Solitaire Trader

December 2005

The portfolio was up +0.97% for the month of December.

The Russell 2000 was down -0.60%.

For 2005, the portfolio was up +11.70%.  The Russell 2000 was up +3.32%.

Week of 12/27/05

The portfolio was down -2.80% this week.

The Russell 2000 was down -1.93%.

12/30/05

The portfolio was down -0.53% today.

The Russell 2000 was down -0.70%.

Sold OPSW

Sold OPSW today at 6.68 for a -2.31% loss.  It hit its stop.  This was purchased on December 12th.  This was the last sell of the year.

Sold LOJN, PRLS

The horrible end of the year continues.  Again, these are stops being hit.

Sold LOJN today at 23.53 for a -5.15% loss.  This was purchased December 27.

Sold PRLS at 8.61 for at -3.11% loss.  This was purchased December 14 and yesterday.

This is turning into a bloodbath.  Nearly every buy I have made in the last 2 weeks has turned out to be an error.

Long and Wrong

There's no longer any question about it - the rally since October is over.  I was positioned all-in for the end of year rally that never happened.  Instead, everything is getting slaughtered.  It's time to throw in the towel. 

I'm already up to nearly 30% cash just from the losers that have hit their stops.  There are several more stocks very near their stops that I expect will get hit later today.  I'm going to try to hold on to my big winners until Tuesday so as not to take the gain this year.  If the selling continues into Tuesday, I expect to do some major selling then.  Given that so many people will be doing the same, I expect Tuesday morning to be very nasty indeed.

Some people are saying that since this week has been so bad, we are likely to get a rally next week.  Certainly that is possible, but I expect that the selling in big gainers from 2005 will be pretty intense.

Sold CME, GOOG, IWC

Sold CME at 364.10 for a -0.13% loss.  This was purchased on December 12.

Sold GOOG at 414.23 for a +0.02% gain.  This was purchased December 13.

Sold IWC at 50.98 for a -1.33% loss. This was purchased on December 21.

All 3 stocks hit their protective stops designed to keep from losing (much) money.

BTUI

Bought BTUI at 12.57.

I've been watching BTUI for a turnaround for awhile.  There was a sudden burst of up volume near the end of the day so I jumped in with a small position.

PRLS

Bought PRLS today at 9.00.  This doubles up on my previous buy.

It has come back to its uptrend line, presenting a low risk buy opportunity.

Sold CLHB, FLEX

Sold CLHB at 29.04 for a -3.42% loss.  It hit its stop.  This was purchased on December 8.

Sold FLEX at 10.45 for a +5.07% gain.  This was purchased on November 8.