A-Team wins the coin toss!

Kick off time came a little early today with AAPL giving what many hoped for at the show!.  You couldn't read a piece of press without the question on everybody''s mind...What will AAPL do?. The anticipation was there and the traders were waiting for the news.  Nothing like a little spark to the techs that need to lead this market.  You can't live on Tires and Rubbers being the leaders as in the past sessions much longer.  Mr. Jobs you may now call it Apple Ltd,  Apple Inc. or Banana anything as long as you keep throwing the toys out.  We talk a lot about momentum here, nearly 120 million shares is definitely it.  UBS lifted the tech sector yesterday and AAPL lifted it today.  Let's hope we can get some conviction in buying techs.

We've heard ramblings from analysts that aluminum might be somewhere to go in 2007, so maybe it's no big surprise the official EPS kick off went all swell with Alcoa giving a shiny picture AH.  The stock is up nearly 5% AH.  Nothing like a look in the past and getting some ERS dusted off, maybe some CENX too for tomorrow.   Always look for something that can piggyback an Alcoa type play, the secondary plays are often more fruitful.  Same goes for those that will feed off the AAPL endeavor..you didn't have to look far as a reader tossed out a play out of our backyard in SNCR on the Forum.  Last look before calling it a day, SNCR was trading at $15, now it sits in the 15.60's. 

Last night,  we discussed the need for new stocks, new plays!.  If anything these events give out a few secondary plays that should get some traders interested.  Still, today was not without a few other things working off DJIM notes that provided some nice opportunities.

VOL, which we introduced on our last forum has come back with vengeance today.  It beat estimates handily and we started to trade this off the pullback around $41 as soon as it looked like it would hold its morning gains.  Soon after our mention it broke the days high over 42 and added a few points more into the close.  This is a volatile play but when it gets momo it can give you a helluva a ride.

OPTM, mentioned pre market caught the usual wind and from just over $25 hit a high of $26.60's, hey if Cramer gives you 5% take it and say see you next time.  One good thing about OPTM is most of you have played it here and should have a better feel for it.  Its not that big of a surprise it gave it all up by end of day.  Not so good to finish at low of day for any stock, but this one is quite the choppy trader so it just might have legs again very soon.   Off this ' triple play' business, we alerted another at $25 that has been talked as a triple play threat, even if its robotics/lasers are used elsewhere mostly..... IPGP a recent IPO that has held steady after gapping on IPO day and now by the end of day looks even better on the charts.

OSIR,  the FDA play from last night to watch. We picked some up again as it looked to finish near the high. Maybe it has a another day in it or two.

So there are plenty of new holds tonight..AAPL,IPGP,SNCR,VOL,OSIR

AMK which almost kissed $20 after being in the low 17's a few days back and MFW which had an incredible snap back today show that quality companies trading well can do some fancy dancin'. Most importantly, how irrelevant it is to know exactly what prices we enter these or any stock at.   We give you a stock to watch for a potential trade, some move soon, some don't...some you just better keep around so you can catch a move like MFW did the next day for 3 points today.  In both of these stocks readers could've had better prices than the prices we got for our first bite!.   Don't concern yourselves about exact prices of our entries on stocks, just make sure you're making money....hopefully on the same stocks we share with you.

DJIM #3, 2007

For investors the best thing about a 3 day weekend is it gives an extra day for M&A activity to kick in. This weekend surely is not disappointing in this department as lots of activity is coinciding with the markets playing with highs.   Hopefully, this gets us off on the right foot into a shortened,  but what we expect to be a busy week.   The flurry of earnings will hit us this week and hopefully we can hit back hard by buying into DJIM type earnings winners.   This is the time we/you might want to reduce sizes of holdings or get rid of stocks completely stuck in the  'hub' with no immediate flight plan.   It is best to have cash ready and not be forced to sell things off to get in on a play early.   There is always more than one opportunity to get in on a DJIM stock, but sometimes the first is just an easy gift you can close early and then look for another entry..examples might be like a SNCR move last week but one with earning or an explosive VOL off earning.    Also...don't forget to look for earning dates of your stocks!.  We have enough on hands here in Canada following US holidays, so help us out on DJIM stocks...we knew EDU had earnings Tuesday,  but we didn't know we had a holiday today till about 11 am on Friday..lol. We almost broke our 'no holding rule' into earning with EDU!.

