Welcome December: Animal Activist Can't Prevent this Show Down.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend, but we are back to business come Monday 6:30am pst.

Alright, the markets ended the week with an impressive 5 day gain. If you ask me, the holiday spirits conjured up an early Christmas this year. Early reports are also suggesting that the busiest shopping day of the year (black friday) saw an increase of roughly 3% compared to last year, surprising the many who anticipated a slower holiday shopper turnout. *I for one was in San Francisco's Union Sq. and it was a freakin ZOO out there! (this goes back to my point on a previous entry, the cut back on spending as of late would lead to increase of spending during holiday season sales). Let's see how this pans out for the rest of the season though.

Citigroup’s decision to hold their own auction block, starting with NikkoCiti Trust and Banking Corp, and the anticipation of the automaker bailout should all lead to a continued rise in the markets this week. Not so great news for my December UBS puts. But I am still confident in the fact that the markets are not set for a complete turnaround. If the markets do continue to rise Monday onto Tuesday, we should see profit taking and increase in short interest toward the end of the week. ***update...I guess theres been some more negative tid bits from across seas leading to perhaps a lower open tomar...im at hooters getting my pervert on so ill read into the details later.

Personally, I am running out of bullets here so my dec. 10 UBS puts play is important to me. I currently have an active real estate deal which I hope to bank a couple thow-wow off commission. Fack a vacay! I’m taking the money and replenishing capital into my stock account if and when that takes place (fingers crossed). Being a versatile investor is important especially during these mood swing type markets. There maybe signs of nubs reappearing on my head, but I remain with a steady appetite for fish and campers.
- cheers The Hot Revolver.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving guys! I can't wait for all the food, and wine ;)! For now let's go over Wednesday's trades:

I sold all my long positions, outlined below:

Bought OOCLA at $130
Sold OOCLA at $140
Total Gain on Trade: 7.6%

This was my dreaded DRYS calls, I was happy to let them go at a profit. I don't think the company can last much longer as rates keep on dropping and their debt obligations keep on piling up.

Bought CLQ at $44
Sold CLQ at $80
Total Gain on Trade: 81%

Sold my calls options on Citi because I think markets will continue to go down in the near term. We had a nice 4 days up and I was happy to take advantage of that with these calls.

And positioned myself for the next few weeks:

Bought OOCXA at $120

I bought puts on DRYS because I don't have any faith in the company. Also, if I'm not buying a stock, it makes sense to sell it.

It was a good week, I reversed from going short last week to going long at the right time and was able to capitalize on the four day rally we had. I'm happy that I anticipated this trend and was positioned to take advantage of it.

On this day of thanks, I'd like to give my thanks to all of you that are reading this. Hope you all have a brilliant day!

-Nik

On a personal note: My heart goes out to all those affected by the terrorist attacks in Bombay. I was born in Bombay and have spent a lot of time there - it's my favorite city on this planet. I also have a lot of family and incredibly close friends there. For these reasons it's disheartening to see a bunch of cowards turn the city upside down. Bombay is a resilient city and will bounce back from this, the financial effects are yet to be seen as the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed today.

My beautiful city, I hope you get back on your feet soon.

Positioning for next week (post gobble gobble weekend!)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I've moved into two dozen Dec. 10 UBS puts today. We'll see how the market acts next week, will it continue the upward trend? or reel back and move in correlation with the actual economic status of the world! haha stay tuned! - jotti the hot revolver.

***Ration your appetite tomorrow, we don't want any more of these floatin' around next monday***

Hey Unc! I need snaps on the petro you got fade on it???

My only question on this lovely tuesday morning is, who's ass is our government pulling all this money out from?? to "save" the world?? pathetic but hey if it keeps the rallys up, I'm all for it. (I'm holding my dec. BAC puts so you know i'm on the otherside of the table). ***Oh yeah, me and my partner (Nik) will be doing a thorough analysis on the future of a certain sector *cough commercial r.e/REITs* later this week so stay tuned... later guys (hits the snooze) - jotti the hot revolver

W T F Mate?

