Semper Fi

So this morning everyone is waiting on politics... I hate politics. Always ruins everything. Anyway things have been up and down, there have been some good reviews of written by like minded people about ATVI. Shares are up to a little above my purchase price (wish I could say the same for Citi) and I am feeling pretty good.

In other news (if you can call it that) Apple is currently announcing the new iPad. Honestly.... I am not in the least impressed. Sure its a cool idea, but really this was what all the hype was for... a tablet? I am sure it will be bought in droves because where Apple goes ALL must follow. Maybe its just me, but an over sized clunky iPhone is not high on my buy list. And as for apps? Honestly how many apps do you just buy, use once and then end up just taking up space (and money).

Don't get me wrong, Apple is going to kill, financially, with this product. From an investers point of view this is gold. The Apple Army will hear Steve's summons and buy this and any and all apps (which cost nothing for Apple to make, but get their fair share of the profits). This will be a must have for anyone who sits in a cafe dying for attention.

Cynical? Me? No... Ok maybe. Don't get me wrong, I own a Macbook Pro, its pretty nice. I have always loved Apple cause they have always done their own thing and made things useful (and cool). But that is what I don't like about the tablet... usually they blow your mind with the products because they come out of nowhere. But the iPad was there, its not new, its not even that innovative. Maybe this is the turning point for old Apple, perhaps Jobs has lost his magic touch. I doubt anyone will notice with only a $499 pricetag...

Semper Fidelis

Initial Balance: $500.00
Current Balance: $469.06
Cash: $224.82
Stock: (as of post)
35 shares Citigroup $110.60
13 shares Activision/Blizzard $133.64
Total (+/-): $-30.94

Sorry about the rant...
-tCT

Feelings... nothing more than feelings

It appears that I have much in common with the man with the golden
touch. Like him, everything I touch changes... just not for the
better. Though I am still extremely confident in Activision/Blizzard,
the share price has dropped almost 50 points ($.50) since I bought.
Perhaps this is a good thing...? I am trying to figure out why
Activision was hit so hard, but all I can figure is that people are
fickle. The shares have a 5 star CAPS rating (which is good) and
honestly I do not see how they could not go up in the long run. We
will just have to wait and see.

The more I trade the more I realize that share prices have more to do
with the overall "feel" of the economy, them the actual numbers a
company puts up. This can be frustrating, as "feelings" are hard to
gauge and are quick to change. Seeing as how my "investment project"
turned from short-term trading, to long term (due to my throwing money
at anything that moves...) it seems that I am going to hold threw the
ups and downs.

Not much is going on today, today has been more about politics then
business... Work has taken my attention so I do not have any cool
stories to discuss.

"Here's looking at you kid ATVI..."

Initial Balance: $500.00
Current Balance: $465.20
Cash: $224.82
Stock: (as of post)
35 shares Citigroup $110.25
13 shares Activision/Blizzard $130.13
Total (+/-): $-34.80

-tCT

A snow storm is coming...

So I have come to realize that while I do not know much about investing, there are things I do know. I know video games... So I am now the proud (and I really mean it this time) owner of 13 shares of Activision/Blizzard (ATVI). I have been playing Blizzard games for years, they are the company responsible for titles such as Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and recently World of Warcraft (perhaps you have heard of the most lucrative MMORPG ever made with millions of players).

The most important thing to remember about Blizzard, and why now is a good time to buy, is they will be releasing 3 best selling titles within the next 2 years.

First, on the list is World of Warcrafts latest expansion Cataclysm. Cataclysm adds additional content to an already amazing game. Cataclysm will drastically change the way the game looks and is played with the addition of two new races to choose from, as well as drastically changing the landscape of the original world. Depending on how WoW advertises the new expansion it may or may not bring in new subscribers, but what it most definitely will do is bring back tons of old subscribers. As with any expansion, their is always a lull before people start playing again, and we are at that point. With the addition of new technology to drive the game, it promises to offer a whole new experience for gamers.

