John's Blog

2007-12-12T10:55:00.001-08:00

I have written these pages, and a large number of articles at suite101.com. If you have read and enjoyed or otherwise profited from or appreciated my writings or thoughts please send a donation of at least $1 through paypal to the e-mail address Johhnyc17@aol.com. Your generosity will be greatly appreciated. Please note:there are two "h's" in my e-mail address rather than two "n's".

2007-02-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

I checked on the DYHP, would have been a relatively quick and painless 20% gainer.

2007-02-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

This Blog has been dead for awhile. I was disappointed by the lack of visitors, and the almost nonexistent ad revenue. I was also busy moving and starting a new life. Things are going well. I didn't get the stock I was trying to buy in November. I guess I should check and see if I would have made any money on it. I decided to pull all my avaiable cash to pay moving expenses, and invested what was left in merchandise to sell on e-bay. E-bay profits have been very strong, but I may shift some money back to into the markets just for fun. I guess I'll leave all this stuff posted. It's kind of painful to have poured out your best stuff to the general public, and to find nobody is interested.

So although I told you how to make real profits in the stock market for absolutely free, I'm keeping my e-bay business secrets to myself. I hope to have enough of a windfall to start trading enough to have something to blog about here in the fairly near future.

2006-11-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

Sold out of TRTI except 100 shares which I decided to hold onto long term. I was in at .07 back when it was named EXCB, so at .35 I have 400% profit, not bad, although I had hoped it would go to a dollar, but the numbers aren't as strong now as they were before the last earnings, so I'm out.

I have an order in to buy 3000 DYHP at .25 which I think is the best play available right now for what I have left in the market. I'm building from scratch now, since I took most of my money out to spend on bills and moving. This is a quick in quick out play hoping for 25 to 30% gains, maybe a month and a half tops if I'm right. My main worry here is that I won't get an execution at my price, and will have to buy it higher if I still want in. A penny is a big thing for this kind of trade.

2006-11-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

I still like DYHP at .27 or below, but I still don't have any liquid cash to make the buy.

2006-10-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

I'm moved, and settled into my new home, and I still have a little money left in the market. I'm on the hunt for a new hot stock.

To find these I usually search by P/E ratio, and current price. Then I check the news and financials on the company. I'll walk you through some of the decision making process.

I found one stock, CYBL, which is currently showing a good P/E, so I looked at the chart. Analyzing it technically, I find this chart very attractive for a value buy. Its near an all time low, and it just had a high volume sell off which could indicate that it over sold. Unfortunately, my fundamental analysis did not convince me that this is a solid value, so although the chart looks very good, and the basic numbers are good, the annual income data turned me off. I predict that this stock will go up, just from looking at its chart, but it lacks the financial strength to be a breakout stock, and for that reason coupled with my limited available funds, I'm not willing to put my money on this one.

DYHP is currently at a bottom, and has genuine upside potential, its a buy at .26 to .29 in the next few days. I'm going to look at liquidating some capital, and watch this one. If it doesn't go up big before I have the money, or show me something I don't already know about in the next few days this might be a winner for me.

EACO looked interesting until I found out that its good P/E right now is purely from discontinued operations.

Note to self: watch netguru, and see whats up when the dust settles on the restructuring.

Kicking myself in the pants for not buying PRESQ when I looked at it in March. I remember I almost did, but talked myself out of it.

THMG is a possible trade if you can get in at .10, but I'm getting tired so I didn't go as deep as I should before making it a pick. I'll try to get back online and give it a better look tommorrow.

2006-10-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

In response to a comment by wager witch, I'm going to try to demystify some stock market basics.

1. Every stock has a symbol, which is usually a series of capital letters, or for older compainies just one or two letters. For example MSFT stands for Microsoft, F stands for Ford Motor Company, AAPL is apple computer. Most online stock sites such as yahoo finance have a symbol lookup where if you know the name of the company you can find the symbol, or if you know the symbol vice versa.

2. Every stock has a fluctuating market price. It is usually expressed as a the "last" price (i.e. what the last person who bought it paid). More information is usually offered as bid and ask prices, the bid is what somebody is currently offering to buy it for, and the ask is what someone is currently offering to sell it for. The bigger the spread between bid and ask the less likely a buyer and seller will agree on a price so that both are willing to make a transaction (or that a third interested party will come in as a buyer). It sounds complicated but its really not, its an auction where the bidder is buying in hopes that somebody else will buy what he has bought for a higher price in the future.

