Three Things

1. Timothy Sykes Isn't Human.

There are traders, there are robots, and there are trading robots. Then there is Mr. Sykes. Somehow, he not only knows how to profit more than 90% of the traders out there, but he possesses a machine-like quality that seldom lets his emotions interfere with his trading plan. Perhaps this is due to the well-known lesson he learned after losing more money than some people make in a lifetime on one penny stock (It's all in his original book). He has turned a pretty surreal corner, and is now living the daytrader dream. Some people scoff at others' successes. I applaud. Now if I can only trade the perfect setups I've learned to spot from this cyborg mentor (while keeping my emotions and theories in check), I will no doubt reach that upper echelon of elite traders. I'm still coming for you Tim!

2. I've Had a Livermore Experience.

After recently watching Think or Swim liquidate some of my positions against my will (due to lack of funds and the use of margin, I had 200 shares of both LULU and PALM covered for me the last two days), I have once again regained the hope of victory. What is victory when it pertains to trading? Planning your trade and trading your plan. It's that simple. If you're wrong, fine- but don't keep having to learn the same lessons over and over because you somehow fail to allow yourself to change your trading habits. If you build a fortune, then squander it like Jesse Livermore only to build it again- Stop there! Evaluate what got you back on that plateau, and KEEP DOING THAT! In case you're interested, THIS is one of the best short biographies on the life of Jesse Livermore I have ever read.

3. I Am Planning My Next Mission Trip!

Yep- I've saved the best for last! I am finally going back to East Africa (Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Mozambique, and possibly Tanzania) this summer. I won't be alone either- my girlfriend Michelle and I will be flying over to meet a pastor friend of ours (Agatha Taylor- special lady who loves the Lord) and help train local pastors in kids ministry (Michelle's and my favorite), education, and help with various medical needs (malaria prevention, AIDS awareness, etc.). Michelle is a pharmacist, and returned recently from a mission trip to India. She truly is a woman after my own heart. Please keep the trip in your prayers and I'll try to post updates (although not too much since this site is primarily about the trading- Mission-trading.com will eventually have more about the missions).

Striving to stay focused in this break-neck-speed life,

Evan

Margin Call Averted...For Now

It just doesn't get much closer than that! I had a scheduled margin call today with Think or Swim @3pm. I was told I could either A:) add funds to bring the account to positive, B:) liquidate positions to bring the account to positive, or C:) Take market action (trade) to bring my account to positive. By holding all my positions, I essentially chose option C. If today hadn't have been the tank it turned out to be, I my friends would have been SOL (and no, that's not a ticker symbol). Behold LULU, the main reason for the margin call (and what kept me from being liquidated today):

I'll see this trade through, but what a waste of time- not to mention missed opportunities like DFR (a stock that actually meets my strategy's criteria). Do I think LULU is headed back down? Yes. Do I think my initial resistance 'guess' could end up being support (thus making it difficult to cover for a profit)? Yes. Have I learned my lesson? Which one? Um...Yes. YES!! UNCLE!

Praying for discipline,

Evan

ps- PALM was up today (lovely- can the PRE phone just come out already so people can 'sell the news'). FAZ is rocking again, now that people are realizing the banks and financial sector may still be in trouble (big surprise).

Here, Let Me Help You With the Long Weekend

So, if I had gone long the two stocks I shorted on Wednesday (LULU and PALM)- I'd be sittin' pretty. On the other hand, it would make it look like swing trading is easy (on nerves, trading accounts, etc.), and totally nullify the title of my last post. Instead of harping on the fact that, because of my current swing positions, I've fallen out of the top 100 Covestor rankings- I've decided to post a few items that have definitely taken my mind off of such things:

1. I signed up on Scribd in order to enter a contest, and found this gem: Why I Fired My Secretary Today

2. No need to explain this one- just watch and repeat (and you're sure to forward it to your loved ones;) Huge Dead Snake

Here's one you don't have to click on a link for:

A woman got on a bus holding a baby. The bus driver said, "That's the ugliest baby I've ever seen!"