And then their is Diablo III. The Diablo franchise has produced some of the best RPG games of all time, and they are still played by droves of people online and off. Unlike WoW which is a constantly changing continuous game, Diablo is a storyline driven RPG. That means that their is a story, and it will end. Some may say that this limits the amount of replayability of the game, but not so for Diablo. Diablo offers the player the chance to play alone, or group online with friends or random people. Diablo III is all about the story, but it is also all about the way you play, but really its all about the story, and the way you play... What I am saying is that Diablo has and will continue to have an amazing storyline (incredibly well written for a novel, let alone a game) and it also has and will have an amazing playability, with the ability to keep people coming back to it. The prerelease graphics are thus far outstanding, and we aren't even to testing yet! Diablo III will be a best seller for namesake alone, and then will earn countless of others with its amazing game play mechanics, graphics and story telling.

Lastly (and in my opinion most important), the long awaited (11 years have passed since the original) arrival of Starcraft 2. Starcraft is like the dollar, anyone making a RTS game compares to Starcraft (and generally falls short). Starcraft 2 plans to build off this, and so far it looks incredible! Don't think that this game is a one trick pony either, they are making development kits readily available for anyone to create and sell their own games using the Starcraft 2 platform. That means they will be getting revenue from their own game sales, as well as revenue from games made by other people. The few demo games made using this as a platform that I have seen, are incredible. Starcraft 2 could be a best seller on its own, and will be, but with the addition of extremely versatile developer tools, SC2 is going to be unstoppable. Let me put it this way, how many video games can boast to being a Country (S.Korea) National Sport. Starcraft can...

If a company were to produce just one of these games, they would do well for themselves. Blizzard plans to release 2 of the 3 games this year, and the third to follow next year. Though keep in mind, Blizzard does not, and will not produce crap products. They will release these games when the games are ready, not when the market is ready. Though this may cause issues with timing the market, they do not care. They are all about making great video games. And that is why I love Blizzard...

"This game has found a home in South Korea, where many play it professionally as a spectator sport. It is the most popular professionally played game due to its immense popularity in South Korea, where the best pro-gamers are seen as celebrities." -Wikipedia

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $470.38

Cash: $224.82

Stock: (as of post)

35 shares Citigroup $112.70

13 shares Activision/Blizzard $132.86

Total (+/-): $-29.62

-tCT

OH NO!!

I wasn't paying attention to my BRK-B and it already split. Luckily the price has staid relevantly constant, but I should have been paying more attention. Well this changes everything... I thought it would take them longer to split the stock after approval, WRONG! So now they are on the market, and I am not positioned to buy them.

Well, hopefully things will stay stead till Monday, when I will be able to buy them (though I am still undecided as to whether I will). So many things to watch, and so little time to pay attention.

In other news Citi has still reported net gains on the day, though they are coming back down. I have been reading everywhere and no one says whats going on, almost like they are trying not to say whats happening. If I believed in conspiracies I would be worried, but luckily I believe in the irrationality of traders. So there is still an hour left in the trading day, which means an hour left for Citi to further disappoint.

In other other news, everything is dropping like hotcakes, I think I am experiencing my first "sell off".

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $480.95

Cash: $366.50

Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $114.45(as of post)

Total (+/-): $-19.05

-tCT

Charles Sch... what?

Sorry things have been a little slow. Accounts take forever to set up... I finally have my Schwab account ready to go, but I still need to transfer money into it, which of course takes times. You would think that with technology these days they could do same day transfers.

I don't know if you have been paying attention, but the fallout from Obama's bank restriction plan continues to spread. I am not sure why, but Citi has not dropped as far as the rest of the financials. I have been looking everywhere as to the reason for this, but I can not find one. After bottoming out at about 3.25, today it is up 3% to 3.37... What the heck? All the news is doom and gloom and how Citi was hit the worst, and yet it is still moving up. Weird.

AMD, a company I have always though could be a great company if only they tried is down 9.12%. This is either a sign of bad times to come, or an excellent time to buy, but with my luck, probably the former. Seeing as how I won't be able to make any trades till Monday, I suppose I will just have to watch and wait.

I feel like I have missed out on a lot of opportunities spending time opening accounts, but then again perhaps I have saved myself from a lot of losses as well... One can never be sure.

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $483.75

Cash: $366.50

Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $117.25(as of post)

Total (+/-): $-16.25

-tCT

Sick...

