Wells Fargo
I didn't mention this before, but a little while back, I bought Wells Fargo stock when they were at their 52-week low. Despite the spike in trading activity, there was no support and the trade failed miserably.
Today, Wells' earnings report is coming out and I was expecting a lot more bleeding. Preliminary report suggests that they are looking at a 20% loss in earnings. So, what do I find when I looked up the ticker? The stock went up overnight by nearly 20%!
Can somebody please tell me what in the world is going on here? This makes no sense to me. But you know what happens when a stock spikes up on bad news that makes no sense to me. That's right, SELL!
Sadly, I'm still going to lose money on this trade, but the good news is, I won't lose too much. Which comes to another point I've been pondering.
Stock trading hiatus
I am seriously considering getting out of stock trading for a while. It's not so much that I don't want to trade stocks anymore, but just knowing that the money I am trading with is mid-term money for a house some day.
Due to the nature of this money and my personal housing situation, it would be wisest to put it all in a bond fund or some kind of income/cash investment. I just haven't because I really, really wanted to learn more about the stock market and trading stocks in general.
But at this point, I have. I may not be good at it, but it's still a good learning experience. And it doesn't mean I can't come back to it later. By yeah, the point is I may need to re-think this because I don't think I am putting this money where it really belongs. I know that if this was a question that came up in the forums, I would have advised against stock trading.
So, yeah, I'm looking at a different path for this money.... Maybe bonds.
The new boss
I learned something more about the new contractor and their 401(k). First of all, it turns out that they're a Fortune 100 company that has been around for more than a century. I checked their ticker and they are currently an $8 billion company. They lost a lot of value in 2008, but the trend is consistent with the Dow so I don't think it's them.
Anyway, they had an after-work meet-and-greet where we got to know the people and they even fed us delicious barbeque ribs and chicken! So free dinner last night. And for what appears to be a conservative company, the management seem like really cool people.
The 401(k) is a fairly typical $0.40 per dollar match, at 6% of gross. But here's the really cool part: The company that's handling the 401(k) is Fidelity! Fidelity! I'm going to be with Fidelity!
Well, I mean, I don't know for sure that I am re-hired just yet. The official announcement won't be until Friday, but I am quite confident that they're going to keep us incumbent employees.
But yeah, I really don't like my current 401(k) and I'll be looking forward to rolling that money into Vanguard as well. Even though Fidelity is great and I could roll it there, I still prefer Vanguard. It's not so much that I think one is better than the other, but it's just a matter of personal preference here.
Wow, so these quickies are not as quick as I thought.
Wednesday Quickies
January 28th, 2009 at 02:45 pm
January 28th, 2009 at 05:27 pm 1233163661
BOught some STT Jan 2011 20.0000 calls on Monday and closed the position today. As the plan comes out, I think there will be great disappointment and financial stock will fall again.
As for trading, sounds good to me. Maybe play with 5%?
January 28th, 2009 at 06:17 pm 1233166640
My stock trading balance is $10k right now. This is important because, as I found out earlier today, in order to buy any bonds through Scottrade, they won't do without without a minimum of $10k, and then increments of $1k after that....
So, if I were to buy, say Walmart bonds through Scottrade, I'd have to commit the entire balance.
January 28th, 2009 at 06:30 pm 1233167406
January 28th, 2009 at 07:31 pm 1233171100
January 29th, 2009 at 12:15 am 1233188141
January 29th, 2009 at 12:43 am 1233189837