Leading Economic Indicators Show Economy Is Expanding
This is fabulous, really. And it relates to me in so many ways. My leading indicators show that I am expanding, too. I blame this on the protein mix I take after lifting weights each week, but I'm sure there is more to it than this. Our ugly ass couch and the TV are probably a big part of it. Not to mention the unbelievable amount of useless horsecrap that I get in the mail each and every day and have to spend my evenings sorting through. I swear an entire forest is lost each month just to produce the junkmail that is sent to my house and thrown straight into the trash. Someone should create a weatherproof battery-powered shredder than can be placed outside next to the mailbox. I would buy it. And I'd wear that sucker out, too.
Ebay was my baby. It made me a lot of money over the past year. It looked good the other day, albeit overpriced. Accumulate, that's what the 'experts' all said, so I bought more after reading up on all the reasons that everyone just knew that they would continue to increase their earnings forever. Then their earnings came out. They just missed expectations by 1 cent.
Everyone freaked. Especially the 'experts' who quickly, and way too damned late, changed their recommendations to Hold. Yes, you bastards went nuts and just dumped this stock like it was AOL or something. And now it's down over 18% in one day. In fact, and this just bugs the hell out of me, yesterday after their report came out, which was AFTER TRADING HOURS, certain clients were allowed to sell, so that today the stock opened already way down.
Who are these shitheads who get to sell stock when the market is closed and why can't we shoot them? Eliot Ness Spitzer has charged everyone from Martha Stewart to Santa Clause with insider trading, but if you want to alter the price of a stock after hours, well that is just fine and dandy, apparently, as long as you are already filthy rich and powerful.
Anyway, I think people are overreacting, so I bought more Ebay today while it is experiencing a Wal*Mart fire sale.
SALE SALE SALE!
EVERYTHING MUST GO!
PEOPLE ARE FREAKED SO PRICES ARE LOW LOW LOW!
Over the next few months I'll find out if I gauged this right. But be warned, every stock I have ever bought went straight down immediately after I took possession of it so chances are you can buy Ebay cheaper tomorrow than I got it today. It's a curse I have. I should charge money for me to buy stocks just so other people can come in afterwards and get good deals. Alternately, I should find a company I hate and buy just a few shares every day until the price goes down to zero and they are bankrupted. It would be expensive, but it might be fun just to do it once.
As I type this and now one full hour after the market has closed (ignore the posting time - that's when I first started writing) I see that Ebay has gone down further. I'm sure I already know how this works, but I can't remember the reasons at the moment so it is just pissing me off.
Yesterday, as if to warn me that today would be CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY, I read in the Wall Street Journal that oil was going to keep going up because refineries can't keep up with demand and there aren't enough new refineries being built. Later that same night I read on Reuters that oil is going down and supplies from refineries are exceeding demand.
The Earth is flat, I tell you.
One thing I know for sure, and I keep forgetting this over and over because I'm an idiot and you shouldn't ever take advice from this blog about stocks, but whatever the 'experts' say about a stock, whether it is 'buy' or 'hold' or whatever, this means absolutely nothing. It means, 3 months ago when they put out a report last things looked sort of OK. But as for today you might as well pull out your magic 8 ball and ask it if you should buy or sell.
Signs say No.
Anyway, I'm just telling you that I bought Ebay and it went down about 100 points, so I bought more and it went down again after hours. I'd buy even more tomorrow after it drops another 100 points if I had any money left, but I don't. So you go out there and get as many shares as you can while it's still reeling from the 'Steve bought this stock' effect and get rich. It'll go right back up after I stop buying and start rebalancing my IRA anyway.
That is, unless their CEO made some speech about how all their profits are going to be dedicated on the altar of socialism and crap, like Steve Case did at AOL, and I just haven't heard about it yet. If that is the case please let me know. I'll need to dump some stock right quick.
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