A lot of crazy shit has happened since my last post. I was sick, my grandfather passed away and I've had to endure some serious financial and personal attacks. Financially, hwo.to had taken quite a drop late last month into early December. From what I could determine, there was no news released either directly from the company or its major customers that acted as the catalyst for the sell-off. Just prior to the sharp drop I was noticing a large shareholder selling out his position quite eagerly (I later determined it could be a former employee) which in turn caused another large shareholder to panic and sell as well ( this one trades using BMO Nesbitt burns who has had a history of flash crashing and flash spiking the stock with his large sells and buys). Insider trading data later reveled that the company had been buying back shares during the sharp drop along with 3 insiders making notable purchases. That gave me some assurance that I'm right about my the theory that the sell-off was liquidity driven rather than fundamentally driven.
While the shitstorm in hwo was taking place, another shitstorm arrived. An important client got upset at me twice...and not because the stock was tanking (he was still showing a profit). With the first incident, he believed I was at fault with the rejection of a money transfer into one of his accounts. I pleaded my innocence which he later realized was correct - it was the broker's mishap. A week later he was furious with me about another issue which again he blamed me for. This was more serious this time because this accusation meant his trust in me had become seriously jeopardized. Once again though, I pleaded my innocence. To make a long story short, he misunderstood a couple of buy orders that were cancelled in his account. Once I explained to him what had happened and he realized nothing shady was going on, he apologized for his accusations and we were "friends" again. I think he was still sour from the previous incident which caused him to jump to conclusions about this other issue (which was really a non-issue - I simply cancelled some unfilled buy orders). In a nice way, I told him that he can't just accuse me of wrong doing like that without giving me a chance to explain to him what's going on, as he is often ignorant or misunderstand things pertaining to his account.
I gotta tell you, 2 week ago with my grandfather recently passed, hwo.to tanking, and my client upset at me all at the same time, I had never felt so terrible like that in a long, long time. I was literally sick to my stomach. I dreaded waking up the next day to see how the stock would open. Despite all the pain and worry I had, I kept my composure. I never once contemplated selling in a panic and I defused the issue I had with my client quickly and effectively. Although hwo.to has snapped back quite a bit from the recent low, I'm still grimacing from the financial and personal attacks I have suffered and it's much too soon to declare that the slide in hwo.to is over.
I know from experience that the market will humble you from time to time. Well....I've been humbled.
Big time.
