April Fools

Today was April Fools day and I hope none of you guys had any tricks played on you.

DOW up         152.68

S&P 500  up  13.21

Portfolio up $171.12

March is done and over with as well as the first quarter. I have not been taking good enough notes which I promise to change going forward. I'm trying to incorporate more metrics as well as historical data for my portfolio to give you a better sense on what is going on. Because the days of the month and my trading days don't exactly match up, I can't give specifics on my performance. As far as I can tell for March, my portfolio was up around $12,000+. I will have accurate numbers going forward.

Made one trade today. Bought BAC May 9 Call (BYOEI) for $.85 10:47:00 am

I'm making a speculative bet on BAC rising because of the mark-to-market meeting tomorrow as well as possible better than expected earnings. You might be thinking why did I sell my previous call? Well, I wanted to lock in my profits as I was still unsure of which way the markets were going to move. I am still not 100% sure of what is going on, but I have a better idea now. Either way, I need to get used to the strategy of buying into strength and selling on weakness. 

Too often I try and double down on positions hoping that it will come back. In order to be successful. I need to learn to cut my losses and keep adding to winning positions till they are no longer profitable.

MSDI up 22.50% today

MKXPP down -42.86% (I'm short this position; up 33.98%)

BYOEI down -7.78% total

Biggest loser of the day was RJF which was down -4.16%. RJF was downgraded by KBW to a price target of $16. Not good news for the stock but I have my doubts on this analyst report. 

1. Assumption of the analyst is that the bank is operating at peak levels. I respectfully disagree. I believe they are going to start killing on the net interest margin as cost of funding has been decreasing for them. 
2. He also worries of a possibly deteriorating loan portfolio. I believe they are highly diversified according to their reports and their application as a bank holding company will help them. They will be able to expand their corporate loan portfolio at a time when margins are thick and they can afford to be choosy to whom they lend.
3. Fixed income trading and fees are up substantially along with capital markets. I think RJF will benefit with the "thinning of the herd" of the bulge bracket investment banks.