What did you trade today and why?

[marget]

Some people say "this time is different". Others say "It does not matter. Buy and hold no matter what".

It's truly a free market. One is free to chose his own poison. I always have my own concoction.

time is always different & exactly the same over and over again
it does matter when it comes to being 78 for the sun is beginning to set
it's not a free market--- going to a 24/7 market trading is supposed to fix this really?!
one is free in a limited imagined sense only; it all depends on how much market sense one can embody
TRUE--you do own your own concoction

 

[NW-Bound]

time is always different & exactly the same over and over again
it does matter when it comes to being 78 for the sun is beginning to set
it's not a free market--- going to a 24/7 market trading is supposed to fix this really?!
one is free in a limited imagined sense only; it all depends on how much market sense one can embody
TRUE--you do own your own concoction

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes" -- Mark Twain

Ironically, Mark Twain sunk his fortune into a typesetting machine that promised to be disruptive to the printing business. He went bankrupt.

Anyway, about being "free", we are constantly influenced by the media, by peers, by external factors. In that sense, we are not really free. But we are getting too philosophical...

 

[NW-Bound]

One more thing I observed. I said my tech stocks add up to 20% of my stock holdings, which is only 65% of my stash. Yet, the Magnificent 7 are still about 33% of the S&P, and about 27% of the total market. I don't have any of the Mag 7. I am sure some are in the ETFs and MFs that I have, but these are a small percentage of portfolio, and my MFs are not growth/tech MFs.

Hmmm... Does this mean I am already less risky than the S&P?

Nah. Sell, sell, sell...

 

[neihn]

NWbound, please continue to sell covered calls/secured puts. I was inspired by you and started learning about trading covered calls, cash secured puts last year. I think I finally get it . It's quite fun actually and I told my wife that I am working hard to earn groceries expense.

Cheers.

 

[NW-Bound]

NWbound, please continue to sell covered calls/secured puts. I was inspired by you and started learning about trading covered calls, cash secured puts last year. I think I finally get it . It's quite fun actually and I told my wife that I am working hard to earn groceries expense.

Cheers.

Well, thanks for the comment. This is only for active investors, and it may be imprudent for me to keep mentioning this because people may think it's an easy way to make money, then take big risks and wipe themselves out. I am only 65-85% in stocks because I am conservative. It turns out that option selling even helps me beat the market with less than 100% stock. Option is a zero-sum game. The money that I gain comes from the other traders who are greedy.

As you probably have experienced, if you go for 0.5-1%/week, the risk is small, yet there are 52 weeks/year. I am not greedy and will be happy getting 10%/year if that is guaranteed, but the market god guarantees nothing. My selling options is to enhance the chance of getting it, even when the market is going bad.

I of course will continue to sell options. However, you don't make money selling options on stocks that are on a down slope; you only reduce your loss. And in the earlier post, I was saying tech stocks may have reached their peak, and the down risk is higher than the up chance. I have made good money last year (>$1M). Earlier this year, I got $600K for 2026 (I could not believe it!), but then started to give it up.

I am still up good for the year. Time to reduce my exposure to tech stocks. I think the tide has changed. Time to look for other sectors.

 

[richardsok]

Made three buys this morning:
Added to PFN. Reasons have been adequately discussed on the CEF thread.
.
Added to HTGC. Appears to be earning strongly and recovering from recent sell-off. Boffo yield.
.
Purchased new position in good ol' MSFT on favorable comments from GoldmanSachs and "strong buy" ratings from several other analysts. TipRanks scores it 8/10 and (after substantial price erosion) appears to be building possible support. Projected earnings something over $4.05 or so, translating to 15% growth on my back-of-envelope scribbling.
.
Furthermore, indicators showing recent BUY signals for MSFT and HTGC.
.
FWIW

 

[surprising]

Made three buys this morning:
Added to PFN. Reasons have been adequately discussed on the CEF thread.
.
Added to HTGC. Appears to be earning strongly and recovering from recent sell-off.
.
Purchased new position in good ol' MSFT on favorable comments from GoldmanSachs and "strong buy" ratings from several other analysts. TipRanks scores it 8/10 and (after substantial price erosion) appears to be building possible support. Projected earnings something over $4.05 or so, translating to 15% growth on my back-of-envelope scribbling.
.
Furthermore, indicators showing recent BUY signals for MSFT and HTGC.
.
FWIW

Added to MSFT as well. I read recently they have been building their own AI models to reduce dependency on OpenAI. I also read their current stake in OpenAI is a whopping $150B from a 20B investment I think, so they might have plenty of capital for their AI ambitions.

