What did you trade today and why?

Sold $225k of SWVXX today so I can buy another CD tomorrow.
 
Theophrastus Bombastus said:
I don't trade.

I buy and accumulate.

Other than for mandated RMD's, I don't sell - ever. Even then, I try to transfer in-kind to taxable accounts and cover the taxes from cash positions

Trading is like the farmer who owns an apple orchard and keeps uprooting trees and planting new ones.

For true wealth to evolve, it takes time.

Patience is a virtue most of us do not have.
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Similarly, me.
I'm fortunate to have more than enough retirement income without having to sell any portfolio holdings, now in year 13 of retirement.
So I invest 95+% in stock index funds for total return, no bond funds or CEFs.

But I do "trade" from time to time, mainly to TLH in my taxable account, most recently in late March, early April.

And while I'm an index funder, it's not all tsm and S&P 500. Funds like QQQ, MGK, VGT are heavy in tech growth stocks and often outperform...
 
aja8888 said:
What are you buying, may I ask? I have "ready cash"!
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Probably this 1 yr brokered CD paying 4.1% from Wells Fargo in Sioux Falls:

CUSIP 949764QY3
 
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short HIMS - covered 1/3 @ 56.01

now short PLTR @ 127.55

+ SBIT (inverse Bitcoin ETF so short) @ 7.78 - I'm out of my FBTC for now looking to get back in <<100k

+ GLD @ 293.94 but this is only a trade and I expect lower gold prices coming when things calm down (if ever)

+SCO @ 19.18 and sell 1/3 @ 20.09 (short oil)

+EMXC @ 59.95 - Emerging markets EX China (uninvestible) - this is EEM minus china. looks to be breaking out. Small initial position.
 
Every once in awhile I make short term trades when I see opportunities. I do it with my non serious money.
Bought a 20 treasury yesterday at 96.84. Sold it today at 97.59. Made just under $300. Funny money.
 
  • Picked up new issue BUSEV. Financials look relatively strong and 8.25% fixed rate. First call 2030. Kroll rating of bank is A-, preferred as BBB-.
  • Picked up MFAN matures in 2029, slightly below par and almost 9% yield (YTC 9.5%) certainly beats similar term CD's and OK with the credit and rate risk for my bucket of non-IG securities.
  • Dipped my toe into the stink hole with UNH as it's now over 50% down for month and perhaps all the bad news in now out. Dead cat bounce coming or just another bounce off the cliff? Long term hold. but with a stop limit set.
As a side note, Fido has me lending out my GAIN stock -- it's collecting 29.875% interest for over a month while being lent plus collecting 6.5% dividend. Seems unusual for this security, but hope it stays lent out for several more months. :)
 
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TickTock said:
Heh. If there is someone (and in a world of 8+ billion people, maybe there are one or two) who can consistently predict tops and/or bottoms, they'd not sell newsletters. They'd be on a mega-yacht with a computer set up for satellite contact so that they're always online and available to trade, with a drink in one hand and a bell in the other that they could ring to have an attractive person of their preferred sex bring them another drink.

True stories: DW did electrical estimating for a megacorp megaproject. Copper prices increased ~250% between the estimate and purchasing wire and cable (whose prices tend to move in lockstep with copper), resulting in massive cost overruns compared to the estimate. She got chewed out by da bosses and when she pointed out the change in copper pricing she was told, "Well you should have foreseen that". I told her she should have told them, "If I could accurately forecast metals prices then there's no way that I'd be working for you!". As she wished to remain employed with megacorp, she didn't say that... which was a good thing.

During the same time I estimated electrical costs for a large project for my company (not a megacorp, but the project was large compared to total revenues). The same thing happened (large cost overruns) and my boss (the VP of Engineering) came into my office, told me he had to explain the overrun to the CEO, and asked me what happened. I explained, he asked, "Can you document the copper price increases?". I told him sure, I can get a graph of spot copper prices for the time period in question and print it out for you. He met with the CEO and gave the explanation. He told me the CEO asked him two questions: (1) "Could we have foreseen this" and, (2) "If our competitors built a similar project in the same timeline, would they have had the same overruns?". No, and yes. That was the end of it.
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Much too much credence is given to the argumeit that investors (or just normal humans going about day today) CAN'T know anything useful about tne future. In the investment world, it is an artificial construct designed as marketing collateral, as in 1) YOU can't successfully trade assets, but hire me and buy my mutual fund because I CAN...or 2) NOBODY can beat "the market," so just buy a broad market index fund that I have a computer running on the cheap in the back office.

