2008 #1 goal = Trade Selectively - Conserve ALL Profits

Todays the day!!! I’m psyched since I had to wait a long aggrevating 6 months after listing my home on the MLS to sell it now I can refinance it. (a rule in the mortgage industry in which if you list your home and then take it off MLS you have to wait 6 month period before refinancing it).

So my credit score still sucks for some reason. I’m sure it has to do with my high debt/income ratio still at 650-680 which will force me to take a investment refinance loan at 80% having no PMI in the new loan with payments on $96000 at $784. I’m currently collecting $775 which would leave me a little bit negative, but I can get $31,000 cash to use on 2 new rental properties that will generate again higher ROI with long-term increase in assessment values since they are both foreclosures. I’m looking to buy 2 more single family homes in the $60-70k range that need little work and get loans at 7.5% investment making around $150-200/month cashflow which would cancel my -$25 dollar from refinancing increasing my mortgage vs. rent of $725. Plus I’d own 3 properties in the same area which are lower priced homes giving them more room to move up in price in the next 5-10 years.

I’m close to finished closing on my hawaii single family condo 3/2. I can’t wait to move in and will like refinance my mortgage in 6 months IF by some chance I can get a lower rate and use a bundle of that equity to buy more single family homes in VA or another investment in HI. Or I might just leave the equity open for something down the line.

My Visa May Calls are going to expire too. I’m getting quite frenzy over them and want to sell out extremely soon. I’m waiting because there is a huge support wick on the daily charts from yesterdays drop to $78 showing someone big buying up the stock, but it hasn’t moved past $85 yet and my options are being worthless the sooner they get to friday. I’ll be very fortunate if the stock pops up past $85 and I’m able to sell out profitably. I clearly need and want to be in aapl stock options right now, but first I need to sell out profitably up out of V calls.

So the market sold off thursday and friday. I expected the market to dump friday. Historically it seems there is more bad news on a friday then good. I suppose the CEO’s can take off quickly on their yachts and forget all the bad earnings they just reported.

I bought 10 more Visa MAY 85 Calls - out of the money this time. My last calls went up to $5.80. It would have been nice to sell out and rebuy back at $1.55 like I did on Friday, but work prevents me to and my GTC order was up to high I admit. I lowered my GTC order at $5 expecting Visa to move back up monday through wednesday with the market recovering some positions especially in a hot IPO like Visa that is a money maker and growth creator. I could be wrong I have been before! Yet I only have like 4-5 days to hit my GTC order and with time against me I’m looking at Tue or Wed then I have to sell my calls and either take a loss or bigger loss = $0 expired calls. Currently I have around $2000 in the position.

My India venture is not running smoothly. It is so wishy washy. I’ve talked with other American entrepreneurs who use India either as a partner or outsoucing and the rumors seem very true that there is a major problem in communication. I keep asking my partner to email our work completed for our customers such as a Daily Project Report which I created. All the project manager has to do is type in a 2-3 sentence summary of the work completed for the day and email it to the customer, myself, and my partner running the business. Does this sound like too much? When you continually see bitching customer emails and communication is definitely unclear you think doing what your American partner asks is completely understandable not cumbersome. All I want is just 2-3 sentences for me and our customers. This keeps them off our back, gives them an up to date understanding of what we are doing for their business, and creates a legal log as proof with an email trail showing we are completing work. Now why after over a week asking for this to be done daily it isn’t??? Two words = No Control. I have no control. All I can do as an investor and partner in this India business is to invest in them and realistically “hope” they succeed and finish the jobs the current mismanaged way they are doing it. I feel no one is listening to me and taking my views and thoughts into consideration. I don’t like managing other people, but clearly there are problems and a daily update for the customer would 100% clearify what the hell is going on! I hope my partner starts listening to me and let me help him create better clearer customer satisfaction. Business to business is all about referrals and currently being in the customers position even if we do have problems with them is keep things clear and understanding how they think. I don’t think my partner really cares and that is going to create monsterous problems in the future building our business together. I wish I was there so I could be with the team, write a brief summary, and report to the customers myself. We are trying to act like a big corporation but obviously we are acting like a small two person business! hahahah. Personally, I think showing customers we are about the IT solution projects we do for them will boost our customers thoughts about our professionalism and giving us referrals to keep us in business.

Anyway. I’m buying a condo in Hawaii. I can’t remember if I mentioned that. It will be a 1023 sqft, 3bed/2bath, 2 parking space condo in a town called Mililani in Oahu. It is centrally located in Oahu and the back door to the North Shore. I got it bank owned which was abandoned and got it for $235,000 around $60,000 under the 2007 tax assessment and under $80,000 2008 market assessment value. It is a great price and in a very nice attractive neighborhood. It might sound expensive but similar costs over $325k - 600k. I’ve already put an Ad out for roommates even though I don’t even have it in my possession yet. The kitchen needs to be redone so I know that is going to cost me $10k. I’m going to sell my boat and take that money to repair the kitchen. It will be a 30-45 minute drive to work, but well worth it finally owning and living in something I’m going to love. Plus renting it will not be a problem if I ever leave Hawaii and I got a VA loan being military so I recevied 100% financing and no PMI. So I definitely got a bargain and made big money by just getting ahold of it negotiating with the bank.

I suppose I will keep blogging for you 1-5 blog readers curious about what another entrepreneur is up to. Please if for some reason I make you super rich pass it forward and share the success with me financially or making me a partner

Well I got sold out of my SWN 2008 SEP 40 Calls at my GTC order @ $8.10 bought @ $6.10
It was a good thing since we are likely not to have internet access on the boat due to AC down so we have to keep all the machines off. Boy is it hot at work…..right now inside the ship its like 85-90 degrees with major humidity. I try to go outside as often as I can to get fresh air. Hopefully this will only last a week at work. This reminds me of my camp counselor days working the summer in hot hot humid wooden cabins with bitching campers. I sure would not do that again and the pay absolutely sucked. Definitely an experience, but no need to do it again.

I’m starting to get sick of blogging. I still have not picked up a huge following like I thought I would have. I suppose my financial investing for most people reading is considered too risky or too not the typical american turtle style investing with small amounts slowly over time with the idea to retire at 50-60 something. My idea is to retire at 20-30 something. Why not? Should I even keep blogging? At first I was doing this to log important market events to help me remember what moves stocks, but I’m unable to keep up with it. It’s become more of a chore then fun.

I definitely can say the market recovered after slamming down in January 08′ and that Cisco positive earnings should likely keep the market moving up. At least this is my opinion.

Still in V May 85 Calls currently up around 17% even with the rest of the market falling. I’m sure all the stocks will rebound back up again making Visa actually move harder since it is resisting coming down right now.

My SWN order completed: 5/7/2008 12:50:04 PM (ET):
Symbol: .SWNIH
Description: SWN SEP 40 Call
Stock: SWN at 44.93
Action: Sold To Close
Quantity: 2 contract(s)
Price: $8.10
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.01
Net Amt: $1,605.04

Paid $1200 + $400 profit.
ROI +25%

I love Visa (V) and I bought 1 contract today at $4. This IPO has a higher PE + double the capitilization of Mastercard (MA) so it should surpass MA in price currently at $298! With Visa @ $86 seems very undervalued and at a bargain price now publicly offered in my opinion especially with a bigger better branded name on more credit cards.

I bought another SWN SEP 40 Call @ $6.10 (same price) so now I have two contracts with the price currently hovering around $7.50 a contract. My GTC is at $8.10 even though I want to raise it I’d rather put it in a faster moving stock like Visa.

I’ve got this subconcious feeling looking at some over inflated stock price charts that some big stocks are ready to sell-off by investors taking a breather and dealing with other factors such as their homes falling in price such as First Solar, Bidu, and Google. Yeah, I know major growth stocks with good stories, but my daily and weekly charts seem to indicate engulfing bearish candles and if within reason (week) or so they don’t move up much higher then they should follow the current down trend further down. I would short them, but I’ve been burned way too many times losing money. So until I see a big break in trend or big move I will not listen to my gutt and instead not trade the stocks at all to be safe then sorry.

