What's next?

The indices poked their neck out today and broke out of their trading range from the last little while.    As we were saying yesterday, market was looking for a catalyst and today we got one.    Does that mean that we are ready to challenge the old high next week?   Ah ha, if market is predictable like that, then we all should be running multi billion dollar hedge funds.    The truth is that we just had a good old relief rally today and what comes afterward is usually trickier than what most people would expect.    One good thing about the reaction of the fed decision today is that we are that much farther away from the recent low.   Today can be used as a good indication that we've just had our bottom for this correction.   The sub-prime issues are being sorted out and worked out slowly and many institutions now have a realistic expectation of what to expect from some of the firms involved in the sub-prime lending.    This is good news!   Uncertainty tend to raise fear and certainty raises optimism.     Seasonally, we are ready to kick off another earning season.     What?   It seemed like we've just finished our last earning season.    Yup, this gig is literally all year around and right now we are back to focus on finding earnings plays that fit into our criteria and trading theme.      In a way, we are kind of glad that the big drop happened before the earning season. Does anyone else feel like "we just got rid of a monkey off our back"?   In plain words, now that we just had a correction, bears can all suck up and go away.   Hopefully this is the case but we do need confirmation from market action during the next little while.     The best case scenario for this market is to inch up slowly and digest any big market gains like today with time.    The absolute last thing we need is for this market to go up in a few straight days and then to get smack down hard which will for sure shatter investors' confidence.

Now onto our small cap land....  When the market is in a good mood generally, the small caps always tend to get busier and see an influx of funds.  Here are some of the stocks we are noticing today...

CSV,  we have to crown this one tonight as it joined the 25%+ gainer club today.   This one is such a sleeper that despite the fact it doesn't generate any buzz among the momentum traders, but it generated 25% during the last month or so.   And do we even have to remind people that last few weeks hasn't been the most friendly to many investors. The same goes for HTC, the Euro Telecom which has produced 25% too. The reason we bring these up tonight is after today, it is time to look around at past DJIM stocks and see which survived through the turmoil best.  It is probably best to start doing some homework and expanding your tradable watchlists.   Another reason is just a reminder that despite the volatile stocks we mostly cover there are plenty of quality crawlers that work for the longer term investor.  Last Q, we had EML, SYNL, AMIE's and this Q the CSV and HTC have already stood out.

HURC HDNG,  yes keep on going and make those new highs.    Market really owes those two as the market environment was not friendly when these two came out with stellar earning report. UEIC falls into this boat as well.

FSLR TSL, we wish these two had done a little better prior to today.   Nevertheless, whatever it takes to kick-start the momentum is fine by us.

SIMO SNCR UEIC,  had new closing highs and we are definitely gonna look more on the tech side of the plays as the earning seson goes on.  SNCR was probably towed by AAPL today.

AMAG, we used to trade this back in early 06' with great success under a different symbol, it's a streaky stock and if you get on the right side..at the right time this one can be quite the winner. It's in late-stage development for iron deficiency related anemia in chronic kidney disease and that is the speculation part.  We started very small and will see if the small float and big short interest can dance with the Deutsche Bank $100 target put on it today. Wait for confirmation of a turn here before taking on a play like this or just start very small and make sure you have many more plays before it.

Folks, market definitely seems to turn for the better last couple of days and especially today.   With the earning season coming up, we feel like we should get right back into it 100% and pick up where we left off.   This doesn't mean that we are gonna be committing all of our capital.  It just means that we are gonna be committing 100% of our time and focus in finding trading opportunities for the next little while.    Hopefully we'd get some really nice plays that'll make up for some of the lost time that we incurred from earlier this month.  Just remember, we might need to curb our enthusiasm as traders soon after a day like this and that simply means taking some profits before kicking it up again.

DJIM #13 2007

As we head into another week of trading, we begin to wonder who is doing the 'blowing'.  Well....it was like hurricane gusts to propel this market.  All this despite oil going back to $62 and a few other world issues that didn't dampen the buying during the week.   Someone ' big' wants this market up...might the earnings and guidance coming up be a reflection of this enthusiasm or we just being set up for a hard thrashing at the awaiting tops???.  The timing seems quite interesting as we approach another earnings season.  Should be interesting.  Our strategy remains the same as we take this day to day, attacking opportunities as they come before us.  Last week was a hoot on many trading fronts....we hope we get a third of it this week.

ASTI provided the speculative trading. We tried to walk our strategy on DJIM cause ASTI seemed to have a chance of catching momo.  This momo can be a powerful thing and could also be a dangerous thing.  We've done the same with EFUT, FFHL giving in depth thoughts as it trades along.  What momo brings is also greed as all of a sudden 20% in a few days is just not enough.  We gave our next entry point as to when we were expecting a break and some momo and then a heads up premarket Friday to watch that good ole' Mr. Greed as the stock gapped and gave you an opportunity to pocket the gap winnings.  We said our script was written to that point, this means Mr.Greed was not going to look over our shoulder the rest of the day.  How will it trade this week?. Who knows but this story will have ample opportunities to trade in and out in the future.  We'll be there in size again but for now we'll hold a small position only.