Now you don't live your life believing can can't know anything useful about the future in any other normal human activity. Further, the argument in favor of the "epistemological blindness" thesis is always a straw man of the form: if one cannot always identify precise high and low asset prices, then folks can know NOTHING useful about the future direction of asset prices.

Two reasons why this thesis persists: 1) it's always a useful investment services marketing tool and 2) it is a comfortable excuse for devoting no time, study or effort in an admittedly challenging enterprise to improve one's financial outcomes/ quality of life.
Regards, Dick
 
dickoncapecod said:
Much too much credence is given to the argumeit that investors (or just normal humans going about day today) CAN'T know anything useful about tne future. In the investment world, it is an artificial construct designed as marketing collateral, as in 1) YOU can't successfully trade assets, but hire me and buy my mutual fund because I CAN...or 2) NOBODY can beat "the market," so just buy a broad market index fund that I have a computer running on the cheap in the back office.

Now you don't live your life believing can can't know anything useful about the future in any other normal human activity. Further, the argument in favor of the "epistemological blindness" thesis is always a straw man of the form: if one cannot always identify precise high and low asset prices, then folks can know NOTHING useful about the future direction of asset prices.

Two reasons why this thesis persists: 1) it's always a useful investment services marketing tool and 2) it is a comfortable excuse for devoting no time, study or effort in an admittedly challenging enterprise to improve one's financial outcomes/ quality of life.
Regards, Dick
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@dickoncapecod
.....like a shot heard around the world.....
TRUTH only TRUTH
you have no idea how many folks you've helped, Dick...never give up!
 
Still Short HIMS. closed out PLTR at flat (scratched).

Still long SBIT, add more at 7.50.

A lot of back and forth in GLD, GLL, USO, SCO for some modest rules profits.

+SCHD @ 26.54 (add) - put profits into a more permanent B&H

+HFMDX (add) - Small/mid caps might be sleepers if we take off and I am underweight.

I've opined multiple times in the past that I think china is uninvestible and I see there are bills in congress to make it so (not signed into law yet but hanging around, probably "in case".) IF that happens, the investments in china (about 25-35% of EM ETF's and funds, and 100% china funds) are going to need to flow somewhere and I'm guessing it is going to be into other emerging markets now that American exceptionalism is dead (it isn't really but you know). Additionally, the EMXC chart looks strong and as if it is exiting a bottom.

Question to the bond crew: With the 10 year at 4.5 the other morning, was anyone looking at agencies again? I just had my last 6% agency called. Best yield I could find on a 10 year was 5.42 which wasn't enough for me to get excited. Ideas? Thoughts?
 
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drs said:
Still Short HIMS. closed out PLTR at flat (scratched).

Still long SBIT, add more at 7.50.

A lot of back and forth in GLD, GLL, USO, SCO for some modest rules profits.

+SCHD @ 26.54 (add) - put profits into a more permanent B&H

+HFMDX (add) - Small/mid caps might be sleepers if we take off and I am underweight.

I've opined multiple times in the past that I think china is uninvestible and I see there are bills in congress to make it so (not signed into law yet but hanging around, probably "in case".) IF that happens, the investments in china (about 25-35% of EM ETF's and funds, and 100% china funds) are going to need to flow somewhere and I'm guessing it is going to be into other emerging markets now that American exceptionalism is dead (it isn't really but you know). Additionally, the EMXC chart looks strong and as if it is exiting a bottom.

Question to the bond crew: With the 10 year at 5.5 the other morning, was anyone looking at agencies again? I just had my last 6% agency called. Best yield I could find on a 10 year was 5.42 which wasn't enough for me to get excited. Ideas? Thoughts?
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What 10 year was at 5.5%? The ten year treasury is about 4.4% now.
 
Will be adding to BBDC on Monday most likely or before it goes ex on the 22nd. Grabbed some @ $8.55 and now it's $9.10 and has a quarterly $.26 div + special $.05 div coming up. Also the company authorizd up to $30mil in a share buy back and bought 150k shares at avg cost of $9.67.
 
drs said:
Still Short HIMS. closed out PLTR at flat (scratched).

Still long SBIT, add more at 7.50.

A lot of back and forth in GLD, GLL, USO, SCO for some modest rules profits.

+SCHD @ 26.54 (add) - put profits into a more permanent B&H

+HFMDX (add) - Small/mid caps might be sleepers if we take off and I am underweight.

I've opined multiple times in the past that I think china is uninvestible and I see there are bills in congress to make it so (not signed into law yet but hanging around, probably "in case".) IF that happens, the investments in china (about 25-35% of EM ETF's and funds, and 100% china funds) are going to need to flow somewhere and I'm guessing it is going to be into other emerging markets now that American exceptionalism is dead (it isn't really but you know). Additionally, the EMXC chart looks strong and as if it is exiting a bottom.