I'm sitting around last night relaxing after a hard night's partying and I decided to turn on CNBC. I wasn't expecting much, maybe a special about Taco Bell, or another story on GM, what I got was live coverage from New York on Citigroup. The coverage was centered around a government bailout of the firm, even as Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit told investors on FRIDAY the firm has enough capital to survive on it's own.

Last time I checked well capitalized firms didn't require government assistance.

Markets rallied off the news with the S&P 500 posting gains of 6.47%, or 52 points. The Citigroup bail out is a sign that the end of this financial crisis is still far away. Big financial firms can still fail and the government will have to spend a lot more money bailing them out. As the economy dips deeper in to recession, we're almost certain to see the markets pull back again.

I bought calls on Citigroup on Friday (CLQ) because I was expecting to get good news over the weekend. The calls appreciated well today but still have a bit to go. I'll let you guys know when I sell them.

My other trade today was buying calls on DRYS (OOCLA). I think this was a mistake because I don't think DRYS is going to continue to rally. My original plan was to buy them mid-day and sell them at the end of the day. As the rally got more intense, DRYS lost momentum, which was not a good sign. I decided to hold on to them in case the market continues it's uptrend or DRYS comes out with some good news - I won't be holding my breath.

The DRYS trade is a good example of how careful traders have to be in this environment. I acted on impulse, not sound decision making, and might pay the price for it. If I do, I will definitely chalk it up to a good lesson learned and will work on not making the same mistake again.

See you guys tomorrow!

-Nik

Note To Readers!

We actively welcome feedback, interaction and such with everyone who actually gives a sh*t about making some damn money during these forsaken times! This is just a preview of the actual website (1st quarter '09). We encourage questions, critique, blessings, voluntary ssn submissions (jk) all alike! got something to say or ask? it's easy just subscribe by becoming a reader (free!). - jotti aka hot revolver

Monday Morning Rally.

To no surprise, there was tremendous reception to the citigroup "bailout" today (so far). The dow popped 300+ pts this morning as the news overshadowed weary existing home sales numbers (not pretty). Will we be able to hold onto the gains? well Pres. elect OBAMA will be speaking live at around 9am pst to reveal his economic staff which could help sustain the upside or may trigger a sell off (let's hope he doesn't spend 15 minutes talking about the future first dog).

I can't put my complete confidence behind a good or bad holiday retail season just yet. Generally we are expecting a slow down in holiday spending for obvious reasons, but there is a very real possibility that the recent slowdown in consumer spending is due to people saving up only to flush the money into holiday sales (starting black friday). This could in fact end up surprising all the doom and gloom forecasts (short term only). Retail will still slide further 1st qtr 2009.

I however am still confident that credit usage will continue to decline, and with cash expected to be heavily used during holiday seasons this could directly effect banks in a negative manner. I think delinquency in consumer debt will continue to grow deeper (it's hard to say no to the kids!). I am still negative in real estate going into 2009, especially commercial real estate (which has only felt nicks and dings).

I sold my ATVI dec. 12.50s for a 25% gain, and have moved the $ into Bank of America dec. 10 puts. I'm a BULL at heart but the BEARs are leaving bigger prints still. I am also keeping an eye on some other plays for today (still long on TSL, may prove to be the most valuable small cap solar out of the bunch) - jotti the hot revolver

Some places...are still baaaaallin!!!

DUBAI's new 1.5B Hotel grand opening event.

A Brilliant Two Weeks - Consecutive 100%+ Gains

These past two weeks (November 10 - now) have been the most intense two trading weeks I've had in my life. Trading every single session this week has felt like working a 12+ hour day. The volatility in this market is nuts and your stomach has to be iron lined to be be trading in it. The VIX closed at 80.86 today, which is an ALL TIME high. That means fear is at unprecedented levels and this volatility should continue until we get good news - don't hold your breath.

My trades for this week:

Bought OOCWA at $60 yesterday.
Sold OOCWA today at $140.
Total Gain on Trade: 133%

Bought AXPWQ at $55.
Sold AXPWQ today at $90.
Total Gain on Trade: 63%

Bought ZWRWC at $45.
Sold ZWRWC at $95.
Total Gain on Trade: 111%

I closed all my positions today as options expiration is tomorrow and I had made enough profit. If I was really ballsy I would have held to see what tomorrow had in store but here's an important lesson: Take profits in a market like this! They might not exist tomorrow!

