August 17th Portfolio Update and Trade Ideas

Taxable Accounts August MTD +/-: $3,106.68

IRA Account August MTD +/-: 2,807.05

Quickie update: 

I shorted ICAD last week on approval news but only got 1k shares filled of my 5k order at the price I wanted.  I didn't bother to chase it down tho likely should have budged a bit from my price. I sold before EOD Friday to keep cash in my portfolio.  I shed the VVUS shares n my taxable account to keep cash free to buy more AVNR, which I did at 3.06 last week, bringing my average SP down on that position.  I continue to hold VVUS in my IRA.

I had a CPIX order for 6.50 I placed last Friday fire yesterday to my chagrin.  I also had one in my IRA for 6.45 fire.  Good times.  In my taxable account, I bought more at 6.05 and did a fairly large size daytrade today which brought my average SP for the full position in my taxable account to 6.01.  I did part of the ST trade on margin or would've held the shares I bought today longer than a day.   This reminds me of a valuable lesson: always hold cash in reserve for a possible dip in a catalyst play prior to approval date, be it dilution, earnings, downgrade, etc...

I've spent the better part of the last five days attending to the injuries of an overactive toddler and am busy trying to wrap up work before my last day next week (the 25th!) and our move the 26th.  So, I'll try to tweet trades and portfolio updates as I can.

ICAD (+231.97 taxable)

VVUS (-80.05 taxable)

JAZZ (+2807.05 IRA) (+2954.76 taxable)

Taxable account stock positions (w/average SP):
ALXA (2.84)
BIOD (3.63)
CPIX (6.00)- I did a ST trade on this today and lowered my avg SP for remaining shares.
AVNR (3.22)- I added to this position, lowering my avg SP.
I also continue to own ALXA and BIOD options.


IRA stock positions (w/ average SP):
BIOD (3.94)
VVUS (5.30)
CPIX (6.40)


Trade Ideas
I may add a last group of BIOD shares on any dip related to today's dilution news.  I also may do another ST trade of CPIX or buy some additional shares on volatility, tho I anticipate it will rebound and keep rising from this earnings dip fairly quickly.  I'm also watching MNKD for any dip to low 5s to buy an initial position.

Tuesday, August 2nd Portfolio Update and Trade Ideas

Howdy y'all,

I'm back from Flaaarida with the sad news that my skin has lost it's ability to weather the semi tropical sun under which I grew up.  I literally was so hot my eyelashes were sweating.  But my daughter got to play in the Gulf for the first time (no oil near where we were) and we had great bday party for my little sis.  Between my last post and July 31st, I haven't closed any positions in my IRA.  In my taxable account, I've closed the following positions/done the following Trades:


MELA (-2030)
I sold MELA on the panel delay news, thinking it'd dump and trade sideways near 6 for a while.  I was so wrong. I could've held this an extra day and gotten out unscathed or just held my position and gotten back to black.  The irony is I'll buy it back before November anyway.

JSDA (+5748)

I traded about 5k shares of this from early June til July 22nd but held a core position of 6050 shares throughout.  I did a total of 28 trades.  I shorted shares between 1.76-2.20 with an avg SP of 1.99 for that core block.  My avg SP was 1.99.  I held onto 6050 shares until July 22nd and covered at 1.03.  I made $5,808 on that block of shares.  I added profits last month to my running total from other JSDA trades.  This was the profit from my core position only.  I'm not posting screen shots of when I shorted because there are 14 separate short orders throughout the 6 week period when I traded this.  JSDA basically showed me that patience is profitable.

MNTA (-374.68)
This was not worth the energy and emotion.  I shorted 2k shares Friday from my phone at lunch between client meetings and managed to cover half but held the other half into a wild upswing last week.  I held steady and got out at a loss with the other half of the shares, bringing me to nearly b/e on the trade.  It was a reminder that I have no business doing ST trades when I'm not near a computer.  It was not a fun ticker to watch  and I thought I would cry or throw up until it started to come back down.

Taxable Accounts July MTD +/-: $5,708

IRA Account July MTD +/-: 2,462.20

My current taxable account option positions are about $400 worth of ALXA and BIOD.  My current taxable account stock positions (w/average SP):
ALXA (2.84)
BIOD (3.63)
CPIX (6.22)
VVUS (5.34)
AVNR (3.37)
JAZZ (8.76)

IRA stock positions (w/ average SP):
JAZZ (8.72)
BIOD (3.94)
VVUS (5.30).

I generally DO NOT hold the same equities in both accounts.  For the next 6-8 weeks (we close on the sale of our place on 8/27, then I'm travelling for 3 weeks), I am on autopilot to some extent and decided to override this internal rule about duplication for the sake of simplicity.  I have stoplosses and sale orders in place, so I'm willing to sit with the risk.  My IRA tends to hold 3-6 positions at any given time  and a large position in cash.  I have buy orders for MNKD, MELA, OREX and ARNA in my IRA account.  I have traded my IRA strictly according to catalyst dates (be it EPS or bio dates) the last two years, and I tend to have a lot of patience with my IRA positions.  As a result, it's done a lot better than my taxable account this year, because I don't scratch my gambler's itch and trade it as frequently as I do my taxable account.

Given how busy everything is with the move/taking a hiatus from my career/third trimester, my plan is to hang tight in each of my 6-12 week holds and rotate out either when my sell prices hit or catalyst dates hit.  Then I'll rotate into new positions and do the same.  The only ST trades I plan to execute will be based on preplanned expectations for large price spikes for stocks on my watch list (VVUS on clinical trial news, QCOR on FDA approval news, ARNA on panel news, etc...)  I have a calendar that corresponds with my watch list (both of which are on my computer and phone) and unless the stock is on my list and behaves according to my trading hypothesis, I likely won't be trading it.  Most of my work will be done via my Iphone until I'm more stationary at the end of September, so I just won't have the technology to keep up with live trading prices for other trades.

I will try to update all closed positions and the corresponding gains/losses every week but no promises til I'm standing still again.  I'll also try to keep tweeting trades as I do them.  If you know of a good blogging app for Iphone, I'd love to hear about it;)

Happy trading!