Today, Blackboard (BBBB) closed at $32.42, a one-day gain of $5.34 or 19.72%. I sold (using a limit order) at $32.10 about half an hour before closing. While I actually want to continue to own this stock, my feeling that a gain that large is bound to be followed by profit-taking within a few days, and I'm hoping that I'll have an opportunity to get back into it at $30 or so. Since I owned 51 shares, this'll mean I'll either end up with an additional hundred bucks or so in cash, or an extra few shares, all for $14 in commissions.
Timing the market is reportedly a very hard thing to do successfully. I am by no means an expert here, but nearly 20% in a single day seems like a pretty clear sign to me. Still, it's entirely possible that the price of BBBB will keep going up and we'll never see it below $32 again. In which case, I still made 60% on the stock in under a year! This, in other words, seems like a win-win situation to me.
Posted by kindall at May 9, 2006 01:03 PM