E-Trade and a position in Remedy, a CRM company, helped me regain some of what I had lost in AMZN. Also helping was the fact that I was a Java consultant working in New York City and financial firms, flush with origination wealth, were willing to pay a lot to secure talent. In July, I started a new contract, with a 22% rate rise, for a Nasdaq market marker called Herzog Heine and Geduld (since acquired by Merrill Lynch). This gave me a feel for the excitement when the sh** (shares, that is) hit the street on IPO days. It was an interesting place to watch the Internet boom in its final phase, when every stock seemed to hit triple digits on its first day of trading.
As Y2K approached, I felt fairly comfortable that the coming rout, which had spooked me so much before, would not in fact occur. It didn’t. But Internet stocks still appeared way overvalued, and I was beginning to recover my nerve. I began to short in earnest in late February 2000. Among the biggest positions were SCMR and ICGE. I shorted ICGE after reading that the lock-up expiration (after which insiders could sell shares) was approaching, and that insider holdings were large compared to the float.
Though the Internet crash would begin in April, it was not an easy month. I shorted Sycamore (SCMR) in the low 100s only to see it go to 199.5. I shorted ICGE in the 100-110 range only to see it jump 50 points in a week. Luckily my positions weren’t large enough to sink me and I held on for dear life. I took a small loss on SCMR, but more than made up for it with robust profits on ICGE. Still, I was shaken and stirred. I closed all my shorts after the first week of April downdraft, glad to have escaped and waiting for the next upturn to re-engage. It never came. I got a taste of victory, but left a lot on the table. I got another chance in the fall when B2B, Internet equipment makers and telecoms peaked. I was a little early on ARBA and JNPR, but booked solid profits on JDSU, BRCM, and VRTS.
Amidst the Internet excitement it was hard to foretell that impact that a completely unrelated stock would have on my portfolio. This was a company called Athracite Capital, a so-called mortgage REIT, which a friend of mine had recommended. Unlike equity REITs, which own buildings and collect rents, mortgage REITs invest in mortgages or mortgage-backed paper. They had gotten killed during the LTCM debacle, and now had some pretty heady yields. When I first bought in May, AHR was trading in the high 6s with a quarterly dividend of .29 for an annual yield of about 17%. Investing in AHR would introduce me to a sector and a community that would greatly impact my future wealth.
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Some Better Numbers (My trading history Pt. 3)
E-Trade and a position in Remedy, a CRM company, helped me regain some of what I had lost in AMZN. Also helping was the fact that I was a Java consultant working in New York City and financial firms, flush with origination wealth, were willing to pay a lot to secure talent. In July, I started a new contract, with a 22% rate rise, for a Nasdaq market marker called Herzog Heine and Geduld (since acquired by Merrill Lynch). This gave me a feel for the excitement when the sh** (shares, that is) hit the street on IPO days. It was an interesting place to watch the Internet boom in its final phase, when every stock seemed to hit triple digits on its first day of trading.
As Y2K approached, I felt fairly comfortable that the coming rout, which had spooked me so much before, would not in fact occur. It didn’t. But Internet stocks still appeared way overvalued, and I was beginning to recover my nerve. I began to short in earnest in late February 2000. Among the biggest positions were SCMR and ICGE. I shorted ICGE after reading that the lock-up expiration (after which insiders could sell shares) was approaching, and that insider holdings were large compared to the float.
Though the Internet crash would begin in April, it was not an easy month. I shorted Sycamore (SCMR) in the low 100s only to see it go to 199.5. I shorted ICGE in the 100-110 range only to see it jump 50 points in a week. Luckily my positions weren’t large enough to sink me and I held on for dear life. I took a small loss on SCMR, but more than made up for it with robust profits on ICGE. Still, I was shaken and stirred. I closed all my shorts after the first week of April downdraft, glad to have escaped and waiting for the next upturn to re-engage. It never came. I got a taste of victory, but left a lot on the table. I got another chance in the fall when B2B, Internet equipment makers and telecoms peaked. I was a little early on ARBA and JNPR, but booked solid profits on JDSU, BRCM, and VRTS.
Amidst the Internet excitement it was hard to foretell that impact that a completely unrelated stock would have on my portfolio. This was a company called Athracite Capital, a so-called mortgage REIT, which a friend of mine had recommended. Unlike equity REITs, which own buildings and collect rents, mortgage REITs invest in mortgages or mortgage-backed paper. They had gotten killed during the LTCM debacle, and now had some pretty heady yields. When I first bought in May, AHR was trading in the high 6s with a quarterly dividend of .29 for an annual yield of about 17%. Investing in AHR would introduce me to a sector and a community that would greatly impact my future wealth.
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