Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Focusing My Effort

Trading SPI (Australian futures) and the Nikkei futures under simulation today. Again, I make money trading the Aussie index but can't seem to get a foothold or handgrip on Japan. Maybe I should focus on practicing SPI trades going forward. I was interested in Japan because the contract size is very small. But if I have to use very wide stops it might not be such an advantage. I think I am going to be practicing for a while yet.

Markets are in "crash mode" around the world. Of course, I now regret buying AAPL and maybe some of my other recent investment purchases. But in total I didn't move that high a percent of net worth into stocks over the last couple of weeks because I knew something like this might happen. My hedge fund stuff is getting hammered alongside my regular equities. The only good thing is we have more than 40% of our portfolio in bonds still. And they are going up.

It's interesting that the S&P 500 started its descent from around the same level as the 2000 high and now the Dow Jones futures are roughly around the level of the 2000 high in the Dow. It'd be nice if those two points would bracket the correction. I won't do anything very radical in terms of buying until any low is retested successfully. By the way, the Australian All Ordinaries Index is now officially in a bear market.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey moom.

I think you traded AAPL at the wrong time, but since its stock your loss won't be so bad. I'd be careful because even when it has blowout beating earnings the stock jumps then falls hard because most of the price has been built up into the earnings and products surrounding the company. Seems a bit risky for your style of trading at least from what I've read over the year.

It seems a cash position or buying gold seems to be the right plan unless you are buying put options if you really think the markets are in "crash mode" which I believe is happening.

If you haven't read Alan Greenspans book READ IT and also Boomernomics. Its funny how one predicts the other. Boomernomics made in 1997 has some outrageous predictions but most are true now in Alan Greenspans book.

And since you are an economist you might actually "Get it".

i've lost already like half of my networth so don't feel so crummy.
all I need is $100k to retire on with a simple life. i know we have different lifestyles but still you have some freedom of choice now.

mOOm said...

I only put 1% of my net worth into AAPL stock so how bad can it be :)