HAG: Disaster strikes twice, but HAG survives

Last Thursday, HAG bought two stocks, both of which suffered devastating losses over the next few days.

The first of these was Presstek. While I'm trying to loosen the reigns of HAG so that it can find more buys, I took a step in the wrong direction with Presstek. Stocks which all of a sudden trade on much higher volume had previously been disqualified, and for good reason. Presstek announced poor earnings the next day--this news had evidently been leaked--and HAG ended up in front of a trainwreck, as Presstek opened up down about 20% the next day.

The second was Gigamedia. One of this company's products is software for the online gaming market. This past weekend Congress outlawed most online gambling transactions in America, and the U.S. online gaming industry dealt a deadly blow. Gigamedia opened up on Monday down nearly 15%

Normally, these two situations are ones I would love to buy into. Unfortunately, I had already bought, and could not handle any more risk. Not surprisingly, both stocks rallied significantly, yet I was still left with steep losses.

Other trades helped mitigate the losses. Presstek was sold Monday. Gigamedia and TOA were sold Tuesday. AZPN and GILD were bought on Tuesday and sold today. WFR is bought today at the close.

Completed trades:

PRST: 9.15%
GIGM: 9.19%
TOA: .4%
AZPN: 9.41%
GILD: 3.14%

Adding these trades to our totals:
138 trades
.4234% average gain per trade
14.61% total theoretical gain since inception (2/7/06).
NASDAQ composite on 2/7/06: 2244.96
NASDAQ change since 2/7/06: 2.50%

Once again, the "total theoretical gain" assumes 25% of a portfolio was invested in each trading position. Half-sized positions assume only 12.5% was invested, and count as only 1/2 of a "completed trade". Buying power is limited to twice the value of the portfolio.