Back to Trading

Well, I borrowed $7500 from a loan company and I'll be back trading, soon. I think I'll buy Rice, Hall, James Micro cap mutual fund. It's recommended by Jim Cramer in one of his books. I'm also related by my sister's marriage to the Hall in Rice, Hall and James. I'm waiting for the check to clear then I'll jump in with both feet. I think I should be able to stay ahead of the interest payments. If the market keeps going as it has been I'll be fine.

I'll be posting a picture of the outside of the eagle's nest. You can't get very close to the nest without disturbing them so I took a picture from across the road. Two of the eaglets have hatched already and the third is hatching today. The nest is eighty feet in the air. The cottonwood is near the center of the picture. It's quite distant. If you want to see the nest today, I have it posted on a previous blog.
I replaced the engine of my van. It now runs great and it has oil pressure. Now I'm tempted to replace the rear springs and shock absorbers. I also could use a trailer hitch. The old one rusted off. It fell off in front of a fire station in Calmar. It was almost all of the way off and I just broke it the rest of the way.
I went to the shrink in Coralville, yesterday. I'll see her through the video conferencing at the Decorah VA clinic. They just now opened up. I hope to see her more often than just once. I'm pretty sick with my schizophrenia. I think that is why I gamble and lose money on stock options. I think I just feel that I'm poor and that drives me to risk money.
That's all that I have, today. I think I'll buy something on E-trade. Later
Craig

The Snow Is Gone

Well, it looks like Winter is over. It's been in the sixties the last few days. I didn't make much, shoveling snow, but I needed what I did make.
I'm still trying to come up with some money for the bonds. They are staying low so there might still be time. I bid on a couple of options on Conocophillips, today. The market was closed so the bid will go in next morning. I'm still waiting to here from Erin at the credit union about my extension to my credit card. I told them that I was using it for a different car. I do need a better car so that may not be a lie. Next I'll try to get a loan from the other bank.
I sent off an essay on "What's Essential to Me". It was for a contest for a free trip to Santa Cruz, CA. It's being put on by a fish oil company, Nordic something. Santa Cruz is my favorite city so I really hope to win. The second and third prizes involve free fish oil. That's something I need anyway.
I went with Loula to a talk at Luther about human trafficking. I should have asked why it was so accepted at truck stops since it is against the law. Maybe they just don't have enough cops.
I need to write up a resume. There is a job for a peer support counselor in Waterloo, IA. I've got all the training that's needed and Waterloo is a larger city. If I can get them to pay moving expenses, maybe I'll go. I do enjoy Decorah, however. All of my friends are here.
Mentioning Decorah reminded me to post the eagles site. I haven't done that for a while. Here it is. Eagles
Just click on the colored word Eagles.
That's all for now.
Craig

Snow day in Decorah

It's snowing in Decorah. I'll be making some money, shoveling snow. Here are a couple of pictures of the snow on Water Street.

No sooner did I paste the pictures but it stopped snowing. I think I'll spread a little salt on the sidewalk and forget about it.

Delphi is showing signs of life. Yesterday, after the close, they announced that they were going to trade new bonds for their old bonds. This only affected their senior bonds, so my bonds weren't affected yet. This should be a good thing since they'll be paying coupon on the new bonds. I think it'll drive all their bond prices up.

Anyway I'm in full "dig up some money" mode. If I can come up with $1000 I could buy up all the Delphi bonds being offered on E-trade. I might drive the prices up by myself. $1000 bonds are selling for $20. I don't see how I can lose. My sister told me to borrow from my brother. I think I'll give it a shot. I still have a credit card that has $400 on it yet. So I'm 40% there.

Last night Cramer said to buy banks. He's been a bear on banks for at least 3 years, now. He says that they are a buy, now.