Heading into Tuesday,  these are our top hold/ hit lists plays at this time in no order..

CCF-  Chase Corp is one of those small float (2.3mln float) Amex stocks that hides with pretty darn good earnings.   Friday it reported its profit doubled on a 26% revenue increase.  This .62c Q follows last Q's .69 on similar revenue.  We also like Fidelity owning about 50% on the the instit. shares( 400k).  If they want more, they can get ours now in the $30's!

OSIR- made a nice comeback late in the day Friday.  It seems this one besides the FDA news last week is starting to be looked at as a stem cell stock of sorts.  This explains the volatility the last 2 trading days, Osiris is also developing stem cell treatments for cancer and heart disease.  A new NCH has us looking for more in this name, but now we are looking for more volatility that made us run out of it, Thursday.   Easier to deal with volatility if you know why its there, we didn't Thursday.

CCOI- just a steady follow up Friday from its big day the day before. A NCH and a stock that is up 4.5 points in the New Year so far, almost 30% and is sure to be picked up by more eyes, but it also should consolidate sooner than later.  So be careful jumping in!.  Some of you are getting in a tad late on some plays and expect miracles too fast!.

ABM- we are satisfied with this steady performer.  A NCH to end the week, don't forget we have been on this since $21 and the big push the second day after earning.  This is heavy on institutional support,  so this pace is not unexpected.

MR,  is back in the picture... we like the move Friday and the fact it held it by the close.  We added some near the finish and think this one might be one of the better plays to start week as it has climbed nicely above its 9ema.   It could be just MR, it could also be EDU following earnings and HMIN might not be far off ( we would like to see 40+ before really taking another stab at it).  FFHL should get some play but there is that supply of ones wanting to get out overhead to consider.

AMK, might be the other top play heading into the week.  This is a small float with a nice earning story that is reporting early February.  It just looks like a typical 9ema play at this point heading into earnings.  Wish it just take out Ceramics from its name from its name!.  Can't help but think pots when you first come across it!

INFY, we like it for its EPS, its business and where its at (India).  A few targets in 60's already out following EPS. This might be a nice longer term hold.

CENX,  a play we noted off AA earning is doing well but might want a rest in the 43's. It opened just below $40 on Wednesday following AA's eps.  Again, if you want a nice aluminum stock to hold for the AA story, this is it for the longer term.

MFW,  looks to be one to pick up more of on the dips. At this point as it has some interesting intraday moves and sits close to a high.

SNCR,  seems panic has set in with some, yet its only finished day 3 off news and is only 6% or so off highs. There is two camps here,  one that was getting in $15's Tuesday AH  and then early Wednesday and the second camp that was procrastinating and moving in mid $16's and higher.  Basically first camp has been distributing and the second camp just needs to be patient through it.   If you don't believe in the story then just move on.

VOL,  momentum begets momentum and that is what happened to the upside...and to the downside.  It works both ways, kids. If you've never seen it before, you just passed MOMO 101 last week...hopefully in one piece.  Violent sell offs are nothing new in something that goes up so fast.   Now we turn to giving this a look around the 9ema area.   At this point its only a look, we like to see a reversal begin before considering a entry.

MTRX, MTRX, MTRX one fine oily day it will move.

Some notes on other stocks in Alert/Update page. 

