House of Pain

Man o man, 08 has been the house of pain for me. I have lost my shorts and then some. The past few days have provided some gains, as I try to recoup from my current, still invested losses. I have had to go to margin...you see, I just felt this market was oversold. A short correction was in need and I think we may have got it today. Up 150, but that's not the best part. My intraday trades have paid off on margin, by the amount of nearly 700 in two days. Mind you that the day before was down 220, so the total market movement for the two days was roughly -70 pts. This money sounds great, only it is offsetting nearly five times the amount in losses.

Seriously, this is no joke. This market is absolutely horrible...and the bad part is I want to do this for a living! That may be a joke.... (not really, I do want this job for a living but the fact that I have had trouble making money for myself is the sad part). I currently don't know how much I am down but regardless, I have a strategy to pull me back from the depths of the abyss that I have fell into.

I plan on trading on margin, small, quick trades that will render $100-200. The plan is to invest no more than 1000-1500, and take the quick 10-20% gain. This requires movement with the market...something which to this point I have not done. USAA does not offer trailing sell stops and I am overinvested into options. Once these trades have negated a loss, I simply take it off the table. I then take that money to a safe investment, and will continue to accrue revenue.

I want this so bad...I really do, I want to accumulate wealth so I can buy stuff for my wife for our house and have a sound, long term investment that I can use towards a lifetime of fun. Long-term prosperity is what I seek, and with continued declines in my portfolio I won't achieve it. THIS IS THE TIME FOR PRESERVATION so I need to quit trying to grow my portfolio and seek shelter...FRAG OUT!!!

I still remain extemely bullish on the following....

tech: EMC, CY, GLW
financial...: GS, NLY
mining: FCX
safety: PG, MO, PEP, KO
healthcare/service: CVS
telco: VZ, T

I also think that Cramer has suggested DOW...what a great dividend play. DD just upped guidance, will DOW follow?? It's at a 52 week low, so maybe it's time to get in...

See, I'd like to suggest other companies, but being an EE I'm only really good at seeing tech.