Gold plated coins

I've been buying some gold plated coins on E-bay, lately. I'm afraid that I've gotten compulsive about it. I've already gotten around 150 and I keep buying more. They are cheap, usually no more than $.30/each. I just don't need them. I hope that I'll be able to find one with more than a thin coating of gold. I don't know if I could get the gold off them if I do. So far, I've added them to my money alter. It's a fountain of a frog with water coming out of his mouth. I put my gold plated coins in the bottom of the fountain. Three legged frog statuettes are supposed to bring wealth according to some Chinese beliefs. I was thinking that having gold plated coins in such an alter would bring me gold. So far, it has brought more gold plated coins. Maybe I could sell them on E-bay, one at a time. I've seen them go for $1.00 a piece.
Somebody sent me an email of a job posting in Waterloo, Iowa. It's for a peer support specialist. I've had all the training that I would need for the job. I would have to make a resume. I don't know if I would want to move to Waterloo. Moving is a hassle. I don't want to make enough money to lose my disability. All my friends at in Decorah. It would cost money that I don't have to move. I think I'll go through the motions of applying for the job but I'll have to ask for travel pay.
Gold is bouncing around like crazy. Yesterday it went down $97. Today it's up $10 after being up $27. I think it's a buy at these prices. The Indians and Chinese will drive the price back up, soon. All the short sellers will be squeezed. Maybe that's why I want to buy gold plated coins so much. I't the only way I can afford to buy gold.
It's supposed to snow tomorrow. I hope it does. I could make some money shoveling snow. If it snows as much as predicted, I'll make a ton of money before Monday. Somebody said that it would snow 8 inches tomorrow. There is a chance that it'll keep snowing til Monday. If it does snow that much, I'll take some pictures for the blog.
Later
Craig

Done with stock options

I've had it with stock options. I think it is just delusional to think that I can buy stock options and make any money with them. Maybe people who write options can make money, but someone who buys them is almost certain to lose. The last options I had were in ARM holdings and Red Hat. I lost about $500 this week in them. I can no longer afford to lose that kind of money. I'll have to get a job and save about $10,000 to invest in stocks.

This is a picture of Mary the owner of Java Johns. This is in the back room, looking towards the kitchen.

This is a picture of Claire. She's a barista at Java Johns. This is looking towards the front of the coffee shop.
I hang out at Java Johns most of the day. I'm probably the person who is there the most. I spent about two hours with Loula and her financial adviser today. It was the first time anyone asked me about financial decisions.
Loula made the commitment to go metal detecting with me. She doesn't know it but we'll get out there a lot sooner than she thought. If the weather keeps warming up like it has lately, we'll be looking for coins in a week or two. The ground is already warming up and thawing. I can't wait to get out to a ghost town named Conover to see if I can find some old coins.
Til then I might have to look for beer cans for the redemption value. Maybe I should get a real job but I can't see risking my disability by holding down a job. Unfortunately, beer cans don't pay very much. I've never been able to make more than $4.00/hr. looking for them.This is better than nothing.

Lazy Day at Java John's

I've slacked off on posting lately. It turned out that when I went to Google Analytics, that I actually have a few viewers of my site. It looked like 5 people went to my site last month. I'll have to get fired up and start posting more often. Site Monitor didn't show anyone as going to my blog so I got discouraged. I think the lesson is to use Google.
My investing didn't go to well, so far. I transferred some money into my E-trade account but then I waited for it to clear before investing. Had I invested right away I might have made $2,000 for an investment of $300. Netflix had a great earnings report and it moved up about $15 a share. I bought the option too late to take advantage of that. I shouldn't have bought it at all. You snooze, you lose.  I now have options in John Deere and Case. They are both machinery makers. Tomorrow I'll be buying Morgan Stanley and maybe, Boeing.
As always, my car started costing me a bunch of money just as I starting investing. I've been running up credit card debt on the presumption that most of my expenses are one-time costs and will be easily taken care of. The trouble is that I have to make money on the options to justify that sort of thinking. If the market tanks due to something going on in Europe, I might have to get a job.
I might have to get a job anyway. I'm tired of being broke most of the time and I need a little more structure to my life. I just don't want to work more than about 20 Hr./wk. I'm happy with having most of my time to myself.
Even the big blizzard that hit Southern and Western Iowa missed us. We got no snow when it snowed 11 inches in Omaha. I'm just not making any money. When it does snow I have a hard time keeping up with the work.
I might have to go to California and help out my sister. I could get free rent by shoveling manure for her horses. I know that she would keep me busy with maintaining her house and horses. I also know that I would be making the least possible working for her. I like having my own apartment anyway. The gold prospecting seems the best bet. I just need to get my car running a bit better before I take that on. I should replace the engine, at least. I'll have to save up for that somehow.
I've been reading a lot about the Law of Attraction, lately. I'm hoping that  it helps me with my investments. The book I'm working on now is "The Intention Experiment" by Lynne McTaggart. It has to do with experiments pertaining to the mind influencing external things. It's too complex to give a simple explanation of it.
That's all that I have for today. I'll be posting some more with pictures in the future.
Thanks
Craig

Sixteen dogs

This is something that my sister told me about. It's kinda fun:  sixteen dogs