2011-09-23

Tiny Relief Rally — Portfolio Update

We finally have a relief rally, that will allow me to rebalance my portfolio.

I have been shorting september OTM put options on US equities yesterday, guessing that we'd have a short term rally. Those positions are already up 50% overnight.

I've also opened some long positions before the US markets opened today, in order to hedge my portfolio which was highly leveraged bearish.  So I have a few hedges in place, long the ES and have bought some shares of a France company which I found particularly attractive given that it's now trading well below the lows of Oct 2008 and March 2009. Already 4% up in a matter of hours.

On the short side, I have opened in the past two weeks positions on Wells Fargo and Australian Banks. Currently nicely in the money.

5 comments:

Tiho said...

Me and you are totally different. You seem to be buying banks while I'm ultra bearish on financials. I never talk about them, I never touch them on the long side and I won't for years to come. They going either much lower or much longer sideways... whichever one!

You should be buying commodities, not banks. That is where the fundamentals are improving and shortages in Agricultrue developing!

Oh well, you can lead a horse to water, but....

pej said...

@Tiho
You seem to have misread me on this one:
I just mentioned that I shorted Wells Fargo and Australian Banks. Nothing about buying banks.

I opened some long positions that I plan to hold only during a snap back, and also some long positions that I plan to hold. I'm not giving away the name of that French company as it's not a very liquid stock and I don't want to blow myself away.

Which positions are you recommending on Ags?

pej said...

@Tiho
BTW, my broker sent me two emails that they might have to close my short positions on the ADRs of those Australian banks. They can't locate enough shares to borrow.

I'll drop you an email offline to pick your brains and get some info about the Australian exchange as I'll need to transfer these positions probably.

Tiho said...

Short banks is actually smart depending on what happens in China.

Yeah sure sending me an email.

Agricultrue wise I like the whole complex as we have shortages developing. The world is running out of food inventories. corn, Soybeans, Cotton, Sugar... They are all historically depressed.

I'm not buying yet, as I'm waiting for money printing to start expanding the balance sheet again. When I buy you'll see it on my blog.

pej said...

ok, thanks.
Will drop you an email today :-)