3. To buy or sell stocks you need a broker. This used to mean a guy downtown in a fancy suit, but nowdays it often means a webite such as e-trade, ameritrade, scottrade, etc. The broker is going to charge you a commission for buying or selling stock, therefore to make a profit you need to have the stock you own move more than the amount you are going to pay for commissions. With my broker right now, I have to pay $9.99 when I buy or sell, or ~$20 to make any transaction on both sides, if I sell it when is worth more than $20 more than when I bought it . . . I make a profit. Thats all there really is to it.

4. Market prices change. To make all this work you have to understand that market prices change over time. This is how you make money, and what the charts are for. You want to buy low, and sell high. For example, a stocks price today is $1 per share, and I buy 1000 shares spending $1000 plus $9.99 (buying commission). A month from now the market price of that stock is $1.50 per share each share is worth half again as much as I paid for it, if I decide to sell, I make $1500 minus $9.99 (selling commission). I made a net profit on that transaction of $1490.01 minus $1009.99 or $480.02.

I hope that answers some of your questions, and feel free to comment if you have more questions.

2006-09-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Just to let you guys know I'm still posting. I'm in the process of moving again, and my computer spends most of its time in the back seat of my car. My portfolio is dwindling to meet my real world cash needs, but the good news is, I finally found a job, and things should be on an even keel in a month or so.

2006-09-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hi. My portfolio is performing fairly well, but the cash is not enough to cover my expenses, and every time I take money out I reduce my earning power in the market. Sold SHMT at less than it was worth to get cash into my checking in time to pay things that had to be paid. The job search is coming to be very important. I can only maintain my credit rating for about two more months if I don't get a job. Credit is hugely important. I've had 4 interviews for good jobs, with no call backs. I guess I'm not the worlds greatest interviewer. May have to take something less than ideal just for income. Kept 100 shares of SHMT in my long portfolio along with a little BSIC that I've owned for years bought at 25 cents and sold off over time. I've got to see something out of ATSX, that was one of those it looks ok buy the middle plays that burned me. I know buying bottoms is what I do when I'm most successful, anyway trading is a great hobby for me that is getting me through this unemployed period.

2006-08-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

I'm having to liqudate about $1000 dollars to cover living expenses. I've had three interviews, and hope to get a job soon and keep the rest of my portfolio intact. I can make a fair amount of money in the markets with just a little capital, but not enough to live on for very long.

Things are looking up as far as the stocks go, except TRTI which has turned south again, but which I still have high hopes for over the long term. Its a solid company in landfills and waste managment, and is trading for well below earnings with no warning signs or hazards that I am aware of. If it ever makes it to a daollar my 5000 shares will be worth 93% more than when I bought them, and my predictions realized, might take six months though.

Life goes on, money is just a part of it, and the money a guy like me has for stock trading is limited indeed. I'll probably die wondering what I could have done with 100K in the market. Because at a hundred percent a year what I have now would take six years, and at 50% twelve years, if I didn't spend any of it, and though I'm good at picking them, I'm only that good some of the time. Still, I'm unemployed and still free to goof off and eat out because of the market. All in all its been a very positive experience for me, and if I lost every penny in a crash tommorrow, or spent it all on bacon cheeseburgers, I'd still be ahead of the game over all.

2006-08-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Markets overall have mostly flattened out and quit acting crazy. Recovery on ASTX has me back in the money. Coupled with gains on SHMT anf TRTI the recovery has me up a little over 20% overall since my last post. I spent 300 bucks travelling to a job interview, but I should be able to cover my living expenses for another month. I've made a stunning profit of $9.50 since June running ads on this site because nobody ever clicks anything. I'm winning a few poker tournaments for little money, and I should be able to cover my expenses through Sept. 1st, although the money in my portfolio is what I'm looking at to do it right now. I guess I'm sharing all my valuable experience in the markets for basically free, but its good to have a place to brag when things go right. Lots of people work really hard to make as much as I've made in the markets this month by just knowing what to buy and hold. I'm still holding all three of the positions mentioned above as well as a few other long holds that underpin my portfolio and diversify my risk, things haven't felt like day trading would work, although I am looking for ideas and considering possibilities.