In a huff, the woman slammed her fare into the fare box and took an aisle seat near the rear of the bus. The man seated next to her sensed that she was agitated and asked her what was wrong. "The bus driver insulted me," she fumed.

The man sympathized with her and said, "Why, he's a public servant and shouldn't say things to insult passengers."

"You're right," she said. "I think I'll go back up there and give him a piece of my mind."

"That's a good idea," the man said. "Here, let me hold your monkey."

Happy Easter!!! He Is Risen (well, technically not til tomorrow- even more technically, it happened about 2000 years ago),

Evan

Swingin' Aint Easy!

     Well, in case you're wondering, I'm still short PALM and LULU (which at this second is a profitable position- just don't blink). LULU was a great short after it's first down day (yesterday). Too bad I didn't have the patience to wait for the price action- nooo, I had to try and 'pick the top' (last Wednesday) and enjoy watching one of my largest share positions of 2009 just keep going, and going...(away from me). Technically speaking, there were many reasons why I shorted LULU (and am still short). RSI was above 70, more than 100% run in one month, etc. If I had just waited to short until today, I would have had a nice in-and-out trade. More importantly, I would have my funds freed up for other positions- like my new found best friend CZZ (thanks Tim). Behold the unsuspecting beauty:

 

     CZZ is currently higher than this 3 month chart (around 4.70). The goal tomorrow morning is to cover my LULU short (gonna be tough to not hold longer- but I should be forced to only take a small profit because of how lame my entry was), then use the released funds to short CZZ, IF:

1. I can reserve shares (will try 400 and only short 200 at first)

2. It gaps up and surges over $5 before 10am

     That's it. Any variations of the above plan and I go back to bed (it is my one morning off all week- btw, why am I still up- it's 1am!)

Watching the Futures Tank,

Evan

ps- It has been brought to my attention that I use trading terms sometimes without explaining them. If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to e-mail me or post a comment (just know that I don't claim to be a professional- but will help steer you in the right direction if I can).

Mission Accomplished: MAXY

Yes, you read that right! I've finally decided to cover the last 100 shares of Maxy that I've held short for months. This is bitter sweet, since I was pretty much forced to cover due to a (please don't kill me) margin call (I'm wilting as I type while I await your berating). Yep, folks- I zigged when I should have zagged. My two shorts (LULU and PALM) have laughed at me since Wednesday (which happened to be my one morning off this week- what do you think, was I thrill trading?) My reasons for shorting these two still hold- though my timing (early as usual) was clearly off. As for my dear old friend MAXY, here's the chart that details my second biggest gainer since using my strategy (that I desperately need to stick to):

After all was said and done, my total profit from MAXY was $398.07 ($55 in commissions for all those 100 share trades). I started to show all my entries and exits on the chart above, but there's no way (it would drive me insane- there were 11 different trades). If you're interested, just type MAXY in the search bar at the upper left of this blog. Scroll aaaallll the way down to start at the beginning.

As for LULU, I was early, but the lack of pretty much any news (combined with the fading volume and nice, bearish candle that just showed up) calms my trader mind. The chart below is courtesy of Stocktwits:

Reaching for a huge gap-down Monday,

Evan (aka islandminister)

I Love M&M's with Downtrending Heads

There were many great morning spikes to take advantage of today, provided you a: waited for the spike to top off and b: were patient enough to ride out the downtrend and/or 'M' shape (also known as a 'Double Top'). M&M's are not only one of the best inventions when it comes to candy (btw- have you tried the incredible new Premiums line?), but a nice technical indicator on a stock chart. One of my trades today, though currently going against me while holding, relieved my stress by revealing the 'M' pattern on more than one occassion. The tell tale chart below is of LULU, a stock I was initially notified about on Stack Your Cream's site (not sure the meaning of that site's title, but it definitely gets a laugh when you say it randomly/sternly to someone:) When viewing this chart, it's important to remember that the timeframe was intraday (and pretty much only good for scalping- which is great if you're not subject to the PDT Rule). You'll see in this post about PALM, though, that the pattern works on multiple timeframes. Anyway, here's the chart:

For info on 'Ms', check this site out. Peace,

Evan

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

One Bite at a Time! I know it can be extremely hard sometimes to stay content with small gains, especially when the market is as volatile as it's been the past few months. The tendency to feel like you're a: leaving profits on the table with every trade or b: not being aggressive enough with your account size and/or # of shares, can and will lead to bad trades if you let those 'hindsight' emotions get a hold of you.

