15 Minutes per Day

Though I know no one is currently reading my blog (with the possible exception of Doug and the occasional person who might happen upon it from Doug's blog), I find myself enjoying writing. It's a pleasant feeling to have my random opinions (like my Rolling Stones opinion below) out there in the world, and the mere prospect that someone might actually view them gives the act of writing much more weight than if I were simply writing an old-fashioned diary.

Now, I've never been a giant fan of the "washed-my-hair-this-morning-then-didn't-do-much-else" personal blog, but I've realized that if I ever do want to get and maintain some traffic here (which admittedly I do want), I'd better update my content reg'lar-like. To that end, I'm going to dedicate at least 15 minutes per day to writing and posting here, so there will always be new content.

Obviously, I can't guarantee quality, because A) I've never been much of a writer and B) forcing oneself to write in the absence of any real inspiration to do so is not a recipe for sparkling, insightful posts. For illustration, see this post.

In conclusion, I believe that I may have prematurely sold my Sun Microsystems (SUNW) stock at $5.55. I made money on the transaction, but I see now that the share-price has gone as high as $5.59. Alas, that's the game. Can't get overly attached to what might have been. Still, I'm kind of banking on them getting back down to $5.45 in the next week or so, so I can buy 'em back.

This is all part of my master plan to learn how to play the market. Sun shares are sufficiently cheap that a small investor like me can buy enough to spread the commission (typically $12.99 on E*Trade) over 200 or more shares. You see, in order for me to make money on the transaction, the price has to increase enough that I make back the cost of the two commissions (one purchase and one sale) required to execute the transaction (so bottom-line, $25.98 for the whole deal). Thus, if I only own one share of a stock, then in order to make money by selling it, its price has to go up by at least $26. This is an extremely unlikely scenario. However, if I own 200 shares, then each share only has to go up by 13 cents for me to cover the commissions, which is much more likely.

Anyway, I bought 200 Sun shares at $5.29, sold 'em for $5.55, netting a paltry but real $26, and now I'm looking to buy 300 shares when they get back down to $5.45. With 300 shares, of course, the price only has to fluctuate by 9 cents for me to cover. Pretty soon, I'll be in day-trading heaven.

In the time it's taken me to write this, SUNW has gone up to $5.62. Blast.