My FICO Score

I recently checked out my credit report and FICO score. I remember last year my FICO score was in the 800s and now it’s 799. It’s still pretty good, but I guess I better chill out with the credit card games for now since I’ll be applying for a mortgage by year end. I’ve been applying for credit cards to get the cash freebies and the 0% interest loans. Each time I apply for a new credit card and take out a loan, it chips away my FICO score. A few months before applying for the mortgage, I’ll pay off all the credit card balances as an extra precaution. It was fun while it lasted...

Sold The Hype... NYMEX

One of the rules I have to learn is to not get caught up in the hype. Back in November 2006 NYMEX Holdings (Ticker: NMX) was a hot hot IPO and I wanted to get a piece of the action. I picked up some shares on the first day of trading at $137.95. This was well above the IPO price of $59. Of course I bought near the peak and it was dead money for several months. I decided to sell today at $144.85 generation a net gain of ~5% over an 8 month period. Even though I made a little $$$ on this trade, it was a very bad trade considering the risk and reward.

I used the proceeds from this sale and picked up some Goldman Sachs (Ticker: GS) at $228.19 and J Crew (Ticker: JCG) at $52.60. I realized I made a mistake in selling Goldman Sachs way back, but it’s time to get back in after yesterdays earnings report. Goldman Sachs is just a giant money machine. And what can you say about J. Crew… It’s simply one of the best apparel retailers out there.

J Crew Stock In Fashion

J. Crew (Ticker: JCG) had a huge break out after reporting very strong earnings. This stock is up over 20% in just two days. I usually start to think about taking profits at this stage, but not in this case. I’ll continue to hold on tight. If you have time, listen to the conference call. These guys know how to sell fashion.