If you've been following my blog, you know from my last post that I was extremely bearish after last Monday's 500 pt. Dow run. There are many technical reasons for that (ie. Elliot Wave Theory, market in overbought territory, etc.). There are also plenty of blogs that go into much greater detail in regard to these types of technical analyses and/or fundamentals (ie. Government involvement like the Obama/GM situation, possible war with N. Korea, etc.) I just want to share my thoughts and trade executions as transparently as possible (in true Timmay form). I'll leave the 'professional trader speak' to those more capable.

Having said that, my latest bit of elephant was TCK- a stock that pretty much fit my strategy perfectly (except for the market cap). Props to Investors Live for find. You'll notice (in the chart above) that when TCK reached $6, the RSI (top of chart) read 'overbought', not to mention it had come from the $2 range- where I like these runs to have originated. Below is the chart that helps illustrate my entry/exit:

Did I leave a ton of profits on the table with this trade? Yes. Did I read the technicals right and trade my plan? Yes. I guess tie goes to the runner (with a little extra money for his pants).

On a side note, as you'll see tomorrow on Covestor, my account (at least at this moment) closed at an all-time high since it began being tracked in early '09. If I'm correct, I should be in the rankings somewhere starting tomorrow (my 2 month Covestor anniversary). I believe the 'Pride comes before a fall' Scripture would be appropriate to reflect on at this juncture (No worries Eric and Charlie).

Remembering that the market will humble you at will,

Evan

ps- Yes, I'm still short Maxy and Palm. I'm still long Faz.

pps- I shaved some profits from my last buy of FAZ @ $18ish, and some from my PALM short @ $8.72ish (all this can be found either on my Covestor or twitter pages).

End of Rally?

I don't know. You don't know. I wish I knew. All I can say is- I've prepared for a correction/retracement/dive, etc. Yesterday, at market close (which was perfect timing but only because I had no choice), I sold all of the mutual funds in my 401k and transferred the money into a safer, bond fund. I plan to buy back the exact mix of funds if the DOW dips below 6,500 in the next month. If that doesn't happen- I'm wrong, but 'missed money is still better than lost money'. Also, if we don't correct soon, you can throw RSI's usefullness out the window (cuz we've just entered 'overbought' territory):


As for the Think or Swim account tied to my Covestor ID, I'm also preparing for the end of (imo) the bear market rally. I averaged up my PALM short today, adding 100 shares at 8.81. I'm also long 25 shares of my friend FAZ (avg. about 25.75ish). Forgive me for not updating the avg. prices on the right hand side lately. Knowing that Covestor verifies every trade has made me a bit lazy- I'll try to do better.

In case you're worried that I've stopped posting/trading/reading the Yahoo! Finance boards, etc.- Have no fear! I've been keeping up with all of that and then some. I've decided to build a webpage that focuses on why I trade. Yeah, the 'Mission Trip' part. Mission-trading.com is my new project (like I need one- and be kind, it's not completely finished). The blog you're reading is pretty much 99% about the 'trading' part (and will continue to be so), but fails to expound on the reason I trade. I'm not saying mission-trading.com will be 99% about missions, but it will certainly bring to light the connection between the two passions that drive me.

Hoping the country and my shorts somehow thrive,

Evan

Don't Know What to Call This

     I thought about titling this post 'Never Do This!', but then didn't agree- since I did it and it worked (I've made it work in the past, but have also gotten burnt by it). What am I talking about, you ask? Averaging down. Basically, I'm referring to adding to a position that either A. You're uncomfortable with, or B. Isn't acting how you originally thought it would. You can either average down in equal quantities (ie. short 10 shares at $45, another 10 at $35, etc.), or try to really bring your average share price down by adding even more to a losing position (ie. short 10 shares at $45, 20 at $35, etc.) The latter illustration can get you in trouble faster than you can say, "Margin Call".

