One day, a girl called up her mortgage broker when the 30 year interest rates were at record lows of 4.75 percent ( APR of 5.0% ). This girl has a credit score that always has new loan officers amazed as they rarely see scores so high. She is smart with her money and has maintained a good debt to income ratio with her only debt being a mortgage. She also was careful to save and put 20% down on her house when she bought it and responsible enough to get a fixed rate rather than be suckered into an ARM.
But those honorable and responsible qualities became her downfall. Because her home value three years later has dropped 30% ( 10% lower than the 20% intially put down ), she is not able to refinance her fixed rate to a lower interest rate that would save her $400/month.
Now, I ask........exactly WHO is this "TARP" fund supposed to be helping? Because honestly, if someone like the person mentioned above isn't able to refinance, who is? Those who got 3 and 5 year ARMs most likely didn't put ANY money down and are more under water than the person who put 20%. Why are they able to be bailed out/principle reduced and get a lower interest rate? The same group of people who are foreclosing and caused home values to depreciate 30%+? Honestly. How is a lower interest rate going to help this mess? The 10 year treasury could drop to 1% and our non fiction person in our story STILL wouldn't be able to refinance unless they coughed up another 10% and then would still have to pay $100/month of PMI which she has never ever had to pay on previous mortgages.
idiots.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
If only it was real money.......
Not bad for a days work!
$1.042M Total Portfolio Value*Top 0.4% Game Rank*1368th Game Rank Position*36,935 (3.7%)Gain/Loss, Intraday 41,935 (4.2%) Gain/Loss, Weekly*41,935 (4.2%) Gain/Loss, Overall* ( plays were YHOO/RIMM/GOOG/AAPL/IBM )
Have you registered to play yet?
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Time to Register!
for the next CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge!
Trading starts on November 17th so register today at
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Confessions of a trading house wife
I have a confession to make.
I moved half of my husband's 401k into bonds, treasuries and guaranteed income funds back on September 25th. You know.....back when the DOW was around 11000? It was a Thursday night after the market closed for the day that I put in my order. I remember it very well. I had this sick, nagging feeling in my gut the whole day that something bad.....really bad was about to happen. The funds transfer executed sometime on September 26th which was a good thing since the following Monday saw a drop of over 700 points alone. Followed by days of 300 plus point drops leaving us where we are today. Hovering around a DOW 8800.
I know. I know. Some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking, "Don't you know that you should just leave it alone?" or "So you're the kind of person who was bailing and making the market tank?" ( Which wasn't me since the 26th actually ended UP about 100 points ). I know that we have another 20 plus years to "make it up" but I just wasn't willing to gamble with 10 years of retirement savings. I also wasn't willing to "wait out" the incessant selling off of hedge funds bringing stocks to insanely low levels equal to that of 2003. So, I did it and saved us a loss of at least a 3000 point drop that has occured since then. Over the last few weeks, on the really REALLY big down days ( like over 500 point losses ), I've been slowly putting money back in the market from my treasuries/bonds funds into the really beaten down funds.
My "Mad Money" ( my regular investments like my ROTH and Kirk's Rollover IRA which are made up of mostly individual stocks ) on the other hand, have taken a huge hit. I have a higher risk tolerance level though with those funds I manage. I've sold shares over the last few months as well as funding my ROTH with cash to build up my cash position just for this very moment. The time when stocks are at that level that you just can't help but buy more!
So, I did.
I bought Chesapeake Energy ( CHK ) when it got to 14.00 last week! ( It actually dropped to 12.00 but I still think 14.00 is a steal. ) I later discovered it dropped in half in a matter of a week because the CEO ( Aubrey McClendon ) was forced to sell his shares for whatever he could get for them seeing that he bought them on MARGIN! HELLO!?!?! Margin? Seriously? His loss is my gain! I'm up 40% in a matter of 2 weeks.
I bought some more Hugoton Royalty ( HGT ) that is now paying a nice 23% dividend thanks to the huge drop in stock price. I got in around 19.00 and it is currently up around 21.00.
I also bought some more Freeport McMoRan ( FCX ) when it got down around 33.00. I think it is about that same price.
Let's see how this next week goes............hopefully UP!
I moved half of my husband's 401k into bonds, treasuries and guaranteed income funds back on September 25th. You know.....back when the DOW was around 11000? It was a Thursday night after the market closed for the day that I put in my order. I remember it very well. I had this sick, nagging feeling in my gut the whole day that something bad.....really bad was about to happen. The funds transfer executed sometime on September 26th which was a good thing since the following Monday saw a drop of over 700 points alone. Followed by days of 300 plus point drops leaving us where we are today. Hovering around a DOW 8800.
