Restaurant Stocks Finally Heading South

It appears as though Chipotle (CMG) and Panera (PNRA) may finally be heading my direction. A few weeks back I made the assertion that People would not pay extra for gourmet burritos and sandwiches, no matter how tasty they are. At first the markets seemed to disagree with me as those two stocks started going up almost as soon as I placed my positions.

But now with the elections over and the spotlight coming back to economic data it seems that the majority of investors are beginning to target lower prices for both CMG and PNRA. This is good news for my picks as I went short (with put options) on both of these.

My long position with ViroPharma (VPHM) was doing really well a couple of weeks back. My options were up about 20% and I thought everything was on an upward track. In hindsight I should have sold it off, but my greed gland clouded my judgement. It would have been a great move to take my profits and then jump back in when the stock cycled back up.

But instead I'm holding on to my position until I see that return again, and I'll have a better reaction to my gains – take the profits!

Torqued at Apple

I'm still a bit peeved at myself for going long with Apple Computer (AAPL) when it was at about $128. Today it closed below $90. Instead of taking the word of someone that I really trusted, I should have stuck to my own analyses. On the up side, the options don't expire until April, so I have some time to will stock price back up.

New Tech

I'm happy to report that over the past week I assembled a new computer for myself that is much quicker than my laptop. The laptop (an Alienware Area 51m – 7700) started not responding in the middle of whatever I was doing. Now it's so bad that most of the time it does not even get all the way through startup without freezing.

But the new computer is very nice, runs Vista like a dream, and the few games I like to play look absolutely amazing. I had no idea what I was missing!

And the other new tech news is that Verizon is releasing the Blackberry Storm this Friday (11/21/08). It's Rim's (RIMM) first touch screen phone and apparently has a force feedback mechanism on the display so that it feels like clicking keys when you type. I'm looking forward to trying it out and seeing how well my web apps work with it.

My son will be happy to get my old Motorola V710 – he's been eyeing it for over two years now.