     To better illustrate my point, I'll use a real life situation you may be aware of: My recent position(s) in FAZ. After it fell from it's grace around $115, and raced toward support around $40, I felt the urge to buy 15 shares (when it was $45). No biggie- "It'll be 60 in a day or so". Well it broke support of $40, so I decided to average down and buy 10 more shares at $35. "Surely it's going back up to $40 where I can almost break even". Nope- yesterday it just kept on tanking, kicking my sorry 25 shares all the way to $26. I watched the futures like a hawk last night and again when I woke up at 5am this morning for work- they showed the DOW being down about 40 pts. I was a bit relieved, knowing that FAZ should begin the day up (being the short-minded etf it is). Well, when I texted my Mom around 9:30 am, she told me it was 24.48. I wanted in! Again. I decided to buy 50 shares under $25. My order was filled at $24.28.

I don't condone this sort of trading (averaging down) for three reasons:

1. It ties up your capital, making it difficult to trade when a better setup presents itself.
   
2. You're bucking the trend, hoping your contrarian idea is perfectly timed.
   
3. These trades can potentially wipe out gains made in many smaller profitable ones.

With that being said, here's three reasons why I decided to average down with FAZ:

1. The rally we've had in financials can't go up forever.
2. Tomorrow is options expiration day (many will be taking profits).
3. FAZ is extremely volatile, and $29 wouldn't be that difficult when combining #1 and #2.

     I picked $29 because it would make all my recent trades with FAZ profitable (even with commissions). When it couldn't quite hit $29 a couple times, I decided (with some sound advice from my brother-in-law) to lower the target to $28.75. Got it before noon. I'd post a chart, but you obviously don't need one if you've read this far.

     In other news, I covered 100 shares of my PALM short AH when it fell to $7.30 after a dismal earnings report. I'm hoping to cover the remaining 150 shares in the very near future. That will put the account pretty much in cash- right where I want to be for the next perfect setup. Let me say it again so I can remember... Perfect setup.

Evan

How I Sleep at Night

     I received a pretty cool comment the other day from Yngvai, a trader I've been following for a while now- from his posts on Tim's site to his own blog. It was short and sweet: "Dude, you're the king of holding long term shorts!" I'm well aware that, over the past couple of years, it has been easy making money going short. Now (in the midst of this rare rally) the hoopleheads (a not-so-nice term coined by the character Al Swearengen in the HBO series Deadwood) on Yahoo Finance like to point out with great vigor, that we have seen the bottom and are on our way back up. Maybe. If so, holding shorts 'wouldn't be prudent' (Dana Carvey doing a G.W. Bush impersonation). I sleep well at night tuning out all the noise and using what little technical saavy I possess. Below is a longterm trading range of the Dow, and why I think (along with many other technical traders) we are currently experiencing a bear market rally- and possibly about to head back down to 5000.

For my 401k and IRA's sake, I hope I'm wrong and this rally never ends. With this account, though, I'm perfectly content staying short PALM and MAXY (and long FAZ- a short-minded etf).

Thank you and goodnight!

Evan

Took More from FAZ's Fat Fingers

It's been an abnormally long time since my last post. Sorry. I took a mini vacation and visited my brother in Ft. Lauderdale for his birthday. It had been a year and a half since my last full weekend off (excluding the mission trip to the Amazon this past summer). If you've been watching my Twitter feed to the right, you know what I've been trading lately. Little bit of this, little bit of FAZ (wow- what a horrible joke:) I actually went long FAZ this morning:

If you take a look at any chart of FAZ over the past week, it's pretty easy to make hindsight 20/20. Go from 50 to 100 in a short period of time- look for a correction- how bought back to 50? Emotionally, that kind of trade is a bit tougher to execute- especially if you watch every tick. FAS and FAZ are not for the light-hearted (could be the understatement of 2009).

