateur at best!) have come from picking up stocks that are taking it on the chin or are slowly rising from a TKO. My current portfolio is mostly cash and puts. Given that the indices have gone straight up my puts look terrible though in june/july they were up 150%.

Lesson 1: Never let a 150% gain get away...particularly if you have options.
Lesson 2: If you are buying puts, you ought to be hedging something other than a cash position.

I've been poking around for some long opportunities. Last week, I bought 500 shares of MIND (Mitcham Industries) @11.16 (including fees) They lease seismic equipment to oil exploration and had been beaten down pretty well. They were on my watch list, and I saw that they were improving.

Today I purchased 200 shares of IVGN @ $56.30 for my retirement account. It's a stock that I've followed for a while. They are getting beat up today on disappointing earnings, BUT, I had marked support in their chart (last earnings disappointment) and that level was not breached. I figured that I had a low risk entry point. As I write it is at $57.25. We'll see how this holds.

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