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Out of POTP for .155. Too impatient and want to get on the road. Good luck with it.
Got a small amount at .105. Let's see if they'll give me .19...
Thanks much. I have trading shares, so this is useful indeed. I'll have to print out those rules.
Jay
Love your board, mikeanthony. Would you look at ELN for me? It would appear that the breakout point is 23.11, but I don't have a target. What do you think?
Thanks,
Jay
STV
In at 31 and out at 32. That's enough excitement for the day. See you guys Monday.
Got some at 31. Won't be in long...
TASR just went at 18.25. I will be gone after the 1st hour of trading. Monday is a holiday?
I'd like to think so, but I suspect you're better at it. These darn daytrades can eat me alive. If it was a video game, I'd be hash on the road.
If I find something I like long term (relatively), I have a core position and trade around it. That is what I did with FRPT and it worked like a charm. I wanted to do that with VMW, but it is just too darn expensive. I'm out of that one now, but would really like to get back in with long term shares. It is October, so I think it might be best if I bide my time and wait for some kind of pull-back. That may not happen. VMW could well act like Google and just keep going.
The better I know about the fundamentals of a stock, the better I'm able to use charts to trade it.
FRPT: I could be missing the boat on this one. Looks like it broke a bit to the upside.
You'd be surprised how many losses I have. I let the winners run if I can and that saves me. (Most of my losses are in junk I'm not allowed to talk about here, except for LMRA, which I should never talk about.)
Well, that's better than my plan:
Plan the trade.
Blow up the plan.
Sell the whole damn thing for a loss...
I think TASR can hit 18.50, but probably not in the next 5 minutes.
I don't know. For the first time in about a year and a half, I'm completely out. I left the party to soon, of course, and think there might be a chance to get it cheaper later. Right now, I have a rather large position in DSX. This is a good trader, both daily and for longer term.
TASR coming back with a vengeance. Think I will wait 'til tomorrow to sell. Certainly looks like it could go higher.
I don't either, Early. I would not have the confidence going into this as I did with VMW. These Chinese stocks have me baffled but after watching RCH, I will have this on my screen. If I touch it, I won't be in for long. Strictly a momo play. I certainly don't mean to recommend it to anyone, but I thought some of you guys might play it.
They now say $13 to $15, but $20 is probably a good guess for the open. Should be entertaining, but I'm not sure I have the guts to participate. I just don't understand these Chinese stocks...
Yes
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=23381033&txt2find=stv+
Try putting it in as a "Gapper." Guaranteed to win, since by my screen, it's coming from 0.
I'm thinking it will run again tomorrow, so I'm trying to have a little patience. Should be easier to do since it's in my brother's account (I do better with his stuff than my own).
Good day today, though. had some ELN Oct 22.5s (ELNJX) that I sold for .75.
Sold BTJ much too soon (37.50).
You guys going to try STV tomorrow? I'm thinking about it.
Damn Early; me too! They must have seen us commin'. (I took mine off, so you should be good to go here.)
That is a really nice video, Ico; it's well worth viewing the whole thing if you can find the time. Good teachers are worth watching as much as fine musicians. I cannot help but believe that Randy Pausch must be a wonderful inspiration to his students if this lecture is any example of his teaching style. Thanks for posting the link.
Jay
LMRA
Ah yes, my piece of luggage is finding new life. My ownership of this is measured in dog years, thus I need to pump this... excuse me, recommend this one a bit more in order to get to "break even." I'm sure this will be worth a fortune one day so keep buying...
FRPT
I won't claim to be a genius, but I did sell about half of what I had left of my "long-term" position at 22 this morning. That sort of made my day, so I went for a long walk. I don't pretend to know anything, but perhaps this one will "fill the gap" back to 20, hmm? Anyway, I still have a small position and have had nothing but profit, but it isn't trading like it was, so I don't plan to try to trade it like I did. Need a new hoss...
Most of the rest of the stuff I'm working on I cannot mention here or is absolute trash or is both. I'm still hanging around and odd as it may seem, making a profit.
Jay
OT Weekend reading
If this isn't inspirational, I don't know what is:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119024238402033039.html
VMW
I hope I'm not posting too much on this one, but it does seem much like some of the high flyers from the last century (MSFT, CSCO, QCOM, etc). I'll shut up if you've had enough, but here is a good article:
GREENE STEERS ONCE-OBSCURE START-UP INTO HUGE IPO
By Scott Duke Harris
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
09/16/07
Growing up on the banks of Chesapeake Bay, Diane Greene loved to sail her dinghy. She mastered windsurfing when the sport was new. She studied naval architecture and as a young woman lived in Hawaii, designing windsurfing gear.
Today, Greene, at 52, is best known for navigating VMware, a company that might best be likened to a nuclear submarine.
For years VMware operated in the obscure depths of computer science, gradually developing the know-how and market for its esoteric "virtualization" software. When VMware debuted on Wall Street last month, its stock took off like a Polaris missile, with a trajectory that has pushed its market capitalization to $25.8 billion. It is America's third most highly valued software maker, after Microsoft and Oracle.
