Stock quick shots

Have you heard about the lonesome loser
Beaten by the queen of hearts every time
Have you heard about the lonesome loser
He’s a loser, but he still keeps on tryin’
Oohoohooh oooh
Sit down, take a look at yourself, Don’t you want to be somebody,
Someday somebody’s gonna see inside, You have to face up, you can’t run and hide – Little River Band http://youtu.be/Z5KWI71s3DY

What’s news today? Is there anything actually pressing out there for our portfolios?

Apple’s down. Remember when it used to go up?

Google’s up? Remember when Google and Apple were crossing prices? Google’s right now trading at Apple’s ALL-time high, and is more than $170 a share higher than Apple. The “smart” money and hedge funders were all long Apple and short Google repeatedly while the two stocks were near $600. I wrote about why I thought that wasn’t a good idea at the time, and it turns out it wasn’t just a bad idea, it turns out the exact opposite positioning was the right trade.

I still have a database of emails from hedge fund managers and mutual fund managers and analysts from the sellside who thought my buys of Apple at $7, $20, $50, $100, $250, $400 couldn’t possibly work out. Their many, many disparate reasons went from Apple will never be able to rise from the dead (circa 2003)  to the consumer was tapped out (circa 2004-5)  to margins can’t be sustained (2006-7 and present day, as that one’s back these days, in case you haven’t noticed) and so on.

Sandisk was up, now down. Broadcom’s recent bump up in guidance got both it and Sandisk moving higher, and as Sandisk is the cheaper of the two, it’s had more upside in their exclusive little rally. I trimmed some calls there a couple days ago after having bought them when the stock was near $39 or so a couple weeks ago. No changes there either.

Amazon just can’t break out it seems. Will strong Kindle Fire says and/or a strong holiday retail season pop the stock? Probably.

Facebook keeps on breaking out it seems. My exposure to FB grows as the stock goes higher because I have those longer-dated calls, some of which are still slightly out of the money and which are already profitable and which give me more exposure to the stock on the upside as it crosses their strike prices. Like the Sandisk, I bought calls a few weeks ago when FB was crushed below $19 a share and I trimmed some after it popped. Holding steady there too.

Lindsay has been stuck in a tight trading range in the mid $70s for a while now. Might be time to scale back into some of that one, as it looks wound tight and could be our next break-out candidate.  Haven’t done it yet though.

Have you hear about the Fiscal Cliff? Hyped by the Regime every time

Have you hear about the Fiscal Cliff? We know it don’t matter, but they keep on tryin’.