September 2026 Position Trades Recap: $HOOD Trim, 2 New Buys

Disclosure: As of September 30, 2026 I hold positions in AMZN, BE, CDNS, CNSWF, HOOD, INTC, META, MSFT, MSTR, ORCL, UNH in the account this recap covers. This is a record of trades already taken, not a trade idea; open positions can change at any time after publication without notice. Not personalized investment advice. See full disclaimer below.

Quick note first: this recap is a month late. It was written on October 1 and sat in my drafts, and I didn't catch it until the end of October. That's on me, sorry about that. Everything below is as of September 30, so some of these prices and positions have moved since then. The October recap is out today too and has the current book.

The Month in One Paragraph

Not one position came off the book in this account in September. I bought two new names in the first two days of the month, $CDNS at $312.49 on September 1 and $INTC at $90.05 on September 2, then took partial profit on $HOOD at $123.04 on September 3. The last move came on September 28, an add to $ORCL at $133.75. The book went from 9 names to 11, and everything that was open on September 1 is still open.

Closed This Month

Nothing closed this month.

Adds and Trims

The only sale all month was $HOOD on September 3 at $123.04, and it wasn't really a September decision. The order was a limit sell I placed back in June and then left alone, and it filled on its own that morning. It took about a quarter of the position off at 61.9% above my $76.02 average cost, which makes it the only realized gain in this account in September.

That's been the approach on $HOOD all year: take pieces into strength instead of trying to call a top on it. The first trim happened near $100 and I wrote the reasoning up at the time, so this one was the plan continuing rather than anything new.

On the buy side I opened two new names and added to one I already own. $CDNS went on the book September 1 at $312.49 and $INTC followed the next day at $90.05, and both of them are brand new to this account. The $ORCL add came much later in the month, September 28 at $133.75, a little under the $137.23 average I was carrying on the name, so it pulled my cost down instead of up.

Still Open

$CDNS and $INTC are the two new ones, opened September 1 and September 2. Neither has been added to or trimmed since the day it went on, so both go into October exactly the way I bought them.

$HOOD has been in the account since March and the September 3 sale was another step in the same direction I've been going all year. What's left of the position is still open and I haven't changed how I'm managing it. The read breaks if Robinhood turns back into a trading-volume story instead of the broader financial platform I own it for.

$ORCL goes back to February and I've added to it more than once since. The reason I own it hasn't changed from what I wrote up over the summer, which is the AI cloud build and the backlog behind it, and I'm wrong on it if that backlog never converts into profitable revenue. Buying more at $133.75 in September says I still think the first part holds.

I didn't touch $BE at all in September. The read is the same AI power demand story I wrote up in June, so the position stands or falls on whether that demand turns into profitable, repeatable revenue rather than announcements.

The rest of the book sat still. $AMZN, $CNSWF, $META, $MSFT and $UNH all carried over with no adds and no trims, which is what I want out of a position account most months. $MSTR is the exception that still bothers me, because I haven't sold any of it and it's still the hole in the book.

Carrying Into Next Month

11 names go into October, 2 more than I started September with. The two I'm watching closest are $BE and $ORCL, since they're both AI buildout bets that break for the same reason, which is the spending never showing up as real orders and real margins. $MSTR is the other one that matters, because being underwater and patient only works if the reason I bought it is still intact. Everything else did what a position book is supposed to do in September, which is nothing.

Related Reading: Why I Am Trimming $HOOD Into Strength and Why I Still Own $ORCL After the AI Cloud Pullback

Howard is a full-time trader based in New Jersey with 13 years of experience across Forex, crypto, equities, and futures. He started Position Note to document his trades and analysis in public. All positions are disclosed. Nothing here is personalized investment advice.