Sean got an early taste of the dreaded Miami/Interstate 826 traffic today. Stuck for over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic he arrived late at the office at 9:45am. Even with this setback, he was ready and willing to roll up his sleeves and get going, so we dug right in. We started the day by looking at the many economic and news items that would shape the day and found a few interesting positions that would would look to enter. Overall, we have traded over $1,750,000 in a day-trading style and have total net profits of $5,500. Looking at the trades, we tallied a total of five up and one down. Interestingly, the down was on a small position that was entered into after we chased a news item on an earnings release. Never a good idea.

Mid-day, he seemed ready. So, we both decided that Sean would take the helm with 3,000 long shares of Countrywide (CFC). Initially, he looked to exit at a price that he determined was the upper limit of the trading range. One of the lessons we went through today was the fact that he must leave emotions a the door before he comes in to trade. In his words, ” it is a hard thing to separate the emotions as it is so high powered and so intense. This is a real rush and the second I took over the trading platform for CFC, it was like a jolt of electricity passed through me,” he explained.

In the end, we made about $.12 per share on the trade and the “net” after commission profit was $350 . This was donated to the charity for the One Week Job project. Sean is a quick learner and he has a real knack for finance. We spent a good amount of time on the Level 2 trading platform and the explanation of the various components as we were busy reviewing portfolio positions as well as longer term opportunities.

Tomorrow we are planning on a very big day. NPR interview in the morning, taping The Disciplined Investor Podcast in the early afternoon, and then off to afternoon meetings and more interviews. Should be a day full of learning and a heap of caffeine. The first thing on our agenda though, will be to make sure that all of our client positions are in good shape and that there is no news that could be a negative influence on those stocks within H&C client portfolios.

As it is getting close to the end of the year, we will begin to look through portfolios to find and “harvest” tax losses to offset gains for clients. This is always the plan starting in early November. Even though loses are something that we attempt to avoid, sometimes it is simply smart to take the loss and move on. This is why the practice of diversification and some form of risk management is one of the key components when managing portfolios.