I sold the rest of my LULU and GMCR calls today. I more than doubled my money on LULU overall but didn't get anywhere near top price of the day. Only made a little on the GMCR $110 call. If you look at the charts you can see where the day started off great but by 3:00 the sellers had taken control. I'm sure that since I've sold these they will skyrocket tomorrow. Oh, well. I've never lost money taking profits. I'm bracing myself just in case we've hit a top.



10% Fund 25.45%
Jody's Roth IRA 10.17%
Ryan's Roth IRA -4.27%
S&P -3.78%

I sold the rest of my GMCR Sept $100 calls today for $7.00. Yesterday I sold half for $4.10. That's an average price of $5.55 after I bought them for $1.91. More than 150% gain. It was excruciating trying to decide whether or not to sell. I decided to take profits and buy a GMCR Sept. $110 call for $2.18 just in case this stock hits $110 like it did back on Aug. 3. I have the $110 call in my Roth IRA. My 10% fund is going to really jump on the scoreboard tomorrow. I bought the same amount of calls in it as I did in my Roth. I don't have near as much built up in my 10% fund as I do in my Roth.

I also sold my NFLX put for half price as it was up 5% today and has risen above its 200 day SMA. I still have my SDS calls just in case the market tanks. They are down 12 cents today.


The market didn't exactly bust through resistance today as you can see in the chart below. Here's hoping it keeps going up since I'm so heavily invested in YACKX and I still have my LULU Sept $60 calls. They finished at $1.85 today. I bought them at $0.55 on 8/23.




10% Fund 16.72%
Jody's Roth IRA 9.99%
Ryan's Roth IRA -6.29%
S&P -3.78%

I sold half of my LULU and GMCR calls today. I sold them for more than double what I paid for them so I have my original investment back and a little more. This way I'm playing with house money with the calls I have left. I sold them because as the chart below shows, we may be hitting resistance tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow was a down day. I'm hoping not because I still have those calls. However, just in case, I bought some options to play the downside. $SDS Sept $26 calls for .61(this is an ETF that is short the SPY). NFLX Sept $190 puts for $1.95.

I also sold my IMAX and TZOO puts shortly after my last post. I'm looking to buy them back at a cheaper price because I still think those stocks will decline.



I am finally up 1% on my YACKX purchase in all 3 accounts. However this will not show up on the scoreboard until tomorrow.

10% Fund 13.18% The GMCR calls helped a bunch.
Jody's Roth IRA 7.35% I haven't bought any options in her account yet. It's just YACKX.
Ryan's Roth IRA -9.85%
S&P -6.43%

August 23, 2011

I know I haven't posted for four months. That's partly because I've been so busy at work and because I've switched all of my trading to options and I've been doing lots of trades. 90% of my money was in cash until last week. I put that 90% in the Yacktman mutual fund $YACKX during this dip in the market. I'll try to post my best ideas that I'm trading and keep the scoreboard updated.

If you're not familiar with options, if you buy a call option you want the stock to go up. If you buy a put option you want the stock to go down.

Today I bought some $100 September call options on Green Mountain Coffee $GMCR. The charts below tell the story as to why I did this. The SPY is showing support recently around 112. I'm hoping that this support stays strong and we can start another rally. If you compare the SPY chart to GMCR, the S&P has fallen well below its 200 day SMA. GMCR on the other hand has barely dipped below its 50 day SMA. This, to me, represents a strong stock. If you look at the charts of most stocks today, they are below their 200 day SMA. I bought this option at $1.91. 3 weeks ago when the stock was at its peak of $111.42 this same option peaked at $14.05. If GMCR hits $111.00 before Sept. 17 I will be up several times what I paid for it. As I write this it's already up to $2.98 and I'm up 50%. That's why I do options now. I can risk much less and make more.



On August 9 I bought a September $35 put option on Travelzoo $TZOO. It was trading around $44 when I bought it. If you look at the chart it fell off a cliff and dropped 30% when it announced earnings. When it dropped well below its 200 day SMA there was blood in the water. That's why I'm basically shorting this stock. It's also good to have some puts like this in your portfolio just in case the market tanks.



I have other call options on LULU and put options on IMAX and NFLX.
I was actually up 10% in Jody's IRA before I put her money in the YACKX fund. I bought it at $16.95 in all 3 accounts so they've all dropped 5% accordingly as it's now at $16.14. It should be up a little tomorrow and I'm in it long term.