2006-07-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

Finally starting to see upside movement on TRTI, but SHMT took a turn again, I put in a sell at 1.49 (still not bad for having bought it at .07 as EXCB), but it didn't get there while it was moving up, all together my gains and losses mostly balance for July, but I'm having to take money out to pay some bills. Looks like I'm going to have to get a job after all. I knew I would, even my best ever was never enough to live on, and I'm treading water with losses canceling gains here lately, so I'm going to probably reduce my blog entries to about one a week unless things suddenly get exciting again.

2006-07-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still afraid to trust this market enough to say I'm going to day trade. I could have made significant profits if I had been trading in and out of what I'm holding, but I just can't get the feel for the market conditions right now.

When things feel right, you just know what to do, right now, I can't tell you if the Dow is going to jump 200 or lose 200. It really doesn't make that much difference for the stocks I trade, but it does on how the herd acts, and how the herd acts and feels is what you want to know if you are going to get there ahead of them.

2006-07-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

Lost a little over 2% today from yesterday leaving me up almost 5% on the week, my first up week in July, It's been a rough month for the markets as a whole, and i got a little taste of it despite being somewhat protected in the value plays I like so much. Maybe we're over the rough spot, let's hope so.

2006-07-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

Up about 7% this week on my portfolio as a whole. I'm still looking for more out of SHMT, so I'm not selling just yet. Things might be just about to warm back up. It's been slow and sad for most of July. I need about a 20% gainer on my portfolio to take all my living expense through September out of the market without diminishing my capital too much.

2006-07-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

Will SHMT make a run this week? I'm giving it 50-50 odds it's showing signs of volatility, but buyer interest feels strong. We'll see!

2006-07-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I was relatively happy with my results for the week. Enough to not drastically restructure my portfolio at the moment. I will need some awesome days next week to keep taking money out though. Here's hoping for a good next week.

2006-07-14T03:57:00.000-07:00

A little more recovery, things are starting to look up. Maybe we'll get a day traders market soon. I'm in long holds under these erratic market conditions. I can day trade after a big bottom, or riding a top, but this up and down crap makes it hard for a stock to run because traders begin to lack confidence.

2006-07-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

Up 0.19 a share on SHMT, too bad I only own 1000, that's a pretty nice one day move. Almost covers my losses on ATSX. That one has been a real loser for me, I didn't listen to my own advice and bought the middle (sometimes I do for trades I'm thinking of as day trades). Real bummer that I called that one so wrong. If it had been a winner this blog might be getting exciting about now. It'll come.

2006-07-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well, another backsliding market day for me. It's just not my kind of market. I'm spending most of my time working on websites and writing stuff. I'm gonna stand pat on the stocks til Friday, and if I'm still this unhappy with my positions, I'm going to do some serious re-evaluation this weekend. I'll take losses if I have to to get into something good.

2006-07-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Slow start to the week for my portfolio. I'm up about 50 bucks on paper today with most of my positions unchanged. I took a bad hit last week, and I really need to start making money again. I can't take it out of the market to spend while the market is taking it out of me. I'm not worried long term, but short term things have been ugly since about the time I decided to start blogging about it. It'll all come out in the wash.

2006-07-08T05:36:00.000-07:00

No news is good news I guess. Hopefully next week will be a good week, and I can get this blog rolling on what its really supposed to be about. I just hung out at a coffee shop yesterday, an hour seemed like an eternity, then I found somebody to talk to and the next hour just disappeared. I didn't get anything done, although I did give my name to a life insurance sales job. I don't know how good of a saleman I would make, but I might give it a try.

I met this really interesting guy who dressed like an early christian, and we talked a lot about religion and stuff, he was interesting, but odd in a benign sort of way. He looked like a cross between a jew and a greek peasant. He was more fun to talk to than the rest of the long haired weirdos who frequented the place, we're talking about white guys with dredlocks, etc.

It's really hard in this day and time to find good general conversation, or a place where people will open up and talk about whatever they are interested in without the place falling to the wierdos. I try not to judge people and give them a chance like Jesus says we should, but it's really hard sometimes when they look like they're trying to be a white copy of Jimmy Hendrix, and their obvious interests are drugs and deviant sex. Like do me maan.

