The Fun Fund: Pause Day... indefinatly

(sigh)

The Fun Fund: Pause Day... oh jeez... 15

Still waiting for my check to put in the additional $400 to get the fund back up and running. Oh, and pay my rent. Stay tuned!

The Fun Fund Pause Day Six: Oh, that's what's up Sogo.

Soooo.... this is what I get for not reading the fine print. Downside, no trading this week. Upside, the Fund is gonna get a steroid injection.
See, Sogo won't completely open your account if you have less than a $500 initial investment. As started earlier, I only put in $100. So I have to come up with another $400 which I can do but not until next week. This, of course, kills goal #1 which was to bring the Fund back up to $150. So the new goal #1 is to bring the Fund up to $750. And to make it difficult I'm going to try to do that by the end of May.
But that's all for this week. Let's see what next week brings, shall we?

The Fun Fund Pause Day Five: Wassup Sogo?

I really did think that the Fun Fund would be back up and running today. But it appears my funding still hasn't gone through. So there's one more day of Pause. That's okay though. I have a lot of stuff to do today.

The Fun Fund Pause Day Four

I am now offically done trading with Sharebuilder. My last trade settled and the money was moved over to my bank account. I just now initiated a funds transfer to Sogotrade. I did have to fudge the amount a little bit though.... the Fun Fund was at $90.78 but Sogotrades minimum transfer is $100. So, the Fund got a little boost due to a technicality.

By Monday I should be good to go again, so I'll spend a litte time this weekend looking over possible movers. Goal #2 (find another broker) has been met, now it's time to nail goal #1 (get the fund to $150).

The Fun Fund Pause Day Two

Today, I am watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with my kids and ignoring the financial markets altogether. I would love to be investing and being a part of America's economic recovery, but I'm not going to be this week. Blame Sharebuilder.

April 21st, 2009. The Fun Fund Pause Day One

As I still have a big ol' crush Citi I'm watching it (stalking, mostly) even though I'm divested. What's my little honey doing today? Oh, playing the swing game. Coulda got in early at $2.70 and coulda just sold right now at $3.25. Let's see... a little math. I could have bought 30 shares again and covered a comission with my measly fund. The shares would have cost me $81. Selling those shares at $3.25 would have paid $97.50. That's a gain of $16.50. Those blood suckers at Sharebuilder would have busted my bank and i would have ended up losing $3.40. If I was set up with Sogotrade I would have ended up netting $10.50.

I hate Sharebuilder.

Still waiting for Sogotrade to go active.

April 20th, 2009. The Fun Fund Day Six aka time to put it on pause.

The stop loss kicked in this morning. As of right now C is trading at $3.09. The Dow is down as investors are dumping their financials. But it's not the state of the market that's got me putting the Fun Fund on a short pause, it's that Sharebuilder sucks. See, here's how it should have gone:
I buy 30 shares of Citi at 2.95. The base cost of that was $88.50. I sell 30 shares of Citi at 3.50 the base return is $105.00, a gain of $16.50. But now we figure in the commissions: 9.95 in/9.95 out for a total of $19.90 to complete a swing. My gains fell short of that mark by $3.40 so I ended up LOSING money on a gain. Nope. No more Sharebuilder trades for me. I'll keep my IRA there for the time being, but I'm gonna be checking today on Sogotrade and if my account is active yet. If so I'll be pulling my measly $90.78 out of Sharebuilder and starting over again at Sogo where, if I had completed this swing there, I would be sitting on a gain of $10.50 instead of losing $3.70.

So here's what it looks like now:
Money Market $90.78

worried...

I'm kinda worried about what Citi will do tomorrow. I put in a stop-loss order for $3.50 just in case it tries to do something stupid.

Friday, April 17th. The Fun Fund End of Week 1. aka: big bowl of suck.

