Photo: Alexsandro Alves, Creative Commons, Flickr
The market was selling off today, which hit consumer stocks. Added to that was the fact that the Russell Index Rebalancing that occurred today tends to push down the stocks of companies that have been engaging in buybacks.

So what’s a greedy trader to do? Since, I don’t like shopping in stores, I went shopping in the market.
Here’s what I bought:
For my washing and shaving: Proctor and Gamble (PG – $60.49)
For my beverages: Cocacola (KO – $51.84)
For my further beverages and corn chips: Pepsi (PEP – $63.93)
For my iPhone: AT&T – (T – $32.76)
For my light bulbs, jet engines, and medical devices: General Electric (GE – $26.45)
For my computer: Microsoft (MSFT – $27.63)

Disclosure: I bought and shorted more stocks than this today but many of them are short-term trades that I plan to sell in a few days. I also day traded many of these long positions by shorting them early in the day and buying them back (and them some) on the close. The amount of selling of big names that the Russell Index Rebalance generates tends to make me do things like that.

Further disclosure: Yes, I know MSFT and GE aren’t exactly consumer names, but I just think they are good stable prospects and decent buys while I wait out this bear market.

Selling Disclosure: The names on the above list that I may sell the soonest are MSFT and At&T.