DJIM #4, 2007

We can't block out all the noise, all the negative noise hitting the wires, the bobble heads on CNBC as its venom is in front of you on your screens...the abundance of red, 3 out of 4 days!.  But it is possible to turn off the excess, the actual stuff making the noise...click..it's off!!.   If you want to dwell on the macro, we can refer you to 1000 places that will discuss the possibilities till they and you are blue in the face.   It is so easy to get involved in the hype, even if it is reality in many respects and get a tad depressed and sit on your hands.    You could fall into this trap and sit ideal or you can jump a bubbly, new opportunity to make some mo'.    DJIM is ' stock picking',  it is not to evaluate a macro situation and decide to take a position in a stock that could be affected by the goings on 3 months from today and make you 10% down the road...Why should we wait 3 months, a year for a 10% gain when the possibility to make that much in a day or two is granted almost every day....This is especially true during earnings season!....No matter what the 'big boys'..INTC, IBM's are telling for the future....Small caps for the most part are only telling you what they did for the past 3 months with no outlook.  This gives us all of us an opportunity to collect points, here and now on the PAST..in most cases it's easy money as it tends to bring in momentum and an excellent trading environment.   But if you're shacked away, clinging to stocks stuck at the 'hub' with no immediate flight plan...well, then you are also missing opportunity after opportunity if you do not have excess cash to use.    Procrastination... is something best left in bed or on the potty in the morning,  if you're going to trade successfully.   The ability to differentiate between stocks and understanding what has the most potential to move out of the gate the fastest is so important in our and your success.   You have seen what momo can do recently...good and bad as in VOL.   If you do not recognize momo and jump in day 1 or 2 and procrastinate till day 4, you are left at the summit.  Bet there are more waiting for a move from these prices than ones who got in the first move of a max. of 12-13 points from DJIM time on it.   Basically, those admired the move from a distance so much that they think it can be replicated once they're ready days later.    Why let it slip through your fingers the first time and be left hoping for sloppy seconds!.  To a lesser extend, this holds true for a USAP and it's potential following earning last week.  Like CENX (if you want some aluminum in your diet),  if you want a steel play with a connection to Boeing etc there is not a better longer term hold in this sector.  They are a little volatile but also give a better bang for the buck.  Again, we are not here to make predictions on commodities or anything else...so we are here with the flow.  Right now, its a little positive.

USAP, you saw this stock here before most likely.  It had stellar earnings last Q and this Q beat all expectations handily even if you take the nickel pricing that added about 10c to the EPS.  The 97c was 80% growth and guidance is nothing to sneeze at either.  How to differentiate a stock and its potential for a fast move.  Compare a stock like VE with a 200mln float and USAP with a tidy 4.2mln and 80% instit ownership.  This smells like a possibility of a fast move and volatility, so if you want to the chance of a 3-4 5pt move, stop procrastinating if the signs are there...VOLUME is always one... Why not start with a starter like we did below $37 and then add as you see the momo come.   So, if you watched like many watched VOL, Monday might not be the best time to enter but on the other hand you might want to take advantage of the profit taking end of day and price decrease as a new start.   Again, we are not here to figure out and suggest if a pullback is sufficient for you to enter...our gig is to introduce you to a potential move and in this case tell you our entry.   Now is where you might want to use charts in your decision process.  Of course, we took some points off the table during the nice run, we all should heading into a weekend with a fast gift when its given.  There is nothing not to like here,  but it does not mean you don't take the points.  You're in the market to make money and nothing else.   We will follow closely to take back a full position.

VNDA, here was another opportunity in a stock we know from our own experience the power it can generate.  We know its bloodline, we know this can be that thoroughbred sprinter.  The history of a stock is simply the chart, so if you missed the DJIM run before... a quick glance at the chart and the previous 2 moves should have made you to put this on top of your trading list to watch after our mention of the funny biz in the 350k lot at highs(Wednesday), the snap back action to highs Thursday was another clue to something fishy, yet smelling good.    An offering at the highs of a stock is always positive, it is not the offering with no price that we are seeing from MR and EDU that make the investor apprehensive or even scared that it will be quite lower and also cause dilution.  In a up and coming biotech with at least 2 promising drugs,  dilution is the last thing on anyone's mind.  VNDA will have to partner with a major as they said again Friday, we feel  this should continue to keep the stock steady in anticipation of the inevitable event of a hook up with a major.   What has always been impressive about VNDA is its ability to hold gains after the initial big run.  The finish was strong as it pressed the days highs. We noted our intraday sell and the potential to pick it up back with a break of the days high.  We ran out of minutes to see if this occurs on Friday and will take it minute by minute Monday to see if we add back what we sold.  Remember, we fear the 'negative' news that might come overnight in a biotech,  so use caution and only sleep with what won't break you.  Look at it this way, you could have played VNDA 3-5 days so far and slept fine in between the big days.

