SDS purchase

I purchased a 4.5% share of my account in SDS. This is a stock that tracks the S&P500. If the S&P500 goes down, SDS goes up, if S&P goes up SDS goes down. So you can see that I'm betting the S&P doesn't hold the gaines over the last week. I almost bought it on Friday, but waited until this morning. I bought it at 81.93 when DJIA was sitting around 7500. I'll probably sell it if the DJIA hits 6500 again.

The announcement that the governement is finally stoping the bailout at GM and Crysler is my reason. The auto companies have been mismanaged for a long time and it's finally coming to the end of the road and this will have a negative impact on the economy overall for the next few months at least.

GIS purchase

My broker asked me to look at GIS (General Mills). I don't take all of his recomendations, but looking at this chart and knowing people are still going to need food I'm bought a 5.6% share of my account. The purchase price was a 53.10 and I'm putting a stop at 48.10.

IBM Sold

My stop on IBM triggered at 97.50. I'll buy it again in the 80s. I made 16.5% on this in less than a month. Whenever something goes up that quickly I tend to want to sell it even if I think it has long term possibility. In this case I didn't just sell it, I put in a stop a few % below where it was. I'm planning on keeping 10% high water mark stop losses on everything I own. This would have saved me a lot last year, but I still feel like I got out at the right time (half in September and half in early October).

IBM stop changed

I changed the stop on my 9% holding of IBM to 97.50. It is currently trading around 98.50 and I should probably just sell it since it went up 17% in a few days, but I'm going to try and follow it up if it continues. There has been quite a rally over the past week and I'm still mostly on the sidelines, but glad I got back in some. Overall, I'm up for the year so that is a good sign.

ATVI purchase

I made a 4% purchase of ATVI today. I didn't want to be totally out of ATVI right now and when I saw it ranging around 9.70 again I decided to buy. I'm going to start collecting it again after I sold it at 10.14 and 11.86 last year. The purchase price was 9.718.

IBM stop

I forgot to put in another stop on IBM and did so today after it closed at 88.62. I put the stop order in at 80.10.

IBM buy

I've continued to watch IBM and wanted to get back in before it crosses back over my stop price. I bought at 4.5% share, then bought another one a few hours later so now I have about 8% of my account in IBM at $83.75 and $83.58. The cost average is 83.67.

IBM stop triggered

The stop I had on IBM triggered at $85.51. I think I should have set it at $83.50 and I'm a little disappointed it sold. It only dropped because the entire market was being hammered. It was a 4.5% holding of my account. My account is mostly in cash at this point.

AMT purchase

I purchased a 2.5% block of AMT (American Tower Corp). The strike price was 28.11. I put a stop in at 23.90.