 

[Brat]

I purchased OKE (a pipeline operator) and EIX (a utility) today. Both have PEs under 20 and pay dividends over 4%.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

+ VXUS, GPIX, NMCO, XAR add to positions
+ EMO start position pipeline, returns, no K-1
+ Concentrix bond 8/1/28, 6.67% effective yield

 

[surprising]

Bought QQQ calls. Purely a speculative bet that we're close to a bottom and hopefully nasdaq will shoot up.

 

[Fermion]

Bought QQQ calls. Purely a speculative bet that we're close to a bottom and hopefully nasdaq will shoot up.

is the premium low enough that one could buy both puts and calls and just speculate that there will be volatility?

 

[surprising]

is the premium low enough that one could buy both puts and calls and just speculate that there will be volatility?

About 1.7% premium in both directions for $586 strike and April 17 expiration. 3.4% for break even on a long straddle seems a bit too rich for me.

 

[COcheesehead]

Same. Not overly motivated to buy or sell.

 

[Fishmasterdan]

No new positions Waiting on conflict to ease. Actually sold CC ITM on FSLY and TQQQ for some down side protection and hoping to it get called away.

 

[joejetski]

“Saturday Canada attacks Argentina, Cats decide mice are friends, and Microsoft says AI is dead. Monday morning it opens at $290. You now face a loss in your account of $110,000.”

As a buy and hold investor, I’d say you miscalculated your risk from the beginning and held too much MSFT!

I’m glad I don’t own any MSFT directly - in the past 6 months it’s down 28%

 

[joejetski]

No new positions, waiting to see if tomorrows planned “events” push the market down, then will nibble on current positions with the small amount of cash I have.

 

[NW-Bound]

Ah, it turned out that I did not have too many lots of semi stocks left that had not had calls sold on them. Saw 1 lot of AMAT left. So, I took care of that one. Then found 13 lots of non-tech stocks to sell calls on.

In the bigger picture, the entire stash including cash is up 0.36% today against the S&P's 0.44%.

 

[Fermion]

Just purchased 150 shares of TXN (Texas Instruments) for $195.60 a share. I don't have a solid thesis here but they do make a good profit and pay near 3% dividend. Ok, lets make up a thesis. They have not benefitted yet from the AI boom but perhaps the following robotics boom will use more of their analog chipsets.

 

[COcheesehead]

Oil is at 116, but the VIX is still only at 26. Sitting on my hands.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Just purchased 150 shares of TXN (Texas Instruments) for $195.60 a share. I don't have a solid thesis here but they do make a good profit and pay near 3% dividend. Ok, lets make up a thesis. They have not benefitted yet from the AI boom but perhaps the following robotics boom will use more of their analog chipsets.

Is this a serious post? This is how you make investment decisions?

 

[Fermion]

Is this a serious post? This is how you make investment decisions?

I did buy 150 shares but I had been researching it for awhile. I also bought General Mills, 1000 shares. The robotics thing was sort of a joke (until it isn't).

 

[Al18]

I own some TXN, but haven't added any in years. If you like analog chips, Analog Devices ADI is a stronger performer.

 

[Fermion]

I own some TXN, but haven't added any in years. If you like analog chips, Analog Devices ADI is a stronger performer.

I already own a small bit of ADI. It has had a good run already from where I purchased.

 

[Souschef]

Sold 31K from my IRA to satisfy part of my RMD. The proceeds are to pay a huge tax bill.

 

[Fermion]

Sold 10 May $37.50 calls against my GIS for $1.05, bringing the cost down to $36 a share. Ex-div is April 10 paying $0.61 a share. If called away, total return would be $2110 on $36,000 for a holding period of about 40 days. About a 77% annual return. Downside is somewhat limited here, considering the products (Cheerios, Pillsbury, etc.) and the relatively low PE of 9 to 11. We shall see.