by Gavin M. Those of you accustomed to my brazen and angry rants on Blackberry over these past few months and years, you will no longer be shocked about the haters I accumulate. Lately, the haters have found another taunt - the fact that I'm insensitive to the fact people are actually losing their jobs. I do not make apologies for my calls on stocks or on the markets. I apologize when I make a mistake. So far, I haven't on BlackBerry. If you are an employee of this company, you had YEARS, and I repeat, YEARS of warning that this company was going under. No right-minded CEO would step down from a great performing company. This was your first warning - when the two bozos quit after screwing up the company they worked so hard to build from the ground up. When your CEO starts buying hockey teams, that's definitely not a good sign. The CEO is the Captain of the ship - they should never abandon it. IF they start doing things counter to what they should be doing, that is a red flag. The company had so much potential, but like so many things, potential can be wasted if not cultivated properly. I do feel for the people losing their jobs - those 4,500 folks and the countless more that lost their jobs before this recent announcement. Sadly folks, this will continue - the gutting of BlackBerry will continue. Whether you choose to deny this, you do so at your own peril. I have been there - I know how it feels to be laid off. I got laid off years ago by a Fortune 500 company mind you. So, do not misunderstand my bashing of BBRY as being insensitive to the bleak realities facing the employees about to be without jobs. Such is the nature of our capitalistic society - if you can't perform, you fail. When a firm fails, the employees suffer - that is expected. My primary focus as a trader is to find opportunities where they exist - be it in good times and bad. That is the nature of the industry I am in. It seems insensitive perhaps but remember, I'm not the one who made the decision to lay employees off. I wasn't the one who screwed up BlackBerry - the executive team did. Traders have a very good gift - the gift of perspective. We are people looking at firms from the outside - in. We are opportunistic beings. We mustn't be hated for taking advantage of a company's strengths and weaknesses. Companies should use those important events as opportunities to improve and get better. Until then, I will always bash BlackBerry. I will make no apologies. I will continue to block the haters and hurt them where it really stings. I do not hope to change everyone's view of trading, I just hope to change a few - the few who want to listen and the few who really want to succeed. A few good followers is better than having a million indecisive sheep. Carry on Traders!
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by Gavin M. So you're sitting there, a senior in high school, thinking, "what's next?" Should you go to college? Should you go take up a trade? Or, should you just stop there and try to get a job with just a high school education? There is no doubt that the statistics show you're better off with some form of higher education. Don't get me wrong, this post isn't about higher education being bad. It's about the expectations the educational system these days set that are unrealistic. It wasn't too long ago I sat where you sat, a dreamer at 17. I had my future ahead of me - thinking about what to do and where I would be in 5-8 years time. Then comes the idea that in order for us to succeed we need to be good in school, get a college degree and then land a great job. Everything would have been perfect except for the last part - land a great job. Nevermind you're down $150,000 in student loan debt from those crazy 4-years of college you just lived through. Not all of us are lucky enough to have parents who saved up enough of their hard earned money to send us to expensive universities. The ballooning costs of education pales in comparison to what they never prepare you for - the reality of a job. Remember career day when lots of professionals visit and tell you how cool their jobs are? Then when you actually become a professional or a trades person you see it's not as cool as it was described to be? Not only that, you can just as easily get laid off when the economy is in tatters. So this my friends is what I am talking about. No one ever gives you the real facts even in college. No one tells you that when the economy is in the toilet, your job can be just as easily removed from you and you're back finding a way to pay off your student loans and looking at job ads. Why would I suddenly talk about this? Because I was an engineer in 2008. I did very well in school - had a 4.0 GPA and graduated magna cum laude. I also kept getting very good job performance evaluations. But when 2008-09 came in, I was one of the first few to get the pink slip. Why? Because the big boys figured, to reduce cost, they had to let go of the "lower" people. I managed through the recession because I am a trader - in essence my engineering salary paled in comparison to my trading income. But what if I wasn't a trader? What if I was like the rest of the people in 2008 who got laid off - wondering how to pay the mortgage, how to pay off the car loans and feed the family? What I am trying to convey here is that you must continue to have a practical and pragmatic view in life. Set goals that aren't too lofty but high enough that they keep you going. You have to set yourself challenges that are achievable. Jobs and careers are no longer "safe" - such is the new world we live in. IF you don't believe me, find a middle manager who got laid off in 2008-09 and he will tell you, "I gave 20 years to this company, not one day of sickness and what do they do? They lay me off." In the end, unless you're in the upper echelons of a company, you are nothing but a cost to them that they can easily cut off to save money. As a manager myself, employees are always the biggest cost in any company. When I got re-offered my job in 2010, I took a totally different approach. I accepted my old salary, but this time, I told my company that I wouldn't care anymore. I would go to work late, parked my car not in my designated stall, take 2 hour lunches. Why? What's the worst that can happen? They'll let me go again? I already know how that feels... This is why I have turned to full time trading. It frees me from societal norms and the constant stress of whether my job will still be there a day from now, a week from now, a year from now? "Nothing feels better than not giving a sh*t about a job you really don't care about." - Gavin Martinsson c 2010. by Gavin M.
Dare I say? I TOLD YOU SO. I am going to enjoy taking advantage of being right on my Blackberry calls. I have been bashed, made fun, ridiculed for months on end and who's the one who's laughing now? hahahahahah . In any case, I wanted to show to you graphically how painful the chart structure was. I don't see anything to tell me there will be a BTFD moment any time soon. I just can't. However, with so many rumors, who cares, I don't mind for BBRY to go back to $12 again so that I can re-short it. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice? BLACKBERRY! So go ahead folks, keep buying her to $12. I'll be there waiting to short. It almost feels like a bank that keeps giving away free money anyway. I want to congratulate those who went short. I also want to thank my supporters because you believed in me when 90% of the investment community did NOT. Have a good weekend my friends. |
Multiple AuthorsTraders from Equity Sense will be writing on this blog on positions and other market-related things. Archives
May 2018
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