I am no longer a millionaire. I finally looked at the account. My wife yelled at me and told me I had to look; the papers have been piling up in the corner; the beard stubble grows longer each day and the lines under the eyes deepen. More hair falls out. I am no longer a millionaire. The sound of that makes no sense. So much is gone, so very very much. And all my life plans all my borrowings are based off being just barely a millionaire and now I am not. I now must swear off the $100 Union Square Lunch's and think about the very real problem of having no money. How will I pay my taxes? When you lose this much money in one year you know it's never coming back... what to do? Cut and run and take what's left? Hide somewhere, but where? The Caribbean? I have a kid in pre school, I'm trapped... my name is the StonedInvestor and I am no longer a millionaire. Pity us all. Sorry fools of optimism always on the outside, doing it all ourselves. No options, no stock grants, no special favors- just a cog in an unregulated system where short sellers run amuck and a gov is prodded into action only after always lower prices. Pity the long term fool who has been fully invested through all of this single digit madness. Oh the grief now that i have looked. How suddenly it becomes REAL. I hate the mail ever more. ~ stoney
Stop being a waste. Realize the cards have been stacked against you all along but you had the mindset to make the best of it. You mindset has now changed to that of a bitch and you wonder why your wealth has deteriorated. Get back the GO-getter attitude that made your first mil and do some compounding because I promise you the opportunities have not stopped rolling.
Thanks for the pep talk I guess. It's tough, I stare at my 4 year old differently now- the market along with the news of dirty bombs out of the British M6 have gotten me disjointed. I agree I am a scared little byatch right now, but I have also lost so much it is tough to look at the future in the same way. The thought of having to enter the workforce now with so few talents and such high standards- I need my own desk, to be allowed to sit in my underwear and smoke herb when market conditions warrant... it doesn't sound like a lot to ask but to certain employers it is too much. That is why I gravitated to retail I guess, but I don't want to go back into that game, especially not now. I could be a writer but that doesn't pay very well. It's tough. The first part of any " awakening " is the looking at the accounts. I have been unable to do so and that has allowed me to continue investing happily. Now that I have looked I may be paralyzed in fear. Lets take a step back and look at what we have done well lately (for you all) and try to forget the larger picture for the moment. Before I begin I should state that I have never had a thread here at ET with less than 4 STARS. As I have stated before I have no idea how these STARS are voted upon or who does the voting, if I could I would surely vote for myself. Not only have I been perfectly honest with you all, I have bared my soul to a large degree, admitting the fear & panic which has consumed me now that I have looked at the statements... Ok lets start with the stk we began this thread with Ocean Power OPTT. $4.60 - $5.60 you are all welcome except me who failed to buy. I ran a separate piece in stks about the credit card companies - this has worked out well- AXP (Barron's Game too) $18.00 to $22.00 and V $44- $50. You are welcome. PETS has given us a buck upside but looks slow in these rebounding conditions.... In our screen here for what the Hedge Funds are buying we bought BRL & NAV... BRL has been relatively flat and is being sold today, NAV has roared from $16 to $19, that's a keeper and you are welcome. AMZN has been troublesome, it's back on the way up initial buy at $40 re buy at $37.50, now at $42, it just feels like a lot of work watching this stock. There is an article in BW I think with the CEO... if you are a big thinker it's hard not to love what this company can do... but is this " big thinking " market now or shoot and ask questions later?... nervous here. URBN- Likewise a tough buy... 1st purchase at $16 and I just let it fall to $13, it's back to $16. No gain, just pain watching it. The best looking retail stock might be tiny LULU! On 5th ave and 21 st street NYC across from where I work out the Vitamin Store space which has been vacant for quite some time is opening this weekend as Lulu! Surely a good sign, earnings are dec 11th, I like this name. TRLG I bottom fished at a nice price but again, $150 jeans in this environment maybe not the place to be, a bit down the price scale but not much brings you to GUESS... I haven't bought yet but this is a stk you want to keep on your watch list. GMCR The swing trade that wasn't. Seems to have lost momentum. Slight gain. Single serving coffee machines ARE going to be a big X-mas gift this year, but I'm nervous in this name too. ADM has been our litle Ag monster. We have covered this one well for you all in past threads. I also own a big chunk of Agrium not doing as well. In tech I have virtually nothing. My top pick remains FFIV @ $23.50 just as it was at $22.00 I have not bought. (My Mom bought IBM yesterday) My favorite mo mo play is FSYS. Not in, I cashed out smartly after the huge pop on earnings and have been watching for a base, that may have come yesterday, stk up with oil down... a rarity. That's about it from the stonedinvesting headquarters Foster Wheeler FWLT, has been looking nice, I'm hot on that today and homebuilder Meritage @ $8.60 is interesting too, especially when you consider Friday it was $6.60! If you want a real risky play- I do love TUNE, I bought some recently @ $1.90, look at the chart now @ $2.12.... Now I'm not looking! Don't misread this post. In order to ensure that the market keeps recovering, I must show no interest in stocks, I must do no research. These are all names we were using before the great reveal, The Awakening of the stonedinvestor. ~ si
Your answer is in your post. 4 year old. They say a child laughs 66 times a day,an adult 6. When we laugh a releases a chemical that's an upper. Laugh with your child, he or she will teach you whats important and the rest will fall into place,your present knowledge and your new found energy will turn things around, treat yourself to a new set of boxers,that would be a new suit for the office in your case.
It's true all. One of the tried and trusted ways of investing is to massage your watch list and bear market or not no one does that better than me i don't think. I'll spare you the reams and reams of reasons why and just cut to the chase- certain stocks remained up today when the market was down- those are the stocks to buy. The Three Names You Want To Own Here Are 1- URBN 2- NAV 3- FWLT Just missing the cut are a) COGT b) FSYS c) GMCR I am obviously quite rattled and burned out and indeed as some nice folks have suggested I might serve myself well by hibernating in Dec and returning in January hopefully to a new uptrend... I'm seriously considering this suggestion. The above names are my last buys ( I know I have said that before!) Urban I'm adding too, really believe in management. NAV we already bought and have a nice gain but I'm buying more tomorrow so that it can't be said I am front running. FWLT will be a new purchase. In the watch list- GMCR completed it's swing and as soon as I sold I had a bit of buyers remorse, so I'll be looking for a re entry there and ditto FSYS, I sold on the earnings report and if it had volume I'd be in today but it's running light. The fact that this alt energy play is up as oil plunges tells me the sellers are now out of this name. I would like to put an end to this thread on an up note, I'm having a hard time coming up with one. Lets see what the future brings. Peace ~ stoney
Having been truely beaten, whipped, humbled, etc by the market in my time let me suggest that you focus on what you have rather than what you don't, at least for the short term. Taking a break from the market and news cycle will help tremendously too, you won't be making anything but you won't be losing either and frankly right now you are in no condition to make sound trading judgements. Take a break, spend time with your family and reconnect to what is really important in life. Maybe volunteer at a family homeless shelter, get in to great shape with a fitness regimen if you are not already on one. You will be your old self in no time full of enthusiasm and ready to tackle the beast once more. Best wishes to you SI.