My account is up 525% in two weeks. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic and glad I stuck to my strategy even when my positions were down! I was planning on taking tomorrow off but I can't stay away from the markets, especially now. If I see a good opportunity I'll grab it tomorrow, if I don't I have no problem staying idle.

We created Bully Bank to showcase gains like this! We're two normal guys - granted we work our ass off in coming up with ideas and researching those ideas but besides that we're just like you. I'm really happy we can showcase such gains in such a short period of time. Lots more to come ;)!

Red light! pump the brakes! *out of pocket? listen up...

*I wish my account hadn't fallen below the 25k day trader quota! these are perfect times!) I (Jotti) am eating soup with a fork here! haha. I guess in a sense I haven't practiced what I preached on eliminating hollow optimism and factoring in risk assessment. Okay if it ain't broke don't fix it right? Well in my case it's become broke and I'm emptying the tool shed in a hurry. I've been playing russian roulette with more then one bullet in the cylinder and it has cost me big time! Reflecting back on my most recent posts (plays), I am the bully who played the solar call options (i couldn't barter the contracts for air right now), bought CC a few days before the bk filing (luckily I sold at no loss), ATVI a few days before the downgrade!(which I am still long on), and covered both my YHOO and CBG short positions way too early! (minuscule profit compared to loss). The global economy sucks, there's no miraculous one weekend fix here! But I just hate the feeling that this market could rebound 1000 pts at any given time if bargain hunters and a chain of positive news happen to surface in tandem. Emotions are hard to contain, when we lose X amount of money, we tend to double down X in hopes to recuperate on the next play am I right? (hence my solar and CC plays, both could have doubled in value or dropped in the same degree).

I've discovered as of late that I have fallen into the depth of taking profits too early and cutting loses too late, allocating less $ in lower risk plays and dumping generously in high risk ones, worst predicament one could get caught in! Blah...anyways, these things happen but luckily I have an iron stomach since I've been trading for nearly a decade now and have experienced several up and down cycles. But I promised myself to render and warp this cycle. I (should) have the knowledge and experience to do so. The point of my entry today is to help wake up some of the people who have lost tremendously the past 6 to 8 months...better late then never as they say. ***IN PLAY*** conservative long position, I bought Dec. 12.50 calls of ATVI activision/blizzard and I stand by this investment 100% (I also hold dec. 15s) ( I see no lackluster holiday sales and the company's books seem solid enough, and to my knowledge there are no reckless spending on product releases, for both home console and pc base, the downside? P/E is pretty high up there haha, but I see profit margins rising and customer base. I'm one for sure who will be seeking entertainment at home as opposed to going out these days =( haha - Cheers! Jotti.

.

forget sharing a convenience bag...

watching the markets play by play? we are too and it ain't that fun.

Anoher Wild Day

Markets were extremely volatile today but ended higher. I was holding on to AXP NOV 17.5 Strike Puts, DRYS NOV 7.5 Strike Puts, and bought a solid amount of ANF NOV 15 Strike Puts. All my positions were up and down a lot today. My AXP puts closed in the black, my DRYS puts closed in the black, and my ANF puts closed at break even.

There was a plethora of information released today. Starting with the resignation of Jerry Yang as CEO of Yahoo!. Investors have been waiting for this day for months and the stock rallied ending the day up 8%. This leaves the door wide open for another offer from rival Microsoft and will put YHOO Dec. calls in play. I'll let you guys know if I decide to make a move.

Hewlett-Packard soared today, closing up 14%, after the company reportedit's earnings would be better than expected and forecast solid guidance for the fourth quarter. While other tech bellwethers have slashed forecasts and have seen their earnings decline, HPQ bucked the trend, reviving investor sentiment in the company.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake testified in front of Senators this morning justifying their reasoning behind the change in TARP. Paulson said no funds would be used to buy bad mortgage assets, rather the money would go to stimulating consumer demand by buying securitizedcredit card loans, student loans, and auto loans. Hankson also said that no TARP money should be used to bail out auto makers. We learned absolutely nothing new here.