I’m extremely confident that AAPL, SWN, and V will continue a strong uptrend with of course dips and pull backs in the markets, but will go UP without reason for big reasons that are making the stocks $$$.

My order on V MAY 85 Calls:
5/6/2008 10:45:47 AM (ET):
Symbol: .VEQ
Description: V MAY 85 Call
Stock: V at 86.93
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 1 contract(s)
Price: $4.00
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $414.95

GTC @ $8 +100% <— Goal time within 3-7 days

I’m happy the Fed cut rates because I’m purchasing a home in Oahu (Mililani, HI). So hopefully my actually interest rate for my loan will go down as well. Apple spiked up to $180 and sold me out around $178 at $8. I likely could have gotten more, but I can’t watch the market so I’m happy that my GTC order was sold out. As for QQQQ. I’m just going to take a small loss and take that couple hundred dollars and put it into something else like Visa (V) because the QQQQ’s did not move like I thought they would with all the Tech moving.

My order:
4/30/2008 11:08:37 AM (ET):

Symbol: .APVEO
Description: AAPL MAY 175 Call
Stock: AAPL at 178.75
Action: Sold To Close
Quantity: 1 contract(s)
Price: $8.00
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.01
Net Amt: $785.04

Bought Price $5.40
Profit $220

Sold out of my QQQQ calls:

4/30/2008 3:47:52 PM (ET):

Symbol: .QQQEX
Description: QQQQ MAY 50 Call
Stock: QQQQ at 47.26
Action: Sold To Close
Quantity: 30 contract(s)
Price: $0.10
Commission: $45.00
Reg Fees: $0.01
Net Amt: $254.99

Bought Price $.14
Loss $120 (-$150 w/fees)

As everyone knows oil is hitting 120’s and keeps moving higher. I really like SWN and its almost up 50% after its 2:1 stocksplit. Recently its gone up from earnings and this definitely looks like a reasonable pull back before it dips below the open from earnings. It is clearly a bullish signal after the stock has fallen two days so I bought one in the money call because that is all I could affoard.

4/29/2008 1:06:55 PM (ET):

Symbol: .SWNIH
Description: SWN SEP 40 Call
Stock: SWN at 41.71
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 1 contract(s)
Price: $6.10
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $624.95

Plan to sell at $8.10

Hmmmm….I thought I would be checking out of my option today, but instead of it moving with the price increase it actually fell in price. I do understand options are adjusted in price, but this usually happens on mondays or end of the month. I’m a bit confused of why my option is now not 6-7 dollars at the strike price of $175. I suppose I’ll have to wait for Apple to make a full move to $175 to sell out at a reasonable profit. I’m definitely glad I didn’t go 100% in with my money because all the May options seems adjusted today by the market maker. That bastard. This is the first time the stock goes up and my options go down dramatically (-25%). Now AAPL at $169 (bought around $163) and waiting for Friday’s movement. With MSFT’s unhappy earnings being a major player in the market it might bring down other tech stocks such as AAPL.

I find it funny that all those blog posters on buying apple inc. on a dip never got a chance unless it dips next week. I think since it had a positive day after earnings that it will continually go up in price for a while with less pull backs proving its a major player in computer sales.

As for now I have to wait until I’m in the money to sell out about up 100%. Two stocks I want to play long-term are Southwestern Energy which just went through a 2:1 stocksplit and moving up at $40 and Visa (V) a new financial credit stock which is highly more popular then Mastercard (MA) and trading at $71. If I had a choice of investing all my money it would be divided between these two stocks and not Apple. I like Apple, but the technology market is weird, although people are always going to use their credit cards and with ever increasing cars oil is still needed and natural resources means big profit.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is a stock with a lot of personality. Through earnings it did exactly what it does many times when it gives a low guidance and solid results which is zig-zags up and down. Up 5% then down 5%. All the Apple traders are saying “oh, I’m buying up on the dip!!!”. Is this true? Personally I think Apple might initially fall on thursday morning, but rebound and rebound hard and keep moving up unless the company shows weakness in publicity. I think AAPL buying up a new tech company is great. We definitely need some Steve Job speeches. One blog poster off yahoo.com made a good point, what happened to the iPod and iPhone sales? The reports scream mac computer sales which is extremely positive in a dead computer market, but did the iPods stop selling? Anyway. If AAPL reports good earnings it usually moves up into the upside through into June then with the iPhone 2 annoucement should continue. Yes, are markets are in turmoil right now, but AAPL is selling its products which means people do have money oh and did I mention everyone is getting their refunds back from the IRS. Yes, spending is about to start and the new iPhones timing is great for people that just got back $600-1200 plus their normal refund.

I’m highly confident in this small $500 option trade going through earnings. My goal is to be out Friday. If apple continues to fall I better take my loss ASAP becase then big guys are selling in which they know more then us.

My trade:
4/23/2008 3:51:06 PM (ET):
Symbol:.APVEO
Description: AAPL MAY 175 Call
Stock: AAPL at 162.48
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 1 contract(s)
Price: $5.40
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $554.95

Plan to sell at $8-15

Finally got sold out of AAPL Calls on 4/18/2008 12:16:26 PM @ $161.33 … If Google’s earnings were opposite (negative) then likely AAPL would have fell just as much. With tech being so positive stocks that have been pounded it seems after a really positive earnings have springed back up to their highs meaning AAPL is predicted to have a slamming good report which could pop the stock past 180’s if it goes up 10% such as Google. Made $3000 in 18 days, but could of earnings $2700 in less that 8 days if I would have sold out earlier if of course I was just watching the market without having to be at work.

Symbol: .APVEI
Description: AAPL MAY 145 Call
Stock: AAPL at 161.68
Action: Sold To Close
Quantity: 3 contract(s)
Price: $20.00
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $.04
Net Amt: $5,985.01
Original investment: $3,000
————————–
Profit: $2,985.01 or 95% (100% without fees)

Now my plan is (as for the entire year) before I make any really bad irrational decisions with my profits is to withdraw the +$3000 made + $2000 of the initial $3000 I used to trade with and put it back into my bank account to be used towards buying another property/save for future use. So that’s a total of $5000 being withdrawn and $1000 being left over to trade again (likely to use to go through on AAPL earnings).

I was lucky and that’s about it with a big news piece on Nutrisystems getting a new CEO and saying new revenue will be much more positive. This news brought the stock up 25% from $15 up to $19.90. My options were sold out right over $19 so I was very fortunate to take a small loss and get sold out before they expired.

Symbol: .NSIDD
Description: NTRI APR 20 Call
Stock: NTRI at 19.74
Action: Sold To Close
Quantity: 2 contract(s)
Price: $1.00
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.01
Net Amt: $185.04

Still in positions for AAPL MAY & QQQQ MAY 2008 Calls. Currently up 50% in AAPL calls.
A strong trend is building in Apple after the new iPhone annoucement and lots of positive news on all the earnings the company is making.

My two recent option plays:

Symbol: .QQQEX
Description: QQQQ MAY 50 Call
Stock: QQQQ at 44.13
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 30 contract(s)
Price: $0.14
Commission: $45.00
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $465.00

bought qqqq’s because I think heavily nasdaq tech stocks are ready for a run into april earnings.
also on the weekly chart the stock rsi is about to cross over and stock looks to move up big

Symbol: .APVEI
Description: AAPL MAY 145 Call
Stock: AAPL at 143.22
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 3 contract(s)
Price: $9.95
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $2,999.95

bought aapl calls going into late april earnings call + big news on new iPhone which will be annouced in June 08. will likely sell calls before earnings then rebuy calls after earnings going into the new iPhone annoucement. also charts in my opinion show a real U shaped bottom reversal moving up on daily charts, weekly stock rsi has already crossed going up. 2 white soldiers on weekly breaking downtrend.

