Ray Guy should be in the Hall

Sometimes, all you can do is punt. Particularly if you're as stubborn and greedy as I am. I was up 9% before pre-market today. Citigroup and Wells Fargo were buoyed by the impending news of new mark-to-market relaxation (alleviating the harm from toxic assets). Suntech Power was hoisted up by the solar sector in general, which had been injected (or will be, I should say) by major subsidies and stimulus from China's government, as well as the Fed in the U.S.

Yep, though my brain was scrambled and I could barely keep my eyes open at the opening bell, 3:30 a.m., I knew I could just sell most of my trades. But my average cost for C, which started at 1.70, is now 3.05 (as a result of chasing last week), and when the stock opened at 2.97, I waited for a run past my average cost. I wanted to at least break even -- I refused to "lose". Preposterous, yes, but that's a weakness of mine. Rather than work within the moment -- and take a significant profit off the table -- I let it sit there. I fell asleep on the couch briefly.

I woke up and C was waffling between 2.88 and 2.92. That lasted about 15 or 20 minutes. Plenty of time to put in a sell order. I waited. I fell asleep again. When my eyelids opened, C was at 2.78. Talk about hating. Who was hating Citigroup? Didn't the mark-to-market vote work in favor of the banks? Who was hating me? Easy: me. But I'm not so hard on myself anymore. I was just concerned that shares would dip below yesterday's closing price (2.67). With the Dow up 250 points, the market makers kept C above 2.72. After Obama spoke from the G-20 summit in London, the Dow was up 300 points and C is now seemingly stable at 2.77 with less than an hour left in the session.

C could falter in the coming two weeks, with only an uptick rule vote next week, and a slew of earnings reports out. Citi doesn't report until the 17th -- after some major banks report. Could be ugly. Could be good.

But what's keeping me optimistic enough is that STP continues to trade well, now up 11% to 14.03. WFC isn't doing bad either, up almost 7% to 15.47. I feel justified in buying STP (and selling AAPL, which is up 4.6% to 114) and not selling WFC. I feel OK holding any of the three for more than a week, maybe a month. But the reality is, I have to take profits and I didn't do that while it was still dark outside. My punts have to be with just cause. Any team that punts as often as I do is not going to score points.