What else for the week ahead?.

9EMA..you can make a list off the charts posted of the stocks below this short term support line.  Starting with the Chinese stocks like EDU MR and others like DLB and know what we have no interest in now.  No need to list them all.  Then look at those stepping above this point like the Russian telcos ROS VIP MBT to put back on your potential trading list. Just watchin now more closely.

OIL, really hate to turn to ALY, BTJ if need be, but they do still offer nice trade potential.  MTRX has been incredible through the massacre and considering we have held some through, we'd definitely like to see it move with any sector move.  This is the safer bet and one you can hold through the night.

ATNI was one of those HUB stocks as it did nothing but wait for a flight plan after the initial  BIG run!. It got grounded!. We discussed these tired plays may be a waste of cash at their recent high levels.  Well,  ATNI finally collapsed late last week, but might be a buy opportunity again at 50 day.  More than any other reason is ATNI made it to 2 publications as a 'top' small cap (motley and street.com), Friday.  Just a hunch, if the market is good.

MFW AMK MEND, 3 buys we have listed here on the Journal in 2007, have been steady performers yet do provide some swings and dips to buy before continuing back to highs.  We continue to hold small.. adding/subtracting as we go along depending on the trend.  Trying to catch a bigger move here.  CCOI is another that seems to have staying power, best to look at it again if it comes to highs as 9ema area is still a possibility here.    CCF, a one dollar move in a stock like this is .20 cents on another, so take that into consideration when dealing with thinsters and be prepared to stick it out if you buy these types.  The earnings are not going away, even though the buyers are not lining up last week.  Maybe a few will at the 9ema area.

VE, moved a $1 after our alert on a hunch it might move because of news relating the Suez. Seeing the float, you know this won't be a quick mover. If the news is not substantial and doesn't put the stock in a uptrend soon, we will release that starter position.  A break of $70 is what we would like to see, if it doesn't come soon...we'll say good-bye.

EBS, introducing this IPO to consider for a potential trade tomorrow or one to keep on radar for future events.  This is a recent IPO that is profitable for a biotech, it provides an anthrax vaccine contract for the stockpile .   It moved late Friday and we want to see if there's any follow through or any news.  The OS is 80% is controlled by one big head in the company.  There is not much left for you and us, so there is potential for more moves.  We could be at the beginning of a move, or we could be at the end of a short one.  If we take a starter position early and it turns against us, we won't let it go too far in the red before selling.   

Look at IPGP, as an example of what could be a 2 day run and the potential to get in too late as some did here in the 27's,  instead of buying the 25's and the potential break we spoke of before and after it started to move.

..Big day>>>Boring day

Yesterdays BIG day followed by a BORING day is just fine with us...We can live on the adrenaline rush of yesterday any day, but sometimes coming off such highs can be quite the ugly trip the next day.   We've seen it before where the gainers evaporate one by one the next day and this is why it's never a bad thing to take down some positions in size on days like yesterday and even today when it is quiet and you can sneak in a better sell.    The boring action from yesterdays runners didn't stop us from looking for the next new stock to trade.    We found a couple this morning in ALGN and TGX.   The first hour of the trading day,  we are not thinking what potential this has 48hrs from now or next week.   If we see potential for further gains today off a good earning report..we will jump on it with a starter position and add to it if the action gets better during the day.   You could've had yourself 5-10% on the ALGN and TGX off the alert time without ever having to add these to your book overnight.   Some make a nice living just chewing off these intraday trades day after day.   Of course,  it's not that simple as it's about discovery more than anything.  Being able to find the play is what it is all about, even if the stock has gapped 15-20% by the opening bell.   Too many are simply afraid to enter at those levels and sometimes never get the pull back they hoped for.  These are not the sexiest stocks but they will do for sloppy days like today,  especially if the action is right with volume.   

