The Off-Topic investing challenge!
- Thread starter Hygro
- Start date
classical_hero
In whom I trust
They get updated after each session, so be patient.
Arrrgh. I set a limit order on EXTR for a buy share price of $2.50. It's low today: $2.51, and it looks like it's heading back upward. 
Mise
isle of lucy
I have no idea what anyone's saying anymore.
Oh jeez, my terminology is confusing someone?
I thought I was the noobiest noob here.A limit order specifies a stock price that has to be hit before the order is executed - for a buy, it has to go down to a certain price, and for a sell it has to go up to a certain price. Since EXTR hasn't gone down to/below the $2.50 price I specified, the purchase order I submitted has not executed.
amadeus
Serenity now
It's quite simple, really. I just put in a market level order for some more sub-options. I'm going to turn those around later in the week by executing a flux trade with an option to roll.
Mise
isle of lucy
Ahh! Makes sense now, thanks!Oh jeez, my terminology is confusing someone?
A limit order specifies a stock price that has to be hit before the order is executed - for a buy, it has to go down to a certain price, and for a sell it has to go up to a certain price. Since EXTR hasn't gone down to/below the $2.50 price I specified, the purchase order I submitted has not executed.
Have you considered a career as a financial advisor?
I joined the game, yesterday, I think. (My screenname is MreThimb.) Still playing around with the game mechanics a bit. I'm holding a big chunk of cash now, have a decent amount in what I think are solid long term stocks, and then some in stuff I'm planning on selling sooner rather than later. We'll see how it pans out. I know virtually nothing about the stock market, and I am definitely acting differently than if this were real money -- this is basically just for bragging rights, so I might as well gamble a bit. (If I had 250k to invest, I'd probably just stick it in some decent mutual funds and leave it alone for the next 40 years.)
amadeus
Serenity now
Huh? I just made all those things up.
Mise
isle of lucy
I know.
amadeus
Serenity now
Ah. So I'd be more of a Madoff & Associates adviser, then...
You're welcome.
Options are pretty complicated business. The key thing to remember is they're highly leveraged to the investment they're connected to. When you can only buy puts or calls (vs. selling them where you receive money) then time is not on your side. Options decay more rapidly the closer they get to expiration date. Expiration is the 3rd Friday of the month so August options will expire on the 19th.
Regarding the dead cat bounce, today was the epitome of dead cat bounce.
I have nothing to hide so here's my first day of trading...
I crushed it in early trading by buying
FXF (Swiss Francs) @$133.45 (still long)
MSK (Morgan Stanley preferred stock) @$19.83 and flipped it at $21.50.
HSBC-B(HSBC preferred B stock) @$16.75 and legged out at $19.59, $20.01 and $20.15.
Nice trades since there's no reason why preferred's like this should've been obliterated yesterday. I was up 10% until...I got run over by a uptrend freight train. I thought the market was going to reverse course and it did for a little bit but ultimately I done got run over.
I shorted a pile of IWM (Russell 2000 or mid cap stocks) at $66.65 and it closed at $69.46. Ow. Still short but may have to hedge it tomorrow if we rally early.
I bought a pile of VXX (short term volatility index) at $33.96 and it closed at $31.26.
I then shorted an equivalent amount of VXZ (mid term volatility index) at $56.40 and it closed at $54.65. The idea on this trade is short term volatility will pick up in the short run and I'll unwind my VXX. Eventually volatility will be reduced and I'll unwind the short.
Up 3.7% at the end of the day.
My big trade was 82 August puts of LinkedIn at $97.50, which closed up something like 109% yesterday. I'd never traded puts before though... apparentley that was way too many 
, and I had a margin call.
I managed to sell half of them about lunchtime, only being allowed to sell 41 cause of volume restrictions.... then the site was giving me lots of trouble, got a few error messages, the price would move but it kept telling me there wasn't enough volume for me to trade any at all, and I wasn't able to close out my position. I still own 41 of the puts, which are now up 50% from where I bought them.
, and I had a margin call. I managed to sell half of them about lunchtime, only being allowed to sell 41 cause of volume restrictions.... then the site was giving me lots of trouble, got a few error messages, the price would move but it kept telling me there wasn't enough volume for me to trade any at all, and I wasn't able to close out my position. I still own 41 of the puts, which are now up 50% from where I bought them.
classical_hero
In whom I trust
I have 2 stocks out of ten are making me a profit and One I bought only yesterday, so that one is a given, so only one company has risen from my early purchases. So my average losses are about 10% on the companies that are down.
Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
Thank Dionysus for that. It's all Greek to me as well.
Mise
isle of lucy
I've heard that [wiki]The Greeks[/wiki] are important somehow.
Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
Boy, that was unintentional.
"Following rankings are as on 8/9/2011 8:34:21 PM"
Edit: Going forward I'll probably start deleting the folks from this list that have been in for at least a day but haven't yet done anything, for the sake of making the scroll bar go away.
Code:
CurrentRank Previousrank Account Value Today’s change Overall%
1. amadeuscfc 3 $284,857.82 +$30,823.00 +13.94%
2. Theige 1 $279,645.13 -$39,786.38 +11.86%
3. pob_ 2 $276,526.36 +$15,121.46 +10.61%
4. Whomper $259,244.81 $0.00 +3.70%
5. goodgame 16 $251,274.59 +$2,369.57 +0.51%
6. DerrickCB $251,183.54 $0.00 +0.47%
7. Skwink 4 $250,227.85 +$187.73 +0.09%
8. mythmonster2 15 $250,213.01 +$385.00 +0.09%
9. jtb112795 $250,005.26 $0.00 0.00%
10. EnglishCrusader 9 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
11. bhsup 8 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
12. SRaina 10 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
13. Kan_Sharuminar 6 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
14. akkon888 11 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
15. Patroklos 5 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
16. Tkangaru 14 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
17. loppantorkel 12 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
18. Gogf 13 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
19. ludditeRB 7 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
20. Matt0088 $250,000.00 $0.00 0.00%
21. MreThimb 18 $249,665.46 +$3,005.44 -0.13%
22. SilurianC 17 $248,863.03 +$1,517.00 -0.45%
23. Algeroth 21 $247,931.65 +$6,738.55 -0.83%
24. azzaman333 22 $247,486.23 +$11,800.80 -1.01%
25. TaniciusFox 20 $246,848.09 +$4,410.01 -1.26%
26. anw 23 $241,942.02 +$8,127.00 -3.22%
27. really 27 $236,452.62 +$10,492.20 -5.42%
28. Joecoolyo 25 $236,066.47 +$5,719.23 -5.57%
29. Rashiminos 19 $234,939.44 -$9,680.96 -6.02%
30. Zelig 24 $233,250.35 $0.00 -6.70%
31. IglooDude 29 $232,347.95 +$12,335.93 -7.06%
32. lucyduke 26 $231,065.16 +$719.23 -7.57%
33. Godwynn 31 $230,825.16 +$16,530.00 -7.67%
34. classical_hero 28 $230,693.30 +$10,530.01 -7.72%
35. Mise 30 $225,177.90 +$9,288.00 -9.93%
36. Hygro 32 $211,890.43 +$9,708.04 -15.24%
37. druidravi 33 $208,183.86 +$21,379.42 -16.73%Edit: Going forward I'll probably start deleting the folks from this list that have been in for at least a day but haven't yet done anything, for the sake of making the scroll bar go away.
jtb1127
Deity
Yes! The value of my portfolio has increased by $5.26!
druidravi
King
Now if someone can explain me what a margin call is and what I have to do since I got it a day back . Will it go away if the value of my portfolio rises?
