It's no big secret that I work for a fat public American corporation whose ticker symbol might contain the letters G, C and I. The 401k matching program they use will only apply funds to purchasing additional stock in the company, so it's been a long-running ritual of mine to routinely transfer those funds into investments that actually make money.

I'd joked for a long time about short selling some of the company stock, but in December I finally did it on a whim. I was conservative; I basically looked for something relatively inexpensive, since this was an experiment and the logistics of short selling were a bit hazy to me. The day after Christmas, I spent $113.25 on an option that closed in April. I figured $113.25 would be a tolerable amount to spend on learning how the process worked.

Well, it's been a crappier year for la corporación than even I had expected. The expiration date on the single contract I purchased came up at market close on Friday. Net profits? (I usually don't gloat like this or in detail but seriously, this is sad.) $548.49. On 100 shares. The stock has taken such a precipitous tumble that I'm tempted to spend the proceeds to short several times more again. Or look for a new job. Just in case.