Thursday 24 January 2008

Sold my Starwood Hotels long

Sold my Starwood (HOT) stock earlier today at $43.51.



Whilst I still think that some of the global hotel groups can still perform over time, the last few weeks has certainly been a warning shot towards stocks exposed to debt and to the consumer. My Intercontinental Hotels long (UK stock) has performed like a pig since I bought it, down almost 20% or so since I bought it on the 7th of January, but is now almost all of the way back. So my plan is to let Starwood and Intercontinental fly, and maybe pick them up on the days when the market is looking ugly. Another couple of percent on Intercontinental and its gone.

My P+L on the Starwood was $979, as I had some financing costs on it. Although I haven't mentioned it yet, I do have to finance all my longs and shorts, so the P+L isn't just reflective of the spot rates they are trading at when I buy/sell. Just looking at where the stock was trading when I bought sold, it looks like I made $1,220, but because most stocks have dividend yields below the risk-free rate, it's actually negative carry to own stock. For short-term trades, it's not overly noticeable, but longer term it matters. I'll adjust the spot rate of the closed trade to reflect the EXACT P+L that I made.


Yours,
2and20

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