As I pulled out the driveway early this morning, my truck pops a tire…
As I pulled out the driveway early this morning, my truck pops a tire. Flat, dead. The air pump I retrieve from the barn’s got the wrong head on it so we replace it with one the right size. The air pump’s out of air so we go back and put more air into it. We get the tire pumped up and there’s a big ol’ screw sticking out of it. Gotta change that tire.
It’s our day to irrigate but when I turn the crank on the outlets last night, nothing came out. The water’s not flowing so my pop and I start working our way upstream. We’re literally knee deep in the river with shovels, clearing out the drains early this morning.
Ain’t that the way life goes sometimes? One thing my father instilled me though, is that you don’t stop til you get it right. You do go get the right-sized head for the pump. You put more air the tire. You find the screw and take the tire off and get it fixed right.
You do jump right in to the river with the shovel, clearing the debris, fixing the irrigation system for everybody in the valley after these recent flash floods have clogged everything up. You don’t stop at the first hole. You go til you fix the whole system.
Think about how all this applies to the markets and our trading. The markets are driving both bulls and bears to cry right now. You see cars on the side of the road broken down all around, some with flat tires. And you see their fields drying out because of their portfolio’s got some plugged drains.
We’ve got to continue taking the screws out of our tires, cleaning up our pipes — that is, trading our portfolios and maximizing their upside exposure while minimizing our risk. And that requires us to continue making moves like we’ve been doing.
On that note, I’ve sold some of those Marvell calls, mostly selling the nearest-dated and highest-priced calls — those with the most risk in them. I’ve got plenty of upside exposure (what’s this “upside” concept? “Upside”? Does that exist in this universe anymore? Ha) and I’m sticking with the playbook and execution that’s driven our investing success throughout our career. Including, fixing the flat tires and unclogging the irrigations systems as we build our portfolios and profits.
Other than that, I’ve not traded today. And yes, I’ll send out a list of my positions next.