At 3PM eastern time, CEOs from the Big Three automakers and the head of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union testified in front of a Senate committee in hopes of receiving a bailout. The automakers had to convince the Senators that systemic risk was an issue that would cripple the U.S. economy if any of them filed for bankruptcy. They failed at doing this and managed to show that any fall out from a major automaker going bankrupt would only affect the auto industry. I would not expect our government to write them a blank check based of today's testimony.

Today was a tough day, one that tested the amount of faith I have in my ideas. I've learned that good ideas, that are well researched, make great strategies and you always stick to your strategy unless there is a material change that affects your positions. I stuck to my strategy today and believe that it will pay off. It's options expiration week, which means that all of my puts will expire on Friday and unless they're in the money, they'll expire worthless. My plan is to sell all of my positions on Thursday - at the latest. I will sell at a gain or loss but I have to get rid of these before Friday or the trade will be worthless.

Tomorrow is looking to be another crazy day, so keep that seat belt fasten and hopefully we'll see some solid gains tomorrow.

Facing a loss, and moving on.

Okay, okay. The harsh reality behind investing is when you realize you've made a mistake that has lead to a loss. My options are set to expire this friday and are worth NOTHING right now. Let me perhaps break this down in retrospect.

1. SOL saw a sell off of 50% in just 2 days last week as the sector got hammered. CSIQ down 35% in the same 2 days (no news, but negative sentiment)
At this point the Nov. Call Options were between .25 to a .10 cent a piece. (easy opportunity to double your money if the stocks rebounded enough)

2. I knew a market rebound would generally lead to a solar sector bounce, and these stocks move in high percentages (15%+ or - a day is easy)

3. We were headed toward the G20 meeting last week, (anticipating some positive market reaction)

4. Along with anticipating the markets to pop up before the G20, I figured earnings were scheduled and the CSIQ/SOL were both oversold. I bought the Nov. $10s and Nov. $7.50s respectively.

5. When we saw the market pop up 500+ last week on thursday, CSIQ bounced up 18% and SOL up 30%. At one point my options were up %50+ each, I expected the trend to continue up onto friday so I held (mistake). What happened friday? we closed down 300 pts. This was crucial...I needed CSIQ/SOL to be positioned at $7 and $5 respectively, they closed friday at $6.31 and $4.35. (2 day weekend automatically devalues the options as starting monday nov. 17th, the options had 5 days to live. EXTRENSIC VALUE)

So as of today (Tuesday Nov. 18th) all my options are worth NOTHING, I'd be lucky to get a nickel bid per contract at this point.

Another lesson learned, I told my partner this morning I am reverting back to basics for awhile...this was a risky investment on my part but again the GREED factor is what murdered me this week. Cheers, and remember learn to differentiate WALL ST. from the VEGAS STRIP, or you might have a rude awakening haha. - JOTTI

(self explanatory)

Kashkari Slammed by Congress

Neel Kashkari, the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and the man responsible for deciding who gets money from the $700 billion bailout, gets slammed at a Congressional hearing on Friday November 13th. The Congressmen feel that Kashkari, along with the rest of the U.S. Treasury, baited them in to approving the bailout bill by claiming it was a rescue of home owners. Last week the Treasury announced that they would no longer be buying bad mortgage assets, instead they would buy bad consumer loans (credit cards, student loans, etc.), which does not help homeowners.

G20, Second Tier Commercial Paper, GM, and the Week Ahead

I want to start out by thanking my partner for creating the beautiful new header that graces this blog. Look up, it looks great!! I'll admit I'm not much of a visually creative whiz which is why I'm really thankful for the creation!

Alright on to business:

A lot of traders were a bit skeptical about being short going in to this weekend because of the G20 meeting. The G20 is a group of the 20 biggest economies in the world that represent approximately 90% of world GDP. Fears were from traders who worried the G20 would create a $200 billion fund to buy bad debt/assets from nations around the world - a global bailout.

