Need to trust myself more

So I am really really annoyed right now. Last week, when the Fed announced they were going to bail out AIG, I peeked at the stock price and thought, "Hmm...it's a great deal right now, and the general public will most likely invest in AIG with news of this bailout." It was at $2.20/share. I wound up not putting any money down and instead just made a pick on the Motley Fool, an investing website. Well, last I checked today, AIG was at $4.81/share. W. T. F.

Why am I annoyed? Well, I thought about putting some money down and ride it for a bit. With $85B in the bailout loan from the Fed, AIG has 1-2 years of breathing room while they sort things out. With the market the way it is, 1-2 years of "stability" is pretty attractive. So, let's see what would've happened if I put in $1,000. That would've bought 450 shares of AIG (minus commisions). If I decide to sell today and manage to hit it at $4.81/share, that would've meant $2,154.50 in proceeds (minus commissions). That's $1,154.50 capital gain (yes, there will be taxes) from about a week of holding the stock.

What makes this more annoying was that when it hit $3.30, I thought about going in again. You know, $1,000. That would've been $433.00 capital gain. Oy. What can you do? AIG could still potentially go up, but I don't think it's worth it now. Besides, it takes a bit of time for me to transfer the $1,000 over to Sharebuilder, so I guess it really didn't matter. Still sucks though.