Like me, the stock markets this week have been not feeling well. First banks reported for last quarter, and even though it was better then expected in most cases, stocks have been up and down. Second, the President has decided to regulate banks further by reducing the size of larger banks. Obviously this has people going mad, pulling their money away from large banks (thats what I get for holding Citi...).

Also while I was ill, I started the process of opening a Charles Schwab account. I just couldn't pass up the better features and lower commission. I have my investing money all ready to deposit I just have to wait to link my account. As I am still feeling a bit under the weather, I do not feel like looking at any stocks at the moment. Though I am still planning on buying in the days to come.

"This is not good..."

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $482.00

Cash: $366.50

Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $115.50 (as of post)

Total (+/-): $-18.00

The Plague

So after learning too much about the company (Citi) I am invested in, I have decided if I am to get rich it will not be with them. I am going to wait and see what happens this week, and if I can break even I will sell. If I can not break even, I will hold until the lose isn't too bad, and then sell.

This company is awful, if you read about how they are run, and what they are doing... WOW! Honestly, the way they are handling the bailout money, and paying it back (or rather getting tax breaks to pay for paying it back) you would think the bank industry is dying. Oh wait, what's that you say? A majority of the banks who were lent money by the government have paid it back already? Citi is sitting on their thumbs you say? No one you know has even seen a Citi Bank let alone banked at one?

Honestly, I am glad I found such an awful company to do my initial investment with. How else would I learn that your supposed to do your research before you invest instead of after. I don't even care if prices do go up in the future and I miss out on some nice gains, I won't be putting any money into Citi.

"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks" Warren Buffett

We will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

-tCT

MLK Day

In honor of Martin Luther King day, the markets are closed. I am glad because this gives me the opportunity to put the remaining cash I had planned for this project, into my account.

So that brings me to another hurdle. As you know (or don't) I started this project with the intent to trade actively. And while I had to overcome a few hurdles to make this work, it is still my intent to trade. The problem is I have come across an long term investment opportunity that I think would be foolish to pass up, but I don't have any actual investment measures set up, and any investments I make until I do, will be with my active trading account... using my active accounts trading money. Though I am sure I could always invest seriously for now, and then put more money in to continue this project later, that just doesn't seem right...

So what is the investment that I am talking about? Well I can't (and legally do not) make any promises about this but I feel the upcoming months will be an excellent time to invest in Berkshire Hathaway. If you were unsure, Berkshire Hathaway is a little company run by a man named Warren Buffett (currently one of the richest people in the world, if not richest). They have two holdings BRK-A and BRK-B, on the exchange. Because Buffett has a very serious take on investments, and does not want his companies holdings to be activily traded, he never split his shares to decrease the value per share. BRK-A trades at $97,500.00 per share, and BRK-B trades at $3,247.00. These stocks have both had steady gains and in my opinion (which please recall is no opinion at all) are very good investments.

Obviously I could not afford even 1 share of either holding, but thats where this piece of news comes in... BRK-B will soon be splitting 50 for 1. Which means that people who own 1 share currently will soon own 50 shares at roughly $65 a piece. With the price coming down to more modest sums I am thinking it is a good time to invest.

So I will have to decide whether to invest for fun, or for my future... dumb.

Since the markets are closed, no change has been made to my +/-, though with Citi announcing their earnings tomorrow... I am less then excited.

-tCT

....

Today was a very trying day, and it has made me truly reconsider this investing project.

First, I realized the importance of knowing the commission rates on trades, and how those will effect your margins.

Second, I found out that millions of other people use the name clueless trader, which I probably could of and should have figured out before I made this blog, and now I feel compelled to change the name.

And last but not definitely not least, I read this article... Out of the 6 biggest mistakes listed on this article, I was clearly at fault for 4, and partially at fault for another. That means I was making 5 blatant mistakes, and I had only bought 35 shares in one company... That is not good...

I bought Citi cause I heard about it on the news (#2 Following the Heard), I had intended to sell it in the short term (#3 Timing the Market), I had justified my purchase of Citi on past results (#4 Assume More Control Than You Have), I paid a 9.95 to buy $123 worth of shares roughly 8% just to buy (#5 Paying Too Much In Fees), and I "knew" it would pay off... (#1 Overconfidence). The only thing I can not be blamed for is #6 Trusting Brokers, and that is only because I do not have one...