So I was watching the market and felt on these two stocks the timing was right to buy calls. If this rally is fake I will be eating dirt for the rest of the year. Both AAPL and QQQQ had promising technicals, but then again technicals have lied to me in the past so I’m watching my back for any breaks that should not happen. In general GOOG and AAPL are going into earnings in the mid 20’s of April 2008. Last years chart for AAPL started a reversal around now after dropping hard after earnings. PLUS!!!! BIG NEWS BIG STORY on Apple is the new iPhone going to be presented in June 2008. What happened for last years iPhone???? Oh, only the stock went up 100% in about 3 months INTO the iPhone release. So I plan to sell out before earnings then buy Jul 08 calls after earnigs on AAPL. QQQQ is just a less risky play that follows all of the heavy rich tech nasdaq stocks like AAPL and GOOG so if AAPL pushes so should tech and QQQQ’s. That is my thought so “oops I did it again” just lucky a smart choice with a motive behind it.

peace =-)

Btw India business is GREAT!!! I could possibly be semi-retired by 2009 with the choice I made. From what I hear we are helping a telecommunications company and will receive 15% of the profits for the life of the business. I’m pysched. My sailboat is still hurten. I finally finished renovating the front berthing so I actually have a bed now. I wall mounted my computer screen so its a sweet setup now to watch the market laying in bed.

So AAPL looks like a shiney sweet reversal play in my opinion. On the 3 month chart on Finace.yahoo.com shows definitely upward movement breaking the major trend and the price hitting $140 says a lot about the character and personality of the stock that it will be moving much higher much quicker. I don’t know this for 100% sure, but from other stocks I’ve watched right now with all this new merger/buyout/fed news stocks are ready to make a little run. I plan to buy AAPL Jul 160-200 Calls. My SWN 55 PUTs expired to $0 even though the stock hit $56. I also didn’t get sold out at .25 when it hit my order. It must have been quick. My NTRI options are still in play but $0 right now. I really don’t know what to expect from that stock. I made some shitty decisions that turned out into worst decisions when I chose not to sell my options at a loss now a full loss. I’m telling myself to buy Apple because its been beaten down and its still a rich stock full of postive stories although I am seeing a loss of favoritism in their iPhone projects. People that were once big on getting them now can download the program to make their own phone like a Blackberry (RIMM) phone into an iPhone. I’m thinking the same. I checked it out. It’s cool and all but I can get a neat blackberry that turns into the iPhone for $100 and save $400. Sooooooo as soon as I see a decent pull back in AAPL’s stock from the weekly move that went from $120’s to $140’s. I’m going to buy my options with months and months in advance. Since the stock is expensive getting to buy them in-the-money might not happen, but I’m going to try with what I just deposited of my $3500 worth of rental income for the past 5 months. It is my personal trading mission to make my money back to continue trading with $1,000 into $100,000.

As for my india business venture called Meyer & Ryan International Corporation has won 2 major bids creating over $5000 of revenue for our first month in business. We may profit about half that I think. I’ll probably won’t see my income from it for a while. We are making good contact by using Skype and e-mail. It would be awesome to continually generate $5000-10000 a month from these major computer projects and also soon more staffing income from recruiting.

Lastly I’ve been helping out a lot with Keikisitters.com doing free SEO marketing on the site and giving the owner pointers on where to go with it. I don’t know if she will take my advice and experience or not, but I’m not making a penny. After recently doing a lot of working on figuring out how to profit on her website for her I’ve come to the conclusion that I either #1 need to become a direct competition and start my own babysitting online service or #2 ensure she includes me in a contract on the future company profits. I’ve been broke too long and I really help too many other people in their lives. I’m just waiting for one person really to motivate and help me! =D Well that’s enough of my complaining. I hope she enjoys her high traffic site with my expert marketing tactics.

chao. - fn

I haven’t even looked at my charts for almost a month now and I can already visualize in my mind what is happening. First I can see one big bullish candle down and a second big bullish candle parallel to the down candle. This creates a tunnel/sandwhich like effect that for the most part is rare and shows a change in buying/selling.

More surprisingly HOKU under $8 has not been moving at all and just has fell instead of move like big stocks FSLR which currently just swings up and down 10-20 pts a day it seems like. I’m going to have to make one big journal entry about all these big moves and economic policy decisions going on plus what happens to Bear Sterns (BSC). Wow. I would have never of thought that company would of feel to just $3 and get bought out by JPM for only $200 million dollars. Any billionaire status entrepreneur right now can almost buy a mega company cheap that is in trouble. I’m surprised Bill Gates with Microsoft isn’t buying everything up to dominate and monopolize on the market place.

AAPL through all of these hard moves has actually been pretty supportive in the 120’s so this just might becomes its 52 week low for the following year and finally move past $200 for good unless a stocksplit happens by Steve Jobs by surprise.

I’m seeing huge moves happen daily during one of the most hardest times to trade. I have to admit its very lucrative in daily plays, but would be very dangerous staying in a trade no longer then 1 day right now due to the extremely swingy choppy markets. I don’t think our market has hit the bottom that fast. Home sellers are still having problems selling their homes and consumers are still resisting buying and starting to talk again about how risky the market is to buy stocks. This is not bullish talk in my opinion from people who create the profits to drive stocks up.

Living on the boat has been swell. I’m about out of money to fix the boat. Other boat owners have suggested just living in it and doing nothing to it. I’d really like to sail it and go on trips, but it needs a LOT of work to be seaworthy. So I guess I’ll see how far I get with what I can pay for and do to the boat.

Yeah, I’m still on break. I still randomly see what the market closed at. Yes, my Put options are still in their death bed and NTRI is still in a comma from the shock the stock has plummeted after earnings. My past week living on my new boat has been peaceful and cumbersome. I say hard to manage because I’ve been somewhat secretly living in the marina until the deal is final and slip is tranferred into my name. I’ve had no key to the restrooms so I have gone back to ancient times using a bucket and taking a shit in resturants or back on my CG ship including showers. Mosquitos have taken a liking to me. I’ve taken measures at 3 a.m. in the morning after being restless by “bbzzzzz’s” and tons of bites all over my body by buying king size sheet at Wal-Mart and bundling up inside it with a fan blow on me. It has worked wonders in creating longer less-zombie like sleeping times.

In the past week I’ve seen stocks like First Solar (FSLR) sing 30 pts up and down blowing my mind, but I’m glad I’m on an extended break clearing my mind from option trades and studying the market. I’m lacking off on my journal as well.

I met a guy tonight who watchs stocks on 20 monitors. Yes, you read it correctly 20 MONITORs! How cool is that? Is a real estate developer I guess who can blow money on stocks until he learns. I wish I was in the same position, but I’m not. I think my financial options trading education is about finished. I’m sick of losing when I do and I want to start a real winning streak with better discipline and being less greedy. Yes, I know again I’m saying this for about this 100th time. I must sound like a person that goes to rehab a lot, but I’m not in one. I suppose living on my boat, fixing it up, and being by myself more is a little bit like rehab.

I plan on refinancing my home still in May and pay off all my higher interest debt with the loan to have a smaller payment with a smaller interest rate. News - Also for the first time in like 6 years my credit must be getting better because now I’m finally about to get higher amounts on my credits cards. I opened a couple of new accounts just to gain that credibility and still using credit wisely. My goal is to get back into the 800’s. I tell ya consilidating debt through a company is the wrong way to go. It really damages your credit and does not help you in the long run.

I’ll probably be in a new options trade before my off time break is over. My goal is to regain some losses and stay on track to have a positive 2008. As for my partnership in India it has been still a bit ruff, but we are making a lot of progress. He has gotten the computer, internet, and started a bank account with an India corporation there. It would be nice just to see a little profit from the business and see it grow successfully. But since he is so far away only time and character will test if he is honest and has some integrity.

