Stupid Stock Tricks Exposed!

Options expiration last week was not kind to me, and my COST puts expired worthless. To be sure, had the market reversed, I'd have some muted crowing. But in a sense it was my market turn bet. Thankfully, I had the good sense to have some SPY calls, so I was able to mitigate the damage. Nevertheless, my beautiful gain on FDO puts eaten up with impunity.

Sigh....

I had another one of those moments last week where one of my stocks jumped into the stratosphere. Now I know that I should sell into that, but I was viewing it and had a moment of "I'm late for my appointment and need to leave, we'll see what happens."


BEST is one of my little Chinese fliers. They make anti-counterfeit wrapping.

In my speculative account, I have this small holding HPJ.

I've managed to take this account from $5K to $26K back down to $15K now at $18K. Easy come; easy go! The huge downdraft from $26 to $15 caused me to beat a retreat on that account.

A moment's of imprudence can certainly do a bit of damage. I think that I'm most dangerous after I've had a spectacular position reward. I'm at my most thoughtful when I've been humbled by an errant position.


I'm forced through my conscious to provide this chart of COST. My Prince Charming that ended up being worse than a toad! The yellow area is where I thought the stock would not hold. I'm not a physicist, why did I try to play on on this?


I will at least say that I'm pleased that my expectation of the market in general is playing out, and that I did not take any untoward positions against it.