Greene has been VMware's chief executive since its 1998 launch as a mom-and-pop start-up. She brought business acumen to an idea that was hatched in the computer science lab of her husband, Stanford University Professor Mendel Rosenblum. Three colleagues were also co-founders.
Silicon Valley insiders credit Greene for her skill in skippering VMware, staring down Microsoft's aggressive tactics and forging alliances on its unorthodox path to the valley's biggest initial public offering since Google.
"I think sailboat racing taught me a lot," Greene said. Racing and running a company, she explained, require preparation, organization and "the right team." It requires a keen awareness of shifting conditions and the ability to weigh all the factors, including rivals: "What are the other boats doing?"
A profile in a trade journal in 2005 described Greene as "humble" and "unassuming." She is variously described as "an engineer's engineer," "a supermom" and "a reluctant celebrity." She is credited for fostering an open, collegial culture in VMware.
"She's certainly not the typical CEO," said Dan Warmenhoven, chief executive of Network Appliance. NetApp is a rival to storage giant EMC, which acquired VMware in 2004 and has profited handsomely by allowing it spin out its own stock.
Even in the lobby of VMware's handsome new campus in Palo Alto, Greene makes a disarming impression. At 5 feet, 2 inches, she'd make the short list of short CEOs. There is no power suit. Her smile is warm, her manner personable.
"I always go out and greet my guests," she said later, "and I can't tell you how many times they thought my admin was greeting them."
Female CEOs are rare in corporate America and Silicon Valley. Within that small sorority, Greene makes a different impression from the likes of eBay CEO Meg Whitman or former Hewlett-Packard leaders Carly Fiorina and Pattie Dunn. Stock phrases like "assertive" and "hard-charging" don't seem to fit.
Founders don't have to worry about the proverbial glass ceiling. But even in her previous jobs - at Sybase, Tandem Computer and Silicon Graphics - Greene said she never thought gender limited her opportunities. As a female engineer, "I've always been in the minority, and it's something I just didn't notice," she said.
In business dealings, she suggested, her background helps her interact with technologists and perhaps overcome latent bias related to gender. Greene said she has noticed one tangible benefit of being a woman.
"Amazingly talented women tend to gravitate toward VMware. People I know just peripherally will call me and say, gee, I'm interested in joining VMware," she said, adding that women fill more roles as engineers, executives and managers than at other valley companies.
Greene comes across less as a valley mogul than the protective mother that she is. She is guarded about her privacy, and requested that questions about her family be off limits.
When she started to tell a story about crabbing in the Chesapeake with her children, she abruptly cut herself off. Inside her compact office, she turned over framed pictures of her children, lest they be captured by a photographer's lens. She is said to have a rule against business interfering with family dinner.
Greene's persona may serve as camouflage for an intense competitor who has won sailing and windsurfing races. "I just engage myself in whatever I'm doing," she said.
A fascination with computer models used in hydrodynamics prompted her to leave Hawaii to study computer science at the University of California-Berkeley. Future husband Rosenblum was a fellow student; they've been together since 1985.
While Rosenblum pursued an academic career, Greene joined the valley workforce. Before VMware, she was involved in two other start-ups, as CEO of Vxtreme, a video-streaming company, and as a consultant on AdForce, a Web advertising venture.
Rosenblum and some colleagues, meanwhile, were revisiting "virtualization," an idea pioneered by IBM in the 1960s, but of limited use at the time. Virtualization involves complex software that enables servers to run multiple operating systems, thus enhancing efficiency and lowering costs and energy use. VMware derives its name from the phrase "virtual machine."
VMware offered its first product as a free download, wowing techies who were suddenly able run Windows and Linux simultaneously. Greene smiled, recalling one fan's e-mail: "Your brains must be bigger than Volkswagens."
In 2002, as VMware started to gain traction, Microsoft decided to get into the virtualization business. It made a memorable bid for VMware.
Veritas founder Mark Leslie, who then served on VMware's board of directors, disparagingly called it "a standard Microsoft offer letter" that included an unreasonably low price and a thinly veiled threat - that if not accepted, mighty Microsoft would become a direct foe. When VMware declined, Microsoft instead bought virtualization rival Connectix.
Greene's account is more diplomatic: "We couldn't reach terms."
With the virtualization market heating up and the Microsoft rivalry brewing, VMware soon had several suitors. In late 2003, VMware's board agreed to an acquisition by EMC for a price that, according to Leslie, was $680 million. The offer, he said, provided a safe harbor from Microsoft's competitive threat. With tech stocks and the IPO market still in doldrums, Leslie said, EMC's offer was attractive.
Given VMware's current value, EMC scored a fabulous bargain. That's also why some observers now suggest VMware should have passed on EMC's offer and held out longer to do its own IPO. Greene might count herself among them: "I can't say that my husband and I thought it was ideal, but it would have been selfish not to follow the consensus."
Because 85 percent of VMware was owned by employees and founders, the deal enabled many people to cash in stock options. "It was a life-changing event for a lot of people, so we said OK," Greene said.
