Flash a-ah
Savior of the Universe
Flash a-ah
He’ll save every one of us

(Seemingly there is no reason for these extraordinary intergalactical upsets)
(Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)
(What’s happening Flash?)
(Only Doctor Hans Zarkhov, formerly at NASA, has provided any explanation)

(Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!) – Queen “Flash” http://youtu.be/MS4_Z84-rRE

(Don’t forget this week’s Live Q&A Chat at 2pm EST at https://tradingwithcody.com/chat or send me your question to support@tradingwithcody.com.)

I’ve got a MacBook Air from a couple years ago with 120 GB of flash memory. I’ve got a brand new iPhone 5 with 32 GB of flash memory. I’ve got a brand new iPad Mini with 64 GB of flash memory.

And do you know what the recurring theme on each and every one of those devices has been for the lately? Trying to best manage the memory capacity on each device. My MacBook Air has only 2 GB left. I already have to delete some of my apps and have only about 2% of my 10,000 song collection on my iPhone and my iPad Mini.

Does that sound like a market opportunity for flash driver makers to see margins increase as prices for memory drop and demand like mine continues to skyrocket? I want a MacBook Air and an iPhone and an iPad that has 10x more memory than I think I need right now, so that at least for the next year or so these gadgets won’t bother me with this memory capacity issue again.

Do you know the purest play on flash memory? Sandisk. I think in five years we could have a huge home run on this stock because demand for ever bigger memory capacity in the flash form factor is going to continue growing exponentially and looks like we could see Sandisk’s topline grow even just with that market and the margins expanding along the way.

And before I go, I wanted to share this email with you guys and also include some thoughts on the trades he’s discussing:

Hi Cody, I really wanted to to both thank you and share with you what I did as a result of what I have learned from following you over the last year or so.

Thank you! 

I have an autistic son who has special learning needs which do not come cheap, the money I have made from following you and ‘understanding your philosophy’ will now pay for the additional care he needs!  Please don’t ever underestimate the profound impact of what you are doing.

What you have taught me! (a real and recent example)

AAPL – Over the last 2 weeks instead of panicing and selling (old me) I loaded up more and more as it went down and loaded up to my maximum limit for one stock of 15% of my portfolio when it hit $502!  I did the same with APOL  – instead of exiting my sizeable short position when it rose from $20 to $22 (old me) , I loaded up my short position further when it hit $21.93 yesterday – it has already dropped back down to $21.07 as I write this!   It has taken me a while to more than just intellectually understand your ‘contrarian’ – ‘flip it’ philosophy and to ‘get it in my gut!’.  

My 2 key integrated learnings are: 

1. I now only ever consider long positions on stocks with strong long term fundamentals and short positions on stocks with fundamental weaknesses (usually your recommendations)  and 

2.  I have learned to trust my gut feel again.  That old ‘sell now’ or ‘buy now’ ‘gut feel’ that lost me so much in the past is now my friend because when it is screaming ‘sell’, I know it is probably time to ‘buy’ and vice versa.

With much gratitude, AL

I am so happy to hear about the quality of life improvements that have come with your portfolio’s growth. Please don’t count on continued near-term gains for anything important, as the markets can and do punish everybody, even the best traders for spans of time and if you’re needing continued cash flow to fund important things in your life when those times come, it can lead to desperate gambles and emotional distress.

And on the AAPL and APOL homeruns you just had, congrats! But on a similar note to what I said in the above paragraph, please always be careful with continued scaling. You need to be patient and not over expose yourself to options and/or trades that are moving against you as you tranche into the stocks your analysis has dictated. But in the meantime, rock on!

Finally, I just love how you stated both of these points, and I don’t think anyone can overstate the importance of these two guides:

Anyway, no trades for me today guys. Steady as she goes for now.