Boring day...

It felt like a pretty boring day to us...a calm before a storm?   Major indices didn't do much of anything and most of our DJIM stocks pulled a sleepy one as well.    We can't put too much thought into today's action,  it isn't a bad thing to have everyone's enthusiasm curbed a little.     However, there are a couple of stocks worth noting and we'll just get right to it.

AXR/BIDU,  this pair is also getting some momentum carried over from yesterday.   Again, we liked the action today and added a little to our existing position.

GROW, one of the few games in town today.   Although we feel that the "easy" money has been made, it doesn't necessarily mean that "fast" money can't be made from this one.   This is, however, one of those stocks that only a full time trader with experienced trading background in this sort of play would attempt to play actively here in $50's-60's.

BTJ/ALY, this pair all closed near their day high and we are liking it for some further momentum.   The key, again, is to keep an eye on the overall oil services sector.

POWL, we are putting this one on our radar b/c we really like its earning reaction and it sort of reminded us of ATNI, in a way.   It's thin but it can be rewarding. A few small cap crawlers have given up their early gains following a earnings report rather quickly lately..EXLS, REXI.  We decided to let this one cool off and see how it performs day 2 and 3.  Btw..maybe not a bad time to start looking at ATNI again around the 9ema.

Many DJIM stocks have held up very well considering the choppiness of this market,  we are looking forward to tomorrow's action.

POWL....bam...boom

..did you think we were going to get the CRASH...SPLAT too?.  Come on, you did!...Well, if you didn't, we did with the NASD down 20 and the FOMC a few hours away.  Our belief has been the closer we get to the holidays, the farther we are from a correction.  We just don't see Bernanke and his Posse stealing this Christmas after giving us such a ride.  It just wouldn't be fair, would it?.   The problem early was NUE and the NUEsami it could cause that rattled the market...the ripple effect, the wave hitting other steels..metals..titaniums...oh no maybe all the way to China and our dear DJIM China stocks!.  Oh yeah BBY didn't help the cause.  The 2:15 FOMC was almost a pause, nothing too actionable as expected yet it gave the market the little bump it cried for. The NASD spread was 25pts from open to lows, finishing down 11 was just fine.

We liked IPSU's numbers and expect a few follow ups from the analysts they surprised. We were looking for a breakout from days tight range after the FOMC showed all was okay for todays market, but never got it.  Sometimes, stocks need a little time to give it another leg up...recently we wrote on DJIM about POWL and wanting to give it a few days to settle...well, today we alerted to that note and the rest is history from $28 to a $30 close. Sometimes it takes a good stock a few hours to move again, sometimes a few days to be discovered again...sometimes a few weeks.. REXI which hasn't done much since our 1st day run off earnings, maybe will turn now.

If you've been kicking back with some DJIM Russian telcos, you enjoyed the volatile GLDN hitting a NCH with another move. The chart, the volume are all there. If you're in the crawler, ROS..you got a new high $40's as it announced a fast fiber deal with KDDI from Japan-Russia.

Really nothing too exciting today, mostly a bunch of stocks, including DJIM's hitting off new highs early on. This could be a short term top that just provided a higher exit or it could just be a small turn before catching more momentum. The market will let us know soon enough.... EDU smacked 37.96, DLB 31+, MR 27.20, ZOLL 56+  Is this it?. We don't think so and will keep to recycling the best DJIM names and sandwich new plays around the core.  A stock in a uptrend, including the previous days action coming to a new high... might continue a downtrend if it breaks that previous days lows...something to watch and help make exit decisions.

A little bit of everything...

Of course, if you simply stare at the index and listen to CNBC today, you'd find it no more than a torturing experience.     The market seems to be stuck, as suggested by the index action and as well as the commentators would have you believe.    But if you look closely, especially the list off the DJIM stocks, you'd find plenty of action here and there.

The key here for us, is to play those that are attacking the new 52 week high off the DJIM watch list.    When a stock fails to advance or stalls at 52 week high, we reduce and lock in profit.    Having a list of strong stocks and constantly updating by adding new plays and deleting old ones ensure that you are always playing with the best stocks with potentially the best setup.     Here are some highlights..