Anyway, I'm trying to get out and socialize and try to build a new life after graduation, looks like it will take some time though. I meet more "normal" seeming people at bars, it seems like, one guy offered me $14 an hour to lay bathroom tile, not exactly an intellectual pursuit, but I was tempted. I just can't deal with the hangovers anymore.

Next social experiment in the new town will be going to church. I haven't gone to church regularly in years, thats a big part of my parents social life, and was a big part of my childhood. Maybe I'll fit in and feel like I belong there. Who knows. The stocks will have to take their course, I should probably start a page for stock blogging, and only post to it when I have profits or losses, and make this one my general blog. I'll think about it.

2006-07-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, it feels great to be back on the net. It took them a full week to get my phone turned on since the fourth of July fell right in the middle of things. Guess I'm not doing a great job at building an audience since my stock trading is going badly, and I haven't been online. Well, here's hoping for good news. ATSX still slumped. Yahoo pulled the P/E numbers for some reason. That's going to make it harder for other people to see the value I thought I saw. I was reallly lookimg at it as a timing play, but looks like it turned into a long hold. That's a basic lesson, you never know what a stock will do short term. That's what makes day trading so hard except on those occassions when the markets are very active, and theres a lot of money moving. I really make my best money as a long penny trader, but there are occasions when I get on good day trading rolls, one of those is what I'd really like to blog about. Nothing is going to build my audience like sucess in the markets, believe it or not, I still expect to have some of that to bliog about relatively soon.

2006-06-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Slight recovery on my stocks today. Settled my living expenses for two months. I only signed a three month lease, and they asked for two months up front plus a deposit since I'm unemployed, and utilities are included. Just food and gas to pay for til the end of August. I should improve on my stock trading, I don't usually stay slumped this long without something starting to move right. Here's hoping for the best.

2006-06-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

The Market is kicking my butt at the moment, and everyday life isn't being much kinder. I have no clue what to do since I graduated from college. I've looked for jobs "in my field" until I'm blue in the face. I changed geographical areas, I'm running out of cash. I'm trying to be happy and look forward to the future, but its another roadblock at every turn. If I just had a real goal that only depended on my own hard work I could just buckle down and make it happen, but I don't for the first time in my life I need real help from somebody, and nobody seems to be looking to help me. I'll probably just take a pay the bills kind of job, and keep hoping something worth pursuing develops. That's all I have to say at the moment. I'm not dying in the market, but at a time when I could really use some winners, I'm in a bunch of losers and no movers. No big deal, except that I decided to document it all in a blog, and I'm not doing anything worth bragging about.

2006-06-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

Market still unstable, losses on ASTX, some gains on SHMT, still basically even, not able to day trade, still travelling with no home base, looking for apt this weekend, will do whatever work is available, probably going to have to take more money out of market for living expenses, writing snippets because I'm rushed and irritated, sorry

2006-06-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

Monday, Markets down, my stocks flat. I need the market to either get healthy, or crash. This pathetic up down just keeps everybody out of the kind of stocks I'm in. A real bottom on the indices would proably drive some money into my value/bargain hunter picks, this market is no good, but hey, at least I'm not losing money.

2006-06-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning, I slept in. I really should have gotten up and gone to church somewhere, oh well, maybe next week. I guess I forgot to tell you guys I'm divorced. Hardly seems relevant anymore since that was like 30 or 40 "girlfriends" ago (about 6 or 7 of which were maybe "relationships"). Don't know why that's on my mind this morning. Women come and women go, but none of them ever seem worth marrying anymore. Which reminds me, I wanted to post the top ten reasons why I love the stock market and trading pennies more than women.

10. The stock market never has a headache (although it can occasionally give me one).

9. The stock market is always there when you want it, and never complains.

8. The stock market never talks on the phone to friends for 4 hours when you are hungry, horny, or just need some attention.

7. The stock market never says no (although occasionally you might wish it had).

6. The stock market is usually interesting.

5. The stock market never hurts your feelings intentionally.

4. The stock market makes you money more often than it costs you money.(My X was kind of high maintainence.)

3. There is always something new to learn about the stock market.

2. The stock market is sometimes good to you even if you don't pay much attention to it for awhile.

1. The stock market knows when you love it without needing to be told.

Ok, maybe a little facetious and not the greatest analogy, women do have their pluses, but add in the negatives and the bottom line is dipping into the red, from where I'm standing.