The Wall St. Journal is reporting the G20 nations have agreed on:

* Reached a common understanding of the root causes of the global crisis;
* Reviewed actions countries have taken and will take to address the immediate crisis and strengthen growth;
* Agreed on common principles for reforming our financial markets;
* Launched an action plan to implement those principles and asked ministers to develop further specific recommendations that will be reviewed by leaders at a subsequent summit; and
* Reaffirmed their commitment to free market principles.

They are expected to come out with a comprehensive plan of action by March of 2009. I really hope the food was good this weekend because that might have been the only highlight. This doesn't help markets at all in the near term and might have a negative affect on Monday morning.

Bloomberg is reporting Honda Motor and Home Depot are lobbying the Federal Reserve to include second tier commercial paper in their commercial paper buy back program. Commercial paper is a short term loan that companies use to cover daily operating expenses (payroll, rent, etc.), so it's their life line. By buying only first tier commercial paper the Fed is raising the borrowing cost of second tier paper. First tier commercial paper rates have dropped to 1.16% from an October high of 4.28%, second tier commercial paper rates have dropped to 5.18% from an October high of 6.30%, the cost of borrowing for companies reliant upon second tier paper is extremely high.

Interest rates represent market sentiment and of course default risk. We cannot turn in to a nation that bails out every one while putting our tax payers at risk. Even with short term funding some of these companies might fail and that would affect the taxpayer. If the Fed agrees to buy second tier commercial paper, it will be time to look in to Gold trades (something I'm generally against!) as Gold prices will rise with inflation.

On to a the fate of General Motors. On Monday Democrats will bring to Senate a bill that will allow GM access to the TARP program (the $700 billion bailout). Republicans are going to use a special power which will delay the vote until Wednesday. President Bush and other Republicans strongly oppose bailing out the giant auto maker. If the bill fails to pass, GM's days are numbered and it will go down as one of the biggest embarrassments in American history. It will also cause the nation to loose a staggering amount of jobs and will discontinue benefits for some retirees. The markets will sell off if the GM bailout doesn't pass.

If it does pass, we will reach a scary place. The bailout of GM should come with clauses that mandate a change in management. Even with new management GM will not sell cars until the consumer is doing better and their image is brought back from the dead - the former will happen way before the latter. This will put the Fed in a situation where they will have to give the auto maker more and more money, way past what we're looking at this week, similar to AIG (which originally wanted $85 billion but has take more than $160 billion from the Fed). We will rally off a bailout of GM but it won't last. This is a lose lose situation.

I'm going into Monday with 50% of my cash in NOV 17.5 AXP puts and NOV 7.5 DRYS puts. I feel comfortable with the positions but I'll be watching what the government does very closely this upcoming week.

Buckle up, it's going to be one hell of a ride starting tomorrow.

Making Every Move Count.

As we are about to start another week off I wanted to take a quick minute and explain my current holdings of Nov. Call option contracts that are set to expire this coming Friday (expired contracts are worth nothing). The only way I see these babies making me a profit is with consecutive market/sector rallies throughout the week. So it's a fight against time and overall market sentiment (little hope haha) as each day goes by. Last Friday's closing prices were HUGE factors and I was a bit disappointed, I was looking for $7+ and $5+ for CSIQ/SOL respectively, just so they could be a in a better position going into the week. The contracts could be worth a nickel a piece throughout the week until they expire. I'll of course be looking for opportunities to make up for the loss on these babies, Cheers to another trading week, tomorrows another day. - jotti

what an EMO type of market today.

This blog is a sneak peak of our official website which is scheduled to launch in early 09. If you are a new reader please take a moment and read our earlier entries in the archive section (to your right) to get a feel for things. Me and my partner are both real people, investing our real money, sharing our ideas and decisions in real time. Today's market was yet another rollercoaster ride. I hope I fair better next week with my current holdings. Although I was able to cash in some of my gains yesterday, the options I still held onto CSIQ, SOL and ATVI all experienced dramatic declines today. I decided to cover half of my short position in CBG because of uncertainty in today's movement. In a sporadic market like this, we have to be versatile and not stubborn in our decisions. *The solar calls expire next week* I expect high volatility again, enjoy your weekend guys!