Okay, I’m having a bit of a mid-20’s life crisis because my $1000 trades aren’t working out, I’m back in Honolulu from patrol with a full load of tasks, racing to finish my online college classes, making slow progress with my business in India, and on top of all of this making irrational decisions from the crisis by buying a 32′ ft Cal Sailboat to work, repair, and live on at a dock in Honolulu downtown instead of paying around $1000-1200 for a room or studio for 4-5 months.

Okay I know I know buying a boat is a major money bucket. I’ve lived in a 28ft sailboat in St. Pete Beach, Florida when I was 24 for around 4 months so I know what to expect and what kind of costs are calculated into it. I bought this boat for $3500 which is considered dumpster cheap in Hawaii because boats are sold for $$$ because its hard to get them here. Now it looks like it could be in the dumpster. It needs many repairs in new structure, lots of sanding, and a lots of painting. I created a blog to journal all the steps I took on buying, repairing, and how to liveaboard a sailboat in Hawaii at http://iliveaboard.blogspot.com. I will also be posting lots of pictures of renovations and sailing trips around islands. I got the engine running yesterday with the person who sold it to me. A very salty sailor. It is a yanmar 2 cyl 18 horsepower so I’m pretty fortunate to buy a sailboat with a #1 good diesel engine with it. I think the sails could be bad, but I plan renovating the entire boat since it’s paid off and I can live on it for around $260/month at a slip in Honolulu, HI which includes water, electricity, cable TV, and hot showers/bathroom at harbor. I’ll be living life pretty cheap and simple although I know I’ll be putting at least $5000-10000 into the boat. I looked at prices on similar models and year (it’s a 1958 wooden boat) and fully renovated they sell for $30,000. I don’t expect to make any money and I might not even sell it. If I have a boat where I can sleep in, make food, and go sailing for only $250/month in Hawaii why sell it? It would be a fun get away.

Well I have off work until April 9th. So working on the boat and doing many tasks besides watching the market will be what I’m up to. My positions are worthless. Google is falling as I figured it would hard (which of course again I’m not trading) and big swings are happening. I plan on setting up in my boat a trading station. (hahah, yea you heard that right).

cheers, fn

Okay I’ve had no internet on the boat since patroling back from Alaska to Hawaii so far. I’m finally able to login and post somethings I’ve been meaning to get around to.

Bought Nutri System after its stock dropped -25% @ $17. Now I consider it a mistake. I was thinking, “well what if it drops again, and again”, but it was pushing through the bollinger bands so I was convinced it would spring back up and move up from being sold off so quickly. Wrong again. Buying Puts on it (you know the trend is your friend) would have been the correct thing to do. I still own the CALLS because I could not sell out. The trade isn’t over yet. I highly likely even with a poor outlook the company still creates continual growth and with one positive news piece the stock with its sold off part should rise which my goal is to $18-19 before dropping again in which I would be sold out. NTRI has done this many times with hard drops. It creates a small peak before dropping lots more and that is what I’m going after. A hard trade? Yes, I picked a very difficult trade.

Here’s my order and it’s logged in my $1000 trade log:

Completed on 2/20/2008 12:21:41 PM (ET):

Symbol: .NSIDD
Description: NTRI APR 20 Call
Stock: NTRI at 17.00
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 2 contract(s)
Price: $0.85
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $184.95

As for my SWN MAR 55 PUT’s I’ve found surprises with the energy industry and again I’m trying to break its trend! What is wrong with my thinking! I find myself constantly trying to trade against the trend when I see a trade. I don’t understand how at the time I feel convinced these are my best trades when they are really sour entry points specifically for these types of trades. The energy industry is still high right now. On weekly charts its at the top and what I see most important is “spinner candles” forming near the top and this usually indicates a change in trend. I could be wrong. It seems to me 100% that after its big run up from $49 to $64 it would fall some, but another factor a BIG factor I have to keep in mind is that it has earnings Feb 29th. Shit. Realistically this stock should profit off all these high prices and move higher just like RIG did. So knowing this knowledge even if I have a sharp loss if I can keep only $100 because it hasn’t fallen into earnings or just has not fallen with news or oil problems I 1000% should NOT go through its earnings.

My NTRI calls have until the end of April so I actually feel pretty safe although I don’t want to be in a trade more than 2 weeks.

Well we have a line up of great bad news that will likely make the market drop tomorrow regardless of HPQ’s good earnings for tech. Building permits, CORE CPI, CPI, Housing Starts, and FOMC minutes. I’d like all of these to be horrible econimic reports telling the same story we’ve been hearing since the the beginning of the new year 2008. Housing is down, building is down (because of the high cost of commodities rising), and most importantly the fed minutes scare investors out of stocks making SWN fall so my PUTS which I initially thought was the best position will still go in my thought out direction! Muhahah. I am evil, well not really, but I’d like to see some selling off of stocks tomorrow (no offense moomin with your big portfolio, and can you explain what “honeyweek” is?).

Hello. I was going through volunteer ads in craigslist.org Honolulu and found a post about this man who just recently had a motorcycle accident http://helpjamesheal.blogspot.com/ I suggest you check it out if you are in the giving mood. When I get back in march I plan to visit him and give him so emotional motivational support. I might even learn somethings from him because he is a headhunter, something I trying to learn to be. The blog is called Heal James Heal.

So I have to admit today’s open when I opened Yahoo! Finance was just a big slap to the face to me. Everything showed the market was going to open lower and then on Tuesday across the board stocks make a big fat white candle moving up the first 3-4 hours of the day creating a doji evening star breaking the 10 day trend, raising or following up the daily trend, and keeping the weekly in motion. By the end of the day, the last 3 hours, stocks seemed to slowly fall and retrace back below the bollinger bands and the Dow Jones falls hard after oil goes over $100/bbl. It just shows you can’t predict what is going to happen and if you can’t predict or at least come to a sensible conclusion to make trades off of how can I make a trade even last longer then 1 day without forming some type of loss if it doesn’t go my way? This is mine boggling to a trader like me who is trying to write a better trading system (at least on paper). Currently stocks, at least energy - oil, are steadily moving up from January through Feburary 2008. It’s a shock. Shouldn’t stocks still be falling?

Walmart earnings - were they really THAT good? This my view of Walmart and its profits and revenues it discounted all its products meaning small margin for profit and sure more revenues, but not much increase in cash profits coming in. So why did the market take Walmarts news as the best thing ever and raise the entire market up just to get punched back by oil?

Commodities - duh! Of course prices are going up in all commodities because HELLO move over USA now China and India are taking over in major growth and need things to build, eat, and live a higher standard quality of life. I don’t see commodities as a good thing going up because the more expensive prices go up the less consumers are willing to spend and sooner or later since demand will be less in the US companies will shift most of their business to faster growing countries such as China and India.

So, yeah, wtf? My SWN 55 MAR PUT has been hammered. Am I out? No. Why? Personally something smells fishy in the markets and for the most part when oil moves high actually energy stocks first initially fall a lot with the market then move back up (because it makes them generate more profits of course creating bigger margins). So I’m not out. Yes, all my charts are showing the stock moving higher, does this make me a moron for not selling? Maybe. I also think this could be a big reverse where a stock jumps higher but then falls harder the following days. I don’t need a miracle, I just need the markets to make up their mind realize the economy does suck and fall as they should.

Nutri System earnings - wow! I guess it’s a good thing I forgot because I was too busy to watch the stock and put in a CALL option trade on NTRI earnings. The stock “beat” analyst estimates but shouted fear and panic saying “falling profits, lowering outlook 2008″ which made the stock fall -30% after hours. This would have been a most disasterous trade. So thank you God for taking my mind off trading since I already knew SWN moved up +5% (bad news for a PUT option). NTRI peg is at .39!!!! But now with a second falling profit outlooks it feels good to play PUTS on it because this stock now with full-blown negative press and no good outlook should fall even more making it an easy short PUT option trade.