2006-06-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Everybody's blogging on the weekend ... Blogging is fun, free, and it gives you a chance to express yourself. My weekend blogs are going to be just for fun. Stocks are great, and making money is necessary, but fun is really what life is all about. I mean if you enjoy watching an ant farm, and if it engages your mind and makes you happy, by all means invest in an ant farm. If you love books, like me, read. If you like the bootscoot boogie or the two-step, disco, the waltz, or just whatever, have fun with it.

Me, I'm re-reading Jack London's Seawolf for about the eighth time. Playing on the internet, and surfing blogs. This blog has already taught me something about myself. I like to think like a day trader, but the market often forces me to go long, what I really am is a penny stock value investor, diversified between long and short. Stocks are a kind of fun that can make you money. Learning is fun, but work sucks. I can say that, it's the weekend, and everybody is unemployed and loving it on the weekend.

2006-06-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Bad timimg to start a stock market blog, I suppose. This market has me completely in a holding position. I can't very well share the excitment of trading when there is no excitment.

On a "my life" note, I don't have one, lol. To make matters worse, I don't have the slightest idea what I want to do in the short run. In the long run I want to do something that has to do with my degree, but everybody wants experience that I don't have. Lord help me if I know how to get job experience without getting hired, or how to get hired without experience, catch 22. In the short run I just want to produce enough income to live without spending all of my savings.

If my stocks would act right I could try to make my dream of trading for a living come true, but that's not going to happen if everything stays flat or slightly down for weeks on end (unless of course a big run up follows). Anyway, I hope to get something more exciting to blog about soon.

2006-06-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings Ladies and Gents, I've been on the road for two days, no job for me in my field. Looks like I'm going to have to take some odd job just to get by without spending my savings/stock investment money. I made 74 cents off my site since I started it. It's really just for fun anyway. The markets are not being good to me, I'm showing a paper profit of 232.00 on my stocks today, but not on anything I'm ready to sell. I can't make anymore trades till I make a sale, so be patient with me, while I'm patient with this slow market.

I'm currently staying in a motel in Knoxville,TN for 200 a week, not exactly what I was dreaming of for after graduation, but it'll do for now. There's a lot of years left for me to "make it", and traveling can be fun.

2006-06-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

(Note: moved from bottom where it was hiding due to the quirks of blog software)
INTRODUCTION

I've been a Day Trader and a Penny Stock Trader almost since the beginning of online brokerage. I was with BrokerageAmerica back when they offered commission free trades, but they sold my account to Ameritrade and now I pay commissions, about twenty bucks to get in and out. Day Trading and Penny Stock Trading have been very enjoyable for me. I guess I'm strictly small time, $7000 in one day is my big highlight, but I seem to be able to take money out of the market whenever I need it, and I always seem to get it back.

I've never tried blogging before although I've known about it for over a year. Bear with me as I learn to post typo free text, and write things people want to read. I guess I'm just doing this because I just finished my Master's Degree. I'm used to writing a lot, and I haven't found a job yet. The fact that some people make money doing this is another possible perk, we'll see how I do on that one over time. My Master's is in History, by the way, and it will be interesting to see if I can find a job that calls for my degree. There might be some History content in my blog eventually, but right now I'm planning to focus on stocks and my race against time to figure out some way to make money without spending my trading stake before my credit cards get maxed out.

After living off it for two months, I have about 6 grand left in my trading account, I've pulled out 1200 on the last two months, and about 5 grand total since I first started with 1800 bucks way back when I was still in the Marine Corps (in 1999 or so). Like I said, one time I made 7000 bucks in one day, but I also took a $3000 hit early on refusing to sell a stock that went chapter 11 on me. Another time I took a $2200 hit, another penny stock took bankruptcy out of the blue. Those or the big ones, but add it all up and I spent $5000, lost $5200 on bad stocks, and I have $6000 left, so that means I had to have made $16,000 gross out of my original $1800, and $11000 net in 7 years, thats not a lot of money, but I've definitely been beating the market. The big boys (professional stock analysts) call anything above a 10% annual gain beating the market, and brag about it, so I ought to be crowing like a rooster, because I'm beating the heck out of that.