Notes on This Morning

Market opened down about 10 points, we're down 27 on the S&P right now. I took full advantage of yesterdays rally by buying AXP NOV 17.5 Puts and this morning I bought DRYS NOV 7.5 Puts. The news out this morning was gloomy but not overly surprising. Nokia says handsets sales are going to plummet - people aren't buying cell phones? - no shit.

Citi is going to fire more people, what they need to do is fire Vikram (I hate to say that but it's true) and shrink the company even further. And poor poor retail sales, this stuff is pretty self-explanatory.

Hank Paulson goes live in 3 hours and 18 minutes (thanks CNBC!) and if he continues letting us all down, I'll update later with an awesome blasting of Hanky.

Alright guys, last trading day of the week. Lets do this!

2010 Bentley Azure (drop)

current mood: aroused 500HP V8 175mph only $350,000(click)

MOMENTUM PLAYS

CSIQ nov. calls were as low as a a dime per contract this morning. I got in a good amount at this level. I also was fortunate to grab some SOL nov. calls at a nickel yesterday! My ATVI dec. 15 calls were as low as .20 and I grabbed a bunch there and as the market swung back up today those calls last quoted at .40 per contract! Only wish I put more then $$$ in to double haha. Okay on another note. CB Richard Ellis, company announced they will be issuing 50million shares at $3.77/shr to raise and estimatd $180+ million for corporate budget increase in 09. The shares outstanding/float is roughly 200million as of today, with the newly issued shares that will bring it up to 250million shares trade, it's up over 30% today on the news but with my experience in commercial real estate (I am a real estate broker, a very poor one) the leasing and resale market is obviously headed toward the shits atleast for the next few quarters. This directly will effect commercial real estate firms outlook in the new year! anyways the short float of this comp is currently around 9%, I expect this to increase dramatically into December as CBG's business is global and foreign real estate is just tip toeing into the shadows of what the USA real estate market has experienced this year. SHORT ON CBG at $5.35. On a side note, QUANTUM OF SOLACE MIDNIGHT SHOWING TONIGHT VAN NESS THEATRE!

Brilliant Day - MS, DRYS, YHOO, introducing AXP

Hey readers, this is my first post on this site. I'm so excited to have this blog up and have a chance to have out voices heard. This blog is for the everyday guy, just like my partner and I.

Down to business:

Markets opened considerably down this morning to my surprise. The DOW by 7am was down more than 200 points and at that time it became apparent that unless some huge news came today, the markets would sell off. Here we are 28 minutes after the closing bell with the DOW down 411 points to 8,282, the S&P down 46 points to 852, and the Nizzy down 81 points to 1,499.

Going in to today I was holding on to November 15 puts on Morgan Stanley (MS), November 10 puts on DryShips Inc. (DRYS), and November 10 puts on YHOO. I had approximately 90% of my cash in the MS and DRYS puts, so I was anticipating a huge movement when I bought them. MS has immense pressure on them to buy a retail bank since they've converted their status to a bank holding company from an investment bank. The play was simply that they did not have enough cash to make something like this happen while covering their continuing losses.

The trade on DRYS was less speculative than MS but still based on solid logic. DRYS had at the end of September approximately $2.9 billion in total debt with $533 million of that being short term. The company only had $335 in cash on their balance sheet, they had no way of paying back this debt unless they did one or both of two things:

1) Raise capital through sale of equity
2) Sell assets (their ships - their bread and butter)

DRYS came out with a shelf registration for 25 million shares, with another 19 million promised to a company owned in majority by the CEO of DRYS (see something fishy here?). The sale of equity plus the shares promised would dilute DRYS common stock outstanding by approximately 106%. Who knows what price they will get also as the market has shown they are not to confident in the company. DRYS will have to start selling ships soon to pay their creditors. Add to that their 43% of their business is still in the spot market, where rates are below the break even point for the company, and you have a complete turkey.

I sold my MS puts at 12:30PM today for a gain of 127% and sold my DRYS puts this morning for a gain of 281%. Since I had the majority of my cash in these two positions my account value gained by 116% - that is I doubled my account in little more than a week of buying these positions. I choose to sell because the gains were so high but I might re-enter any of these positions if the market continues to react negatively to the stocks.