But a man is tested by how he handles adversity, and I am determined to take this at a learning experience and continue. It is better to learn this now, than to have learned it with my life savings. If I want to succeed, I must learn from my mistakes and try to emulate my betters. So with that said, I am somewhat glad that I can not buy any further shares until next week. It will give me all weekend to do more research, and actually know what it is that I am investing in (what a concept!).

So tomorrow I will make a few changes to the blog, and then with the weekend will come a mass amount of research, and further learning on what it is I am actually doing...

Until then...

-

Whats in a name...

Well dang... Did you know there is a 'the clueless g trader' already? Maybe I should have looked haha. Well I don't want to take a name from someone doing the same thing... Even if I do a better job. Well I'll have to think about a name change...

Another Day, Another Lesson

So I realized a major draw back to my small scale trading is that the commission rates ($9.95 per trade Sharebuilder) drastically cut any gains I make on a stock. Just to get out of Citi with no losses I need to sell the shares at $4.10. That is a 16% increase on my purchase price… Sure that doesn’t sound like much, but 16% increase on a stock is huge and I can’t even be sure that it will ever happen (unless I am very lucky). So from here on out, I must consider this $19.90 flat cost in my trades…

Don’t get me wrong; while this is a significant blow to my future trading, I have not lost hope. Its better that I learned this now, then to have sold my Citi at what I thought would be a gain, just to realize a loss.

So my greed has been further refined, though not completely defined. I will have to wait and see with Citi, no point in rushing into a rash decision.

In other news, a little company known as Intel (perhaps you’ve heard of them) just posted decent results. I mean, sure they blasted beyond expected results, but it’s Intel… what else is new.

Sadly there will be no new purchases till next week. Please don’t cry... I promise I will buy more stocks early next week!

“In the world of economics there are gains and there are loses. Gains wanted.”

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $489.35

Cash: $366.50

Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $122.85 (as of post)

Total (+/-): $-10.65

-tCT

Well, sir...

I just read an excellent article “How to Fail at Investing in 5 Easy Steps” written by The Motley Fool. I was hoping that I, on my own, was not doing any of those 5 steps… And while I may be at fault for jumping on the Citigroup bandwagon well after its prime, I have not yet fallen into any of the other 5 mistakes… I hope.

Due to my persistent lack of depositing the remaining cash in my account, I have had a lot of time to analyze the stocks I was considering. I am starting to worry about my good friend E*trade. I had hoped that I would get my shares, and then they would go head to head with Schwab on pricing. But up to this point it seems they have no bark, let alone bite. Do I have time, or a dud?

That leads me to Nvidia which is down (as of post), probably because Intel is putting numbers out later today. I am still fairly confident in Nvidia and I am hoping to use it as my anchor in questionable times.

So until someone writes “How to Fail at Investing by Reading theCluelessTrader” I will still feel good and I am having fun trading. Who knew economics could be fun…?

Initial Balance: $500.00
Current Balance: $489.35
Cash: $366.50
Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $122.85 (as of post)
Total (+/-): $-10.65


-tCT

Jumping Ship

So I have been hearing rumors that Charles Schwab has started a price war in the trading market. As price wars are always a good thing for the consumer, I took a look at what they have to offer... Let's just say the simplicity of sharebuild.com is not an industry standard. On sharebuilder you had pretty much two options, buy or sell. You put in the name of the stock, indicated buy or sell, and quantity, it shows you price and DONE.

Well if I want to play with the big boys, it's time I upgrade... Both Schwab and Etrade offer amazing analytical tools and make trading easy. You can set them up to watch stocks for you, so you don't have to sit around to buy or sell (where is the fun in that...). I was leaning towards Schwab because they dropped the commission rate down to a cool $8.95 a trade, which would save me $1 a trade, and I get all the cool features.

Assuming Etrade does not undercut them (I truely hope they do!) by January 19th, when the new pricing is in effect, I will most likely jump ship and join the ranks of other schwabinistas, or is it schwabians?