Jody's Roth IRA 3.5%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.78%
10% Fund -3.03%
S&P -10.64%

April 26, 2011

I sold some of my Apple stock in my Roth IRA to buy Under Armour $UA. It beat reported better than expected earnings and the stock dropped 8%.

Jody's Roth IRA 4.66%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.74%
10% Fund -3.03%
S&P 6.17%

March 31, 2011

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 9.51%
Ryan's Roth IRA -11.79%
10% Fund -6.59%
S&P 5.62%

March 30, 2011

I sold LULU for a 9% gain a couple days ago, but it was pretty much cancelled out by my failed short position. I then bought Juniper yesterday for $40.76.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 9.51%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.57%
10% Fund -6.59%
S&P 4.18%

March 24, 2011

I sold my short postitions at a loss. I'm sure tomorrow the market will tank since I sold. We'll see.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 11.12%
Ryan's Roth IRA -13.18%
10% Fund -4.94%
S&P 3.17%

March 23, 2011

I'm full out shorting the market now. I'm up almost 2% on Monday's SDS purchase. Today I bought more of the SDS in Jody's Roth IRA for $22.27. I bought the VXX in my Roth IRA for $33.06. It's short futures and is extremely volatile. I bought the QID for $55.84 in my 10% fund. It's short the Nasdaq

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 13.28%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.42%
10% Fund -2.10%
S&P 2.87%

March 21, 2011

I bought the SDS today in my Roth IRA at $21.88. I'm expecting the market to go down tomorrow or the next day. If it doesn't, and the SPY rockets through its 20 and 50 day SMA's, I'll think about being long again.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 13.31%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.42%
10% Fund -2.10%
S&P 1.71%

March 17, 2011

I sold Ford for a 2% gain yesterday. Any stock I buy is going to be very short term. The market is up right now today, but as it gets closer to its 50 day SMA, I'm assuming it's going to go down again. I expect this to be the trend for the near future.

I bought LULU again in my Roth IRA today. It beat expectations and was down nearly 5%. I sold it yesterday at $79.20 and bought it today at $76.12.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 13.28%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.31%
10% Fund -2.10%
S&P -.06%

March 16, 2011

In my Roth IRA I bought Ford $F at $14.00 today.

I sold the SDS ETF in Jody's account today for a 5% gain after one week. Since these ETF's are short the market at double the rate,I'll probably be very short term with these trades.

I also sold LULU in my 10% fund for a 2.5% gain. They announce earnings tomorrow and I'm tired of getting burnt by earnings. As soon as I say that, LULU will probably jump 20% tomorrow. We'll see.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 10.41%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.50%
10% Fund -2.02%
S&P 1.93%

March 15, 2011

Well, I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy at work and that's when I usually post. I stepped on a couple of land mines with HBAN and CMI. I held them at a loss while they appeared to have support. Once they dropped below that support, I got out at a pretty big loss. I also sold Apple at a small loss and Verizon at a small gain. I sold because there's a lot of fear creeping into the market. Gas is getting close to $4 a gallon. Libya is a ticking time bomb. And now with what happened to Japan, I think it's time to be a Bear over the next month or two.

My long term options are getting killed as well, but I'm keeping them because they expire in January.

I have LULU in my 10% fund bought at $77.20.

In Jody's account it seems I can do no wrong. I sold HD on March 7 at break even. I then bought SDS at $21.98 on March 10 in anticipation of the market tanking. It's up 4% today.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 8.04%
Ryan's Roth IRA -12.58%
10% Fund -3.09%
S&P 3.08%

February 18, 2011

I sold Shell $RDS.A for a 1% gain so I could get back into Apple $AAPL. I now have Apple and Verizon. They're supposed to sell a ton of Iphones together. We'll see.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 11.30%
Ryan's Roth IRA -1.63%
10% Fund -5.03%
S&P 6.58%

February 17, 2011

I sold Sam Adams $SAM for a 6% gain today. The chart above shows where I bought a week ago and sold today. I then bought Huntington Bank $HBAN for $7.37. The chart is below. There must be something wrong with the chart website today because it's stuck on $7.54. I bought pretty close to the 20 day SMA.


