Teacherman1 (49.44)

Hung on by a Toenail and Other Thoughts

June 08, 2011 – Comments (10) | RELATED TICKERS: AXAS , LYG , AZC

I am now officially retired and thought I would take this opportunity to post a blog, which I haven't done in some time.

Just some rambling thoughts and ideas I wanted to share on a warm, dry day. If you aren't interested in them, that's ok with me. I won't get offended.  

I managed to hang on by a toenail today and beat the market by 0.09%. I guess I should be thankful, I see many went deep into the red.

I think that matches my accuracy which is at about 9. Good thing I like green, since it looks like I will be wearing that cap for a while.

Since the first of the year, I have been doing more swing trading than investing, but have recently changed to investing for the longer term. Hope I live long enough to see it pay off.

I'm still doing some "conservative speculation", just to keep some "spice" in my life. What I mean by "Conservative speculation" doesn't refer to how risky the pick is, but to the amount of it I buy. If I usually buy in lots of 1,000 shares, I might go in for 100. If it then craters, the loss is not that great, but if it pays off like a "mudder" on a rainy day at the track, I can make as much as if I bought a 1,000 shares of a more conservative stock and made 10% on it. I use the 100 and 1,000 for ease of mental calculation.

Most of the picks in my portfolio are for longer term hold, and it is taking some getting "re-used to" watching them drop during these wild summer swings and remembering that I need to keep my eye on the prize.

I see the "shorts" are piling on AXAS and dragging it down, but I view this as an opportunity for investors to buy at close to the bottom. This one is a winner as will become apparent in the next few months.

I also like the opportunity to buy more LYG at these prices. It may take 3 to 5 years for it to come back as their new CEO recently said, but when it does, it will really COME BACK.

AZC is another I like for the longer term. Luckily I'm making money on it in the shorter term too. It helps keep me focused.

ACPW is another good long term investment. Since this company is headquartered in my home town, I have had the opportunity to watch it go  from a "way ahead of itself" euphoric IPO, to a long slow slug of reality, to finally getting everything right and ready to grow for real.

Of course, I couldn't resist doing some "swing trading", and managed to pocket 20% plus on MPET in a week. Have closed it out because I sold it, but put it on my watch list to await another opportunity to take another ride in the future.

I'm still playing with the dry bulk shippers some. EXM and EGLE because they got ridiculously low, and NM because it somehow managed to get back under $5. EXM and EGLE fall into the category of "conservative speculation" stocks, and NM as a solid long term investment.

Now that I am officially retired, I will try to put more "edible" meat in my pitches, as soon as I finish the things on my "honey do" list.

Hope you all have a great summer, and don't get too down if the market doesn't go your way. There is a lot of worry out there right now (and in many cases rightfully so), but as I have learned over a long lifetime, things are never as good or as bad as they seem.

All references to stocks mentioned above are as always:

JMO and worth exactly what I am charging for it.