ManyPeaks.com

Howdy.

I must apologize for not posting regularly for the past week. No excuses will be foisted upon my readers.

In this time, my accounts took a nice little dip along with the major indicies. My trading was a bit below average.. I didn’t do enough profit-taking in my longs when the buyers were tripping over themselves to grab stocks at extended prices.

However, my accounts are now again making all-time highs… while the indicies just inch back upward (the Dow is up a mighty 15 points as I write).

We are now 82% invested.. mostly long. I have a few shorts on the books: APOL, ARO, SAFM.

I shorted APOL last week.. and covered for about 5 points gain yesterday. I anticipated a bounce from this recent shallacking.. but wasn’t going to let the thing get flushed down the toilet without me being short. I ended up re-shorting at a slightly worse price, but don’t mind a bit.
Shorting retailers seems dicey around the holidays. But with Aeropostale (ARO), I could not resist. I certainly know little about teenage fashion (some would say adult fashion too).. but I can easily see that ARO has broken down from the range that it traded in from May 2004 to August 2005. Basically, anyone who bought the stock in that time frame is underwater and probably would love to “break even.” I anticipate the $26 area will be a ceiling for these shares.

We’re way net long right now. Don’t think these 2 shorts represent my view of the entire market. Like now, my opinions are typically very stock-specific.

Short APOL, ARO