Summer Pain

Last I blogged on April 29, I was probably $5K richer!

I have 5 positions with serious percentage losses:
AA (-17%)
AONE (-18%)
BIOD (-15%)
S (-9%)
VLO (-20%)

On a cumulative basis though it's only about $5K losses. I've decided to keep them for the purpose of teaching myself a lesson. Waiting! I am so quick at taking losses that I decided this time to unlearn that lesson, and give my conviction a chance to prove itself.

However, I am not entirely foolish. I have a position in SH that is equal in size to my total stock position. Hence, I am hedged. So far the hedge has not worked. Since I put the trade on the hedge has only returned 1%, or 277 gain to my $5K losses.

There are days like last week in which I am completely despondent. PAR is a company caught in a biddng war between HP and DELL. I first heard about it a little over a week ago and did not bother to look into it. The original DELL bid was about $18/share, which is close to the IPO price of the company 18 months ago. It's in the cloud computing space (perhaps I should know something about that since I am in IT!) and apparently it has the next best product.

HP came in with a bid that was 100% higher than DELL's original bid! Hence, summer pain. Coulda, woulda, shoulda looked at PAR as soon as I hear the announcement and I coulda, woulda, shoulda participated in such a sweet rally.

But instead, I'm stuck with my current lesson! Sell all positions and regroup? No, what for? To get a chance to jump into the next possible 20% loss? Not a chance!