On to American Express (AXP) who asked the government today for $3.5 billion dollars. The difference between AXP and Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) is that AXP actually loans their clients money whereas V and MA only process transactions (a much safer business). This indicators major problems because AXP customers are generally considered high quality than MA or V. If the upper middle class start to default on credit card bills, it could be the beginning of the second round of this financial crisis. If that happens the government (already stretched thin) will have to step in and put more money in to failing companies. I'll be watching and doing my homework on AXP all this week. It's looking right now as if it's the next big position.

Hope you all had a great day. See you guys tomorrow at market open.

It could always be worse.

Look My New Car - Watch more free videos

Is there any soul left in solars???

**UPDATE 12:30PM** I am dancing and playing with fire, just bought 10 NOV. 5 calls and 15 NOV. 10 calls for SOL / CSIQ respectively. I'm using part of the profit made from the YHOO trade earlier this week. The prices on companies like JASO, SOL, CSIQ... them hedgies DUMPED big today.

MORNING WOOD (or wouldn'ts)

In Summary, Macy's and Best Buy's reports both reiterated an expected gloomy slowdown in the holiday season to come, in Best Buy's case, cutting forecast dramatically into the new year has helped send the Dow down another 200 pts this morning. Macy's has decent management, and along with posting better then expected results (still a loss) they are immediately taking action to lower overall inventory and increase margins, like I said yesterday I like Macy's and think they and their high end Bloomingdales stores should survive the Holiday season without a problem. But I am not looking into buying the stock at this point. I have this morning been looking to increase my position in DEC. 15 ATVI calls and although jasolar reported horribly, I am looking for an opportunity to get in NOV.10 CSIQ calls for cheap and SOL calls for pennies on the dollar! crazy market but I'm looking to cap on the spikes/pops. (Oh yeah look at CCYTQ's gain today haha)

Turbulence ... Sh*t !

Enter El Matador , R.I.P The Bull (temporarily)

I closed my YHOO DEC. PUTS today at avg .85 (i got in avg .45), not a bad gain of 75% for less then a weeks time, maybe now I can pay my cable bill on time this month. But I am keeping my NOV.s open. The stock should tread even closer to $10 but I have my eyes on some other stuff and need capital on hand. My partner in crime may be kind enough to explain in a later post how he's benefited by taking a short / put position in several companies recently. Not to sound like a pooper but there's a bunch of hollow, rootless optimism going on these days. The BEAR is in play, and the BULLs are getting slaughtered ... hopefully that changes soon.
*Update on Circuit City, apparently they are hoping to "get out" of bankruptcy by 2nd quarter 09...I guess I'll hold these sh*t shares for a little while (CCTYQ I HAVE MY EYES ON: Activision DEC. 15 calls. Wells Fargo, China Mobile, and I have a limit order for NOV. 10 CSIQ calls. I would move on WFC under $28 and CHL i would go long on closer to $40/share. SOLARS are still my favorite 211 plays, (in and out swiftly)we'll see as the day goes by, dow currently down a little over 200pts. (sigh)

THE BEAR CLAW IS OFFICIAL!

Today's little pop at market open of 200+pts has been completely sold off guiding the dow into the red...this is disgusting. Fannie Mae's report today was just another sign of what the economy faces in the next few quarters...oh crap. DHL shipping is cutting 10,000 jobs? the demi-god run Google has been downgraded and reached a new 52wk low??!! all of this ontop of the previously discussed GM, Circuit city news...wow, we're in for one ugly start to 2009. Earnings and Automakers are what we're waiting to hear about. I am gettin my grizzly on, take the "bull" out of BULLY for now.

*More YHOO puts. (I just don't like Jerry Yang)

I bought some more contracts but this time november 11 puts (11 days til expiration). The markets seem to be selling off from the 200+ this morning, MSFT needs to let this company stock (YHOO) bleed to near $10 before they consider making a bid for this, especially with earnings around the corner. We'll see just what MSFT has up their sleeves soon enough. Until we hear different, I am putting my money against YHOO.