Practice Trading Plan - recently doing over 100 practice paper trades a day on 8 different industry has become more of a fun task it has become a JOB, a full-time job clearly. I’m struggling to keep up while also doing my military job and my college classes at HPU. Clearly I need to paper trade less and focus more on just a few stocks. Basically my old plan was practice trading 8 different industries a day and following them a week. Each day I’d do 8 new stocks within the same industries, but it builds up quickly to a stack high pile of papers. I feel I’m not gaining any new widsom from this even though I thought doing more practice trading work on the same 8 industries would help me spot trends and better trades quicker. I think if I did trading full-time I could easily do this why watching the market for the entire day, but I basically give trading 30 minutes to 2 hours a day which is my time limit. I have to figure out my trades after the market closes. Such as today I watched SWN move up 1pt to 2pts to 3pts. This could of been an acceptable real trade if I could have traded it intraday, but I’m working.
I have no excuses so my practice trading plans need to be revised to a better system. Okay I’ve got it. I’ll stick with my 8 different industries but only do those 8 trades a week so instead of around 240-400 trades a month (practice) I will focus extremely hard and consistent on only 32. My goal was to follow day movement to see if a stock moves down or up statistically more on one day then another going Monday to Monday. Then I can review and see how the stock moved throughout the trading week to see if I can find any patterns I could use to trade the stock with a better chance of it moving my way the following day to be sold out quicker.

-fn

A while ago I did a post on doing ads on very foreign country craigslist.org’s and so far I’ve only gotten 3 replies offering $5000 USD non-payback loan for partnership in foreign based business.
Two responses I got did not follow instructions of what I asked in the ad, actually known of all 3 did, but the third response was much more open to his business and explaining on how my investment in him would be a good investment. His name is Mr. Ryan, actually this is his baptised name in India, or else we can call him Mr. Narayan. Since I received his reply from a Delphi, India classed financial post on craigslist.org we have transferred to each other over 100 emails discussing this business, how funds will be used, bank accounts, partnership, incorporating, and how his business can grow.

Doing essay research papers, trading stocks, and reading Alan Greenspan’s economist books I know India is a fast growing and populating country, although behind us currently, could still emerge as a big consumer player. I’ve never been to India, but once I understood his business I immediately wanted to invest in him and be a part of it. Mr. Ryan does job outsource staffing needs for business outside or coming to India. Hello! This is huge with India very talented technology workforce and many more seeking work his business made complete sense. He told me recently his previous partner left him and took out much of the money built up from doing his business. His family also had some medical issues that he had to pay for so now he needed money to get it going again. It is a risk believing him. I haven’t even spoke to him on the phone yet! But all you can do in the business world is going on trust first then work yourself into a contract, incorporate, get lawyers in on the act, and build the business more solid as you move along. This is exactly what I did. Now we currently have a partnership contract 49% owned by myself and 51% owned by him since the majority of all the business will be done by him and any staff he hires in the process. I felt that was fair since I incorporated the business in my name since he is not a U.S. citizen and I’m not an India citizen. So the majority of the trust will be with me also as I conserve any capital made and any assets placed into the corporation. We will have seperate bank accounts to split the income 50/50% and all business expenses paid out of a seperate business account. So far I’ve done all this in about 2 weeks. I have to admit communicating just through email can be cumbersome at times, but I managed to get everything going. I’m also buying him a new fast computer from Dell to use it for VOIP calls, his IT solutions services, and staffing services. So far I’ve put around $1100 USD into his entrepreneurial activities. I’ve found it very difficult also to buy anything and then ship it to his city in Dehra Dun, India. Even though its a emerging industrial technology city it is run by the India state government so as for the computer to not have problems complicated he is going to pick it up shipped to a friends house in Delphi, India. It seems each state government has its own rules. I’ll have to learn more as I go along how to get around these rules. Now that we are incorporated it should help being a business entity, not a foreign outside individual entity.

Mr. Ryan is 33 years old and holds a MBA and has been working in the technology industry and human resource staffing for the past 15 years (or at least from what he tells me). Only time and trust will tell if this small capital venture will work out for the both of us. Myself receiving some new income and stake into something I’d actually like to really work with later and for him giving him the resources, tools, and capital to get his business fully functional again in a booming country.

So far I’ve incorporated us in Hawaii, USA as Meyer & Ryan International Corporation.
I, being Director of U.S. Operations and Mr. Ryan being Director of India Operations.
I’m thrilled and so excited! I will also be blogging the business and India’s industry news on outsource staffing for future job and company seeking clients through our blog at http://meyer-ryan.blogspot.com and soon by Monday night will have our company website for companies to post needs and job seekers to post there information to connect with employers at http://www.meyer-ryan.com. If Mr. Ryan is as ambitious as I am and of course once we can speak on the phone (due to me being at sea) I’d like to possible sell, import, and export into India. There are so many untapped consumers ready to buy what the U.S. citizens have to increase their standard of living as job incomes rise, the currency rises against ours, and the government becomes more capitalistic. You can email us at meyerandryan@gmail.com if you need any outsourcing needs for any sized business.

If you have ever worked with foreign business people, have a business overseas, or import/export in India please comment. I’d like to hear your input if I’m doing the right thing. Like anything else I’ve tried I’ll do my best to help Mr. Ryan become a success. If it doesn’t work out then big deal I lost -$5000 USD. It is a lot of money, but I feel money well invested into a good plan.

My second $1000 trade was on SWN. I made my decision off the daily and 233 minute chart moving down and the 3 and 5 minute charts white candles hitting the upper bollinger bands as an entry point for the stock to continue pulling back from its 5 day run up. Although my trade is currently down 1.45 from my 1.75 purchase if I’m correct and SWN pushes down a bit further before hitting its big trend I should sell out at my planned GTC order of $2.50. That is my goal at least. If I’m wrong about the direction Monday I should sell out as soon as possible, but I think SWN has a higher likely probably chance of pulling back more since it’s close on Friday was below the high close of the week on Thursday. It created a long wick (bad, becuase that’s more bullish with about 10 white candles during the smaller minute charts) created a T like wick. Since it did close below even with my option price moving down with the negative pessimistic news in the markets it should help sell off some more from the past days decent news.

My order details:
Friday @ 1:23 PM
Symbol: .SWNOK
Description: SWN MAR 55 Put
Stock: SWN at 59.49
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 5 contract(s)
Price: $1.75
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $889.95

Another trade I’m looking at is NTRI earnings on Tuesday FEB 19th. If NTRI moves up into the close before earnings I will likely do a $100-200 trade going through earnings playing CALLS. This stock has NO reason to push down further because even with less growth because of diet drugs, it’s growth in general should still increase. It’s growth to earnings ratio is extremely low. Personally I think if NTRI gives any type of surprise people that dumped the stock might check it out again if it proves even some type of growth and limited losses.

A person just recently commented on my last post that he “hopes” I stayed in the trade. Actually this entire morning before turning on my computer every single time the word “hope” came as a thought for my GTC order @ $13 came into my head I would try to come up with another word or think another reason rather then hope. Hope is truly a gamblers word. I want to delete it from my personal trading vocabulary. Any other word sounds better used then hoping an investment goes up or down, if I am hope it’s likely a low probability bad trade.

Symbol: .HJQBB
Description: FSLR FEB 210 Call
Stock: FSLR at 219.20
Action: Sold To Close
Quantity: 1 contract(s)
Price: $13.00
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.02
Net Amt: $1,285.03
————————————————
Total days in trade = 8
Total commissions = $30
Total profit = $300
————————————————
Net profit = $270 or +27% ROI of $1000

I did not exit the position until after earnings since I did know this stock had a range of up to $280, and if earnings was a surprise this -100pt drop currently at yesterdays $175 stock price could definitely move some points. Now I would consider to use the word luck in this trade just because my option yesterday was at $3 something and I lowered my GTC order since time decay I knew was going to be a big factor in being sold out immediately. It was lucky that the stock went up +44 pts and at the HIGH of my FEB 210 CALL option the call price was $13.30. This means if I had not lowered my call option price to $13 I would have never been sold out immediately in the morning as had I thought in my minds trading plan. The call option price is currently holding at $13 around the $219 stock price. If I would have kept the call option price up 100% at $20 GTC order with the wasted week of time decay and expiration friday even with the stock hitting my goal of $205-220 the call option did not reflect the major in-the-money movement because the call only is good for a remaining two more days.

