Hedge Fund Live's  Instablog

I did something that I don’t normally do yesterday and I am paying for it today.  I bought a little CREE before the close because I wanted to take a shot that the company would report a good quarter and that I would make some money on the long side.  Well, that didn’t turn out too well as the company missed street estimates and put up guidance that came in light as well.  The stock is down around $9 from where I bought it.  While I may have thought I knew something, I obviously didn’t.  I never take earnings trades when I don’t know or haven’t done some level of analysis prior to the report.  The CREE trade was pure gambling on my part and have no business gambling here especially when there are so many opportunities to make real money by doing real work and taking educated positions.  I tend to make these kind of mistakes every six months or so as I forget my own lessons and the urge to roll the dice overtakes me.  I guess its a small price to pay for six months of disciplined investing/trading.