EARNINGS THIS WEEK.

Starbucks, Macy's, JCpenny, Nordstroms, Liz Claiborne, Walmart, Applied Materials, huge companies who all have great relevance to today's economy. In previous, and BETTER market conditions I would have invested in some of these names prior to earnings to ride the momentums. In today's market condition, I have to wait for the earnings to be released and invest accordingly. Macy's, Walmart all will easily influence the market's over all direction from this week until the end of the month. I am interestedin buying Macy's at a lower price ( < $10) and I am not too big on Nordstroms, or Crocs (who reports this week as well).

OUCH! ...GM, F, Circuit City Short Circuits! (pun intended)

I guess the pressure was too much to bare over the weekend as CC has filed for bankrupty this morning! the good news for me? I only owned a puny 1000 shares making my loss $250. I had put a limit order to buy 2000 but only 1000 shares went through (applause). It was a gamble that I lost, the company did too little too late. moving on. GM, as every day passes with no word from our govt. in stepping in to assist the shriveling automaker sector...GM is down 30% this morning, making it a $3 stock with almost no confidence from analyst abroad. I would stay away from this stock because of the uncertainty and the dependency on the GOVERNMENT, who is unpredictable. Remember, the U.S needs to avoid having to print dollars just to save some of these sectors. Of course if GM folds, we are talking easily half a million jobs in the long run (if not more) but again, even if the govt. decides to step in to assist, this doesn't mean it will help the stock stabilize. (think AIG, WB) Not worth the risk at the moment.

Big Trouble in little China? WONG! excuse me, I mean WRONG!

Okay so today's headlines read $586 Billion Chinese bailout. China has decided to implement their own emergency financial savior package of sort to help save the butts of some of it's own distressed markets/sectors. Although full details on when and how the money will be dispersed have yet to be disclosed, I am going to interpret this as some brownie points for China's own "Blue Chip" companies...China Mobile (CHL) for example is definitely on my interest list, as maybe BIDU (the chinese Google), I'll let you know if I decide to act on anything interesting. Hopefully they don't open at a premium tomorrow morning...this could be a short term pump and dump scenario as the global credit crisis is far from resolved.

Week 1.

Sh*t! Tomorrow I'm hoping my margin account get's re-instated entirely. Margin if you don't know provides additional leverage, the capability to borrow 100% of your current funds to make additional investments with. I am currently long on Activision and circuit city. CC? yeah I know it sounds crazy, all the signs are there for this company to close their doors after this holiday season, but being the #2 electronics retailer with a current market cap. of $47million! (#1 Best Buy is at $12billion), a quarter a share is just too hard to resist. I will admit, my position in CC is a gamble. I am also still holding just December 10 YHOO puts. Microsoft has clearly made note that they are not enthusiastic at this time about taking Yahoo over, leaving Jerry Yang looking like a complete idiot once again! SO as of week 1. I am long ATVI, CC, SNDK and short YHOO, TRLG and VZ . *If you haven't watched ROLEMODELS the movie, go see it this week/end, very funny movie.

Introduction

Hello to YOU, the reader. First off, thanks for your interest in checking out our blog here with BullyBank. THIS IS THE ALPHA VERSION UNTIL OUR OFFICIAL WEBSITE (underconstruction) IS RELEASED to be est. 2009. The Bullies here are some real average joes who happen to have complete faith (and b*llz) to invest their money in the stock market during what has been coined the biggest'economic crisis' of our lifetime. With a combined investing experience of over 12 years, I've personally had my money active during the dot com era, the dot com bust, the mid 2000s rally all the way to the current turbulent bear market, yes we said it BEAR MARKET. I've seen my portfolio flourish and plummet at the same extremes. BULLYBANK will be a place where we will be sharing our ideas, opinions and ultimately our real life decisions of where we are placing our mulah today, in hopes to turn it into some real capital gains! In other words, we're putting our money where our mouth is! Will we make any money? will we make millions? or will we end up losing it all and become professional sharpy on cardboard editors? You'll have to be the spectator as we begin this real life journey! - Jotti the hot revolver

( Jotti, original Bully seen here in full business attire )