In the mean time Citigroup is down to 3.50 as of closing. People are nervous about the feds decision on the "bank tax" tomorrow I'll wager, so I am debating to buy anything further until that subsides. Perhaps it will drop the industry across the board, making for a lower/riskier buy of Etrade all the more interesting.

I am looking at Nvidia (NVDA) as a possible start to my tech. Strong company, and you know sooner or later they are going to put out their new GPU's which will blow ATI out of the water.

"Business it's the AMERICAN way!"

(Sam Eagle, Muppet's Christmas Carole)

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $489.00

Cash: $366.50

Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $122.50 (as of post)

Total (+/-): $-11.00

-tCT

Banking Tax...

So with the new day comes news of a “bank tax” to be defined later this month. So because people are easily frightened, my poor Citigroup (C) stocks were down but are coming back (as of post). I am expecting a quick dip now followed by a timid increase, just prior to tax announcement, and then hold my breathe and wait for the fallout of the announcement.

Due to a user error with my Sharebuilder account (ie I haven’t deposited the rest of the cash I promised to this project), I have to hold off on buying my good friend E*Trade (ETFC). I am excited to see though that it has staid relatively constant. E*Trade as you may or may not recall, was not granted money by TARP. This point, I hope, will see to it they aren’t hit too hard by the White House demand for blood (and their money back) from the industry.

So I must wait, wait until I get paid… The next stock on my docket is going to be in a non banking sector, most likely technology. As the good people at Wu Tang Clan Financial always say “you need to diversify your bonds…” I'll just assume they mean stock too.

Initial Balance: $500.00
Current Balance: $490.40
Cash: $366.50
Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $123.90 (as of post)
Total (+/-): $-9.60

-tCT

Learning Time...

So apparently there are a few things I needed to know about trading. First, the trading day starts at 6 AM (PST) and ends 1 PM. I would wager that this is a hold over from the old days, because you can still trade during "after hours". Why they need the distinction is beyond me... maybe keeping data on 24 hours of trading was just too much.

Personally I think it skews information, because after hour trading does not seem to be recorded (Please correct me if I am wrong). So as of this post my after hour Citigroup shares are at 3.54 a share (up $0.01 from my buy price), oh life is good!'

Another note, apparently when you buy/sell shares, there is a 3 day delay. So if you buy stock on Monday, you don't technically have it until Thursday. You still buy it for the price you agreed upon, but don't have immediate possession of it. Same for sales, if you sell a stock, the sale is actually made 3 days later (ie you don't get money for 3 days).



Now some of you might wonder, as I did, what if you buy something and then decide to sell it that day? Well no problem, you buy it for an agreed price, and then sell it for another agreed price. You come into possession 3 days after purchase, and then it leaves you 3 days after sales. This too I am told is a hold over from when stocks were pieces of paper needing to be physically moved. This also facilitates "selling short", but this is over my head, so I won't discuss it yet.

So anyway as I previously mentioned, I have been doing research into E*Trade. It seems to have a good history and after reading up about their recent troubles, I am glad to see they are getting away from the mortgage industry that brought them down. We will see if I still feel that way come buying day.

I apologize for the wordiness, but no one said learning was easy... I hope to integrate graphs and other things into my posts soon.

My First Trade

Last week I decided I wanted to try my hand at trading. Since I am poor, and not too much of a fool, I set aside $500 to trade as I saw fit. I consider this money a loss, so if I make some stupid mistakes, thats alright.

As of today, I am the proud owner of 35 shares of Citigroup Bank (C). I bought these shares at $3.53 pre share, with a 9.95 commission to Sharebuilder.com. Sharebuilder is pretty easy to use, and once the money was transfered to my account, I made the trade in about 5 minutes. The process is almost too easy...

When all was said and done, I was given this receipt and am now the proud owner of 35 shares of C. I chose citigroup because I have a firm belief that sooner or later the market will turn around, and citigroup will still be there when it does. I have not yet found the limit of my greed, so who knows at what point I will sell.

As of this post, I have already lost $.01 a share...

Initial Balance: $500.00

Current Balance: $489.70

Cash: $366.50

Stock: 35 shares Citigroup $123.20 (as of post)

Total (+/-): $-10.30

With the next post, will come more transactions, I'm looking at you Etrade (another long run possibility).