VMware customers Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell - all of which compete with EMC in storage - expressed concern about the deal, Greene said. She and EMC chief Joe Tucci agreed to a hands-off approach that would allow VMware considerable autonomy. Spinning off its own stock has proven to be another smart move.
One benefit is that VMware now has a war chest to make more acquisitions. At VMworld last week in San Francisco - a three-day virtualization powwow that drew more than 10,500 attendees - VMware announced the acquisition of Dunes Technology, a Swiss software firm.
VMware is now recognized as the dominant firm in a growing field, validating the founders' vision that virtualization would broadly enhance information technology.
Early on, Leslie said, VMware had many skeptics among companies that underestimated the virtues of virtualization. Some executives weren't sure whether to regard VMware as a friend or a foe, or whether it would succeed or fail. Today, it's credited for turning a promising notion into an industry.
Strategizing in that industry, Greene said, has a strong parallel to racing sailboats - "the upwind phase and the downwind phase."
So, is VMware now heading downwind?
"Oh no, there's always a mix. With any growth there's a lot of challenges," Greene said. Later she added: "In many ways we're still at the start of the opportunity."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Scott Duke Harris at sdharris@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2704.
http://www.mercurynews.com
Thanks, I have 2 accounts with different brokerages. There are definite advantages to that.
My wife would get a good laugh at the thought of me trading her account. She'd throw it back in my face, "Why don't I trade your accounts?"
Ico, with all due respect, there is just one problem I have with stops. My significant trades are out of my IRA. Quite often, I am using funds that have not cleared. I'm allowed to buy, but not to sell without incurring a "Good Faith" violation. If I get three of those inside a year, I cannot trade with these funds at all until they clear for a period of 90 days. I try like hell to stay within the rules, but it would seem that I always have 2 violations. That is where I stand right now. A tight stop on anything I own would most likely put me over in this market. So unless I am trading during those few times I have cash that has sat around for 3 days, I almost always must enter a trade with great caution. I will probably have to hold onto it for at least a day or so. This has cost me money on both good and bad trades and I cannot tell you how frustrated I feel at times. Still, it is a part of trading I have learned to live with. If I buy something and it rises or drops "significantly," I will trade and take the punishment. This is not exactly a tight stop.
Regards,
Jay
AMD & VMW
This is a pretty good article explaining some of the advantage of AMD's new Barcelona processor and how that relates to vertualization:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=768
(Thanks to pcNews for posting this on the Dream Machine board
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=2128)
VMW
Here's another one:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2181812,00.asp
It will be interesting to see what happens next week. I sold covered calls for my whole position--75s. I get the feeling that VMW could be trading right there next Friday. I'll probably just buy it again.
VMW
Here's an interesting article:
http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=133757&WT.svl=news1_3
Well, good luck. Loaded the proverbial boat at 18.05. Some of it will have to go today.
Still have COST. Was looking for 60.50, but what with buying all this ELN, I will get out sometime today. Thanks for that one.
You get any ELN on that dump? Nice trading opportunity.
Yup. The only green on my screen is one I pointed to yesterday, and that is up only .001.
COST looking better, though.
Followed your lead, Early and bought COST @ 56.75. Probably bought the shares you got at 37.
Thanks. Wouldn't mind if it got called away.
Offhand, I wouldn't know. I believe there are quite a few shares "locked up" as this is a relatively new offering. I was surprised (and pleased) they came out with options as soon as they did.
VMW
VMWIO: Sep 75s got as high as $2. Wow! Speak of the devil. Just got filled there...
If you have this one, you might want to check out the covered calls. Very nice premium.
LMRA
Now there is one I can mention. What a move over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, this one has a history of fading right back down after a run and I've seen no news to justify the current run. We shall see. I'm a big-time bag holder, for what it's worth.
I have another one I'm not allowed to mention on this board. If I am breaking the rules by referencing the thread, then remove this post.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=2696
ELN
Probably. Mullen of BIIB seems to think Ty will be a hot seller. Since he's a partner with ELN, he has an ax to grind, but he's not known for being positive about Ty.
I could be wrong, but I'm thinking new highs. Have a large position.
Yes, I may have to trade some of it to give me a cushion. I don't think I need do that now, though. Keep it on your ticker.
AAPL
I don't have a lot of shares. I bought it in two lots, when it dropped down into the 110 to 120 range. I sold one when it reached 120 and the other I'm holding onto, hopefully for new highs.
VMW
See that one as one of those stocks like GOOG or MA. Both of those seemed extremely overvalued when they came out, but just kept moving up and in the end proved to be very good investments right out the gate. This one will have competition. Here is an article from today's paper:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/328375_vmwaregoogle21.html
I'm in from 56.50. Would like to have gotten in lower, but after the big move last week, I started buying. This will be a good one for both long term and traders--best of all worlds.
Long gone, but say, I have FRPT which is going in the other direction.
I'm a bit cautious with my trades lately, but doing well with AAPL and VMW, which I will hold onto for a while.
It has been a rough couple of weeks for a slow trader like me.