Trade Alert: One nibble, one sell, one cover

“Then after I looked down the bar, I looked on the wall at the old clock
By that time, it was a quarter to two,
Then I looked down the bar at the bartender
He said, ‘Hey, what do you want?’

One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer” – John Lee Hooker

I mentioned last week that I’ve got a few stocks I want to nibble on this week,and I’m going to do just that here today. And I want to do a little portfolio maintenance and clean up. That is, I’m doing one nibble, one sell and I’m covering one short.

First off, I’m nibbling a little more Verizon here. As I explained when I first nibbled some Verizon a few months ago, I think the company could dominate 5G (if we can keep them from getting distracted on content ownership a la AT&T). Dominance in 5G would mean this stock could double or triple in the next few years. And we’ve got a 5% dividend to boot right now. I was the original FAANNG investor and now I like being a contrarian while FAANNG stocks rule the world.

I’m selling my Blackberry shares that we’ve had for less than a year. I’m up a little more than 10% on this small position and I am unhappy with the lack of traction the company is making in driverless.

I’m also covering my Herbalife short, crying uncle. As in Uncle Carl Icahn. I’ve had this short hedge on and keep saying I’m going to cover it. I feel like I’m in a John Lee Hooker song as I look up at the screen and I’m down about 40% on this small short position. Mea culpa.

I’m running through each of our individual right now doing a “Where I’d buy more of each of our positions” and will also be sending out a Latest Positions round up this week.