Latest addiction

I discovered something that is actually more addicting than Diet Vanilla Coke.

Stock trading.


It IS an addiction. The thrill! The excitement! The anticipation! I actually look forward to seeing the left side of my Yahoo home page every weekday morning to see how my portfolio is doing. I have a ritual. I close my eyes and say a little prayer that I will see more green numbers than black ones (green=good/black=bad). I find myself going through withdrawals every weekend and holiday…..longing for 7:30am the next trading day to come.

I’ve even implemented new words and phrases into my vocabulary such as, “buy low, sell high”, P/E ratios, volatility, the ”Google effect”, stop loss, dividend yield and diversification. I’ve learned some expletives too but I don’t feel the need to list those.

I see acronyms such as IPO, MOT, DNA and KO the same way I see LOL, ROTFL, BTDT and DH.

Since I started trading for myself in August ( shameless tooting of my own horn ahead ), my portfolio has increased 20%. Now, I’m not saying that all of my “picks” have done well ( Supertex comes to mind. My husband is never allowed to give me advice on stocks ever again! ) and I've had my fair share of "Maalox moments" but I think that’s pretty good for a first timer. I thought I’d list the ones that have done me well and maybe others could benefit from a tip or two.

Google ( GOOG )
Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD )
Allegheny Tech ( ATI )
Valero ( VLO )
Peabody Energy ( BTU )
Starbucks ( SBUX ) and YES… I own Starbucks.
Ralph Lauren ( RL )
Halliburton ( HAL )

You'd think we owned Coca Cola too with all of the Coke we drink but we don't.

My husband asks me every day if he can “retire” yet. My reply is always the same. “No dear”. It would be nice to one day make more in the stock market than his salary. One can dream…

In the meantime, I need to get some sleep. The market opens in 10 hours.

Which reminds me, I think I need to crack open another Vanilla Coke…