The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 10.38%
Ryan's Roth IRA -2.72%
10% Fund -5.12%
S&P 6.26%

February 11, 2011

I sold NYB in Jody's account today for a 2% gain plus the dividend for this quarter. I then bought Home Depot $HD at $37.03.

I also sold CSX for a 5% gain and bought Verizon $VZ at $36.20. The chart is below.



The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 5.74%
Ryan's Roth IRA -3.81%
10% Fund -7.24%
S&P 5.11%

February 10, 2011

Well, I haven't posted in a while because I've been repositioning my portfolio. I'm really disappointed with myself because I sold LULU after holding it for 2 months. As so often happens, after I sold it at around $69 hoping to get back in at around $66, it broke out for a 20% gain over the next two weeks. Unbelievable. I'm an idiot. I'm waiting for it to come back to earth so I can get back in. Looking back, when I sold on Jan. 28, it was an awful day in the market and I was sure we were headed for a correction. I was wrong.

Anyways, I thought I'd update my positions as well as the scoreboard.

Ryan's Roth IRA

Cummins $CMI bought on 2/10/11 at $111.27.


Sam Adams $SAM bought on 2/10/11 at $91.72.


Royal Dutch Shell $RDS.A: -1.94% Shares bought on 2/7/11 at $70.17 now trading at $68.93.



CSX Railroad $CSX: 2.65% Shares bought on 2/4/11 at $69.62 now trading at $71.62.


My long term option plays are killing me right now. That's why I'm getting my butt kicked by the S&P right now. My January 2012 calls are on the following:

AIG $45 strike bought at $4.53 now at $4.00
F $17.50 strike bought at $1.94 now at $1.56.
C $5 strike bought at $0.56 now at $0.52.

10% Fund

Apache Corp $APA: -2.32% Shares bought on 2/2/11 at $120.96 now trading at $118.34


Jody's Roth IRA

New York Bank $NYB: .78% Shares bought 1/31/11 at $18.34 now trading at $18.53.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 5.64%
Ryan's Roth IRA -3.81%
10% Fund -8.48%
S&P 5.03%

February 2, 2011

I bought Apache $APA today in my 10% fund at $120.96.

Jody's Roth IRA 6.14%
Ryan's Roth IRA -2.40%
10% Fund -4.62%
S&P 3.97%

January 31, 2010

I bought another year long options play with Ford. I bought 5 Jan. 2012 calls at $1.94. I have a year to be proven right on this.

I bought $DSTI at $1.52. This is a small short term speculative play. As you can see in the chart it has solid support around $1.50.

I also bought Microsoft $MSFT at $27.53. These are in my Roth IRA. I don't own anything in my 10% fund right now.

In Jody's account I bought New York Bank $NYB. I used to own this in my other account. It's a safer play as it pays a 4.5% dividend.

I took it on the chin in my two accounts with that AMZN trade, as you'll see below. It could have been alot worse. That's why you don't put more than 20% of your portfolio into one trade.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 4.82%
Ryan's Roth IRA -2.92%
10% Fund -4.62%
S&P 1.49%

January 28, 2010

I sold Dupont and Apple today for a 3.5% gain on each. I sold LULU in Jody's account for a 2% gain. I sold everything else except GOOG. Cash is a position also. The market has been so volatile lately. I then bought 2 January 2012 option contracts on AIG at a $45 strike price. It seems to have found support on its 200 day SMA and I have a year for this to pay off. I also bought the GLD at $131.01. When the market goes to hell, people tend to buy gold. The S&P dipped below its 20 day SMA. It was down 1.5%. With so much volatility, I may buy more long term options contracts or "leaps". You can limit your risk and maximize your gains if you know what you're doing. Today was awful. First AMZN gets crushed after earnings, and then the entire market gets hammered. Oh well, I feel better having sold most of my portfolio. Even if much of it was for a loss. I'm not gonna worry about it for a few days. I'll wait and see if the market can make up its mind as to which direction it want to go.

I'm sure tomorrow's scoreboard will look alot worse after this bloodbath.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 8.25%
Ryan's Roth IRA 1.10%
10% Fund 0.60%
S&P 3.33%

January 25, 2011

I sold CAT in Jody's account today so I could get back into LULU. I got in at nearly the same price I did back in December. $66.81.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 4.80%
Ryan's Roth IRA -0.65%
10% Fund -1.92%
S&P 2.64%

January 24, 2011

I sold MIPS today for a near 9% loss. It dropped below its 50 day SMA and my 1% portfolio rule kicked in.