Align Tech beats by $0.14, beats on revs; issues upside Q1, Y07 guidance (ALGN) , Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.01 per share, $0.14 better than the Reuters Estimates consensus of ($0.15); revenues rose 7.8% year/year to $55.2 mln vs the $54 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.02-0.04 vs. -$0.05 consensus; sees Q1 revs of $56.8-59.8 mln vs. $54.75 mln consensus. Co issues upside guidance for FY07, sees EPS of $0.15-0.27 vs. -$0.01 consensus; sees FY07 revs of $240-255 mln vs. $238.37 mln consensus

Theragenics reports Q4 revs up 30% (TGX) .Co reports Q4 (Dec) EPS of $0.05, excluding a deferred tax asset valuation allowance, vs $(0.01) a year ago. Revenue rose 30% yr/yr to $14.8 mln. There are no analyst estimates. Co says "In many ways we have just completed our best year...and Q4 was our highest quarterly revenue ever...we delivered four consecutive profitable quarters in 2006, something we haven't done since 2002.".       

MFW,  this was the 'trade' in our book off yesterdays alert and buy in.   The action kicked off from the bell and it ran to a high of 33.69 off yesterdays $31+ afternoon prices.  These are the kind of trades you are most happy with!.  Ones where you believe in a stock from the extended level of $28,  our first buy here at DJIM..... to these days when you time a breakout almost perfectly.  Whodathunkit this still had 20% in it from that $28 buy in?.  We did and that's why its been on the chart board every day.

CENX CCOI , also part of the alert..We had nice days with CENX climbing to over $2+ at the highs and CCOI $1+.   If you've been long these,  you're happy.  If you day traded the alert...you're happy.  Actually, we're happy on both sides by adding to the move and selling some later without touching our longer term position in each.

Besides these early morning alerts,  it was quite boring.    But... boring is good when nothing falls apart after a big day.   Anyway, there were enough plays to keep us all busy today.

Untrustworthy

That's what we think of the index move today.   Of course, if you listened to CNBC all day, this is nothing but another rosy day for this market.    If this is an actual rally, why do we find lack of opportuntities to trade?    Trust our eyes, instead of our ears!    You can trade deaf, but you can't trade blind!   Ok, enough of this corny wisecracks! lol   The truth is, we aren't finding many opportunities to trade today,  so we sat mostly on our hands.  There might not be a load to play, but there sure have some nice points in ONXX BW and CENX the last 2 days here.  Selective is the name of the game, now!  A few things that looked interesting today besides these names..

CENX USAP,   CENX obviously got some bid early on b/c of the Alcoa news, but hey Alcoa was the reason we picked this as the Aluminum play over ERS in small cap land.   Anyway, this is very natural b/c this is how the sympathy plays work and hope some of you played it off the alert, if you already don't have it as a hold.   Last week in the forum, we wondered why CENX was lagging the sec. at $44 off the upgrades of the big aluminum plays.  Today all this paid off as it spiked to $49 in the first 10 minutes.  A day like this sure gets CENX's name out there as a sec play, even though there may be absolutely no chance for CENX to get any kind of benefit from a potential Alcoa takeover.   Ride it while the effect lasts!     USAP may also benefitted a little from the AA news,  so it's not a surprise.  What we're glad to see is that USAP held its 9 ema convincingly.   Lets just cross our fingers and hopefully it gets some good trading from this point on.

OEH, our lux lodging play into EPS put it's first close in over $49 NCH and VE, put its first close over $72 while here at DJIM. Guess, it pays to have some NYSE stocks to follow in the middle of the takeover, record share repurchase blab about the Dow.

EML SYNL, not much to say about these two and we are hoping these can turn into a flag pattern.

CGX, this one really showed what we like and that is immediate strength after it gave up some of the early gains following earning.

