ARBA - Bought to Cover

I bought to cover ARBA at $8.42 for a loss per share of $1.44 and a return on investment of -20.6%.

I might buy it long after its pullback is finished, once it has established an uptrend when the Moving Averages cross again.

RECAP

SS ARBA @ $6.98
BC ARBA @ $8.42

GSIC - Strategy

I think I'm going to try an experiment with GSIC - I bought it at $9.84 and it went down for a number of weeks - today it is edging on getting back in the positive and I'm in at just the right time to execute a position trade instead of a swing-trade on this one. If the stock is really having a change in trend and it is going to start going up for the next few months, I think I'll hold on and ride the wave up.

This would be my first position trade - I'm also going to be on the lookout for any signs that the stock is only having a minor correction before going back down. I don't want to be in the negative again, that's for sure.

CMI - Sold

Sold CMI at $27.05 for a gain per share of $1.25 and a return on investment of 4.84%. This was a day trade.

I'm glad I had this win - I have another doozy of a loss I'm going to sell before year-end during it's next pullback, as it was a short sell that went up. This will help keep my annual ROI a little higher than it would be with the upcoming loss alone.

RECAP:

B CMI @ $25.78
S CMI @ $27.03

CMI - Bought

Bought CMI at $25.78.

ICON - Bought to Cover

Well, I bought to cover ICON at $9.23 for a loss per share of $2.11 and a 29% loss (!). I don't want to end the year with too many stocks in the red and now's the time to resolve that. This one hurt to buy to cover and it puts me in the red for the month, but not by much and I have a little more time to get back right-side up.

RECAP:

SS ICON @ $7.12
BC ICON @ $9.23

ALK - Sold

I sold ALK at $25.48. It is a bit complicated as I bought the stock on two different occasions at two different purchase prices, but the average price was $24.87 for a gain per share of $0.61 and a return on investment of 1.6%. Not a great return, but considering I was really upside down in this stock a few days ago, I'll take the small win just because its not a loss on this stock!

Additionally, ALK went up strongly for the past 3 days and today's volume is not as strong as yesterday's...I could be wrong but I feel the buying power is running out and it might head back down for a few days. I'd rather have my capital than wait out another pullback. No thank you.

RECAP:

B ALK @ $24.87
S ALK @ $25.48

AUO - Bought to Cover

Just bought to cover AUO at a small loss, it just didn't want to go down and I'm ready for my capital back. Bought at $5.80 for a $0.10 per share loss and a negative return on investment of 1.75%.

RECAP:

SS AUO @ $5.70
BC AUO @ $5.80

ICON - Short Sold

Just short sold ICON at $7.12. Again, I'll probably go for a small win on this one simply given how choppy the market is.

QQQQ - Bought to Cover

Just Bought to cover QQQQ at $27.03 for a gain of $0.90 per share and only a 3.22% return on investment. I wanted a bit more and probably could have made a few more pennies had I stayed in but I'm taking my own advice, given the current market conditions, and taking the small wins.

RECAP:

SS QQQQ@ $27.93
BC QQQQ@ $27.03

QQQQ - Short Sell

Short sold QQQQ at $27.93.

I'm really eyeing APOG at the moment but I think I might wait until lunch time to be sure of it's down day "status."

I'm excited that most of my picks have gone down today - I'm disappointed that I haven't enough funds to buy them all!

Lending Club

Lending Club is a social lending network that allows investors with funds to loan money to borrowers for up to 3 years. This is a great opportunity for lenders who aren't finding good returns at their banks as well as borrowers who are having a hard time getting banks to let loose of their funds. It is similar to Prosper.com however, the two social lending networks vary in a few prominent ways:

Lending Club only accepts 14% of borrowers as it doesn't approve those who have delinquencies, bankruptcies, a number of outstanding credit obligations, or a credit rating below 640 - Prosper.com does. Lending Club makes assessing a borrower's ranking easy by rating them anywhere from A1 to G5 on their rates and fee's table. These ratings help you understand the risk level involved in loaning to particular borrowers and by having so many levels you can easily build a very specific lending portfolio.

Rates for lenders start at a tempting 7.37% for great borrower credit scores and can be as high as 20.11% for very risky borrowers. Much like Prosper.com, Lending Club has a tool that allows you to create a portfolio based upon estimated returns and risk, as well as pre-sort borrowers based upon their credit score and DTI ratio. For these tools and the services provided, Lending Club charges borrowers a 1% service charge which is directly comparable to Prosper.com's fees.

Lending Club differs from Prosper in that if a loan is not fully funded for a borrower, they can opt to take partial payment of the loan which ensures that the lender's money is invested quickly; Prosper cancels the loan and permits the borrow to re-list. Both lending networks do all the work for you including employing collections agencies - Lending Club's agency charges 30 -35% of recovered funds, however it boasts a low 3% default rate.

Another great feature of Lending Club  for investors is that if you've tied up your funds and find that you need them at a later date, you can trade your notes for cash to other lenders. You can also buy notes from other lenders on their secondary social lending market, something Prosper is currently trying to establish.

You can read my review of Prosper.com here.

ICLR - Bought to Cover

Bought to cover ICLR at $17.65 for a $1.15 gain per share and a 6.1% return. I do think that it could have gone down further today but I'd already surpassed my goal of 5%, so I bought to cover to ensure my earnings.

Still a little negative in the other two stocks I bought yesterday but I think I'm going to wait on those...

RECAP:

ICLR SS @ $18.80
ICLR BC @ $17.65

AUO - Short Sold

Short sold AUO at $5.70.

LULU - Bought to Cover

Well I bought to cover LULU at $7.98 for a $0.52 gain per share and a 6.1% return on investment. I realized I had room for another day trade since I executed only 2 on 11/19/08.

RECAP:

LULU SS @ $8.50
LULU BC @ $7.98

ICLR & ARBA & LULU - Short Sold

Short sold ICLR at $18.80. As always, my goal is to get 5% out of this one - so that would be about $0.95.

Short sold ARBA at $6.98.

Short sold LULU at $8.50.

NTAP - Bought to Cover

Just bought to cover NTAP at $11.72 for a 4.7% return on investment and $0.58 gain per share. It was much lower this morning but for whatever reason it had a large rally so I sold at the low point of a pullback. Wish I'd gotten out earlier this morning but I think I had a good recovery exit strategy.

RECAP:

SS NTAP @ $12.30
BC NTAP @ $11.72

P.S. Just looking around - it looks like we're having a bit of a rally today. Yay for the economy, boo for my picks.

NTAP - Short Sold

I just short sold NTAP at $12.30.

Just FYI, currently anything I bought in the last week or so for a long is currently negative. I don't expect that to always be the case but that just proves that the longs that were pulling last week on the watchlists were just the product of a market rally before a larger drop. Go figure.

VNUS - Bought to Cover

Well, I made 4.1% a lot faster than I thought I would on VNUS. I just bought to cover at $13.63 with a gain per share of $o.58. I wanted 5% but given my schedule today, I figured it would be my safest bet to remove myself while I was ahead!

RECAP:

SS VNUS @ 14.21
BC VNUS @ 13.63

Day Trade Disclaimer: This counts as a day trade since I bought and sold the same security within the same trading day. If you have less than $30,000 in capitol (depending upon your broker's rules) you cannot buy and sell, or make a round-trip, on any one security more than 3 times in 5 consecutive business days. So, for four more trading days I have to be sure not to execute more than 2 day trades.

VNUS - Short Sold

Short sold VNUS at $14.21 - going to watch. Might just get out before my 5% goal.

ALK - Bought

I just bought 50 more shares of ALK at $25.4.