Thursday, November 6, 2008

Back from my wallstreet hiatus

Well, after the market fell through the floor, after I lost a good portion of my long positions on such egregiously misleading stocks such as Chesapeake energy, and after the treachery of an election has passed, I decided to get back in.

I left 1 stock prior to market meltdown, Activision of course. Maybe I'm just a fanboi (sic) but it's still my favorite stock and after yesterday's earnings report I still think it will perform.

I took a long and hard look at my trading style and past performance. My biggest rookie mistake was not setting proper stop limits to minimize risk. That one mistake could have saved me a lot of grief. Also, I need to purchase stocks in smaller positions and slowly jump into them instead of all at once.

This may seem like simple principles, and they are! I think sometimes to realize what you read about and learn you need to practice it and fail at it, then you truly learn.

So, yesterday I bought a little, mostly on the short side. Here is what my portfolio looks like right now.

HK short at 18.10
FXP at 82.50
DUG at 40.10
and of course ATVI at a cost basis of 18.. ouch.