Basically, we are biting our time with this market.   It doesn't mean that we are going hibernation but we are simply waiting for something to happen.    Knowing this game, something will always happen sooner or later and they come at a time when you are least expected.

DJIM #8 2007

Three days off from the markets almost makes you forget what a happy little place you were at!.  That is until you look at your trading account gain over the previous weeks or the charts of DJIM's closely followed that we/you own to put yourself in that happy space again.   You see there is no excuse to be stuck in the mud after the last 5-6..trading days.  Opportunities have been a plenty and the market has been with you.  If you are not ahead in the game, you are not taking advantage of what DJIM provides for the day tripper or for the investor.  What opportunities?.  Well..lets go to the alert-forum pages and see what was there.  A week ago Friday, there was...

CSV at the open and $5.50, we said to look for confirmation at $6 for interest....it was there and it has touched $6.80...

ONXX buy in premkt on forum when the phase 3 was released just below $20 and now it sits just off $28.

The same day we mentioned the stellar earnings of BW around $41 and the buy of a starter that night, it has traded to $46 since.  Then there was the sooo timely mid week note on TRT lagging the field when it shouldn't have and the kick ass move to nearly $16 in less than 2 hrs on rally day.  This is one example of not chasing the 30% gap on earnings and instead waiting for another entry.   If that wasn't enough, we introduced CYNO low $23's...now almost 10% higher and IBD #28 by the weekend.   Friday's seem to be made for small cap earning and last week didn't disappoint as HURC released their earning.  We alerted we'd be buying early and another 10% was available after the gap open as the stock ran from $39's to $44. If we started the day on a good note, we might as well end it on a good note.  KRSL on the reversal and an alert just under $18 for a potential kick come Tuesday was the trader alert.  Well, it looks like it came in the last 20min and AH's.  Again, this is an example of not chasing if you miss a early entry off earning on a small cap/float stock and instead waiting for the next entry a few days later.  Last ...we checked this was trading over $20 AH's on Friday.  So, this was just the new plays last week, we can't forget the steady climbs on most DJIM's holds to new highs all week.   The long term holders should be happy with DJIM steel, aluminum, lodging, Internet plays...USAP CENX OEH VTRU and even our Euro play in VE, now from low $68's to $74.  Hey even a licorice/banking stock in MFW.   There is a mix on DJIM for any type of trader/investor.  You're not expected to catch all of these plays from last week as there are many factors involved, including size of account...but you should be sticking a few of these trades hard last week.  This is NOT about selling you that DJIM works, you are already here and so the only purpose of regurgitating last week is for ' hopefully ' not many of you to see the potential you are maybe missing and figure out why!!.  We simply want everyone to enjoy the same success.   So,  if you were not in a happy place late last week,  it's time to re- evaluate your strategy as we said last weekend and send us your recent trades and confess to your bad habits.   A very few have done so and hopefully last week they exercised what we discussed and profited.  Count how many of these DJIM plays mentioned today you hold this weekend or traded last week,  this could be a simple test to know why you are not ahead of the game.

HURC, this opened nicely with not a lot of fanfare as the volume indicated. This provided some early entries at a decent and not runaway price.  Soon you saw the potential in how fast this stock can move.  We touched on what we like about HURC in alerts. There is nice growth of 14mln yoy in revenue plus over 2mln in net.  The estimates were beaten and sequentially there was some growth which we like to see.  Considering 2006/2005 yoy Q was flat last year, this is impressive considering they did .84 v.48c.  Seems like they are back on track with operations in China to take hold in 2007.

KRSL, seems every Q we go through the KRSL hype off earning and most of the time it does not last.  The 775K float is always advertised as the the holy grail on this stock.  You see it has been beating YOY numbers Q over Q for the longest time and the same story starts.  This time many will put their EFUT in their mouth and say this will become such...Hey,  weren't they just saying that with FFHL and the happy smiley price targets on it.   Simply, the numbers are good but there is nothing tremendous about them.  But that is not the point here,  it is only about how much the traders want to play and drive something higher.  It depends on the mood and right now its seems to be craving a runaway, just a feelin'.  The volume the first day makes us think this might have a longer life span this time around.  This is for traders unless you want to take a $2 dollar lotto ticket on it.  You can see the drop to 15's and the pop to 20's as to the volatility.  Anyways, we got our trading boots on with this one and will trade accordingly.