Like I said, when I have the time for it, I'm into Day Trading, but I'm always into penny stocks. What I plan to write here is a running record of my trading activities. Right now, I'm kind of tied up in some long positions I have a lot of faith in, but being unemployed, I'll probably start to transition back to Day Trading. TRTI is one stock I'm in. I own 5000 shares, and I expect it to hit somewhere in the nieghborhood of a dollar within 6 months or so. I got in at .07 and its been to like .48 or .50 since I've been in it, and it was at .31 last week, but its kind of sitting still at like .21 or .23 or something like that right now.

They're a landfill waste management company with a record of pretty consistent good profits, and the stock is trading at a little over half of earnings. I peg a lot of my trading decisions to the P/E ratio. The P/E on this one is kick ass, the buying interest is the only thing missing to drive it to what it's worth.

I'm not going to name off my whole portfolio, I don't guess, just the ones I'm sure about that are worth you guys checking out. TRTI is a definite long winner, and if I sell it before a dollar it will be just to free up my cash for Day Trading. I'm pretty sure I can pull down 50 to 100 bucks a day if I go back to Day Trading, and don't have any disasters. Come back, and you can ride through the whole thing with me. That's about all the typing I'm up for right now, but I'll blog again tommorrow.

2006-06-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning, and I'm hitting the road with a pile of resumes (imagine the proper punctuation here). I'll probably be busy during market hours on Monday, but I'll watch my stocks and post if I get the slightest chance. This should be the last day for this paget, so I am moving my introduction to the top.

2006-06-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I took a test for a civil service job today. The last thing they said was, "It will be 4 to 6 weeks before you see the test results." So . . . I guess I'm still unemployed for awhile. My plan of taking money out of the market to live on is getting scary, five more months of no income and flat trading days, and I won't have a portfolio left. Building this website has been a great way to learn and have fun, but I doubt it will ever make me any money.

I'm going to be on the job hunting trail all next week, so my blogging will be minimal, but my trusty old 700 MgHz is coming with me, it's old, but sometimes it seems like my whole life is on that hard drive. I love that computer, but the day is coming when a new computer will get an extra hard drive.

2006-06-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Market can make you look and feel like a genius, or look and feel like a fool. I'm definitely not looking like a genius at this point, but I guess it takes more than a three cent drop over three days to look like a total fool. I'm a little worried, because the volume on ATSX today was high, but it went down. I don't know where all the sellers are coming from, because I picked this stock specifically because I thought it looked to be out of sellers. I'm going to blame it on market conditions, as the indexs bled some more. With the news saying this is the worst week in the markets year to date, I guess I should be glad to only be out about 150 bucks. This is real world stuff boys and girls, and I've got over 1500 bucks riding that this thing goes the right way sometime soon.

2006-06-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

At least all the indexs are showing green this morning, lol the dow ticked red right as I typed that. There it's back. My "day trade" in ATSX is now in day 3, it's sitting still right now at .30. I'm too busy trying to learn how to build these pages the way I want them to care too much at the moment, but my ticker is running at the bottom of the screen, of course.

2006-06-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

If this blog site doesn't start acting better I'm moving my stuff somewhere else. The dern thing seems to be down about half the time, and it's hit or miss whether you get what you just clicked, or a "can't be displayed" message.

2006-06-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's kind of hard to get excited or inspired in this market. I sat on the internet through this whole market session and watched my ticker. Not a single up tick on anything I own, and down ticks on my most solid long position (I've been holding some BSIC since it was.25, although I only have a couple hundred shares left) it ticked down, but not enough to worry about, I'll probably keep that position for another 10 years, so minor fluctuations don't mean much there.

In real life, I'm supposed to be washing and ironing my good clothes because I have a civil service test to take Saturday, and interviews to do in North Carolina Monday, it's about a 15 hour drive, but they're the only place that's shown real interest in my resume. I have to be packed and traveling by Sunday morning.