OEH,  provided the long term DJIM thinking coming to fruition with a 3bln price tag attached. If you didn't take a position on this speculation we talked about a few months ago, it shouldn't have stopped you from buying and profiting nicely in the last 3 days of trading.   It still gave a 2-3 pt day Friday after we pointed out in the forum that the price some are expecting could be higher.  We've held quite a bit into weekend hoping to wake up to a buyout on merger Monday. This is a safer type of greed as we look for a few more points.

The big gains last week came from the Oil/Gas equipment/field services etc and DJIM was there with BTJ and its 13+% week.  Here, we also have DXPE which looks to be building up for a move higher.  If you are going deeper into this sec/energy, we threw out OYOG, which IBD says this weekend  is within a buying range.

On the Russian front, GLDN which was already a go here in last weekends Journal went from low 52's to a few cents shy of $57. But the play mentioned Monday night, might be VIP going forward. Why?.  Well...do you remember how this went last Q when we took on MBT and then said we could get a spill into VIP and other Russian telcos. Guess what, MBT put out very good earning and this should be a hint of what to expect from VIP's earning.  VIP closed with a NCH Friday.  Also... one of DJIM early plays, WBD made a nice run late in the week to close at NCH and should be potential playlisted.

As far as Solar, we said last weekend they'd be interesting to watch and as it turned out to trade.  FSLR checked in with a 7-8 points during the week.  It tired some Friday, but maybe that was expected as profit taking sunk in after a big week.  Still...it finished up there on the chart and remains our favorite solar story/stock to trade.

AFAM, NVTL and others are pretty clear over on BT's charts.

CRZ AMAG, we are watching to uncork a few dollars into but we need to see more action to add.

**Remember to visit website and check into DJIM Trader Alerts-Comments to activate email delivery by pressing Subscribe on top of page.  See forum note on this subject as we will be using the link for Alerts- Comments starting Monday.

DJIM #15 2007

A premise here has been our belief that the markets will be solid going into another earning season, a market has little chance of crashing through the floor before the companies get a chance to tell their side of the story. The correction has been literally wiped away and the recent retracement to the 100ma averages has seen a healthy bounce as we enter Q2.  Last week was one for the books as a number of plays here enjoyed breakaway gains..WBD, JSDA, GROW, MFW.  Isn't interesting that these are all earning plays at one time or another on DJIM. We also had nice moves from AMAG,OYOG.  Plus the solars TSL,ASTI, FSLR..we talked about last weekend as a possibility for the week made for some nice trades.  Sometimes the strong get stronger and it is more apparent in a bullish trend such as we enjoyed last week.  Simply, this was a case of recycling which is a big part of our trading methodology. Speaking of recycling, a few names popped back into our books here on Thursday and they include DJIM stocks from January in MTRX and USAP, both previous earning gem winners.

We'll concentrate on Thursday additions...

MTRX, announce an excellent Q with an upside to guidance. Last Q this was pick up at 16+ and was as steady as they come. Not a big flyer it survived every pit the market would throw at it, including a sliding Oil price and it still held ground. We expected MTRX to trade as the previous earning day, but it performed much better than expected as the institutions did not churn it as before. The guidance was the key this time around as it put on gains throughout the day finishing strong.

...beats by $0.07, issues upside guidance (21.41 ) : Reports Q3 (Feb) earnings of $0.24 per share, $0.07 better than the Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.17; revenues rose 41.1% year/year to $168.7 mln vs the $136.5 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY07, sees FY07 revs of $630-640 mln, up from previous guidance of $560-580 mln, vs. $588.92 mln consensus.  CEO says, "Our third quarter performance significantly exceeded our expectations as we were able to add to our strong talent pools in the construction services groups allowing us to capture and execute more projects, particularly in the Downstream Petroleum Industry."

USAP, a darling from last Q with first buy in at 36+. This maker of speciality steel products including Aerospace and power industries is in the right space at the right time.  We think it is just a matter of hours before we see USAP take on the February highs of 51.80 and go forward and so we added it back. FWIW...Cramer was bullish on his lighting bolt seg March 7th as well.

SPEC, this one gapped off earning March 30th, ( Q1 EPS of $0.16 vs $0.02 in yr ago period; revs $32.9 mln vs $25.6 mln in yr ago period ). Sequentially, this was in line with Q4EPS and with 99 94 IBD numbers it is seeking $15 from the IBD crowd.

Speaking of IBD... How about SYNL and EML, #13 and #85 this weekend for these two DJIM finds from 2006 and last Q. Guess they added their volume together to stick them finally on IBD100.  A note about EML, Friday there was a note on Dept of Defense new armoured vehicle program. Big contracts will come in 07 as this program expands and AH(Armor Holding) gets EML do quite a bit of the work. 

TNH, Terra Nitrogen (nitrogen fertilizer products). 93c Q announced in February. It has been a great trade for sometime due to its volatility. It is one to be traded with care. We added on the dip Thursday and it recovered and flirted with new day highs by close. Made a NCH on a very good volume day(top 5 this year). Guess this is a Ag play as it grows what we eat,  but it is tied to the price of natural gas, it is more than 60% of its expenses. So know what's going on in that end.