Didn't go quite as planned yesterday. Earnings report came out Friday. Citi reported a smaller loss than expected and greater revenues than expected. The after hours trading was strong and Citi opened at $4.15. Then, as expected, came the dip. but it wasn't a dip. It sunk. The stock made a quick run down to $3.60 and never really came back up. It closed out Friday at $3.65. So much for $5! So I'm married to Citi for the weekend. Don't know what Monday will bring and need to think about where my bottom end sell point will be. Right now I'm realizing about $0.65 profit per share, but I'm starting to think that my hopes of Citi revitalizing the Fun Fund may not happen. Here's where I stand:

C Citi $3.65 30.000 $109.50

That about an $11 drop over yesterday. Boooo.

Thursday, April 16th. Fun Fund Day Four

Just a quickie recap: Citi opened at $4.19, a +$.22 increase over the previous close. And then guess what happened.... a dip! Yep, I'm learning to expect that when ever there is an increase in after-hours trading. Throughout the rest of the day Citi stayed pretty steady around the $4.00/$4.05 line finally closing at $4.01. So the fund looks like this:

C Citigroup $4.01 30.000 $120.30

...which puts me right where I was on Tuesday.

Tomorrow is a big day. 1Q earnings report before the market opens. Then we'll see what Citi is made of. I'll be at ready to go at open and keeping my eye on any sudden rise (hopehopehope) or drop (nononono).

Wednesday, April 15. Fun Fund Day 3.

Not every day can be a winner.

Today, as it is the first day of my spring break, I decided to sleep in stead of watch the ticker. To punish my sloth Citi spent most of the day bouncing around under it's opening position of $3.93. It did have a late surge that brought is up to $3.97 at the close. So the Fun Fund slid back a little deeper into the red. That's the name of the game though and it doesn't dampen my outlook that Citi just may flirt with $5 or even go over come Friday. Here's the numbers:

C Citi $3.97 30.000 $119.10

That's a $1.20 loss over yesterday. As of right now in after-hours Citi is up to $4.12 so tomorrow I'm expecting it to start over $4.00 and stay there. I wonder if there will be a dip early on?

Tuesday, April 14th. Fun Fund Day Two

Today's lesson is in "the dip".

The Fun Fund started strong out of the gate again. As Citi was very active in after hours trading it opened at $4.22 and then, over the next 45 minutes, surged up to around $4.48. But then.... plop. Well, not a "plop" as much as a long, slow slide back down.

I woke up early to watch it, excited to see what it would do. I got fooled into thinking it would stay strong, but put in a stop-loss order at $3.80 just in case. Then I went back to sleep.
But the lesson was learned. A lot of action takes place right after the opening. Anything can happen. Knowing then what I know now I probably wouldn't have sold at the peak. I'm hoping to see Citi get to $5 a share as that would bring the Fun Fund back to it's original $150 starting point. But trust me on this, Friday morning when Citi's earnings report comes out I will be wide awake and caffeinated at 6:30am when the market opens. Also, buy that time I will have an absolute number (which is $5 right now but subject to change) at which point I will sell. Trying some of that "discipline" I've been hearing so much about.

I have also started the account opening process with SogoTrade where I can get $3 trades. I can make that amount lower if I find that I'm trading a lot. They offer monthly packages which can bring the trades down to $2 or even $1.50. Wow, $3 in and out? I could work on tighter margins then.

Here's the Fun Fund for today:

C Citigroup $4.01 30.000 $120.30 (less 9.95 commission)

That means I've gone from being $58.80 in the hole to being $29.10 in the hole. Getting closer to goal #1!

I'm Feeling Giddy

Lots of chatter about Citi trading a bit above $4 in the after hours markets. This is making me excited about tomorrow. But I'm also wary about a pre-earnings peak so I'm thinking I should maybe stick to my $5 ceiling.

Monday, April 13th. Fun Fund Day One.