As for my friends PALM and MAXY:

We'll start with longtime short, MAXY. Is it weird that I'm pulling for this stock? I mean, I'm still short- but I find myself actually hoping it will make a comeback! I guess that's the 'always pull for the underdog' sentiment in me. Anyway, I'm thinking about covering my remaining 100 shares in the next few days. Not that there's any great plays at the moment, but enough is enough- and there's nothing wrong with saving your capital for ideal situations. Here's the chart:

As for PALM, she sure has gotten feisty the last few days! I didn't listen to my own advise (wait til $7-$8 to re-short), and it's biting me a little. Not that I don't think it's headed back down toward $5 (already proved it could break $6 to the downside), but it could get interesting. I shorted 150 shares into strength yesterday (dumb), then averaged up today @ 7.55 (could be dumber). This stock was dead to me- and I should have waited for another supernova. But alas, I find myself short 250 shares avg. 6.97. Should be fun to watch!

Y'all had any memorable trades lately?

Evan

ps- If you'd like to see all my posts on FAZ, PALM, MAXY, etc.- just type the symbol in the search bar at the upper left of this page- the oldest posts are at the bottom.

Mission Accomplished: PALM

So here's the deal- I've held PALM for a while now, and felt comfortable covering my last 100 shares today as the market was tanking. It may not have reached the levels I was hoping for, as evident in this post, but I'm not so sure we aren't on the verge of a major, market-wide rally. I'm sure you're all aware of the M2M and uptick rule discussions, and we've fallen pretty hard and fast lately (though I know technicals still aren't looking very pleasant). I could be dead wrong and we're headed much lower (I can't begin to guess at what the big guys are discussing in Washington and New York), but I have a gut feeling a correction's coming. Either way, I made two plays I feel confident about today. If PALM goes lower, so be it (missed money is better than lost money), but if the market rallies, I'm sure tech will rise with it (even a stock like PALM, who many, including the not-so-silent TIMMAY), feel is headed much lower. I can always re-short, should PALM get up around the $7.50-$8.50 range.

My other trade today was, well...patriotic (that's stretching it a bit). After my recent close call with FAS, I've become very interested in his ugly step brother, FAZ. Bryan and Muddy's comments on my last post were definitely pondered, and I decided to short 35 shares of FAZ at $95. FAZ is pretty much the opposite of FAS- it is a 3x bearish-on-financials etf- wait...is my shorting this kind of like a double negative? I had a chance to cover for a small gain when FAZ fell to 93ish, but really didn't want to use another day trade (Since I have off three mornings next week to watch the market- Woohoo!).

1. Not using scared money (only short 35 shares of FAZ- of course, if it goes to $350 like the hoopleheads over on the Yahoo! message boards are saying...) and 2. Monitoring the price action,

Evan

ps- I'm on Twitter now, and you can see my Covestor-verified trades during the day (if I make any) over on the right in the green box. Also, in case you didn't know, you can scroll through my posts on any of the stocks I'm trading by typing the symbol in the upper left search bar of Blogger.

PALM Reading (Part 2)

History repeats itself. We've always heard that, it's been documented countless times in various scenarios, and recessions come and go (this will certainly not be our last). In that light, I've decided to post a 5 year chart on PALM, showing a bit of that 'repeating':

Were the 'smile' curves necessary? Not really;) If this is a precursor of things to come (as price action/technicals will determine), PALM is most likely headed toward the $5 level.

If you're interested in professionals' opinions on technical analysis, I highly suggest you check out these videos by Brian Shannon. I'd like to thank Charlie G. for his blog (it's where I first saw a Brian Shannon video).

We Shall See,

Evan

ps- I was fiddlin' around with Blogger to see if there were any cool, new gadgets to put down the side of my page. I came across the 'plane landing' game- ridiculously hard! See if you can beat my score of 6 (fyi, I don't get paid if you play)

Missions Accomplished: ARNA, SKYT

Well, my Covestor account has me worried (It's starting to look like the Supernova pattern Timothy Sykes has me all too familiar with). I was able to cover two stocks today, ARNA and SKYT. The first was ARNA. Below shows the incredible tanking at market open (the light blue column indicates After Hours trading from last night through today's pre-market). I was torn on this trade. I really didn't want to cover (even though I was showing a profit), but two things got the better of me:

1. It was one of those 'fall off a cliff' openings I was afraid would bounce back at any time (I actually covered on the first big bounce @ 5.95).