I know. I know. Some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking, "Don't you know that you should just leave it alone?" or "So you're the kind of person who was bailing and making the market tank?" ( Which wasn't me since the 26th actually ended UP about 100 points ). I know that we have another 20 plus years to "make it up" but I just wasn't willing to gamble with 10 years of retirement savings. I also wasn't willing to "wait out" the incessant selling off of hedge funds bringing stocks to insanely low levels equal to that of 2003. So, I did it and saved us a loss of at least a 3000 point drop that has occured since then. Over the last few weeks, on the really REALLY big down days ( like over 500 point losses ), I've been slowly putting money back in the market from my treasuries/bonds funds into the really beaten down funds.
My "Mad Money" ( my regular investments like my ROTH and Kirk's Rollover IRA which are made up of mostly individual stocks ) on the other hand, have taken a huge hit. I have a higher risk tolerance level though with those funds I manage. I've sold shares over the last few months as well as funding my ROTH with cash to build up my cash position just for this very moment. The time when stocks are at that level that you just can't help but buy more!
So, I did.
I bought Chesapeake Energy ( CHK ) when it got to 14.00 last week! ( It actually dropped to 12.00 but I still think 14.00 is a steal. ) I later discovered it dropped in half in a matter of a week because the CEO ( Aubrey McClendon ) was forced to sell his shares for whatever he could get for them seeing that he bought them on MARGIN! HELLO!?!?! Margin? Seriously? His loss is my gain! I'm up 40% in a matter of 2 weeks.
I bought some more Hugoton Royalty ( HGT ) that is now paying a nice 23% dividend thanks to the huge drop in stock price. I got in around 19.00 and it is currently up around 21.00.
I also bought some more Freeport McMoRan ( FCX ) when it got down around 33.00. I think it is about that same price.
Let's see how this next week goes............hopefully UP!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Investing terms for 2008:
NEW STOCK MARKET TERMS
CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET -- A random market movement
causing an investor to mistake himself for a
financial genius.
BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when
the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry,
and the husband gets no sex.
VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their
pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER -- What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split
your assets equally between themselves.
FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been
disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it
disappears down the toilet.
YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker
for $240 per share.
WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker
who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's
now locked up in a nuthouse.
PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.
CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET -- A random market movement
causing an investor to mistake himself for a
financial genius.
BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when
the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry,
and the husband gets no sex.
VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their
pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER -- What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split
your assets equally between themselves.
FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been
disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it
disappears down the toilet.
YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker
for $240 per share.
WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker
who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's
now locked up in a nuthouse.
PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Making a shopping list...........
FCX @ 33.00 **
NAT @ 20.00
FRO @ 29.00
RIMM @ 50.00
AAPL @ 80.00
RIG @ 70.00
SLB @ 57.00
XTO @ 30.00
CLR @20.00
BEXP @ 4.00
HGT @ 19.00
“Buy when there’s blood in the streets.” Baron Rothschild
NAT @ 20.00
FRO @ 29.00
RIMM @ 50.00
AAPL @ 80.00
RIG @ 70.00
SLB @ 57.00
XTO @ 30.00
CLR @20.00
BEXP @ 4.00
HGT @ 19.00
“Buy when there’s blood in the streets.” Baron Rothschild
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Cash'n In
So, the Fed might just bail out whoever is left after all! They are meeting to plan how they can take the bad debts from financial institutions so they will be free and able to move on......at the taxpayers expense of course. I loved watching the press conference and seeing Pelosi and Reid front and center pretending to be the angels of mercy as though it was all their idea. gag.
And I just read that the SEC will most likely ban short selling temporarily! That's a recipe for a HUGE rally!
In light of this new proposition, I'm thinking I might add to my Bank of America position. Seeing that BofA recently acquired Countrywide, the largest mortgage company out there and thus acquired a whole lot of bad mortgage debt. I'm guessing that BofA will benefit greatly from this new proposition bail out. I got in and out a month ago when they reported for the quarter and had a quick 15% jump. I got back in again a few weeks ago when they were trading around $33.00. Depending on how the day starts tomorrow, I might pick up some more if it stays in the $30-31 range. Of course, I'm kicking myself for not picking some up yesterday when it was down to $26. Eh......it's just money.
And I just read that the SEC will most likely ban short selling temporarily! That's a recipe for a HUGE rally!
In light of this new proposition, I'm thinking I might add to my Bank of America position. Seeing that BofA recently acquired Countrywide, the largest mortgage company out there and thus acquired a whole lot of bad mortgage debt. I'm guessing that BofA will benefit greatly from this new proposition bail out. I got in and out a month ago when they reported for the quarter and had a quick 15% jump. I got back in again a few weeks ago when they were trading around $33.00. Depending on how the day starts tomorrow, I might pick up some more if it stays in the $30-31 range. Of course, I'm kicking myself for not picking some up yesterday when it was down to $26. Eh......it's just money.
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