currently 14% short and 38% long..... I will put it this way......I didn't add to any of my long positions until the last 30 minutes of the day...(so I feel good about that)....But someone feels like he is wearing a dunce cap right now.... Funny how one can think they avoided this whole disaster only to get optimistic and start buying during the worst weak in decades......Wait for the bounce they say!!!! (someone should of listened) $COSTAverageMAN
$Cost - Don't beat yourself up too much - I closed out my short SPY & TWM positions today (TWM much too early and SDS on the close) and cautiously went long the dow through some DIA on the close. Mind you I have some OTM SPY puts that I purchased as lottery tickets up at about 1000 that are looking a lot more attractive right now! But still think that they are never going to see the light of day. That's ok, as that's what they are for - to give me the freedom to trade with a built in stop just in case. Strategy is to trade for alpha to buy distressed assets at historic lows... at least I hope there's a low coming eventually! I continue to buy CEF's here. I am aware I may need to live with my decisions for a long time, so I buy small. My only real disaster is my BGR where I have averaged down. Still having difficulty adapting to the concept of cheap oil - too much economic and geopolitical risk exists. Oh well. Shame on me. Have begun looking at and buying small on some of the Muni CEF's. Mixed feelings, so am not buying large at all. Will probably over diversify. See the post elsewhere on these. Good luck out there. Still about 50% cash, treasuries, other safer fixed income instruments. Full disclosure: Long BGR, MGU, RMA, ADX, JHP, & NPI. And yes, I am down in these.
Many closed end funds have been hit because they are forced to liquidate some inventory at fire sale prices when their leverage factor exceeds 33 percent. But some of the CEF discounts are over 50 percent now and more than compensate for this. Even many unleveraged CEF's have very high discounts. I think its time to load up.
In case someone is interested: Insiders / Management teams have started accumulating shares in their own funds: Example for BlackRock funds: Insider AMERO Buys 1,700 ($13.9K) Of BLACKROCK PREFERRED INCOME STRATEGIES FUND INC [PSY] Insider KEENAN Buys 3,000 ($29.7K) Of BLACKROCK DEFINED OPPORTUNITY CREDIT TRUST [BHL] Insider CAREY Buys 500 ($4.4K) Of BLACKROCK WORLD INVESTMENT TRUST [BWC] Insider CAREY Buys 500 ($4.4K) Of BLACKROCK INTL GROWTH & INCOME TRUST [BGY] Insider KEENAN Buys 9,000 ($35.5K) Of BLACKROCK CORPORATE HIGH YIELD FUND III [CYE] Insider KEENAN Buys 2,700 ($24K) Of BLACKROCK DEFINED OPPORTUNITY CREDIT TRUST [BHL] Or from ING: VP ZEMSKY Buys 1,000 ($12.2K) Of ING GLOBAL ADVANTAGE & PREMIUM OPPORTUNITY FUND [IGA] VP NORMAN Buys 2,000 ($7.7K) Of ING PRIME RATE TRUST [PPR] VP ROSEN Buys 2,000 ($7.7K) Of ING PRIME RATE TRUST [PPR] VP BAKALAR Buys 3,000 ($9.1K) Of ING PRIME RATE TRUST [PPR] VP NORMAN Buys 5,000 ($15K) Of ING PRIME RATE TRUST [PPR] Seems like there is real value in these funds. Oliver
###################################### how do you know - just curious. What do you mean by the initials "VP" - BTW where do I find details regarding these funds? Thank you. Charly
Hi the data is from Washington Service Associates (WSA). They release this data to Bloomberg, Reuters etc. VP means Vice President. Regards, Oliver
What did you buy? I bought: ADX (low buy was $7.52) BHD (low buy was $7.32) CAF (low buy was $19.88) JHP (low buy was $3.24) RMA (low buy was 0.84) BSD (low buy was $6.84) NPI (low buy was $9.10) DCS (paid a bit more - $2.73) Missed bids in IMS, NXP, IMT, LBC, EDF and IGR. Was too greedy. Now wishing I hadn't have been, but it could have gone the other way just as easily. Don't know if we see that again until the end of the year. May sell out of CAF at just under 30. ADX will sell out over 11. Others I think I will keep for a while and see what happens. Difference between you and me is that you bought like a man and I only bought small. Then again, there's bout 40 years between us and our retirement accounts. But give me a few more days like THAT and I'll be thinking about retirement a bit faster!
It's been a while since my last post and I came back to say dump your ultra short positions...IMHO.... If you are hedging with these positions at this level take your gains.....I did... The discounts got wiped out today and the best I can tell they have reached premiums of upward of 5% at different levels in todays trading......I personally feel we are reaching a level that we can bounce from again and I am happy to let these go at these levels.....SKF and SRS north of $250 are a sell.....closed EEV, TWM, EFU, SDS.....I actually went long UYG at 4.06.....Currently 18% Long, 2% short (DXD was left open), 10% gold, 65% cash, 5% UUP...... Some of the longs that I held through OCT. are hurting, but I added about 8% to the long side yesterday into the close and feel pretty good about it...It feels like a slow drift lower and lower with reflex bounces along the way...The bounces are opportunity to lighten up on longs and re supply on the short side.....Will open shorts back up around 900 level on S$P.....We might see it again 1st week in December...Just my opinion.. $COSTAverageMAN