Tuesday, November 23, 2021 -- $80,854.79 (+$86.14, +0.11%)









Tuesday, November 23, 2021 -- $80,854.79 (+$86.14, +0.11%)

Yay! The portfolio value losing streak has been temporarily abated, if you can call a gain of a mere 0.11% an abatement.  It was not because CCL finally broke its fall, but because I made another rather crazy move into ZM, which announced earnings yesterday and a more moderate future forecast than watchers had hoped.

To help give you some perspective on just how bad my timing is ... I increased my exposure to CCL on November 5th by keeping the shares purchased by the exercise of the option contracts.  Since that time, CCL has gone down in price on 12 consecutive days.  Prior to today, in the past 30 years, CCL's longest (and only) consecutive day losing streak was 12 days ending on 4/4/94.  As humans we frequently get irrationally optimistic or pessimistic--in short we are often irrational.  Additionally, my purchasing $8,100 (almost 10% of my portfolio) of CCL call options last Friday that expire this coming Friday which at it looks at present, are likely to expire nearly worthless, would be such an example of irrational thinking.

Another example is exemplified in the portfolio moves I made today.  I purchased 20 ZM $205 call options that expire this Friday and 5 ZM $200 call options that expire next Friday.  I have taken 17% of my portfolio and put it into options that could expire completely worthless over the course of the next 10 days.  This is like a poker player going on "tilt" and betting wildly on a hope and a prayer.

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