Sirius down

Sirius Satellite Radio released earnings this morning (Remember, until last week I owned some Sirius).
They announced that losses had reduced from 12 cents per share in the 3rd quarter last year to 8 cents per share this year. Also, subscribers increased 50% over the same quarter last year.

To me, this sounded like good news, yet the stock was down 9% to $3.29 today. It made me feel great that I sold at $3.65 less than a week ago. However, it pointed out two things to me.

1) I've always found that it's difficult to predict the market's reaction to earnings simply based on headlines. When a press release is titled "Company X increases earnings 25% year over year" or something like that, it makes you think the news was good! But of course, the expectations of the investing community may have been much greater... I know this, yet every time I seem to be tricked by the semantics.

2) I got lucky with Sirius on this move. I knew I couldn't pat myself on the back for a smart move by selling last week. I got into Sirius with very little research, and got out of the position the same way. This time I got somewhat lucky. I could have just as easily been holding the stock for today's drop (which I couldn't see coming), or have sold it and had a big run-up today. I suppose my point is, I was reminded that investing without doing the homework leaves you completely vulnerable.

Information is the ammunition of the investor, and without doing my homework, I am un-armed in battle!