will, living trust, health care proxy, dual power of attorneys

A few of my daytrading colleagues have been asking where I'ved been the past six weeks. As I stated six weeks ago, in order to determine if my mindset was on the right track, I would need to make a positive gain during a downtrending market month. Despite poor timing, we managed a .25% gain in July when the market looked like it was going to implode. So far in August, we're up over 4% and within .4% of breaking even year to date. I took one of the traders' advice and sold 500 shares from one of my positions at the close on Friday just to see profit. The hope is that the markets pullback and that I can redeploy at a lower cost. But even if it doesn't, its a way of banking some profit while still riding the majority of positions.

At some point, one will have enough net worth where you'll have to make sure you've written a couple of legal documents in case of your incapacity. At least have something basic in writing before you formally go to an estate attorney since the cost of going through them is so prohibitive (roughly $3-5k for trusts). The health care proxy designates who you want to make decisions for you if you are incapacitated but still alive. The dual power of attorney is commonly a signature form that each bank and brokerage has that allows you to designate another person with executing trades or withdrawals. I realize this is something NOT to take likely, since if you designate someone who has no scruples, they could conceivably withdraw the entire account and leave you dead. But if you really give it some thought, you should be able to think of one person you can trust in the world. In my case, its my sister. There is no contingent executor on any of my documents because I do not trust anyone outside of her to respect my wishes.

Although I'm still working on my timing of when markets shift, something that has worked is NOT going to as many websites any more. I've found that those sites actually caused me to have a predetermined opinion of the market (which is generally wrong), instead of simply looking at another 100 charts and let the charts tell me what the traders really think of a given sector or average.

One thing I've noticed about my sister's 401k is that I've dropped the worst performing fund from her portfolio every June for three years now. The effect has added about 5% each year. I'm thinking its more luck than anything but I want to put some of that hoarded cash back into something she can be comfortable with. I'm pretty certain I've found the right fund for her, but all I need is one decent pullback day given they only trade at the end of the day.

YTD -0.4%

A good three weeks in June makes up for a bad March, April, and May

Haven't been blogging for several months to get my head straight. Uncle was going through some health issues, passing away in May. The memorial service was something to behold as 140 of his friends came from as far away as the home country to share their stories and how he made a difference among the thousands of people he influenced.

Having had a chance to see through, its obvious now that attempting to trade during that time could only result in disaster since I couldn't devote 100% of my time to watching the markets. At the lowest point, we were down 11% ytd before getting a grip on things, and recovering all the losses from those three months in 20 days. We're still down ytd but now we have a realistic chance of turning positive with six months to go.

Tomorrow at 2:15p is the rate announcement for another FOMC meeting. Regardless of what Bernanke does on interest rates, we want to stick with the way we are managing positions and honor both those profit stops and stop losses.

It's obvious now that Livermore was right that posting one's trades is more of a detriment and one should trade with a lone hand. If we were retired and had $1 billion, it would be different because of the credibility factor.

YTD -4.71%

Sold all shares TWM at 75.09

Gave up. Now it would be more sick if the Dow decided to drop 300 points from here.

3rd Purchase 200 TWM, mkt on close around 76

Tilt factor asserting itself.

While you were asleep, RIMM and others were up in past 10 days

RIMM reported its 4th qtr earnings and the after hours action is positive, up 3.75. The stock has move from around 104 ten days ago to its 121 quote just before 5pm EST.

Pretty sad, when you're missing these types of moves.

The S&P tested the 1360 support level and held as its the most recent high on a ten day chart. If the buyers have the firepower, it looks like they want to take out that 1400 level depending on the Jobs report on Friday. What I'm hoping for is a sick job report that crushes these up moves; otherwise, 1400 is a foregone conclusion and I'll look at massive losses.

I don't expect much action Thursday even with the RIMM move. I'm thinking the S&P stalls around 1380 for tomorrow. But then again, its been a bad two days for you, so until you are right, you are dead wrong and paying for it.

Bot 300 TWM at 76.60

Douche trade of the quarter after yesterday

With the markets up 3% on April 1 of all days. That 200 share probe has turned into a $1300 tuition lesson. It shows you how a small probe position can eat up almost .8% of your net worth if you bet in the wrong direction.

This is the negative thing of letting the ego get in the way, as wanting to be right wasn't the best play.

Since this is the second straight quarter I've had a bad trade on the final day of an ending quarter, I should avoid making new trades on 12/31, 3/31, 6/30, and 9/30, until I get my head straight.

Now we're in the position of managing this bad trade, whereas simply holding earlier trades such as AAPL, and X , or even SID would have yielded decent gains.

First off, ignore all the news and Bernanke. Even though you are irritated at that douche and the market reaction, all that matters is what's happening right now.

I'm pretty sure you're looking at taking a chance at doubling down on that TWM position because you don't believe yesterday's 3% up move. 99% of the time, I would NEVER do this after watching a position plunge 8% in 1 1/2 days. Anyway since I'm on semi-tilt, don't be surprised if my next post is buy 300 shares of TWM.

YTD -5.40%