+OCN +NVDA

Here are the latest adjustments ...

I sold my VRTX shares in light of downgrades and more importantly, it wasn't turning around. Early again I guess, -6.1%.

I sold my HCN shares when it faltered as everything else was going up. The forward P/E is high (>65) though other metrics are generally favorable. -2.0%.

I bought shares and calls for old fav OCN. If the estimates hold, this will be a monster.

I'm a little late getting into NVDA calls for the rebound play. Fingers crossed.

I'm trying to lower my cost basis by buying more MLNX at what I hope is a bottom. I think there's something here, but others seem to be convinced otherwise.

Spec Stocks

On Wednesday I bought two stocks that I think are due for a bounce. Neither of these fits my criteria for growth.

The first is SMS, which I've watched for years which tends to run up and down. Any hint of a recovery should send it upwards. I tend to watch it with other steel stocks ( CMC, NUE, SCHN) and oddly enough, shippers like DCIX, FRO, NAT, PRGN, and TNP.

VRTX has some generally positive analyst coverage, sporadic but generally growing sales growth, but recently reduce earnings estimates.

BBY TICC Closed

Today's updates:

TICC was stopped out, -7.9%.

BBY disappointed as expected. I sold my puts on the news, +50.5%. That was my last option position.

REGN continues to rise.

Scramble

So much for my conservative call spreads in this market. PCLN didn't hold $620 so I had to scramble on that one, and my once deep-ITM $630 GOOG call expired with GOOG at $647. +64.8% and -83% respectively.

My WAL shares got stopped out yesterday. -13%.

Fortunately REGN went up nicely and BBY went down equally well. The remaining long positions did well today ... for a change. Those would be ARR, HAIN, MLNX, SLRC and TICC.

The retirement mutual fund money has been parked in money market funds. I'm battening down the hatches here. One decent day doesn't mean we're out of the woods.

What Capital Gains?

If things keep going like this there won't be any gains to tax.

I had a low bid in for more ARR. Not low enough apparently.

I bought some shares of REGN and HAIN. I should have waited.

I sold my ACI puts yesterday thinking the play had fizzled out, +4.7%. Then the stock started sliding.

I sold my ANR puts today when my profit target was met, +15.9%. I could probably let this ride but I think other opportunities will be coming.

Now for AMZN. I had Dec $190 puts (OTM) that I bought at the end of their October slide thinking the mini-iPad would accelerate their drop. Something went horribly wrong and AMZN went up, then down, up, down while my puts lost value and we moved into retail season (bad timing). Cutting my losses, -72%. I remember now why I don't like buying OTM puts.

I'm short on BBY again with December puts.

Growth Screen

The screen du jour yields (lowest forward P/E first):

• TICC - own but plan to buy more when it finds a bottom
• KOG - the drillers are on hold while oil stays below $90
• OCN - owned it, like it, but letting it settle after last week's bounce
• REGN - coming off of a relative low - looking in it
• KORS - recently sold off from new high, reports tomorrow morning
• DDD - running strong, P/E falling from 69 to 42, institutional selling
• ALXN - coming off of a hard sell-off.

Sniping Again

I think we missed a great opportunity on Tuesday (election day) to get our country back on track.

That leaves me quite discouraged about the prospects for the next four years. That's because I think there's an agenda in play to wreck our economy, and most voters don't even see it coming. The evidence is out there. It'll be too late when you're trying to figure out how to feed your family and keep a roof over your head, and all of your neighbors are in the same predicament.

Recap

As for stocks, since the last post the stock winners were SPRD, MLNX, PCLN, JAZZ, CDNS, TICC, OCN, ARR, ABT and APPL. Stock losers were PAY.

Options winners were many of the stock winner names plus FLO, TAL, TICC, PDF, DDD and  OCN. Option losers were PAY, TGP, BIDU and MLNX.

Misses

I bought more MLNX shares before and after the dive on the earnings announcement. Though recovering, those positions are still way under water.

I also bought a decent chunk of GOOG calls after their earnings fiasco and they've failed to regain traction leaving me in the red there too.

I shorted AMZN with OTM puts thinking the mini iPad competition would destabilize their forecasts and their forward P/E for next year, which will have improved to 128, wouldn't be good enough. Sometimes I'm not so much wrong as early.

Closed this Week

This week I closed out puts on MNST, BBY, GNRC, and LOGM, all winners. I wanted to reposition my OTM $13 BBY put (trading at $15) and give the optimists a chance to run the stock up a few days before I go with a deep ITM put for a later put spread conversion. I need to get back in before they disappoint on the 20th. +58% on BBY.

GNRC and LOGM were sold when they hit my profit targets (via limit orders) yielding +13% and +15.5% after two days.

I bought calls on OCN and sold them the next day. +23% works there.

Next Week

Since 50% of the voters are more optimistic than I am, I'm not holding my puts, other than for coal stocks ACI and ANR which had a good run when proponents went long on Romney.

I'm hoping PCLN can hold $620 for my Nov $500/$620 call spread.