I'm starting to think all the clicks I was seeing on this blog the first couple of day were me building it, basically blogging to myself. I guess. Only eleven clicks today. Trying to decide wheter to delete the adsense that came with the site. They make my pages less attractive, and it doesn't look like they are going to generate any clicks or even modest revenue. If I ever do get respectable traffic here I'm looking for banner ads. If you or somebody you know has stock related banners that need a home, I'm looking for something to fill in my sidebars. I'd prefer cpm or cpa, but would consider cpc. I have 4 or 5 pages laid out, and I don't know how much will have to go in this blog before it rolls over to a new page. I'm just going to enjoy building a site based on my interests, try to get communications from people with similar interests, and if my site gets enough attention I'll worry about advertising then. My e-mail is on here, so don't be shy, looking for interesting conversation about stocks, or history, or web publishing/business. Holding up in this market without losses is an accomplishment I guess, but it pisses me off to be ready to go back to every day trading, and have the markets in general tank right now. Down markets mean opportunities though.

2006-06-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

The market indexs (indices if you want to be correct, I guess) are still bleeding off their recent run ups this morning. Personally, I'm up a measley 44 bucks on the open, and my favorite picks are sitting still. In a way the bad market conditions might be good for my stocks, because sometimes the big institutional money comes down into my bargain basement picks when the big boards are looking weak. I predict a fairly decent day, for me, but you never know til the closing bell.

2006-06-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it was an ugly day on wall street today. They're blaming it all on Greenspan, the fed, and that new guy burkinstock or heim or whatever his name is. My major index screen had red everywhere, I was expecting blood to start oozing out of the screen. The Dow, the Nasdaq, Amex, S&P were all down at the close.

I know some of you think I look like a fool, because both my stocks I've talked about were down today. My new pick went down as low as .27 but rallied to close down a penny costing me 50 bucks plus commissions on paper, but I didn't sell, the name day trading can be decieving, especially on penny plays. I decided to give it another day or two, since todays total volume was less than 1/3 of average daily volume I never got too scared. My TRTI dropped 25%, but only 250 shares changed hands, so thats not a real price. Anyway, this blog software wouldn't let me sign in all day, and my click counter is screwed for today so I have no idea if anybody is even interested in reading this. Other than that, it's been a peachy day.

2006-06-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

Good Morning all, I sold some long positions that I was not happy with and freed about 1/3 of my funds for day trading, and I'm in ATSX for 5k shares at .31. We'll see if the magic touch is with me today. Market news in general was bad at the close yesterday, so that might hold things back today. By the contrary philospohy its a good day to buy though. I still like this pick.

2006-06-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, last post for today. I did my homework, and at market open tommorrow I'm going to free up some cash and play ATSX on the OTC Big Board as a day trade, providing I can get the cash and get in before it goes. I think it's gonna go, not sure I'll have time to get in, but I'm gonna try to be out of bed at the open. With my sell orders going in tonight, to free my cash, I'll be looking to buy in first chance I get. This is a good chance to point out that day trades sometimes take 2 or 3 days to develop, I expect it to move up early tommorrow, but I could be wrong, of course. AND, this one shows so much stored up strength it may make a two day run up, tempting me to mess up all my standard advice about making goals and getting out (It'll be a intraday judgment call tommorrow), but you have to make every play on its own merits. This one is fundamentally borderline, but the chart is screaming at me "day trade gem".

2006-06-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Well, another market day in the books, no major news today for me. I'm still looking for the right moment to liquidate and go back to day trading. I actually spent most of the day on the job search thing. I found some really cool things to apply for besides teaching. I might try to get into museum work. I have the degree they want, but I'm a little short on practical experience since I chose archeology field school instead of museum internships when I had the chance.

I dunno what's going to happen, but I there are a lot of exciting possibilities. Teaching is actually not my first choice, but it's what everybody seems to think I should do. Anyway, I think I'm going to sell everything except the TRTI and make some day trading moves so I can walk you guys through the ups and downs of how I do it. I'm not claiming to be a definitive expert, just to have done pretty good over the years for the amount I've had to invest. I might lose my @$$. Come around every once in awhile, and see if I can live up to my own expectations. I'm going to sit down and write some more articles too as soon as I get the mood or the muse or whatever. I think I might put my quotation files, and favorite poems on here too, and with a little persuasion I might post my History papers as well, although somebody would probably knock them off as thiers in some class somewhere, unless their teacher is using that turn it in web checker thing that checks for plagarism from the net.