Sooooo…… I can keep doing is say thank you God. This dude was looking out for me. I’m not only lucky. This call option went up +10 pts so anyone that “gambled” on the high odds likely that First Solar was going to do well because many other solar sector stocks were doing well made out great. I don’t care that I made a profit of 27%. I think now this $1000 trade has been my worst trade even though I made back my money and some profit. Why? You might ask? Well the stock moved down -40 pts, then up +40pts, then down -14pts, then finally up +44 points. As you can see during the 8 days I held on to this option this stock moved a total of 138 pts, and I only traded ONE WAY because I let myself get stock once the stock fell and I did not sell out due to not being able to trade. I basically looked at the major trend of FLSR going up and traded the call going into earnings 2/13 that way. If anything happened ups/down there isn’t much I could do about just keeping in a GTC with my “conviction” that FSLR would move my way, which it did but it didn’t do it as fast as I thought it would. I thought it would move higher faster and then by earnings or day of earnigns lose some points because all the hype and profits were factored already in to the stock price. I’m definitely not a super religious person, but if God is giving me some stress relief this is it!

My next $1000 trade will likely be a less volatile stock. It seems to me the personality of FSLR runs close to AAPL just recently in the past year. Any news highly affects this stock. I need to find a stock I can set up and it will follow through at least technically since most of my trading is off technical charts with fundamental future news that might move a stock. I’m almost certain if I wait to trade until March that a clear trend will be shown even if trading something sideways. One thing I do know is energy stocks should advance higher with oil likely to surpass 100/barrell again.

So since FSLR fell going into earnings a whopping -14 pts closing just above yesterdays big white candle move up +16 pts. I suspect bad earnings to happen since investors seemed to panicly sell out of the stock before earnings release at 8am before the market open tomorrow. All solar sector stocks dropped heavily today, so it may not just be First Solar, but investors aren’t buying into earnings which are supposedly to be a “surprise”. Think about it though, if analyst say there might be a surprise is it really a surprise anymore? If someone tells you are going to have a “surprise” birthday party it isn’t much of a surprise once it actually happens….hmmm this could be painful tomorrow waking up to see what happens after the release….very painful since my contract is currently at $3.50. It moved up to $10 today but my GTC order was at $13. Shit.

Okay. If you are like a stock wizard or professional and for some crazy reason your reading my posts that show me notoriously multiple times over I’m very wrong on stock directions then please comment on the stocks in the solar sector. All my charts showed First Solar (FSLR currently @ $189 + up to $191 after hours up +10%) being technically going up. All the charts had a smooth easy riding sloping uptrend which broke the daily downtrend.

The following day I got hammered losing around 40% of the capital in the trade or $400. Yes I could of sold out and kept $600 to stay alive for my next trade, but there was no reason for FLSR to go down. It was just negative market news bring down the stock. Furthermore FSLR dived all the way down to $165! What a Put play that would have been if I would have just changed positions since I saw realistically the day after I bought it the stock was showing a “dark cloud” a bearish signal showing downwards movement. So I saw my option price go down to losing 90% of its value. Just recently yesterday it broke the 55 minute downtrend and going up again today I’m back at 70% the value of my 1 contract or around $700. In after hours trading FSLR moved up another 1% or +2 pts to $191. I bought the contract at $196. Now that time is strongly against me and I haven’t sold out within 2-3 days of my planned trade I’m forced to see if FSLR will move over $200 as planned going into 4Q results as planned on Wednesday Feb. 13th. This CALL trade was based on movement going into results. Analysts (ZACKS) are currently predicting a surprise for First Solar results. In the position that it doesn’t given stellar surprising results this stock could be extremely punished or shoots up another 10%. I currently need the boost to sell out of my GTC at $20. I’m currently 13 points away in my options so technically the stock would have to move like 20 points or around to the price of $210 within 2 days. Yes, not realistic, I agree too. So if it does spike again tomorrow the day before the results I am going to sell out likely either breaking even or +10-20% ROI. If bad market news comes out and pushes FSLR down I might be forced to hold it through the results. I’d rather miss a move then kiss all my $1000 trade money good by.

Is it that ZACK’s predicts a surprise in FSLR which made it move +10% today? Did buyers just jump in with the stock pushed down a lot? I noticed HOKU at $10.21 also moved around +8% today. I can also agree solar stocks are super volatile right now, but what moved them for these past two days starting this week. It is driving me nuts. I think the next $1000 trade I do will be on a much less volatile stock like NUE, AAPL, EOG, SWN, RIG, BAC. These stocks do move with swings but not -40 pts down then +40pts up in about only 1 week like FSLR has. Good grief! One day when I can watch the market all day I will trade on such a big move and move with the direction in real time. I’m sure many traders are rich just trading such a move off FSLR. Also coming up is Nutri Systems (NTRI @ $24) earnings. The stock has been shorted heavily although with a peg of like .40 and still a lot of growth because diets are a fad. Diets have been going on for centuries! NTRI actually might surprise investors on results and this stock could zoom up in price. All of the damage has already hammered the stock down with bad news and bears eating at it. In a few days analyst could be wrong and institutions buy into the stock again. This stock was in the $70’s before it tanked. It is currently at $24 hitting a low of $20. One of my strategic plans is to buy CALL options on it and go through earnings with only $100 in the trade or 1 contract. Something very small of my $1000 so just in case the stock blows or doesn’t move I will not lose much.

fslr_233_feb-4-08

Originally uploaded by financeninja

First $1000 trade

FSLR @ $196.58 - 1 Contract of FEB 210 CALL @ $10 ($1000 plus commission). This looks like the highest probability trade so far.
Notes listed on chart. All of my charts are going up and pushing through BB’s lines building momentum into Feb 13th financial results to be shown. My GTC is up 100% @ $20 or ($2000 sale).
I expect FSLR to move around 20 points in 1 week average 5 pt move a day. My option would have to move around 12 pts to sell me out.

Now I would of liked to wait a little bit longer to get into the trade, but I waited till after all the wild trades were done and entered the trade at 11:11 A.M. EST so I’d make the first move was done to see where it would keep going. I expect it to move past 210 by Friday Feb. 8th and be sold out at $20.

Exact trade details:
Symbol: .HJQBB
Description: FSLR FEB 210 Call
Stock: FSLR at 196.58
Action: Bought To Open
Quantity: 1 contract(s)
Price: $10.00
Commission: $14.95
Reg Fees: $0.00
Net Amt: $1,014.95

Start. 2:18 A.M. writing a review on my life in 2007, an entrepreneur’s thoughts, stop.

January 07′ started out pretty good. I changed shops on my ship and immediately become happier with the new people since they treat me with a lot more respect. The vibe is a bit more positive even though half of the shop is anti the other half. I make a couple of trades losing and winning with no real outcome. I’m currently on patrol in the south pacific. I go see some homes in Mexico oceanfront to consider buying a 1 bedroom bungalow with ocean views around 600sqft for $65,000. Cheap now that I think about it. The realtor their originally from Canada with partner treated me really nice. I just thought the town was a bit too dirty, but what isn’t in Mexico? If the water would have been crystal clear maybe I would of completed the contract and went through with the deal. She seemed trustful and she moved to live there.

Feb 07′ was an awesome month for my trading. I saw a solid trade went after it with $2000 and made a huge return of $38,000 profit, but ended up losing half of it by the beginning of March. Sad, but true. I wish I would of had a partner to stop me from trading it and instead forced me to put it down as a big down payment on some type of real estate in my home town. I could of easily got me a 2bed/2bath condo 5 blocks from Virginia Beach with that down payment and collect a profitable rent until I could move into it yet I made the decision to keep trading. By the end of Feb 07′ I thought I was on fire but the burner was burning out all the fire.

