More play and the stock market

I played another short one-hour session over the Bank Holiday weekend, making another $40 to leave me $90 to the good.

I've realised that my bankroll data is nearly six months out of date, which shows how the love affair with the game has dwindled somewhat.
If I get the chance in the next week or two I will try to update it but I doubt it is much more than the stated total of $5.5k.

I thought I would tell you a bit about why now is a very good to invest to pump some money into the stock market.
In the time I have been following the markets (first as a journalist and now as an analyst), it is clear that the entry level is the most important ingredient to making money.
You can pick the best company in the world, which will survive a downturn and profit during boom times, but what matters more is what price you got in.

I bought JJB a month ago - partly after doing a little work for my friend in his share tipping contest I wrote about a few posts ago.

It is up 125% since then. I have bought Lloyds at 60p, Taylor Wimpey (Britain's biggest housebuilder) at 45p, Enterprise Inns at £1.30. The list goes on.

All are shit companies, that were priced to go bust. They didn't and I profited. I used to own Lloyds at £6. JJB was a fiver not so long ago.

With the FTSE 100 at 4,300 it is a fantastic to put some money away for a couple of years, take the dividends and cash out for a healthy profit.

I now have almost all my personal wealth in equities, and will keep it there until I can afford a house - the market still fears armageddon and is cheap, cheap, cheap. Armageddon has been and gone, Lehman's went bust, Lloyds, RSB and Barclays nearly went bust. But they were saved, the Government is printing money like no-one's business but we will survive.

Buying stocks and shares, you are basically backing capitalism to my mind. There has been a bounce and a lot of the dross that I bought has topped out for now but on a two to three year view it is a win-win situation. Back capitalism and profit!

Rant over :)

online play

Played my first bit of online poker in a long, long time tonight.

I only wanted to play an hour after a day's study but the magic is still there ;)

Fired up four $50 NL tables at Stars and apart from letting a couple of pots go with weak play in position, I played decent poker. Came out $50 up, mostly down to one hand...

PokerStars Game #28535104923:  Hold'em Pot Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2009/05/23 15:37:47 ET
Table 'Holmia V' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: QuanticFive ($65.25 in chips)
Seat 2: hockey59 ($16.55 in chips)
Seat 3: kevorkallin ($3.90 in chips)
Seat 4: irishguy2005 ($40.65 in chips)
Seat 5: przemol ($50 in chips)
Seat 6: darg0r ($50 in chips)
Seat 7: Steve8Taylor ($27 in chips)
Seat 8: -Jenna88-<3 ($38.20 in chips)
Seat 9: Henck123 ($36.05 in chips)
hockey59: posts small blind $0.25
kevorkallin: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to QuanticFive [Qh Qc]
irishguy2005: folds
przemol: folds
darg0r: folds
Steve8Taylor: raises $1 to $1.50
-Jenna88-<3: calls $1.50
Henck123: folds
QuanticFive: calls $1.50
hockey59: folds
kevorkallin: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [4s 9c Qd]
kevorkallin: checks
Steve8Taylor: bets $1
-Jenna88-<3: calls $1
QuanticFive: calls $1
kevorkallin: folds
*** TURN *** [4s 9c Qd] [Qs] - Bingo!
Steve8Taylor: checks
-Jenna88-<3: checks
QuanticFive: bets $3.50
Steve8Taylor: calls $3.50
-Jenna88-<3: raises $4.50 to $8 - As soon as he did this I knew he had a set!!
QuanticFive: calls $4.50 - Flat called just in case I scared him off
Steve8Taylor: calls $4.50
*** RIVER *** [4s 9c Qd Qs] [7c]
Steve8Taylor: checks
-Jenna88-<3: bets $27.70 and is all-in - On queue
QuanticFive: calls $27.70
Steve8Taylor: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
-Jenna88-<3: shows [4d 4c] (a full house, Fours full of Queens)
QuanticFive: shows [Qh Qc] (four of a kind, Queens)
QuanticFive collected $85.65 from pot

OK, quads over set is very lucky, but I got that 'I love poker' feeling I have been missing the past few weeks.

The way he played his set, letting the clock go right down, was how I used to play my sets every time - now I tend to lead out if I don't have position and then check further down to induce the bet.

Anyway, cya...

Study and work

The exam pressure is really starting to kick in - two weeks until the big day now - so I have had to say no to the next home game, which kinda sucks.

It was at Artem's house - who we have christened Bank of Russia - and would have been like when the Viking's came over to England the first time, a mass rape and pillage session.

I think they are postponing it so I will be involved next time.

The study is going badly actually - I have discovered I don't get financial accounts. It is incomprehensible and more importantly, boring as shit so every time I start reading about it I fall asleep. Not great preparation...

My life is being dominated by the study so no real online play to speak of either.

The only wisdom I can impart is on the dollar again...which I will surmise as SELL IT! We are at 1.50 and it will be 1.70 by the end of the year. Could be wrong but that is my call.

Knocking this out from work so better get back to it.
CYA!