TIM $12,798 (flat on the day, up $383 on the week)

Well, this was a pretty boring week—the overall markets got decimated and I made a few hundred dollars. My sole position is 50,000 of Cygnus eTransactions (Other OTC: CYGT) as I’m expecting some big things from their debut of their new produ

ct at IAAPA next week. The rest of my portfolio is cash, just like it will be the vast majority of time. (Screw diversification—I’ll diversify when I’m dead!)

Sure, I know, I know, it’s a great market for short sellers and I should be embarrassed that I didn’t make more (realized gains amounted to only $160) money, but if you stick around, you’ll see it’s only the worthy opportunities that build fortunes and this week I didn’t see any. Betting that the Alibaba hype would wear off after its IPO, I correctly short sold Alibaba wannabe-Global Sources (Nasdaq: GSOL) at a near perfect price ($37.67), but was waaaaaaaay too quick to take profits (covering at $35.84, stock is now at $27.90) in a petty attempt to prove TIM was good at trading. Whoops! But I did warn you I was horrible at timing! That’s a big part of the reason I’m not a fund manager any more—oh yeah and my discipline problems, which I also showed off this week buy buying Vmware (NYSE: VMW) (a stock I had no business trading) and wiping away the gains from a nice little day trade in Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR). And, just when the fun was beginning, my trading was hampered by the Pattern Day Trading Rule—definitely an interesting, if incredibly imbecilic, rule, but I guess you do have to protect the widows and orphans from day trading too much!

Today, the two stocks that interested me the most, Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX) and Stein Mart (Nasdaq: SMRT), CROX I was looking to buy for the bounce and SMRT I was looking to short into strength. Both finished up strongly (bullish signs), but there’s no way I’m risking being long over the weekend with this kind of market action. We’ve now had 2 consecutive days with a lot of afternoon dip buying and yet we finished down both days. What happens when the buying stops? Yeah–scary stuff.

Next week, I’ll be going back to my old home, beautiful Orlando, Florida for the IAAPA expo. My trading will be hampered, but who cares—I think the markets could continue to get crushed and trying to pick the bottom is a dangerous game. And, if IAAPA can give CYGT any meaning trading volume whatsoever, who cares about a few hundreds dollars in potential trading gains anyway. Maybe I’m just dreaming—it’s happened before.

Warning: TIM, Timothy Sykes, and the Easter Bunny have positions in CYGT.

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider some of these stocks to be small-cap stocks. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.