Trade Alert: Trimming down two tech longs

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. – Winston Churchill

Is the market waking up and deciding stocks are ugly?

Apple had another of of its own little mini-flash-crashes again today and the stock’s been unable to find much of a bid since. As I’d noted earlier this morning, the path of least resistance suddenly seems to be lower today. I’m stepping back and am indeed raising a little cash today by selling about a 1/3 of my Cisco calls which were out of the money when I bought them and are now in the money. I’ve got more than a double on these as the stock has passed $20 since we were buying these when the stock was closer to $15. I’ve steadily trimmed these Cisco calls down since I (luckily?) loaded up on them near the stock’s lows and the only Cisco calls I have remaining are my longest-dated ones, which expire out in January 2013. But I am going to raise some cash here and prepare for my next, fresher trading ideas, even as I continue to hold a decent-sized position in Cisco as a longer-term investment.

I’m also going to sell my remaining FFIV calls and just hold onto the common stock that I own in that name. Both these remaining positions are what I consider to be “core” longer-term investments now. That doesn’t mean I w0n’t be flexible and trade/sell/run-for-hills/load-up-again on these CSCO and/or FFIV in coming days or weeks, it just means for now, again, I’m going to raise a little more cash.

Here’s a much more inspirational talk from Churchill to finish this post, by the way.


Winston Churchill: Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (1940)