Question to the bond crew: With the 10 year at 4.5 the other morning, was anyone looking at agencies again? I just had my last 6% agency called. Best yield I could find on a 10 year was 5.42 which wasn't enough for me to get excited. Ideas? Thoughts?
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I buy individual bonds for income and also the ability to rely on that income with no call or long call features. Agencies only fulfill half of my desires because of the call falling completely under the control of the issuer and with short or short ish call windows. If you want to roll them, falling rates hurt you. Rising rates may mean you’re stuck perhaps for a long time because agencies aren’t so liquid. If rates drop, you’ll see no appreciation either. Those high coupons are there for a reason, to entice you and then bite you in the arse.
 
COcheesehead said:
I buy individual bonds for income and also the ability to rely on that income with no call or long call features. Agencies only fulfill half of my desires because of the call falling completely under the control of the issuer and with short or short ish call windows. If you want to roll them, falling rates hurt you. Rising rates may mean you’re stuck perhaps for a long time because agencies aren’t so liquid. If rates drop, you’ll see no appreciation either. Those high coupons are there for a reason, to entice you and then bite you in the arse.
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Right! Indeed. Many folks are unfamiliar with the Agencies as issuers. They are among the most sophisticated folks in finance and they take their responsibility as fiduciaries with respect to taxpayers very seriously. Their issuance strategies --- most recently issuing intermediate/long term debt with attractive teaser coupons and near-term calls --- are cheap protection FOR THEM and for taxpayers against the risk of rising longer term rates, Folks who used those attractive coupon-short call issues as "cash / money market equivalents" succeeded THIS TIME. The issues were called and those investors made an extra 50? 100bps? for a few months. And the Agencies were happy to pay those teaser rates because for them, it was cheap protection against rising long term rates ---- in which case they would NOT have called and might leave the NOW CHEAP 5-6% issues outstanding for years or decades.
Regards, Dick
 
Sold my last taxable bond in my taxable account. I now only have tax free bonds in the account. I still see value in that space. The after tax yield is higher than taxable yields at the moment.
 
bobandsherry said:
  • Picked up new issue BUSEV. Financials look relatively strong and 8.25% fixed rate. First call 2030. Kroll rating of bank is A-, preferred as BBB-.
  • Picked up MFAN matures in 2029, slightly below par and almost 9% yield (YTC 9.5%) certainly beats similar term CD's and OK with the credit and rate risk for my bucket of non-IG securities.
  • Dipped my toe into the stink hole with UNH as it's now over 50% down for month and perhaps all the bad news in now out. Dead cat bounce coming or just another bounce off the cliff? Long term hold. but with a stop limit set.
As a side note, Fido has me lending out my GAIN stock -- it's collecting 29.875% interest for over a month while being lent plus collecting 6.5% dividend. Seems unusual for this security, but hope it stays lent out for several more months. :)
Click to expand...
FWIW, GAIN has 8+% of shares sold short -- and that's 21 days required to cover at recent volumes,
Regards, Dick
 
dickoncapecod said:
FWIW, GAIN has 8+% of shares sold short -- and that's 21 days required to cover at recent volumes,
Regards, Dick
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Seems like such an odd stock to short. I'll happily keep collecting their premium and hope it takes several months for them to close out their position. :)
 
bobandsherry said:
Seems like such an odd stock to short. I'll happily keep collecting their premium and hope it takes several months for them to close out their position. :)
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Someone that shorted in the 13's will likely be buying back in the 15's, driving the stock higher and causing more shorts to have to buy. (short squeeze) I believe the person that is short also has to pay the dividend which could induce more buying the next couple days.
 
Over the weekend I had MRK put to me. Everything else expired worthless!

This morning I sold Calls on MRK, PEP & JNJ. I also sold Puts on CVX, VFC, UPS, NVO, MDT, TGT & ALB. These are part of my @waynew experiment. This generated over $2,100 for the week. MTD +/- $4,900. I have $44K in stocks covering the Calls and $90K in cash covering the Puts.

I also sold in other accounts puts on AVGO & PLTR and calls on NVDA. This added another $500.

Everything expires 5/23.
 
COcheesehead said:
Sold my last taxable bond in my taxable account. I now only have tax free bonds in the account. I still see value in that space. The after tax yield is higher than taxable yields at the moment.
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Similar to you I have only muni CEFs in my taxable account and also some tax advantaged preferred CEFs and equity ETFs. I sold all my taxable bonds in my taxable accounts. My income is either tax free or tax advantaged with qualified dividends.
 
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