Russian stocks,  GLDN and ROS continued their march upwards and left their stalled comrades MBT VIP behind.  Eventually these cracked the 9ema recently.  We are focusing more on the first two while keeping an eye on the rest.

Sugarcone, IPSU had a very nice follow through and in fact it was not late buying earlier today.

Surround sound,  Cramer surely discovered DLB at $30 and it's a definite bonus which is already 20% gainer for us.  Briefingcom has been all over it as well.

We also like the follow through on POWL and a nice setup on FTEK.    Two of DJIM's fav. oil co. BTJ/ALY have made new closing highs as well.     This market has become much more selective and it's understandable that many traders simply just want to take it easy for the rest of the year given the long stretch of rally we've had.    The best course of action for us is to let market show us what's working and we'll go from there.  

No complaints with NCH's...

...the NCH's, new closing high list is long today for DJIM closely followed stocks...AXR ALY BTJ GROW JST REXI ROS ZOLL..intraday highs for POWL,FTEK

If you had to find some faults of today's action, you can say that FTEK reversed hard intraday and IPSU or POWL did not follow through the way it did the day before.    Have those three plays met our trading objective?  Hell yeah!    It's apparent that up until now, we can conclude with everyone that the key for each and every one of our plays is to find them early and get in early or wait for the next leg up.   When it comes to selling to take profits or cut losses, unfortunately everyone has their own threshold and emotional tolerance and discipline.   We like to take profit a lot and trade along the trend.  When a stock stalls or reverses, there'd be lots of sell signals and plenty of time for us to act, and such is the advantage of sitting in front of the screens all day.   Only you know when you've had your fill and its time to move on.    Ok,  here are some stocks that didn't disappoint...

ATNI, volume perked up considerably today and half of it is due to a block trade.  Nonetheless, we like its action and its strong move above 9 ema may suggest that it's ready to challenge its old high.   We got back in some.

ABM, what a surprise!...well, not really as its a blast when institutions (80% in ABM) want to play your side and buy as today.   This one was alerted yesterday due to their earning but today's action felt as if the earning came out today.   This one had strong action throughout the day and we like this one and thinking this one may no longer be a sleeper mover. Again..this is a lesson in not chasing the open, if you are not experienced enough to make a call, don't do it.  Let the market tell you when and if its worth a ride.  patience paid of nicely with IPSU, ABM

OPTM, we alerted this one earlier today and even though it did not close at the high, the late push was encouraging to see.   Say what you want, this one is also an attention grabber today.

GROW/JST/ALXA,  why do we group these three together?   Because really, those three only trade off momentum, nothing more.   Since momentum trading is what we do the best, of course we had to alert them late afternoon to all just in case they close well.   And they all closed well.

The bottom line is, if you get into some of these plays early enough and apply a proper selling strategy, a hard reversal intraday should not hurt the play that much.    Even if you did get caught and took some losses, there's really no need to get hung about it and just accept it as part of the game and move on.   There's always plenty of good action waiting for you here,  and that's also the reason why we rarely bring back our past plays (TRT) to our watchlist, unless they come back and challenge the high again or have some PR to kick it up. Too many of you fall in love with a stock and miss opportunities day after day because your money is tied up.  We can see by how many clicks the TRT chart gets compared to a flying AXR.   Move on people, TRT was here at $8 and then 12+ , AXR is up 25% since alerted here 8 trading days ago, what has TRT done the last 8?

DJIM hold/ hit list #18

In last weeks #17, we said we're not finished yet with this market in 2006.  Last week showed our resolve to keep finding the 'trade' despite an already fulfilling year.  The market just keeps feeding us DJIM type trading opportunities and we don't want to stop feeding it.  The exodus of players beginning this week for the holidays favors our type of play going forward as the volume creeps lower. The next few weeks is 'easy money' time,  we are only looking to add to the gains of '06...not diminish them with unnecessary risk.  This is not the time to look for the 'hard money' play that could tick a few percentages off your return.  This is not the time to think...hmm..this one could be a winner down the road and take a stake in it,  this is the time to play the momentum when you see it.  What are we talking about?.  Well, we gave it out all week!.  If you look at Fridays action, if you look at the NASD chart you can see the divergence in the money flow..what you are seeing is profit taking year end.  Where do we not see this?.  Clearly by Fridays action, it was in DJIM stocks.  While the distribution goes on elsewhere, DJIM stocks are getting our cash and many other dollars that are giving these stocks momentum.. bringing in the herd.  This is what we will continue to seek out...the positive money flow and/or where it might go.  These types of plays include the possibility of runners like GROW, JST given Thursday afternoon and then the subsequent momo the next day. 