2006-06-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

OK, it's morning, and I finally dragged myself out of bed. I sat up late last night writing stuff on my word processor which I'm going to post here today. I have three places where I have applications in that I need to call, and I need to do the laundry so that I can be ready to travel to several job fairs I have planned for later this week. I hate the uncertainties of the whole job search thing as much as I love the expectation. My Mom is an elementary school teacher, and she revels in pointing out how useless my degree is. I could have graduated a year sooner, and been qualified to teach High School without needing to get special permission, but I wouldn't know half as much about the subject I'll probably be teaching.

I won't sound like a disgruntled holder of a Master's Degree and say that it's a conspiracy to dumb down America that makes education majors with a Bachelor's more employable than subject majors (mine is History) with a Master's, but it is a pretty dumb policy, because I understand ten times more about History now than I did when I graduated with my Bachelor's. But there are thousands of people who don't know jack about it, and majored in PE or something, that are teaching the subject I'm expert in while I work to cut through a ton of red tape to get a job. I don't question the wisdom of our forefathers before 1914 or so, but since then they haven't done such a great job if you ask me. Anyway, I have a ton of real live things to do, and I want to get my trading philosophy stuff posted, so that's it for now.

Introduction

2006-06-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

I've been a Day Trader and a Penny Stock Trader almost since the beginning of online brokerage. I was with BrokerageAmerica back when they offered commission free trades, but they sold my account to Ameritrade and now I pay commissions, about twenty bucks to get in and out. Day Trading and Penny Stock Trading have been very enjoyable for me. I guess I'm strictly small time, $7000 in one day is my big highlight, but I seem to be able to take money out of the market whenever I need it, and I always seem to get it back.

I've never tried blogging before although I've known about it for over a year. Bear with me as I learn to post typo free text, and write things people want to read. I guess I'm just doing this because I just finished my Master's Degree. I'm used to writing a lot, and I haven't found a job yet. The fact that some people make money doing this is another possible perk, we'll see how I do on that one over time. My Master's is in History, by the way, and it will be interesting to see if I can find a job that calls for my degree. There might be some History content in my blog eventually, but right now I'm planning to focus on stocks and my race against time to figure out some way to make money without spending my trading stake before my credit cards get maxed out.

After living off it for two months, I have about 6 grand left in my trading account, I've pulled out 1200 on the last two months, and about 5 grand total since I first started with 1800 bucks way back when I was still in the Marine Corps (in 1999 or so). Like I said, one time I made 7000 bucks in one day, but I also took a $3000 hit early on refusing to sell a stock that went chapter 11 on me. Another time I took a $2200 hit, another penny stock took bankruptcy out of the blue. Those or the big ones, but add it all up and I spent $5000, lost $5200 on bad stocks, and I have $6000 left, so that means I had to have made $16,000 gross out of my original $1800, and $11000 net in 7 years, thats not a lot of money, but I've definitely been beating the market. The big boys (professional stock analysts) call anything above a 10% annual gain beating the market, and brag about it, so I ought to be crowing like a rooster, because I'm beating the heck out of that.

Like I said, when I have the time for it, I'm into Day Trading, but I'm always into penny stocks. What I plan to write here is a running record of my trading activities. Right now, I'm kind of tied up in some long positions I have a lot of faith in, but being unemployed, I'll probably start to transition back to Day Trading. TRTI is one stock I'm in. I own 5000 shares, and I expect it to hit somewhere in the nieghborhood of a dollar within 6 months or so. I got in at .07 and its been to like .48 or .50 since I've been in it, and it was at .31 last week, but its kind of sitting still at like .21 or .23 or something like that right now.

They're a landfill waste management company with a record of pretty consistent good profits, and the stock is trading at a little over half of earnings. I peg a lot of my trading decisions to the P/E ratio. The P/E on this one is kick ass, the buying interest is the only thing missing to drive it to what it's worth.

I'm not going to name off my whole portfolio, I don't guess, just the ones I'm sure about that are worth you guys checking out. TRTI is a definite long winner, and if I sell it before a dollar it will be just to free up my cash for Day Trading. I'm pretty sure I can pull down 50 to 100 bucks a day if I go back to Day Trading, and don't have any disasters. Come back, and you can ride through the whole thing with me. That's about all the typing I'm up for right now, but I'll blog again tommorrow.

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