PALM Reading...

No, I don't personally condone or endorse palm reading as it relates to fortune telling, soothsaying, etc. I'm interested in the ticker symbol PALM as my next possible short. Darkside Trading, using Muddy's incredible scans, alerted me even before Timothy Sykes this time (probably because it wasn't up enough yet for his risk/reward ratio). I texted my Mom (who was way more available than my future brother-in-law Eric this morning considering he marries my sister Sunday) to short 200 shares of PALM if it surged over $9.

Let me just start a completely new paragraph here to comment on one of Timothy Sykes's posts (since it relates somewhat to me telling you that I texting my mom this morning). Tim is very transparent on his site about all his trades, most of his financial information, and even his extracurricular activities. I've been able to learn a great deal from him because of this. In this post of his (disclaimer: He can be eccentric at times and it shows in his writing:), he slams those who are less transparent. I don't blame him- he's had so many people (most of the time with anonymous or fictitious names) leave degrading comments on his site that the only way his business model works is by being an open book. I feel the same way, and want to set the (my) record straight:

1. I began this blog because I thought it would be really cool to detail my trades like Tim and many others. It would help me learn from my mistakes while I try new strategies while I slowly get the word out about the mission trips (which will definitely happen as time permits).

2. I am not claiming to be a stock guru. Trade at your own risk and learn from my mistakes with me. I view my trading as a supplemental income, and will probably never be able to live on the profits of day trading- that takes the kind of time/money/dedication very few are fortunate to have. My primary goal is to make enough to fund one mission trip/year (they usually run anywhere from $2000 - $5000 for a two week trip). My most recent was to the Amazon, where I took a picture of me reading Timothy Sykes's 'An American Hedge Fund' on the river- my two passions: Missions and the Market.

3. You'll see various ads on my page powered by Google's Adsense and hopefully some from Amazon (linking to books that have helped me learn to trade) and Tim's site in the future. I'm not suppose to urge you to click on them because that breaks the contract with Adsense, but it is the only way (and trust me, the revenue is extremely minimal at this point) I know how to make money from writing this blog- which isn't my goal but it's a nice 'extra'.

4. As I've said, I work two full time jobs (Target from 6am-2:30pm and Living Word Christian bookstore from 3pm-9:30pm five to six days a week). In order for me to have this blog, it takes sacrifice (usually posting on breaks at work or drafting half before I go to sleep and half when I wake up). The human body is simply amazing- and able to be pushed far beyond what we think possible. Unfortunately, like the stocks detailed on this blog, sometimes I crash.

5. I have opened a Covestor account under the name islandminister, and will be adding Think or Swim as the account's broker in order to let the world view every trade. I do have accounts with Raymond James and TD Ameritrade as well, but they only hold my IRAs and mutual funds (whose performance, needless to say, have been less than stellar over the past two years).

That's pretty much it- oh yeah, MAXY failed to crack $8 again, but is still downtrending nicely (lower highs and lower lows).

Have a restful weekend- I'm off to the bachelor party!

Evan