With over 90% of the SPX probably reporting already, you might think it's the end of earning season.  In reality, this is when the small / micro caps quietly start sneaking in with reports, so this hardly the time to get complacent and tie up cash in laggards.  It is always good to have cash ready and not be anything close to 100% invested as you don't want to be selling something in order to get at another.  First, you will never get the price you dreamed of for the one you've been holding and by selling you won't be getting the new buy at the price you wanted if it runs quickly anyway.   Still, this has been a very productive earning season so far as we conclude week #8 of DJIM weekend updates.    To name a few nice ones from this Q, we need to start with USAP as the big winner from $36's.  CCF VARI VTRU ENR AVZA MTRX, a few quick 20% runs in the cheapies like TGX TRCR and some that are fresh like SYNL CGX  CYNO etc. that we are looking and hoping for more out of.  The charts paint a good picture of the recent DJIM closely followed,  nothing we can really add than what you see from last weeks Journal, Alert follow ups and Forum notes.

Happy trading and a Happy Chinese New Year to our DJIM friends...

Expectation!

We are almost two months into the new year and many of us have been asking the same question.   Is this the kind of market we have been expecting?   The truth is, nobody can really answer this question.    Just like an individual stock, the overall market would spend most of its time in the consolidation mode.    It seems we have been stuck in this mode for the longest time.    Unfortunately, there's really not much we can do about this and we can only do our best to cope with this situation.     Today it started off as if the market wants to go down hard but it ended up in a meaningless way.    Our DJIM stocks have fared better than most in this market environment and this is the exact sort of things we liked to see to end our trading day.      Here are some highlights...

FSLR TSL JASO, even though we are grouping these three together since they are all solar plays, we do have to point out that FSLR is the only one that we have considered as an earning plays.    Solar plays are hot and there's no doubt about that.   We think these three represent the best in the solar trading world where both the liquidity and technical signs are top rated.

CSV, this little funeral service stock broke out today on pretty convincing volume.   We didn't think those insider buying was meaningless so we added then and again some today.    It's hard to speculate how high the institutions will take this one up to but one thing we can all agree about its business is that "it's just a proven business".

BW OEH VTRU HURC TRT CGX,  again we are grouping these together b/c these are familiar names that always seem to outperform the rest of the market.    Steady as she goes!    It's nice to have a 20%+ mover in your portfolio but it's the steadiness of some of our stocks that make our portfolio really shine.  All these have been early earning buys this Q at DJIM and OEH, is a sec play on other hotel earnings plays that came out with nice reports.  Now, it gets some takeover speculation with the CEO departure. We thought this speculation was already underway due to industry conditions and company internals, today Bear Stearns added some fuel to it.

CENX survived earning with a NCH to boot and shows this aluminum play is looking for its 52 wk highs down the road.  A couple of recent faves CCF, HMIN are now over 9ema and back on close watch.

Things are definitely looking pretty rosy at this moment and we have seen no shortage of leaders among the stocks on our watchlist on a daily basis.    Does this mean that we are committing heavily into this market?    At this point, we feel we are committing more capital but only on a selective basis.    Things can get out of hand when you add too many positions and it's easy to lose track of things.     A good strategy is to limit our portfolio to a certain number of positions.     For example, when we get to near the close of the trading day, we always ask ourselves a question, "are we going to be holding the best 10 stocks on my screen overnight?"   If things do check out then we can end the day happy but if one or two stocks seem like a laggard then we just cut them lose or replace them as in a CXW yesterday.    This is of course assuming the market is still in a pretty good stand and there are stocks on our watchlist that are outperforming.     Basically the point is that we are always extremely picky about what we hold in our portfolio and this means ...yep, we'll say it again thanks to MFW finance biz...no holding into earning.