Good trades - Any positive news? Anybody?

Anybody making money anywhere lately? I wrote BUD Dec 60 puts when the premium was $4.50 (closed them out at $0.60) and I bought HPC at 16.89 on Halloween and made close to 20% in 2 weeks (10% cash on cash, 8% stock return now that ASH has gotten crushed the last few days) That said my portfolio has been getting crushed… but come on people… there has to be some positive news out there. A lot of depressing posts these days

My Yen has been working, and I have been mostly in cash since Fall 2007 (check my background its been written), so my cash has done well relatively. My stock picks…not so much.

News: “Studies show that happiness is good.” Trade: Buy Pfizer or Merck.

Ammo and gun stocks.

I shorted SPG @55 and 56

Nice I bought a couple of out of the money puts on SPG last week when it was ~$55 It probably would have made my happy list but I got too excited when it dropped to $50 and covered. Made a little over 50% but on a very small $$ amount and missed out on 240% since

my favourite trade right now is probably long soybeans/corn/wheat vs short copper/ali/zinc. Global growth is not going to recover fast, depressing industrial metals, but the fundamentals are still there for a powerful grains rally (lack of water, acreage, population growth etc). Up until now they have been beaten up equally. My best trade this year has been shorting the turkish lira. Eastern europe is looking pretty grim. This thing could still go a LOT further. Stocks wise, I’d have thought the CME should do well from the plans to clear CDS through an exchange, but I don’t really follow individual stocks.

The only positive trade I have ( actually it’s my only trade) was buying those SPACS someone recommended a month ago. Other than that, my portfolio is probably down 35% for the year, but I’ll never know as I don’t plan on checking any time soon.

Up about 4% over a year ago as I’ve been 90% cash and 10% junk bonds for about a year.

Long Trucking, Truck OEMs, Ag Shorting my friend who is writing L1 in 2 weeks…no way in hell he passes, depsite it being his 3rd whack.

Short GS and C and wait for them to go to zero like LEH.

My portfolio through the year was up about 4% as of a week ago. I was long the SKF, double inverse financial ETF, that helped to make up for earlier losses in the year. I’ve taken some hits this week thinking we would see a bounce in the financials. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong and I’m down ~20% now. I’m young and extremely aggressive with my investments and am still ahead of the S&P by 25%. So my Alpha isn’t too shabby.

I’m dissapointed I didn’t short financials… I had a heavy underweight to the sector feeling like they would fall but didn’t act to short even though I thought it was a good idea. I need to listen to myself more.

Dont be too disappointed…short GS, C etc. now…they will all go near zero. This runaway freight train has yet to derail. Short on every one of those fake rallies…there will be another one soon to lure new naive long investors.

i hear ya JasonU, lately I’ve been leaving extra profits on the table too…

SDS and DXD have been amazing for me. I shifted all my cash to these two and have just been trading them. They have been phenomenal!

SDS and DXD have been amazing for me. I shifted all my cash to these two and have just been trading them. They have been phenomenal!

mo34 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The only positive trade I have ( actually it’s my > only trade) was buying those SPACS someone > recommended a month ago. > > Other than that, my portfolio is probably down > 35% for the year, but I’ll never know as I don’t > plan on checking any time soon. You’re welcome. Although I hope you did your own DD first, scary to think someone is buying stuff off AF advice.

NakedPuts Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > mo34 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > The only positive trade I have ( actually it’s > my > > only trade) was buying those SPACS someone > > recommended a month ago. > > > > Other than that, my portfolio is probably down > > 35% for the year, but I’ll never know as I > don’t > > plan on checking any time soon. > > You’re welcome. Although I hope you did your own > DD first, scary to think someone is buying stuff > off AF advice. I did my “homework” and found 4 SPACS that hold nothing but Treasuries (AMV, PEX, CLA, GAC). The first to mature is GAC at $6 book value in February 1st. 2009 , it was selling at $5.5. I am waiting to see what the procedures are when they mature. Thanks for the great tip. Do you know of any “free” online database for these things ?

Positive news - how about managed futures / CTAs? Been making a killing all the way through this in pretty much all asset classes: Equities down Bonds up Commodities up then down Also various currency pairs A quick check of our funds show they are up 11% over the year on the whole. If I could be bothered to run a report, i’m sure the long term trend followers would show 20% gains. No sign of slowing down this month, a good hedge to other strategies.