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What a Day!

27 February 2007 1,050 views 3 Comments

On days like these, it’s good to be 100% cash. I am holding some mutual funds in my IRA, but that was only down a little under 1% today (The only real loser was an S&P ETF I have 25% of my holdings in). However, my personal trading account was sidelined through this mess today.

Was there some kind of technical glitch?

I wish I could say that I’m a prophet or something, but really I’m in cash for more mundane reasons. I need to stay liquid to handle some wedding costs and we’re thinking of moving about $4k from the trading account to the IRA before tax time. I’ve also been very busy with work and other things and didn’t have time to stay on top of the market.

So far this year, I’ve had about an equal number of winning and losing trades, staying flat until I pulled everything out a couple weeks ago.

I haven’t looked into things too much, but this looks like a buying opportunity to me. I feel like a kid in a candy store. My trading account is still kind of off limits, but I might be able to handle some tightly controlled short-term trades. I also have about 25% left to spend in my IRA. What should I buy?

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3 Comments »

  • Phil said:

    Nothing.

    Stick to cash.

    Short term trading in a market like this with money you want to use for your wedding and/or an IRA is CRAZY.

    # 2 March 2007 at 1:18 am
  • Jason (author) said:

    I think you’re right, Phil. Couple things:

    - I think it’s okay to use a portion of your IRA for “Mad Money” style trades. As long as you keep your risk low enough, either by using stops or only trading with a small % of your account.

    - Some of the stocks I’m shopping for are long term trades that seem to be setting up nicely: ERTS, AMGN, AMD.

    # 2 March 2007 at 10:38 am
  • Phil said:

    Just be careful – remember those stocks can gap lower than your stop loss (…don’t ask how I know this).

    :)

    Phil

    # 5 March 2007 at 10:29 pm