As great as the recycling program can be, it does not stop us from looking forward and having cash available to go strong after a new batch of earning plays. We have a growing play list after last week, but we think the bigger money can be made in new picks coming up and so enter this Q with plenty of cash on hand.  Also, if we were holding any laggards at this point, we would simply dump here and avoid waiting for a sunny day with anything stalled and just free up more cash to use on new plays.

If you need reminding, here is a list of some of the stocks we traded here last Q off earning... USAP CCF VTRU VARI MTRX SYNL EML HDNG CYNO TRT HURC TRCR TGX NWK AVZA CSV.   Get it?  Opportunities will be there!

It starts with RIMM and VIP this week as far as past DJIM earning plays.  If you missed it, we've talked about VIP being a play before earning on the heels of MBT report  here on the Journal. So watch it closely this week for a pre-earning reaction. A few notable Russian funds were up over 3% last week, maybe it wasn't all WBD holdings;), but a sign of things to come for DJIM Russian names.

Also, the earning dates link waits for your participation on earning dates for DJIM plays when found.

..Jar of peanut butter

Last night we noted AA numbers, although the best in co's Q1 history, it will likely be a ho-hum to the market.  We didn't anticipate a 9th straight of new highs for the DJIA and that simply relates to our make up going into the day.  Basically, it is a stance of caution and a willingness to sell as we see nothing ahead for the day.  This is expanded by the uncertainty of the Minutes at 2pm and what it can do to the market.  This is simply a cloud over the market and this doesn't exacttly make us buy happy, but rather sell happy and that's what we mostly did this morning.  Nothing was revealed that gave us cause to step back in the afternoon.  Still...we stuck around in anticipation of RIMM's numbers to step into an old DJIM name, the funds were ready and we got ready for the first true EPS play of the season...licked our fingers and were ready to dip in the RIMM peanut butter jar.  You see when it comes to stocks in the 70's to over $100, we joke about how many fingers you gonna dip?..a finger is a 100 lot.  We're not exactly gonna dip 2 hands full at 140 bucks a lot.  Well...we were quite disappointed RIMM's guidance couldn't give itself a jolt or maybe the techs going forward.....But then we got a pleasant surprise it seems with another peanut butter stock....AMAG

AMAG, this was a pick up in late March....Well we played it from just under 60, got the breakout recently and left on the 3rd of April as today's results were to be released that afternoon AH.  We said we'd get over a gap open in the morning if the results were favourable, but today we got a gift at 4:30 as the results from two trials were released and we had it to you in a few minutes.  We found our Jar and dipped into this around 70. We love the float of this stock near 10 million and a big short interest.  This one is also loved by the analysts and we expect to see some kind words tomorrow morning.   Now that it is trading at 74, we are to believe this will be kind and we could get more follow through.  The beauty of the market is AMAG gave us what we were looking from RIMM....the best part is it might give us more by late morning than RIMM could ever have..easily.

late March, ..."we used to trade this back in early 06' with great success under a different symbol, it's a streaky stock and if you get on the right side..at the right time this one can be quite the winner. It's in late-stage development for iron deficiency related anemia in chronic kidney disease and that is the speculation part.  We started very small and will see if the small float and big short interest can dance with the Deutsche Bank $100 target put on it today".

UXG, was a premarket buy in the 5.60's and quickly climbed to over $6 at the open and a a quick 6-7% for the flippers here.  Well, we actually did some of that and as we said we will look to buy the dips, which we did later again.  Having some gold rather than the Nasdaq stuff seemed like a better idea later in the day.  We are traders and if we get 6-7% in the first 10minutes, we will take it.  It finds itself there over $6 in AH's today and we think it goes higher.  We will continue to trade these cheapies GRX, URX and now UXG.

ASTI, we explained the play last night after alerting to it late in the day. Well buying and saving 20c on a early entry didn't matter much did it?. This baby got love premarket and it extended to an early 10.80 high. Yeah, we sold up there in the 10's..we said last night what we are doing these days.   If you didn't catch BT's email of its potential early in the day or don't get in on our late day buys...don't worry there will be more opp's like we said before in this name.   Right now, we are exhausted by the TSL's, FSLR's after the nice moves here and now ASTI.  We're taking a breather now on them even though this was one of the few sec's up today.   We're holding some FSLR end of day only.

USAT, we noted this one surprised us so far and that we could get something to look forward to.  It came pretty quickly and a shot up to 12.50. Not bad for a 10.60ish alert end of day a few days ago.  At this point we are trading it, it has potential to trade beautifully if more momo money discovered it.  Right now it feels like its on the fringes as nobody knows what to make of it.  It's not exactly earning related and momo traders aren't about to go deep into DD on this or any stock.  We added and then sold some.   If you were watching  you probably pulled off a nice intraday trade after our note.   Again..we are trading it and hope more come to it.   If you wanted to hold it for a few days, you had your chances to buy around $11 and to sell today and make a quick 10%+. 

SLP, it had a fine afternoon and from previous history, we'd be patient and drive into it more when it moves.

Everything else was ho- hum and anything lagging was being cut off for the time being.