Although earnings season is practically over there are a few names coming out with EPS, maybe we will get a couple more sweet ones before the year is out.  Last week we alerted to two we liked, IPSU and ABM and with a little DJIM patience we gave a follow up alert on each minutes before the big moves. The other grand move had to be the word on POWL at $28 and then the run..okay walk to just under $34, not so bad was the pick up of OPTM at $23.   Besides JST, AXR also had a 20% week. This one was a recent alert at $98 and continues to thrill closing at 129.  Hopefully,  some finally see the promise in buying a stock at $99 and not only $9.90 after the RIMM ride from $99 to $140 and now AXR's 30% in 10 trading days. 

We will continue to be selective in our choices going forward and yes... if we get more quick 5-10%-20% at this point on individual plays, we will take the profits as so should you. For more current plays of interest ROS, ATNI etc.,  just scroll down the Journal.

..wake up Nasdaq...

We are not going to overkill the market in this late stage. Instead of reacting to every economic number and every fed blurb that is toying with investors, we are simply sticking to our weekend words.  We are looking for the easy play, the easy money without being nicked.  The short term bet, trade is on and speculation/momentum is what we are after.  The market made a strong reversal yet the Nasdaq still finished red on the Fed speak.  We're glad to see the strong rebounds in a few DJIM names, but we are not going out and buying the dips aggressively.  Instead, we will wait and see if many of these get can get back to recent highs and then decide.  At the moment we are into plays like the ESCL.  How long you stay with one of these is not the question, it is how much profit you can get from them.  We traded ESCL a few months back close to this price and thought that  'crazy'  had the same potential today.....its' simply in its genes!.  Last time this craziness extended into day 2, despite a nice run from alert time at $7 and a few pennies to over $9, we've kept some in case the loopy money has further to go.

The other buy was FFHL, an IPO from China with a very nice float of just over 3mln.  Considering this is becoming retail traders week heading into the holiday, we were anticipating some of their memories of EFUT to kick in...ours did!.  We can't make predictions and the EFUT's come around once a blue moon, but if this FFHL is a fraction of EFUT ...it would be the easy money we are after now. We watched it trade with a few other IPO's today and had no problem giving out a alert in the low 10's. Usually an IPO has some turning over to do before it makes a move, we were hoping it skips this step and gets momo early. Judging by the AH trading in the mid 11's, a rarity for a IPO...this might be getting some attention tomorrow. Hopefully this will have a longer shelve life than ESCL.

There was some comical action today...unfortunately it wasn't for those that had their stops knocked out. The offering was quite small even for a JST share count and the money was going to a good cause...expansion. The wash job to $19+ was a joke.  Many of DJIM readers probably sold off yesterday and missed the sweet dip opportunity..we did for the most part.

The dip buying could be quite nice as seen in POWL  AXR especially,  but we are concentrating on those still playing around highs if adding shares.............OPTM was one today as it closed with a NCH.

....Crazy Genes...

..We didn't ask for much this week...or did we?.....We just wanted to keep our 2006 gains in check and give us and you a XMAS bonus without risking much at all.....1000 shares of ESCL yesterday at say $7 & and change on the break of alert, fetched you maybe 8k, 9k, 10k,11k,12..maybe 13K back in less than a day of trading.  You know we are not of the speculative lot here at DJIM,  we don't throw spec stocks out randomly or give a stock a headline like last night for no reason.   It's not our game to risk our money or get you to risk yours... Going into this week, we said what we were looking for as DJIM stocks came off their highs ...we weren't about to start buying the dips and instead wanted to concentrate on some holiday shopping with a good return policy.   We would've been happy with $10..11 as we were happy with some $9 the day before on ESCL,  but the difference is we didn't calculate its holiday trading week (even if that was the premise heading into the week) and ESCL could even do more than last time!.   Most the day was occupied with this baby...momentum is momentum...slice it any which way...volume, exuberance equals momentum and this one definitely had the crazy genes in it to replicate its May run.   Turned out not to matter if you bought yesterday at  $7's..8's or if you had started to play it today...either way...you should be ho' ho..tonight.   Traders can decipher momentum easily, starters can just as easily...it's all about volume!.  If you're a rookie, you're not at such a disadvantage...volume is volume...all can read that!.  If you want a short term trade, 20-40k ain't going to cut it like in EVST.

