Stock Trading, Investing, Market Commentary, Making Money

So sorry for being away for a while.

2010-10-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

While I have been away for a few months, I will try to be more up to date with my postings. The market is reacting as most would hope. Yes, I said hope. Right now you cannot fight the tape. You have to go with the flow, but at the first real sign of trouble you need to become defensive. Right now I own the following stocks: ATPG, ENHD, SMOD and IDSA. Yes, I do only own a few stocks and I am trading, not long term buy and hold right now. I am over 45% cash and will continue to stay this way until the overall "psychological" aspect of the economy returns. High unemployment is never good. Along the way, I have made enough money this year to do the following. I bought a new car, Infiniti G37 AWD, and I love it a lot. Was looking at some other cars like the new Lexus IS 350 AWD. Sweet ride, but I owned a Lexus a couple years ago. Talk to you later.

Oh smokes, I have been away a long time!

2010-03-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to all the people that follow this blog. I have been away for a while, sucked into everyday life and work. The markets have been a little resilient of late, making me feel even more confused. So what do you do? IMO, this is a chance for you to learn and hone your skills on trading stocks. When the markets are uncertain, take profits when you have them and minimize your loss potential. Making 8-10% trading profits is not bad. Let me tell you what is in my portfolio right now.

AYSI, BTN, DRWI, EGO, ETEC, KTCC, MILL, PPCO, SMED, SCLX, SPCK, TELT, ZYNX.

So, what is up with these stocks?

AYSI, I have owned this in the past and made money trading (buy on rumor and sell before news). Past earnings have been inconsistent, however, AYSI recently announced a new product line that was recently purchased by an extremely large oil/gas produces (BHP).

BTN, is a reseller of digital and 3D cinema camera equipment to the movie theaters. As more theaters convert to digital and add 3D (remember Avatar in 3D) BTN is a winner.

DRWI, many folks believe that this company is overpriced because of Clearwires dominant revenue position. However, this company is not overpriced. DRWI is one of the few if only company that offers an extremely fast, reliable and affordable back haul microwave packet product for 3g, 4g, and LTE networks. I have been adding positions here in the 9's and look forward to 17-19 bucks a share. I also see Verizon jumping on board (Verizon will have a 4g phone next year).

EGO, typical gold play. EGO has the lowest cost of production of any gold miner.

ETEC, is a small IT consulting firm and earnings have been growing recently. I will continue to monitor and advise.

KTCC, wow! This company is turning itself around and should post about $1.40 a share this year in earnings. At 10x this is a $14 stock.

MILL, recently acquired about $300 million of proven reserves and $300 million in hard assets (buildings, etc) for about $4.5 million total. No brainer here. If the company was to sell these assets at discounted market prices, it puts a price of $12 a share on the stock.

PPCO, SMED, SCLX, SPCK, TELT, ZYNX are all companies that have had good earnings but have been choppy recently. I continue to buy and sell these stocks and keep a small core position. Any opportunity to take a profit of at least 5% should be taken.

Later,

It has been a long 30 days.

2009-12-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

I am sorry for not posting the past 30 days. Something in my life was consuming all my energy and drive. I think I finally have it worked out. So here we go. I have bought some more stocks the past couple weeks such as Eldorado Gold (EGO), Dragon Wireless (DRWI), BDWRF. I have also started taking some profits on STEC. Remember I bought STEC at average cost of $13.25 and the stock has recently started climbing to $15.50. I can almost assume this is year end closing of short positions. Why you ask? Because there are people who most likely are long this stock and want to take losses for the year. Therefore the shorts have to bring the stock back in.

The new year brings with it many challenges. First is retail sales. I am almost willing to sell most of my portfolio before the 15th of January. I feel the January effect will be very short this year. My goal this year is to double my portfolio. Yes, I did say double. This will require me to pay more attention, take bigger positions, and trade more often.

Back from Vacation

2009-11-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it was a long vacation in good old Southern California. Went to Disneyland, Sea World, Knott's Berry Farm and ate some great Mexican food at Old Towne Mexican Cafe in San Diego. The whole Dubai issue and asking creditors to wait on debt repayment is an issue; if you own a company that has heavily invested in Dubai. Most if not all the stocks I own do not do business in Dubai. Thanks to Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, United Airlines, Enterprise Rent A Car and American Express for making the vacation great. I will update on stock trades later this week.

Playing Poker on PokerStars

2009-11-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

I have been a little quiet this week about my stock portfolio. Honestly, some news was good and some news was not so good. There are still some earnings coming out on Monday; CEU and SCLX both report earnings on Monday. CAGC had a great number and I am looking putting in a sell limit order soon. RIMM had a nice move up as well and I will look at putting in some sell limit orders. SMED and STEC both had some terrible trading. Although, I am adding to average down my positions on both. Right now, I am concentrating on playing No-Limit Hold em on PokerStars.com. I love poker! I will update the stock portfolio and possible orders for the week on Sunday.

Stock action for week of Nov. 9

2009-11-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

Of all the stocks in this portfolio, SCLX reports earnings this week. I believe the earnings will be good and the stock could move higher. I am going to attempt and buy some Caribou Coffee if it dips.

