10.30.06

Shares of Mittal Steel (MT) Sold at $41.91

Posted in Investing at 12:06 pm

On January 18, 2006, I purchased a whopping 25 shares of Mittal Steel (MT) for $27.92. My target price was a zealous $40.

After going through various ups and downs with the company, I decided to put a 5% trailing stop loss when the stock neared the high 39s. I tightened it to 4% shortly thereafter.

After a drop over the weekend, the stock sold at $41.91 this morning.

My gain was 50.1%, or a gain of $349.75. However, I will be heavily taxed due to my buying it in January.

I bought this stock when getting back into investing after a very long lay-off. It was obviously a great purchase, and definitely entertaining to watch the dramatic news as Mittal bought Arcelor Steel in hostile fashion (my style).

I will continue to watch MT. If it cycles again, you can be assured that I’ll buy it under $30. The steel industry is fun to follow, as it consolidates and the players become bigger and more efficient. Lakshmi Mittal is a total badass, and I have no problem investing in him, possibly for the long-term next time.

As you can see from the chart, I learned my lesson earlier on. Regardless of the amount of money, a 50% gain is nothing to laugh about. Hell, a 20% gain is nothing to laugh about. I could have re-bought at my original position with way more stock and sold it again. Thus, I learned to use the trailing stop loss to stop my greed.

My future strategies will be to invest in solid companies that are currently disliked by the mainstream — a contrarian view that I love, right out of Benjamin Graham’s arsenal. I will continue to be greedy, but only on the buying side. If a stock isn’t cheap enough for me to buy, then I won’t do it. I will greedily lower my buying price. But for selling, I will be smart and take my gains if they’re big while I can.

Charting software used is Charter, from my good man Frank over at www.technicator.net

Permalink 1 Comment

10.28.06

Book Review - A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

Posted in Book Reviews at 1:50 am

Every now and then, a book comes by, rocks your world, and completely shakes your foundations by changing the way you think.

A Confederacy of Dunces is not one of those books – but it’s close.

John Kennedy Toole simply fascinated me with this book. The dialogue, vocabulary, humor, and character development are simply unequaled. You have to read it to believe it.

However, just because it’s such an amazing read doesn’t mean that you’ll get a whole lot out of it, other than entertainment. Go ahead and read the reviews on Amazon.com – you will quickly realize that everybody loves this book, but nobody knows what in the hell it’s about.

My best way to describe A Confederacy of Dunces is that it’s a story about a man who is unfit (in all senses of the word) for society who gets thrust straight into our cultural beast – and loads of ridiculousness and shenanigans ensue.

Ignatius J. Reilly, our protagonist, is an obese man with a world-view that is simply out of this world. While this filthy thirty-year-old man who lives with his mother isn’t stirring trouble at his newly-found occupations, he’s busy writing his memoirs and obsessing over his pyloric valve.

The dialogue is simply ridiculous. Here are a few chosen passages:

“She appears to have been knocked a bit in her life already. Up rather than down. If she ever nears me, however, the direction will be reversed.”

And from the end of the famous opening paragraph:

In the shadow under the green visor of the cap Ignatius J. Reilly’s supercilious blue and yellow eyes looked down upon the other people waiting under the clock at the D.H. Holmes department store, studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste in dress. Several of the outfits, Ignatius noticed, were new enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses against taste and decency. Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person’s lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one’s soul.

The subplots weave together in such a manner that it makes Seinfeld look like a woman’s social.

The most unfortunate part of this book is that John Kennedy Toole committed suicide before he could get it published. Toole fell into depression after the manuscript was rejected due to it “not being about anything” (which it’s really not). It was only noticed after Toole’s mother found it under his bed and pressed for a Professor Walker Percy at Tulane to get it published. It is a shame that we do not have more of Toole’s writings out there.

If you’re a serious person (and I assume you’re not since you’re reading my blog), then don’t read this book. Go read 7 Habits or some offensive tripe like that.

But if you’re looking for a good read that is completely out of left field, and perhaps lacks a bit of taste and decency, then I implore you to read A Confederacy of Dunces.

Permalink 1 Comment

10.11.06

Festival Review - Austin City Limits

Posted in Music Reviews at 2:38 am

Update: Found the lost pictures, thanks to tech-hints.org and Restoration for saving my deleted images from my flash card!

Better to post this late than never.

My brother Nick flew in to town Friday at around 5, and we got settled and had our first of many drinks throughout the weekend. Our liquor of choice was Stoli Vanilla, snuck in with water bottles. We mixed it with the “Coolah” energy drink, which I enjoyed a lot.

Despite our collective smarts (mine: mostly booksmarts, Nick’s: mostly streetsmarts), we got confused between the AT&T Blue Room and the main AT&T stage, and missed a few big acts. We instead saw Sparklehorse, which honestly wasn’t that bad. We shared a drink with DQ and Spears and went off to the main stage.

Van Morrison came on, and was fun, but nothing incredible. I’m not a big fan, but I’m happy I got to see Brown-Eyed Girl before he kicks the bucket. The rest of the night was spent adventurously trying to get rid of some girl who had attached herself to us, which we successfully did at The Ginger Man.

Saturday, we went to the OSU alumni bar, watched the Buckeyes win with Allen, then headed back to the festival. The set of the day for me was Los Lobos, which I guess you could call a Rock-and-Roll Tex-Mex band. All sorts of influence, just fun music. I should definitely grab some albums.

Many drinks later, my brother met tons of my friends: Trash Talkin Tom, Mansfield, Jordan, Mo, Kate and the girls. It was finally time for Willie Nelson, who put on a fun show. I don’t know any of his music, but it was very enjoyable — another guy to see before it’s too late. It is unfortunate that he was arrested on drug charges later on.

Saturday night was a drunken mess, with Newquist and Bassett coming out with us.

Sunday morning, we were back at it again, watching the Browns lose at Aussie’s, and then off to the big day of it all.

First was Ween. This band is hilarious, with songs such as Piss Up a Rope. Their closing song, Doctor Rock, was the best for me. Quite fast, very entertaining band.

Next was the best of the weekend - The Flaming Lips. They might not have the best music, but I’ll be damned if they don’t put on a show! He came out in a blow-up “hamster ball”, ran around on top of the crowd on it, then began playing music. Confetti and enormous balloons were everywhere! He drenched himself in fake blood, not to be outdone by another musician who had a bloody nose all over the place during one set (cocaine, anyone?)… and then asked women to throw tampons on stage to clean it up. Absolute ridiculousness, and I did like the music too!

To close things down was Tom Petty, who put on a decent set. It rained, and the losers all went home, leaving more space for us. What’s great about seeing a Tom Petty set is that you know all of the songs - they’re all hits. But at the same time, it didn’t seem like he wanted to be there, and the Heartbreakers carried him through the set.

We closed up with a late snack at Opal Divine’s. A great music weekend, ACL is always an awesome time.

Permalink Comments