Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Moments of Volatility

The fed raised interest rates again and everying is studying every word of every sentence from the meeting. I was watching CNBC when it was announced and then they had a conversation that lasted a few minutes about the one sentence that was in the last meeting, but not in this one. Crazy.
Some say the fed is just as confused as us, and this leads to volatility. If you check out the one day charts for the Dow and the S&P you will see what I mean.

LB finished the day up another 0.88% and I might have to re-evaluate my position soon. Everything else was down, with NTE leading the way. They came out with a nice earnings report, but margins suffered a bit and their next q's estimate weren't as spectacular as people expected.
I'm still going to hold on, even though I think there's a strong chance of it dipping below 20 (although in AH it was up over 2%). It's a fast growing company, heavily dependent on cell phones, nice dividend, and a fairly healthy balance sheet. I'm happy with the rest of my positions although I might sell EBF. This was originally going to be a momentum play, but it has continued to trend downward. I thought the dividend could provide a floor (I still do, just maybe at lower levels), so this one is up in the air for now.

I'll definitely have time for all of this, since I don't have a job right now. For not having a job, I've been fairly busy lately (more in a moment) and I'm going to concentrate my free time in: researching stocks, spending more time with my girl friend, catching up on some reading, resting (I have a knee condition thing- Chondromalacia Patella- so I need to rest/stretch a lot), and look for a job.

Money Stuff: My stocks suffered a bit today, but I did end a profitable eBay sale today. Total cost was $150 and total revenue was $212.50 for a profit of $62.50 (+41.67).
If you're a regular reader (hi!) I know I've mentioned my gambling activities and my current one involves online poker. I use Party Poker and from time to time I'll put in $50 or so, play a little and cash out (usually around the $75 area). I would say that over the past year I've made about $125 profit, so you can see I usually don't play online. Previously I would play in the little mini tournaments they have, but this time I'm sticking to the regular tables. I would say I'm a slightly above average player and I play in the lowest limit tables available because this is where beginners start. Why there? Because beginners are beginners and make nice costly mistakes. This is a double-edged sword because sometimes these players play with any cards and this can disrupt the game (I won't get into too many details). Although at times it has been frustrating, it's proving to be profitable. I started with $75 and I'm currently at $153. I don't spend too much time playing, just maybe an hour per day while I'm watching tv. Hopefully I can turn the $153 into a much higher number!

Job stuff: I met with another recruiter this week who has a portfolio accounting job in mind. The meeting went very well and I seem to be a good fit, but the only thing that can hurt my chances is a timing issue. They might want someone to start right away, and I won't be able to work full-time till June 8th or so.
Someone from another job also left me a message, so I'll give her a call tomorrow morning (it's a admin/equity research assistant job).

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