Sold Caribou

2009-11-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

Just sold the last 1/2 of Caribou at 8.50. I am putting an order out to buy at 7.90 in case the stock tanks.

Caribou Coffee

2009-11-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

Caribou had a good report considering the company is under new leadership. It appears Q4 might me impacted by some marketing expenses of 2-3 million. Either way, this will most likely be a part of my portfolio for a while. I will add and sell as the stock trades. Looks like the stock will open down tomorrow. Glad to has sold 1/2 the position today at 9.01. I figure we can buy some in the 8.50 range. Also, Cisco Systems reported decent numbers, but the big part was the look ahead. The look ahead was positive.

Sold 1/2 CBOU

2009-11-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

Taking some profits today, sold half of the CBOu for $164 profit. I could end up selling more or buying more tomorrow after earnings report tonight. Sold at 9.01.

Upcoming Christmas Season

2009-11-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

Looks like the overall market is going to be choppy as discussed. Diedrichs coffee is being bought by Peet's coffee and has boded well for Caribou (long in my portfolio). I expect Caribou to trade up on this news, however they are coming out with an earnings report on November 4 after market close. I do not have any feelings for how the earnings will play out.

Ford posted decent sales growth laden with incentives and the cash for clunkers program. Also looks like Ford might gain some traction from the horrible Chrysler figures.

I am starting to look towards the Christmas season. I am trying to figure out what stores not toys will be most popular this winter. I put Wal-Mart, Target, Dollar Stores, Kohls, Ross, TJ MAXX, Amazon and Apple to see good sales. Awkwardly, I am also putting Costco in this mix.

I love the Kindle and think I might get one for my wife is she buys me a Sony Playstation 3 or a new 52 inch Samsung 240hz LED TV, hint hint.

I feel as if the market is trying to make a move up, the VIX (Volatility index) is high and therefore we will see some up and down days.

November 2 2009 Action

2009-11-02T16:15:00.000-08:00

Today, the markets appeared to recoup most of Friday's losses. However, the market did end up 70ish points for the day. I thought about buying adding some more to CHIO, SCLX, and CEU. However, I chose not to. I think we will see some up and down days for a couple weeks.

If you saw the move that SMED made, I am inclined to put in a sell stop order right around 11.00. That would be about a $1000 profit which is about 9% of the original goal of $11k.

On a side note, I am looking into Trade Station. I have been told that Trade Station has some nice "strategy and rule" trading software. Not exactly "black box" investing, but it could help you test your trading strategy.

Off to watch Monday Night Football!

More thoughts on investing

2009-11-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

Many people believe that you have to be Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch and so on to make serious money. Investing is not about "swinging for home runs" it is about swinging for singles, doubles and triples. However, you will have some home runs along the way. Most of the stocks listed here will not become Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola, Apple, IBM and many other large companies. However, if you follow your game plan you can have long term returns as if you did own Microsoft and the like 20 years ago.

Here are some rules I follow:

Opportunity Cost - Should I sell something that is not working for something new.

Can I make at least 15% on my investment? - Why put money into something if you cannot make money on it.

Reality check - How much return is enough? Don't get greedy. Remember, you are concentrating on the overall portfolio value versus individual stock value.

That is all for today.

Stocks purchased on 10/30/2009

2009-11-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well, here is the list of stocks and the amounts purchased on 10/30/2009. Most ideally the object is to not get greedy or trade with emotion. All trades have a $10.95 commission per trade. Given current US Market and Domestic/Foreign Economic Issues, I would be satisfied with a 25% return on this portfolio (keyword is portfolio and not individual stocks). Total cost basis for all purchases including commissions is $47,450.85. A 25% return would be $11,862.71 for a value of $59,313.56. $11,860 every 3-4 months is not bad, that would equal 100% return every 12 months. Now many of you might be asking "how long". If it took a full 12 months I would be perfectly happy with that. But, I do believe that we could see this in 3-4 months.

5000 SCLX at .53
2500 CHIO at 1.05
750 CEU at 5.20
750 CAST at 6.30
500 NITE at 16.90
1000 HDSN at 1.20
400 CBOU at 8.19
500 CMTP at 6.58
100 CAGC at 14.70
750 CHWY at 4.55
500 SMED at 8.96
15,000 SPCK at .13
100 RIMM at 58.80

As the days progress, I will update my transactions daily with reasoning for each transaction.

As always, these securities are not being recommended, solicited, advertised, or deemed to be guaranteed in any fashion.

Thanks,

stockguys

First blog!

2009-10-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

Today I have decided to share my stock portfolio with the world. For all purposes, the stocks listed here are not recommendations, solicitations, or advice for you to buy or sell the stocks. I just want to show you that you do not have to be a "smart guy" to make money in the market.

As with any new venture you might take, research is extremely important. Here are the primary sites I use for research and are mostly free:

www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
www.finance.yahoo.com
www.otcbb.com
www.pinksheets.com
www.bigcharts.com
www.redchip.com

To me, research from http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html is most important and relevant. Reviewing 10k's and Q's is extremely important and can provide insight into the health of the company.

www.finance.yahoo.com provides condensed data for you to review quickly. I prefer to view "key statistics".

I trade with the following brokers; fidelity.com and ameritrade.com

More to come in the following days as I post my portfolio.

Thanks,