Mar - Aug 07′ was in port and made a great new friend in Honolulu. Problem is that the friend originally which was bonded on music ended up turning into a weekend party warrior instead of a weekend music warrior. He’s older not much older but was a lot more stable then I and how he lives his life compared to mine. What I tell him about what I do blows him away, but how he can just live such a simple lifestyle spending his money and enjoying his the present makes me just dream about that life. He had past bands and really got to live the rockstar life I can only dream about and now its mostly behind him. He enjoys writing music and jamming out but thats about the extent to it. During this time period I probably moved to two different places to live and lastly ended up moving in with a co-worker from another CG unit. It started off fun and never really went bad. We were two guys living a super simple cheap life in a 1 bedroom apartment in a pretty sweet location. As time went on another person moved in and then it got pretty weird. Just too many dudes. He was a bigger drinker then I was too and we had different values. I wanted to be cheap and have no TV, he wanted it so I just made it work. During this time frame I started to work with a woman on a fashion design yoga clothing business but it ended up strange. She was older and I guess she thought I was too young and unexperienced to work with her to get it going. She might of been right but her website is still not up so I suggest that means she is still struggling by herself.

Aug 07′ I thought I was leaving for a patrol south then ended up being a north one. I found out my home I bought 2 years earlier was a adjustable rate mortgage not a fixed rate as I thought I signed. Luckily I paid off the 2nd mortgage of $15,000 in the beginning when I made a big profit on 1 trade. That was smart. Now why did I take $40k to pay off the mortgage from my Feb 07′ trade worries me. Now I’m paying the same amount as before in which I had two mortgages. I plan on refinancing or selling. In beginning of August I bought a 11 unit mobile home park in Savannah, TN and put $10,000 cash down on it. After buying it I had the errie feeling I just totally fucked up. I was ambitious and 100% convinced I could turn it into a 100% success. I soon found out even with all the money I put into repairs, advertising, and two property managers I was having “grave” problems. During this process I probably only collected $1500 in rent income over 6 months while having to evict crystal meth drug dailers with the sheriff department, go through two embezzling money property managers, and putting an extra $4000 in renovating trailers. I also paid over $5000 in mortgage payments. Crazy enough I was about to buy a second 18 unit mobile home park in another park of Tennessee at the same time!!! What was I thinking? I had daily contact with both property managers but I guess it was a really dirty park so I got dirty property managers. It happens I suppose? My first property manager I’m still using in Hampton, VA has been extremely helpful and honest and I feel I can trust her since its been over 2 years and I haven’t missed one rent for not even one month. She collects any missed rent with interest. Back to my first mobile home park I bought - well I just ended up selling back to the previous owner recouping $5000 of my $19,000+ investment. I guess I was even considering just giving it back for free but he offered me first $3000 then I negotiated him up to $5000. What made me most miserable about this attempt to own a multi-unit income property was that the previous owner tells me after he took it back he had ALL the units rented at the same when he sold it to me meaning a $2800 income which is what I figured into my plans or even half that and it would of still have been a good investment. So whom am I to believe? I felt everyone in the town kind of scammed me. It really made me not trust my second property manager because I paid a lot for good big advertising adds and he says he got 300 calls but only had 1-2 rented the entire time! Well I guess its what you learned when you can rent them yourself and you are 5000 miles away and on top of that I never even saw the property!!! Most people think I’m stupid or crazy but I don’t think it was. I calculated the risks. I just had two bad property managers in a row and after 7 months I couldn’t keep a property creating a negative cashflow of -$1500/month. It builds up real fast I tell you. My life really hit a low going into 2008. This is okay though. Now I’m more in debt then I ever have been but it is giving me more motivation to stop making bad choices or at least not wise enough choices in investments for real estate and trading options.

Sept 07′ It’s been one year since I bought my new Honda 05′ element. The high payments with everything else are catching up with me. I still have $19000 left. I’m starting to have regrets but the car is great with zero problems. Around the end of September talking with my property manager in Hampton, VA says my home realistically can sell right now for $120-130k. I am completely blown away. I never thought my home would appreciate this much within 2 years. I immediately tell her to put it up for sale for $120,000. The tenant wanted to buy it but being on a fixed low income I ended up not selling it to her or I’d actually really lose money in the process of closing costs and agent fees at the price she could afford it. By the time it gets on the market in mid-November it seems the market suddenly cooled off. An investor offers me $105,000 for it. My current mortgage is $58k with it having upgrades of about $92,000. I wanted to sell it but the investor went over seas? So the deal would of gave me back my initial investment, upgrades, and paid for costs but it didn’t go through. I end up taking it off the market early to refinance and take that money to pay off my bad debt to reduce my monthly payments to only find out I’d have to wait 6 months since its been listing on the MLS. Can you believe this? I couldn’t. So now refinance time is mid-May 08′ for me to reduce my mortgage and take out some money to reduce debt that has high interest rates. Did I also mention that in August 07′ I took out a $42,000 student loan at 12% rate for 30 years to use as collatoral on my big real estate investment expedition? Man that was a wrong move.

Nov 07′ Leave for north patrol after long waiting period and indecision with problems with our boat. This patrol I’m currently on will be a long 4 month one since we were in port for very long. I really don’t care I actually enjoy long patrols to save money, see new places, and you sleep a lot believe it or not with all the rolling waves. During this month I start to become suspicious of my second property manager on my mobile home park I bought. Good reason to be I suppose.

Dec 07′ I’ve seen some cool places on patrol San Diego, CA - Victoria, Canada - Juneua, Alaska - Kodiak, Alaska - Dutch Harbor, Alaska. I tell my property manager I’m planning on selling the park or giving it back to the previous owner if I can turn to make a profit. He doesn’t sound too happy about this trying to convience me to keep it and give it a chance. I tell him I’ve gave him and it a chance. He tells me its my fault. I couldn’t believe it. He keeps telling me there are renters but never seems to get them to rent the trailers and fill up the park even when I’m paying for all utilities for tenants and offering extremely low rates to live in trailers just to get them full… By the end of Dec 07 the previous owner heres my troubles and offers to buy it back for $3000. I negotiable the price up to $5000 and in a weird way feel “lucky” to get out of an investment which I thought would set me financially free one day. Was I set up? Now that I think about it I guess anything is possible in Savannah, TN.

Jan 08′ Present day, actually starting Feb 08′, I feel a lot of relief selling the park and having $5000 in my bank account to use to pay for debt or use to do something else crazy and likely stupid compared to most older investor standards of easy, small, and slow. In my trading for 2007 I ended up taking $10,000 of my student loan to trade. I broke such a huge rule and I derserve the pain I’m getting now from losing it all on 2 trades. Oh, yes, of course before I lost it all I actually made $10,000 on 1 trade. Now I could of took the money I put in and pay back off the loan but instead I trade all $28,000 I increased over 3 months from around $5000. Finally my call options end Jan 08′ and both my Scottrade and OptionsXpress accounts are both at a $0 balance. So putting that in thought I basically gained around $58,000 in 2007 in profits (which I could used to pay off a $58,000 mortgage) and lost all my my initial money + the profits. Wow. Congratulations to myself for doing such a wonderful job managing my money!!! I somehow became my own worst hypocrite. Reading the bible and preaching to people who don’t save or invest their money I sure am the hypocrite now aren’t I? I can’t seem to even manage and conserve my own. Now yes yes yes I do go after making my money work hard, maybe too hard. Most people never try all the things I do and maybe never will and maybe that is what really sets me apart even being broke right now having a higher chance of being wealthy in the future; just because I try. Just that one factor that I’m willing to do which others aren’t willing to do.

