...jus' like summer

Mondays trade resembled a summer's trading day.     Not only was the weather too hot where we are, but the volume on the indices was full of nothing but smog.    It was low and it might've taken a little effort for many to see through it and get a read.    After last week big gains, we were looking for some profit taking and corrective action to come in Monday, we'd have no problem with that!.   Instead what we got early was a nice report from ACI to help push all the other coals we've been covering here, most to NCH's( new closing highs)..JRCC, FDG, PCX, MEE, AKS, WLT.    In our view, this coal action was just a bonus following Fridays and an excuse to take some profits.    It's not a surprise to see great reports from this sec' this Q.    We've been buying this sectors stocks a lot on dips the past Q as they seem to provide some of the best around before making a nice recovery.     At this point with many reporting earnings, we were thinking we'd be getting this opportunity as they sell off on the news.     Unfortunately...the way they traded into the afternoon we were starting to think we'd sold too early this time around.     Considering, we began covering this sector when JRCC was in her low teens and yesterday hit high $25's, it is never a bad idea to sell a group and regroup.    The action in coals was in other commodity stocks as they all benefited from higher crude and metal prices, which offset the impact of weak financial stocks.     We did see pretty good action in the big 3, we trade here from the tech/internet sector, RIMM, AAPL,BIDU.     All in all, what seemed like lacklustre day too many a trader was nothing but as we all can see yesterday by the DJIM watchlist, shadowlist.   Those visiting DJIM can find the list on the next few pages of the Journal or a smaller favorites list just by looking at the Charts section where you find a few other stellars making NCH's,   CMP and V

Oh yeah let's not forget on of our most recent plays, SOL which had a great open climbing to almost $19 bucks.  Not bad for 5 days work from $14.   Again, keep looking to add and/or buy-back on dips as has been the strat.   As long as oil is roaring mad, solars should play along.

Some may have been upset we didn't get follow through gains after Friday, some on the other hand may have upset we didn't get a pullback. Even though we are expecting some sideways to consolidate the recent gains, a pullback would be welcomed here so we may pick up back some of our beloved.   But, by the looks of things a pullback is not going to include our niche of stocks anytime soon and so we maybe S.O.L!..lol.   In other words, in conclusion, we are pretty light as far as positions are concerned now,  but are itchy to start buying this market up once again!.

...good enough..

Despite the DJIA falling as much as 100+ points off it's highs intra-day, we can't be disappointed in such action after last week's technical breakouts.  We've topped July's peak and think the best thing the market can do is consolidate in the near term before another push higher,  yesterdays reversals may be the start. 

In the meantime, our Shadowlist is slowly going through a transformation this month, a rotation as noted yesterday.." it's definitely worth looking at those small cap earnings and away from our commodity plays".  Our strategy is not about quantity, but quality,  we don't need a whole group or two such as \Ag's-coals etc to play now through August.   All we need is a few plays, here and there.   If you go look at the alerts this month so far, you can see you don't need much when you're selective!.   We've had ROCK, RIMM, ICLR, EBIX go about 10-20% in days, we hit a nice quick gap short in IPHS and an open alert for an early morning trade in GDP, ANSS for traders.   Nobody needs to catch'em all,  just a few of them with the right lots to make a nice return.   Hell, we've been picking our nose 5 days watching our old family member AFAM go from $36-44 off earnings in days without touching it sweetly.   Also, we've pointed out to keep stocks on a short leash,  this definitely applies when you get points like those from the above trades.  A short leash is not  purely for cutting a bad trade, it's for pocketing your earned cash.  Simply, we're not waiting to pocket too long, we pocket and than look for re-entry at this stage. 

We're not really concerned about what the indicies do here,  we can't control what is going on in the ' real world' with geo-political stuff, the Oil picture, the potential Financial surprises that can make this recent upside crumble in minutes.  But, as long as this rotation away from commodity plays on the strength of the dollar and oil slide continues, we actually welcome it as we go back to many of the DJIM basics as far as trading strategy goes.  This involves a good enough stock discovery, eyeing and/or getting in early enough to book some cash and than look for a healthy pullback to re-enter or enter for the first time, if you missed the first leg as in AFAM.