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