So start this new year I’m trying to create a new me. Now I’m already dabbling into other money making ideas. Hey that is just me! This is who I am, but when I do make a big trade I’m going to work on conserving that profit instead of blowing it. I’m also going to trade smaller amounts of money to force myself discipline instead of trading with bigger and bigger amounts of money which I have proven to myself I can not keep without losing. Condo prices in honolulu, HI have come down a lot so if the opportunity comes up I might try. I’m even interested in offering money out to be a partner in someone elses business who I think might become a success and my partnership would bring me financial reward. I also came up with a real estate trust company idea and I hope it pans out and works. It could be a big step in finally having a team instead of just me trying to do everything myself. Another big thing in trying to make a better me this year is trying to find people I can talk with who are better then me and already successful in real estate and trading. Although I remain continually in a worried state about money and retiring I will try to refocus on just becoming a better disciplined person increasing my knowledge level. Well thats my life in 2007, a review, of an entrepreneur’s thoughts and actions.

Here is an e-mail I wrote to my sister at Sunday January 27th at 4:19 A.M. tell me if this is brilliant or bust? I know as a group we’d have to create rules and regulations no doubt, but the idea I think could work.

-Sisters Name-,

Sisters Name-, I’ve been looking at the Austin tx real estate market and it is compared to Virginia beach 5 years ago. It has a hotter job market, bigger city, and better growing economy but the prices of homes haven’t jumped much yet. Imagine mom and dads home when I helped them get it was $129k. now its worth over $300k (and that’s a low estimate). I’ve found so many homes at $100-130k in Austin right now with same size, big yard, and 5-15 miles from downtown Austin (this city is actually building a light rail system to san Antonio, tx within 2 years). It seems rent on one of these homes is about $1000/month so you’d earn starting at $100/cashflow to pay for property management fee with a mortgage of $900. I just wanted to know if you’d really want to partner with me and start a real business. For what you are paying in Richmond you can get double in Austin, tx newer to an up and coming city. If you’ve read any economics millions of baby boomers are headed south to FL, TX, AZ, NM, NV.

Some of these homes are in foreclosures so we could still negotiate a deal and bring the price down. Companies like Dell and IBM are located here. Can you say that about Richmond? Or Virginia beach?

Here is another good buying point. The fed just cut interest rates .75pts and plan to do it again meaning mortgage rates are going to drop so buying homes continues meaning home prices are highly likely to move much higher again. So right now with home prices knocked down 10-15% is the time to buy even if you are long-term and want to hold. Your mentors should of taught you about equity in a home and using it meaning you buy a home for $100,000 and it goes up $40k in equity now you can extract that to use to buy more homes to increase your real estate business.

I really want to buy a home in Austin, tx. I have friends in the coast guard and network contacts that say great things about it especially the thriving music scene.

I’d be willing to split everything down 1/2 way rental income, equity, and future sale profit if in return you’d be willing to pay half of everything such as mortgage, repairs, taxes, and capital gain taxes on final sale.

How this will benefit you now and in your long-term future: lessens your risk, less capital to buy rental properties, builds your portfolio, and long-term selling a home 10 years from now it can create a large nestegg for retirement income that would otherwise not happen if you didn’t buy and hold. I’m also willing to go 1/2 way with you on any of YOUR deals in Richmond that your mentors help you find that break even or bring in a small cashflow that are low value and definitely going to appreciate over time.

Sisters Name-,. I need a partner. I do everything by myself and I crash a lot I don’t have outside help with decisions, I basically have limited communications, and limited capital. I’m not asking you to quit your job or your massage business or anything else. All I’m saying is that more people you have to work with the more capital you have and the more opportunities you can make like the game Cashflow. Also for instance having a co-signer getting a 5-5.5% loan is a huge difference from applying by yourself and getting a 6.5-8% loan.

I wish are family would work together. We could build an empire if we just worked as a team and stopped being duschbags. I fail a lot because no one cares. You are going to start learning yourself that if you don’t care about others it hurts business opportunities but when you care then people work together and get things accomplished.

Just think about it. If all 4 of us kids donated $300 a month to a Limited Liability business we put together such as a real estate trust we would have $1200/month to buy the first rental which could substitute a $1200/mortgage or two $600/mortgage (two small homes or two condo apartments). Now just say we only bought two properties and over 10 years with inflation these properties went from $80,000 to $200,000 because of they were nice location and buildings and appreciated in value. Now that’s $400,000 (2) sold divided by 4 people is $100,000 each (not subtracting capital gain tax).
Now we spent each $300/month for 10 years (120 months * $300) which means out of our pocket we spent investing $36,000 and after 10 years we earned $64,000 or almost a 200% ROI.

Now that isn’t the good part. The good part is that while the units are rented each $36,000 (*4) builds up to $144,000 or around $14,000 a year. If the rent already pays the mortgage then we will have $14,000 to buy at least another rental each year. So within 10 years we could easily have 10 rental homes appreciated at well over $1 million. Now that same $36,000 investment ROI can be worth $250,000 each in 10 years realistically that is almost a 600% ROI on your sacrificed $300/month share to the partnership of 4 people working together to achieve a goal. You will be 41 and can have possible $250,000 or more in the bank. (I say or more because I’m just saying 10 properties selling at $100,000 each with little appreciation).

Now do you understand why I wish when I send all my sisters business information they would listen to me? I’m reading the bible more now and all Jesus talks about is how people don’t believe and have little faith in him. I feel the same way. I don’t think any of you guys understand how many sacrifices I’ve made to achieve my goals, I think just for that you should have lots of faith in me. Like Gary Williams said when he was dirt poor he and his family had to sacrifice to get by and worked together to achieve their goal to prosperity.

Consider my $300/month off. I wouldn’t just say we are partners I’d do it legally. We would create a real limited liability company as a tax shelter and tax relief for the properties. A separate business bank account so you can keep tabs on the property, rental income deposited, repairs, and profits. $300/month is something I know I can do. I won’t struggle with $300. I think anyone can do $300/month.

The hard part is initial down payment and closing costs potentially $4000-15000 which we would build up by everyones $300/month buy in to the real estate company to make it happen.

Here is another good point to make. Listen in. Sisters Name-, and Sisters Name-, are both 1st time home buyers. This means the first two properties could be both $0 down with a 103 LTV loan. So that is two properties for $0 with $1200/month (4 people) paying down the mortgage/collecting rental income/appreciating in value.

If you think this email makes SENSE to you then forward it to monica and angela and talk to them on the phone about it seriously. I wouldn’t have control over anything just searching for properties just like you to bring up to our “conference call meeting” to discuss possible opportunities.

To show you how serious I am I’d be willing to share the profits of my current rental which would be about $25/cashflow per person with $60k equity to use in it ALREADY appreciated. That means I’m willing to share $15k profit in the sale of it RIGHT now with anyone who is interested in creating a real company with. I’m sharing $15k of my future capital gains with any future partner willing to sign up on the dotted line.

Please consider my offer.

I thought this was one of the best ideas I’ve ever come up with this early in the morning doing homes, search homes for sale, and studying stock charts. I’m sure there are some flaws but they could be easily fixed with rules and regulations within the limited liability company. I figured what happens if someone wants out? I suggest a rule that the person will be paid back their full investment plus a guaranteed percentage on their money of at least 4% a year of what a bank would pay on a savings account or there would be a time delay that you’d have to wait X amount of years before you could withdraw money. The entire point would be not to touch the money for 5-10 year rule to let homes appreciate and pay off mortgages. I think if you had 10 people joined in doing this with each have a 10% share this could be extremely realistic. I’ve heard Filipino communities do this raise money for families trying to start a business if they can not receive loans. Say 3 families chip in $500/month now thats $1500/month to work with and then each family is paid back their money plus interest or in a partnership of the business. If this $300/month is something you might be interested in doing but you have no one that wants to try it with you then do it with me! Currently I have one USCG co-worker who said yes to it so once I plan to get back to Hawaii I’m going to form an actual company so everyone legally understands the risks and rewards and also everyone would get a vote on which properties would be bought and sold. This is basically a 10 year plan but could be much shorter or longer depending on the markets and where the group of investors want to go. Say 10 investors build a $5 million portfolio over 10 years and now instead of selling the property since the mortgages are paid off they’d rather all collect a retirement income from the cashflow the rest of their live