Credit Card Captain Crunch

I sold my entire Visa (NYSE: V) position today for a small loss.  The recent credit crisis is making me a bit apprehensive and I especially do not like the fact that companies are pulling credit from individuals (see previous post).  This means less credit card use and less transactions which in turn equals less profit for Visa.  Global economic downturn is never a good thing.

Visa is still a great company with a decently huge competitive moat therefore I would still recommend the stock.   But I did have a little too much allocated into Visa and feel that they are much better, cheaper companies out there that are basically selling for HUGE HUGE discounts.  General Electric (NYSE: GE) at $12 was such a STEAL, but alas, I had no capital on hand to purchase it at that price.  Now THAT was frustrating!  

I'm still expecting some more bad news, so I'm keeping a keen eye out on the unemployment rate.  To me, it's a good indicator on how the economy is fairing.  If I miss out on 10-20% in overall growth, I'm fine with that since I'm still long-term in majority of my holdings.

The sexiest woman alive (to me)...

Meredith Whitney, one of the few people to predict the current bear market, is my current crush right now.  She is definitely not your stereotypical "blonde".  I thought the only smart blondes were yellow labradors!  jp.

I'm still not paying much attention to the market, but recently a friend of mine posted a link on Facebook of a very interesting video of her current opinion regarding the financial market (and the overall market in general).  I will be very weary of putting in additional thirds at this time, especially since I don't believe the bottom has hit.  The S&P at 741 hurt a lot, but there is a strong possibility that it won't be absolute bottom because of the current liquidity crisis.  I guess only time will tell when to really get back in (Christmas sales, 1st/2nd qtr reports/adjusted outlooks, length of this deep recession).

Like I said before (and Buffett, Cramer, etc), there is no way to accurately predict absolute bottom or absolute top.  The best solution is to buy in thirds (whether it's on dips, bad/good news, time periods, etc).  The main thing is to spread out positions in stocks with huge competitive moats and hold for the long term (3-5 years).

My strategy: Continue to distract myself and try as hard as possible not to look at my brokerage account everyday (occasionally is okay) until 2nd or 3rd quarter of next year, saving as much money until then to pour into the market.  =)