Today news about Goldman Sachs (GS or affectionately called Goldman Sucks by some media personalities) had some very critical accusations posted about them in the news. As a result of the news, their stock took an immense beating today, and as the largest brokerage entity in the market, dragged the markets down with them.

Now that isn't what caused my jaw to drop today. Oh, no. What caused my jaw to drop was how it affected my portfolio to behave in the opposite way that I expected. It is generally assumed from history that as the stock market pulls back the price of the metals will go up. But because of the way GS is invested in the market and the details of the news that came out about them the metals actually pulled back with the market. So what does this mean for me? I am not sure yet, but for one thing I am assuming by the closing price of the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV, $17.41) I may not be called out of my position by the $18 strike price option I had sold against it a couple months ago. I should know by tomorrow if this is official, as the assignment of options is done over night after expiration.

The second thing that caused my jaw to drop wasn't in my TradeKing (http://www.tradeking.com) portfolio but in my paper trading portfolio. As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I would sell my position of Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ISPH) if it closed over $6.90 and close my paper trading. Strangely enough today, on news that they received approval to market their dry eye treatment in Japan, ISPH moved up 97 cents for a close of $6.93. And as a man of my word, I am selling off my position and closing out my paper trades.

The other thing I said is that if it started to go up, I would buy a call option to hedge against my losses in the stock. But with this move, there is no point in buy the option since I am breaking above even. In fact, including the two covered calls I sold against my position over the almost three month hold of the stock, I made a total profit of $176 on a $1360 investment (12.9%, not deducting commissions). Not to bad.

After going over my paper trading log, this is what I see. Out of 32 trades, I was right or patient enough 22 times for a profit of $1264, and wrong or impatient 10 times for a loss of $242. This leaves me with a net profit of $1022 (not deducting commissions). If I actually had the cash I pretended to have, I would have made a turn around of about 50%. Not bad at all. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it.

Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com