I then bought Google $GOOG at $603.71. I really don't understand earnings announcements. Apple beat expectations by 20% and their stock drops. Granted, the Steve Jobs temporary leave didn't help, but Google beat expectations by 8% and their stock has dropped 5% since. I think GOOG will bounce off its 50 day SMA. This past week has been pretty rough as you'll see on the scoreboard. Now's not the time to bury your head in the sand. It's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

I also sold SDS for a 1% loss. The good thing about this is that the market is still long for the time being. I ended up buying more AMZN at $177.47 as it has dipped to its 50 day SMA. The chart is below.



The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 2.77%
Ryan's Roth IRA -0.64%
10% Fund -3.83%
S&P 2.04%

January 19, 2011

I sold LULU today for a 4% gain. I still like this stock, I'm just concerned that the market is headed for a correction. It was a year ago today that the SPY took a downward turn from $115 and didn't get back to that level until two months later.

Because of this fear, I then bought SDS for $22.88. The ETF that is short the S&P. I hope this trade doesn't work out. It's just a hedge to offset some losses in case the market is headed south.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 6.61%
Ryan's Roth IRA 3.66%
10% Fund 1.48%
S&P 2.97%

January 18, 2011

I sold Citigroup $C today at break even. That really sucks because I was up as much as 7%. Earnings announcements can do that sometimes. I still like the stock long term, I'm just gonna wait until I see solid support before I get back in. I then bought some more $AAPL at $338.88. This stock dipped on the news that Steve Jobs is taking a 6 month leave. They announce earnings after market close today and everyone seems to be expecting a big number.

I also sold CSX in Jody's account for $69.14 and a near 7% gain. I then bought Caterpillar $CAT for $96.02. The chart is below.



The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 7.04%
Ryan's Roth IRA 4.94%
10% Fund 4.80%
S&P 2.83%

January 14, 2011

I sold $NG today for $13.67. I made a whopping $2. At least it was enough to pay for the trade. I actually made $22 but it costs $10 to buy and $10 to sell on Etrade. $NG looks like its 50 day SMA is more of a ceiling than a floor for now. I may get back in at some point, but for now its chart is eroding. I then bought McDonalds $MCD at $73.64.


The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 7.11%
Ryan's Roth IRA 5.74%
10% Fund 3.00%
S&P 2.08%

January 13, 2011

I sold Oracle $ORCL today for $31.00 and a 1% loss so that I could buy $MIPS again at $16.32.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 6.25%
Ryan's Roth IRA 4.97%
10% Fund 3.24%
S&P 2.25%

January 12, 2011

I like to think of my portfolio as a garden. First, I plant seeds by picking stocks. Then, I water and feed it by adding money every week. I pull weeds by getting rid of any losing stocks. Finally, I harvest by taking profits. I'm not looking to get rich. I'm just doing my due diligence.

Position update. Figures are around 2:00 today.

Ryan's Roth IRA

Apple $AAPL 5.78% since 12/27/10. Shares purchased for $324.70 now trading at $343.95


Lululemon $LULU 10.09% since 12/10/10. Shares purchased for $66.35 now trading at $73.18


Novagold $NG 5.38% since 1/5/2011. Shares purchased at $13.61 now trading at $14.36.


Oracle $ORCL -.96% since 1/4/2011. Shares purchased at $31.24 now trading at$31.00.


Dupont $DD 1.33% since 1/11/11. Shares purchased at $48.49 now trading at $49.22.


Jody's Roth IRA

CSX Railroad $CSX 5.93% since 12/31/10. Shares purchased for $64.74 now trading at$68.75.


10% Fund

Amazon $AMZN 2.17% since 12/07/10. Shares purchased for $179.58 now trading at $184.37.


Citigroup $C 4.5% since 1/3/11. Shares purchased at $4.82 now trading at $5.05.

I'm expecting to increase our lead over the S&P substantially in tomorrow's scoreboard. LULU was up 9.3% today and NG was up 5.77%.

The scoreboard after yesterday reads:

Jody's Roth IRA 5.16%
Ryan's Roth IRA 2.76%
10% Fund 1.48%
S&P 1.34%