James J Houts

The Stock Market Flea: Trading the Crash of 2008 James J Houts

?When the real estate market melted down in 2007 and the stock market went south in 2008, the hand I was holding was: Nothing ? but as it turned out nothing was a real cool hand.? Reminiscences of a Stock Market Flea In the first book of this series the author uses an example from the movie classic Cool Hand Luke to explain how he avoided both the 2007 real estate collapse and the 2008 stock market crash. ?Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand.? Paul Newman?s character famously said after winning a hand of poker without having any cards. This book is the trade by trade account of how the author played the losing hand we were all dealt in 2008, when he traded tens of thousands of options as the markets went down and dozens of stock round trips as he searched for a tradable bottom. Risking only tiny portions of his net worth at any one time, moving in and moving out quickly ? quick and small are hallmarks of the stock market Flea ? the author?s trading was up 17% by the end of 2008, beating the performance of the S&P average by 56%. Aware we were living through a historic moment in market history, the author documented every trading day: the trades he made, the protection he used, the political theater, the crushed companies and wiped out investors; recording his reasons for taking the positions and making the trades as he made them ? right or wrong. His trading log and market newsletter would become the basis of the Stock Market Flea series of books. Here is the story of how the author traded Apple and the wider markets for the five years it took to again reach historic new-highs and where he is currently positioned for the next market implosion.