The bias has been SHORT TERM trading this week. If a FFHL goes from $10 to $12 after alert in 1hr of regular trading,  we are happy for those that closed 20%+, but we are not so happy to hear one DJIM reader closed on another.. but that's the game of trading, folks.   If you believe enough to buy a stock at $12 from a IPO price of $8 ......be ready to suck it up if it turns against you for a bit.  You're playing the game, so be prepared.  Still a day doesn't make a stock, up or down the day after the IPO.

Kinda happy for all those that have held onto FSYS, a good stock that just isn't discovered. Today was a little redemption...

RVBD fought back because of TW comments premarket, still the NASDAQ needs to WAKE UP before we get excited about DJIM techs again.   Hey Cramer only brought GMKT a little further than we did..no biggie, we were there first.....POWL has kissed $33+ from our 28,  OPTM hanging in with a mildl NCH as well.

Still beyond the plays and the playas'...OEH was a nice pick up this morning for DJIM.  We've been watching for a few days and bought early today off yesterdays NCH.  If we didn't think there was more potential at $45.50's, we wouldn't have mentioned it...make a long story short...1.2mln after 60k volume alert and a high of 47.82 on the day.  First million plus volume day probably in a year for OEH (200k yesterday),  not the first record volume day for a stock after a DJIM mention without news.

Charts updated include: FSYS OEH OPTM POWL REXI and ESLC for the remaining nutbars left in it;)

DJIM hold/ hit List #19

In most cases, stocks have continued retreating during the second last week of the year.   This is understandable given the kind of market we've been through.   For many people who are making their year end tax moves, the last couple weeks of the year is the time to get it done.   Both of the profit and losses needed to be realized and both will have to come in a way of selling.    So, a pullback in the indices may be the indication that people are just doing that.     We at DJIM here are doing just exactly that, taking a breath from this market and resting ourselves up for what could be a busy earning season.    Yup, earning season is almost upon us again and the coming quarter is considered to be typically the second strongest quarter of the year.

One thing we feel that we have to point out to our readers is that we DO NOT hold through earnings with our DJIM stocks.   Most of our plays are considered IBD type of earning momentum plays and the one very thing that can break them is THE earning.   During the past week, we've seen it with IAAC and MIKR.    So what happened if you get caught holding through, whether intentionally or accidentally, we think the best thing to do is to just move on.     There are just gonna be tons of new plays on the horizon and there's absolutely no reason to hold onto a broken pipe.     How about playing for a bounce, or 50 ema bounce, as some of you may ask?    We think it's better to leave the leftovers to those who actually enjoy them.   For us, playing with the best setups, and playing with the current plays are the only things that matter and from which we get the biggest rewards on.   As you can see, we have no problem coming up with new and exciting plays every week and even every day in a good market.      Our mentality and our approach to this market has always been that we let the plays "come to us" and the nature of this market is such that there'll always be new plays coming to us.    We just have to be there to catch them, early.     So digging up old beat-up plays, leftover plays, and other "left for dead" kind of plays, are not worth our time, effort and capital.     This is the very reason that got us to this point and why this site exists.

In the past week, we had some wild action from ESCL and some steady action from OPTM, FSYS, ZOLL, GLDN, POWL, ROS....   Even though some of those gains did not hold till the end of the week,  it's just down right silly not to take advantage of some of the intraday gains.   Think about where you have started trading them and where they had been during the week and how long it took for those gains to realize.     To cap the week off, we had a super strong close off a Chinese IPO FFHL and our second timely alert on it.   Most of us are probably excited to be back tomorrow just to trade FFHL.     In any case, FFHL may be the focal point for many traders for this shortened trading week.