2. I was home this morning to watch it- usually a bad thing because my emotions and psychological quirks take over (I'm sure none of you experience this;)



Next came SKYT. I wanted to cover this one today for one main reason: It wasn't up enough imo to short in the first place. I was showing a profit, so when it finally fell a little (low volume stock that moves like once an hour), I covered @ 3.20- you can actually see my 150 shares on any chart.

Still waiting on MAXY to really lose some ground, and PALM to forget it was hyped so much.

Steadily gaining ground on Master Sykes,

Evan

My Four Horsemen

So while the world of finance came a-crumblin' down again today, being short MAXY, GERN, PALM, and SKYT (even though SKYT gained .01) paid quite well. Covestor is usually one day behind on updating their clients' portfolio values, but somehow my link (on the right) is two. I can't wait for it to show my most recent shellacking of the S&P. I would rather have the chart showing myself vs. Timothy Sykes (currently #1 on Covestor), but can't figure out how to configure the widget that way (any suggestions?).

I made two trades today, both profitable and loss preventing. I don't mind admitting that the talking heads over at Yahoo! Finance message boards are beginning to get into my head. Seriously, I don't know why I even read the ridiculous posts (9 out of 10 are bias with an agenda), but GERN is a stock focused on stem cell research, a science nobody really knows what to expect from yet. Given that Obama fully supports this type of research, I sold 100 of my 200 shares of GERN today at 7.48. I know, I know- I'm letting fundamentals interfere with my technical positions. I'm still learning the 'true' relationship between fundamentals and penny stocks.

Today was all MAXY needed to finally drift back below my initial buy (how many months ago?), so I covered 100 shares of my 300 at 8.17 near the close. I did this for three reasons:

1. Didn't want to be greedy (been there done that at the end of a down day only to see a gap up the next morning).
2. There was an earnings announcement after close. Don't think MAXY has a prayer (announcement hasn't come out yet 7:27pm 2/10/09), but why risk all 300 shares?
3. The stock downtrended aaaalllll day, and I followed Rule #6 of my strategy.

Unfortunately watching the market tread closer to year lows,

Evan

Triple Play

I am now officially short MAXY, GERN, and PALM. All three met my strategy's criteria, and after having posted about each (except for GERN, which I had on my Stock Status's 'Mission Briefing' watchlist), I'm pleased with my initial entries. I had off this morning, and was ready with reserved shares for both PALM and GERN by market open (compliments of Think or Swim). I'll skip any rationale on MAXY, since those of you following this blog know I've been short about a month. As for PALM (which happened to be my first short of the day), all you pretty much have to do is look at this 1 year chart:

Sure, it may go higher in the near future (which is why I eased in with 100 shares), but I doubt the 'PRE' phone is enough to sustain this quick rise from the $1's. I know I said I could care less about the fundamentals, but this really isn't a true penny stock- it's the company that brought us the Palm pilot. Regardless, it's either consolidating or losing steam (volume leans toward the latter). Now that this account is on Covestor, you'll be able to watch the outcome. Since I don't plan on selling (aka 'covering') for a loss, this could be a wild ride!

Last but not least...GERN! This stem cell play gave me the perfect entrance on it's midday spike. I shorted at 7.96 and already have a decent profit on my 200 shares. If I listened to some of the posts (pumpers galore) on Yahoo! Finance message boards, I'd be freaking out! There's a reason most financial sites claim to be 'For entertainment purposes only':) Does this 1 year chart look familiar?

If you're a trader, and haven't opened a Covestor account yet- do it! It makes posting sooo much easier, knowing you don't have to take screenshots of your positions (like I did numerous times last month) for people to believe you. Thanks for annoying me enough, Tim:)

Happy transparent trading,

Evan

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