It's a crazy, stormy afternoon here in Portland, but it was all sunshine and roses for the Fun Fund today. My Citi stock came out of the gate strong, plateaued a bit, but then continued an upward climb. I did put in a sell order at $4.50, but our little pony did not get quite that high. Instead, Citi closed at $3.80, up $0.76 a share. Not too shabby. The people who track such things say that Citi continues strong in after-hours trading (which I am not yet hip to so much).
I think my current online broker (Sharebuilder) kinda hosed me out of some free trades that I should have gotten for opening an IRA with them. They gave me three free automatic investment trades, which is a service I don't use. The certainly rekindles my desire to get a new online broker. Probably have to wait until the beginning of the month though.
So here's where we are:

C Citigroup $3.80 30.000 $114.00 (less $9.95 comission)

Still planning on holding Citi until earnings come out on Friday. But if it hits $5 this week I'll probably dump it then.

Limit Orders in a Rally

Citi is on the way up. Just put in a limit order to sell if the share price hits $4.50 before the market closes today. hopehopehope

Citi Earnings Report

Citigroup's 1Q earnings report comes out this Friday, April 17th before the market opens. Looks like I'm gonna hold onto my C stock until then, wake up early on Friday to catch the report, and then really keep my eye on what the stock does. People's best guesses are going both ways with the optimists hoping that Wells Fargo's positive earing report bodes well for the rest of the financial sector and the pessimests bringing forth images of a Citi stock trading at $3.04 being overvalued by $3.04.

So. Gonna have to go by my gut on this one

Unrealistic Expectations

My wife thinks I should grow the Fun Fund to 60K by this time next year in order to pay for a European vacation.

I think my wife is funny.

What it is.

It's Good Friday and the markets are closed, so why not start a blog about what I'm doing with what scant discretionary income I have. Why not, indeed.
My name is Christopher Eric Orvieto Ashley (or just Chris) and I am a 39 year old MBA student at a Willamette University in Oregon. I am not now, nor have I ever been a stock broker, analyst, or employed in any way in high finance.
Our economy is in the pits. But just as that's true it's also true that it's an excellent time to buy stuff, like stocks. Once powerful blue chips are penny stocks, so why not snap them up?
Back on March 10th Ben Bernanke stated that no more big banks would be allowed to fail. I read that as a signal not to be afraid to buy up some bank stocks. No more would investor's money disappear when the next Lehman Brothers sank to the bottom of the sea. No! US Taxpayer dollars will shore up those lofty beasts! My tax dollars. So, I'm gonna try and earn it back by becoming a swing trader.

What do I mean by "swing trader"? No, I'm not swapping my portfolio with other traders on drunken Saturday nights. What my strategy is is to take advantage of short term (generally less than a week) up swings in specific stocks. Buy low, sell high. Basic stock trading 101. So how's it going so far?

On March 11th I put $150 into my online brokerage and bought 90 shares of Citibank (NYSE:C) at $1.53. I sat on that until March 18th when I sold all the shares at $3.145. My first score! Unfortunately I was flat broke at that moment and instead of reinvesting the gains I put them in my wallet. But I kept a little more than my origional seed money and with that on March 24 I bought 7 shares at $20.69 of Finacial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE:FAZ) which is a fund that seeks daily results of 300% of the inverse of the financial market. I thought that the little rally had just happened would sink back down and.... I was wrong. My first loss! I sold the FAZ shares on April 3rd at $17.84. The Bank of Ireland (NYSE:IRE) was showing some explosive growth at this time (I had some shares in my IRA) so I tried to jump on that buying 23 shares at $4.38. It kinda stalled so I got out at $4.54 and once again got on the Citibank band wagon snapping up 30 shares at $2.95 on April 9th. And that's where I am now.

So, at the close yesterday, the Fun Fund looks like
C Citigroup $3.04 30.0000 $91.20

That means I'm down $58.80 from my origional seed. Which means I have two immediate goals:

1) Find another discount broker. My current broker charges $9.95 per trade, which means that I don't even break even until a stock is up $19.90 over it's starting position. That's not going to work for me.
2) Get the Fun Fund back up to $150 in as short a period as I can.

What it is is what it is.