(no subject)

[vicarz]

It figures - my favorite on-line dj right now is Dr. Galactik, who it turns out happens to be from Canada. Grr.

I'm going to drink less. Hopefully not going to the hospital daily will make this come naturally, but I just did a run to the recycle bin and couldn't believe how many large liquor bottles made up my contribution to reusable materials. What if I needed to throw together a quick molotov?

Plowing through all those old-school pictures made me do a memory check, and theorize that nonscientific or not, I was due a large dose of karma payback. So I'm going to ride and try to learn from what has happened, spend some time reflecting and not even trust my own memories - break out of familiar thought patterns and really question why I did what, and how that impacted others. They say you pay it back 3 times over - so that's what I'll do if faced with it. Hopefully I can learn.

It appears I don't need to waive into the DC bar at all! According to at least one source, there are no time restrictions for admission to the DC bar. It's just a question of having the right scores, which I do. If I don't need to but the door remains open until later, then I will save the $1,000 in app fees and just be a MD bar'd lawyer. The DC bar site seems to agree that there are no timelines, but I've heard otherwise through casual conversation. Still, I could use that $1,000 plus dues for other things.

I still haven't paid out my tithe - need to kick down to my charities NOW. On the other hand, my marvel stock just jumped 20% in a day. I think my next retirement purchase is going to be citigroup, down 5% today alone - they are so beat up by the publicity on the subprime market in general and their giant missteps that they are down almost half! This means their p/e is like 8. They were equal debt to cash (if you trust their books) but plan to write off 6-8 bil of their 27 bil. I think these numbers are already reflected in their price, and this is just hysteria. Previously I bought them at 46 sold at 55 - today it's 36! Their finances are still really solid, and I don't think they're going anywhere. Come Jan, I think I'm going to put all my $ into C for my 2008 retirement contribution. Or sooner. "Your bad news is my opportunity."

Comments

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

Always interesting to go back and learn from your mistakes. If I had made a purchase a little bit after my comment, I would have gotten a price at the trough below 25, but would still be down close to 20% on the transaction.

I have been doing slow and steady 401K purchases (every two weeks) between AAPL and ZUMZ depending on which has been cheaper since the December timeframe. Net up is just at 20%, but it was between down and flat for the first months of the year.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Heh. I got volcm (sp?) and it's doing gangbusters, whereas mo split and is meh. C failed. Still, a risk that is only down 25% is hardly my worst case scenario.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

Yeah - given market climate, there is little to complain, its just good to do a retrospective after a while. As I have watched Citibank decline, I have often wondered about what the price was when we were discussing so I had to go back and look!

Volcom and Zumies gets the kids allowances of rich parents all across the country and those are the people I don't feel who aren't really feeling the pinch of rising food and gas prices too much yet.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I think I got it at 30, you said it was good around 25ish if memory serves.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

How wrong we both were:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080626/citigroup_research_goldman.html

As I heard about this this morning, I was thinking about it, and how I may open up a position in the near future. I think any position I open will be hedged with a purchase of some puts though. Its a shame that strategies such as that can't be done in a retirement account usually.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

This is novel economic territory - hard as hell to predict this stuff.

On the other hand - I still own two condos! Sure my accounts are gone, but at least I sold most of my private investments to put money into my real estate while the market crashed. Meh. The real estate depreciated too, but not as much.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah - my investments are down too, but stock and real estate. I just like to look back at past decisions and hopefully learn from them so that I make better ones in the future.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

So....any thoughts on the government possibly taking a 40% stake in Citi?

[vicar.livejournal.com]

It props up my 90% loss in their stock to a mere 80% loss on paper. I haven't really gone into the analysis, other than I can't disagree with the "let failure happen" cry without more knowledge of the scope and impact of such a loss on the system as a whole.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

Since this kinda documents my watch over Citibank, I should mention that I finally purchased my first shares of C on 4/16 (200@3.23) and my twitter from that day says it all:

Picked up a lil $C (gambling) and $F (adding). Single letter tickers under $5....

[vicar.livejournal.com]

My "if only I picked those lottery #s yesterday" sensibilities are wishing I bought a ton (I had just sold my house too) when it was skimming the $1 mark. I'd be out now having tripled...

But I'd never do a risk like that in reality.