Golf, Steve Jobs, Portfolio, Starbucks, Army Ten Miler…

So, after posting my best round ever at South Riding (81), I shot a  92 from the whites at Pleasant Valley, 100 from the whites at Tantallon Golf Club, and 107 at Augustine blues.  F me.  I don’t know where my swing went, but it’s gone.  That’s golf.  It comes, it goes, then it comes back…I mean, look at Tiger.  My problem is that I’m never content with my swing…I always want to make it better…more on plane, more lag, closer to the pin…never content.  So, in effect, I always try to alter my swing, even when I’m swinging well, to make it better.  It’s like a never ending cycle of finding my swing, break it, then refinding it.  I think that’s kinda how I operate my life.  I enjoy fixing things.  I enjoy finding problems and solving them.  This applies to pretty much everything in my life.  It’s kinda why I became an engineer.  Tell me what you want, and I will figure out a way to get it done.

I’ve been playing golf for quite a number of years now.  I’m making progress for sure, but my goal to become a single digit handicap is taking a lot longer than I had ever anticipated.  When I was daytrading, trying to become successful at it, it took me a while to understand that it wasn’t for me.  I mean, I tried.  I tried hard.  It’s all documented in this blog.  But in the end, it wasn’t for me.  I like efficiency, and I realized that daytrading wasn’t the most efficient way for me to make money.

So, back to golf.  God dammit.  It’s so frustrating.  I shot a 107 yesterday.  58 on the front 9, and 49 on the back 9.  That’s atrocious for someone that’s been playing for quite a while now.  No chance that I’m giving up though.  I’m pretty confident that I will get below 10 for my handicap.  It’ll take a lot more time that I thought, but I’ll get there for sure.  No doubt in my mind.

Steve Jobs died yesterday.  Here’s a dude that has more money than God, and yet, that pancreatic cancer shit was uncureable, even with the pools of money that he had, and the best doctors in the world at his disposal.  That goes to show you that there is no escaping death.  Everybody dies.  That’s a fact.  Steve Jobs basically worked until his last breath.  I mean, he just resigned from Apple a few months ago…probably because his doctors told him that he was going to die within a few months.

I don’t even know Steve Jobs, but if there’s anything that I can take from his life, it can be taken from this quote:

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs Anyways, the point is “love what you do”.  If you don’t, then go find it.  No point in living in misery at any point in your life.

So, I’ve really been contemplating my Starbucks short.  I have 750 shares short, and 5 puts.  Maybe it’s because it’s been over a year, and the stock has gone nowhere.  Maybe it’s because I went to Dunkin Donuts the other day to get a cup of coffee, and it really sucked…it wasn’t Starbucks.  I started asking people that I know what they thought of Starbucks and the truth is, Starbucks has the best coffee.  If people just want coffee, then they’ll go to 7-Eleven, McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, but if they want a real cup of joe, they’ll go to Starbucks.  I mean, I would go to Starbucks, if I had the choice.  So, why am I short the stock?  I don’t know…it may be time to re-evaluate this position…

A couple of moves that I made yesterday:

• Sold 2 BBY Jan 2012 $40 puts at $17.10 for +$1,620
• Bought $4,000 of each of these stocks yesterday morning: DVY, QLD, DTN, XLU, DGP

Here’s what I’m holding now:

• -750 SBUX at $32.88
• -400 BBY at $36.49
• 2 BBY Jan 2012 $40 puts at $9.00
• 5 SBUX Jan 2012 $45 puts at $9.30
• 150 SLV at $38.57
• 6 SLV Jan 2012 $30 Calls $6.99
• -500 UNG at $9.23
• 83 DVY at $47.80
• 86 DTN at $46.44
• 124 XLU at $32.30
• 77 DGP at $51.97
• 56 QLD at $71.34

I needed a few longs to hedge my shorts, just in case we exploded to the upside.  Again, my goal is to put about 50%-60% of my portfolio into a longer term strategy, otherwise, it will just sit in my accounts in cash, which is what I don’t want.  It’s okay to have cash, but cash sitting in accounts don’t “work” for me these days, especially with nubs yields these days…I mean, we’re talking less than 1% usually.  Gotta put my cash to work.