If you remember my big position that was really hurting me was Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). I had purchased 230 shares of it back in November at around $12 and in the following two months I watched it quickly sink to under $6 at one point. I realized I'd need it to jump more than 100% just to get back to my cost base. I really hated this stock. Watching it go down day after day was very frustrating. So it recently made a jump up to the high $7's on speculation that IBM was going to be taking them over. So at that point I sold all my shares and actually shorted AMD (risky, I know). The shares continued to rise in the following days but on Friday it took a 5% dip as the speculation of an IBM takeover died down.
I've tried to ignore some of my longer term positions lately and just concentrate on buying some stocks so I can watch them throughout the day. I recently purchased LULU and it had a 5% spike - so I sold.
Another recent trade was Colgate (CL), just before they reported earnings I shorted it. However, the stock has not moved up or down since announcing earnings.
Stay tuned in the following weeks as I trim down my portfolio and try to take some calculated risks in order to get a big return!
I've deposited a total of $10,700 into the brokerage account and if I liquidated all my positions now I would only be able to cash out $9,500 (so that is very frustrating).
Any tips or comments would be appreciated.
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