Personal
Portfolio
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I've done it!
I made back all the losses since that high in 2007 plus some.
Now what.......
I
think I will let everything gel for a while, except maybe sell DHI if
they really run on blow-out earnings. That stock is good for
trading. It fluctuates quite a bit.
I certainly won't be
buying anything Euro-Related. Greece, Portugal and Spain are in trouble
and I wonder if they are going to be the first dominoes to fall. The
countries that did not opt in for the Euro are looking pretty
smart.
I wonder if after this experience, if the New World Order,
One World Currency crowd in these United States are going to have a change of heart.
Probably not. Hasn't shut up the global warming idiots even after their so-called research was exposed as fraud.
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Personal Portfolio
Just when things were going swimmingly well, we hit for lack of a better term, a speed bump....
"The
civil lawsuit is the biggest crisis in years for Goldman, which emerged
from the global financial meltdown as Wall Street's most influential
bank.
It
is also a huge test for Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, who has faced
a firestorm of criticism over the bank's pay and business practices,
and it comes as lawmakers in Washington debate sweeping reform of
financial industry regulation.
The
case has also ensnared John Paulson, a hedge fund investor whose firm
Paulson & Co made billions of dollars by betting the nation's
housing market would crash. This included an estimated $1 billion from
the transaction detailed in the SEC lawsuit, which the agency said cost
other investors more than $1 billion.
Fabrice
Tourre, a Goldman vice president who the SEC said was mainly
responsible for creating the questionable mortgage product, known as
ABACUS, was also charged with fraud."
The
resulting consternation on Wall Street caused investors to immediately
panic and sell off everything which resulted in a 126 point loss for
the Dow, financials leading the way.
I do find it suspicious that the
announcement was made during the financial reform debates and I would
not put it past this administration to do just that for political gain.
This reminds me the the IRS making high profile examples every couple
years to keep the little people in check.
And then came April 30 and another announcement of a criminal probe. I do believe this is a buying opportunity.
I'll be looking at this on May 3.
The
killing I was previously making on Citigroup got halved. What to
do, what to do. Panic and sell over a 5.2% drop in share
price?
I don't think so.
For
whatever reason, MBI was actually making new highs so I sold that and
used the proceeds to buy more Citi at attractive lows. The theory
was to hold until Citi reported earnings the following Monday which I
thought would be better than expected or at least not as bad as the
so-called analysts thought. This seemed to be the prevailing
trend.
I held and ended up selling all for about 37% profit. . Not a bad month.
I
don't really see Citi moving up much more from here until they get rid
of their gazillion shares and the government gets out of the banking
business.
Huntington
Bancshares actually turned a profit for the quarter and the stock
popped nicely. Key Bank significantly narrowed its losses which
also caused a considerable up tick. Other regional banks followed.
I hope one or two of you were able to take advantage of my
earlier prognostications regarding regional banks.
The
disadvantage of this is that financial stocks have become 18% of the
overall portfolio, which is way too high. Have to start taking some
more profits here one of these days, go to cash and wait for the
teleprompter to open its mouth again, cratering the stock market.
That would be a good time to do a little more diversification.
Speaking of Diversification:
For
the past six months I've been looking around for a natural gas
transmission and exploration stock to hold on to and I keep circling
back to El Paso Corporation.
The
company is continuing to build out and I think the price, PE and size
of the company are attractive for purchase.
Here is their latest information package.
DHI
actually reported a profit for the quarter and the stock jumped
as high as $15.44 as a result. Didn't stay there for very long.
This is an example of when to use a stop.
I
trade in and out of this stock because it swings enough to make it
worth while. I first noticed the dramatic move at $15.32 and
it was moving down. I decided to put in a stop at $15.25 because I
thought it was going to continue to move lower and it did, and I got
stopped out.
I uses stops very sparingly because it's too easy to get stopped out on a hiccup.
What
works well for me is wait a week or to for the teleprompter to take to
the air waves, shoot off its mouth and trash the markets, which in turn
causes a knee-jerk reaction and another buying opportunity.
Roth Conversions - They may not be all they're cracked up to be.
If
you begin hearing numerous new ads on the radio or TV for anything
financial and the wonders this product can do for you, be very
skeptical.
Before you do anything, talk to a CPA or Enrolled
Agent about the effects of such a conversion. The adviser should be fee
based. Pay for an hour or two of his time.
Brokers as a rule, are not CPAs or Enrolled Agents.
Don't regard anyone on the end of a 1-800 number from a radio ad as anything more than a pitchman.
Some Considerations if you wish to go from Conventional IRA to Roth:
1. Will such a move push you into a higher tax bracket?
2. Do you have enough time left to make up for the incredible tax hit that may befall you?
3. Why are you doing it - to benefit yourself or to benefit heirs?
4. Is anyone encouraging you to do this (brokers, cold callers, insurance agents)?
5.
You should not have to pay anyone other than government taxes, and lots
of them, to make the switch. Is anyone offering to do this for you for
a fee?
6. Is anyone suggesting you place your Roth IRA inside an annuity? If so, Run. Don't Walk.
7.
Is anyone suggesting you replace your present low cost conventional
IRA with a high cost broker-sold Roth IRA that limits you to a
high cost, front-end loaded broker sold family of mutual funds?
8. Is anyone recommending you replace your IRA with a Roth specializing in Gold or any other commodity?
......A few things to think about.
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For those of you who don't believe it snows in Nevada. In late April.
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