More choppiness?

That's what we feel at this moment.    When we say choppiness, it means the market will behave in a very volatile and adverse way.    We have been saying for a couple of days that we feel sooner than later we may see a big movement out of this market.   It seems that we've been stuck in the same range for too long.   Sure, there have been some good earning surprises and individual action kept us busy during the last little while.   Still, we still have to keep our eyes on the index just to feel if something big may be cooking down the road.     When all things said and done, a big market movement would drag a lot of stocks with it, up or down, regardless the type of stocks.     At this point, we aren't 100% certain about which way the market will lean but it's just hard for us to see a sudden rally into new highs and beyond at this point.    At this point, if it wasn't for some new earning play and couple of story stocks here, the market would actually look down right lousy.   This is what we have to be prepared for, mentally.    We basically have to be prepared for the possibility of a "woosh down".    Believe us, it's much easier to deal with a rally than a sell off.    With a rally, the worst you can do is not to make money!   But with a sell off, you  not only can  lose money, but your confidence as well, and it unbalance your cold emotion as a trader.     Basically for us, it's better to be prepared ahead of time and when the hit comes, we'd know exactly what to do and won't get caught.

So what have been doing now?   Other than getting up early and play some stocks off the news, we are looking at laggards that needed to be reduced and cutting down our # of positions to a manageable level.   Of course, every trader's account is different and this is how we do things when we get cautious.   So what are considered the laggards then?   Basically, those stocks that have released their earning report for a long while and haven't done much of anything, are considered laggards.     We are keeping those earning plays that look technically strong but will keep our sizes at a comfortable level.   Basically, we aren't over betting in any particular play.    Then, we have to keep a note of those stocks that may trade independently of the overall market movement.    Lastly, keep an eye on new 52 week high and to see where people might be stuffing their capital into.     All these may sound a lot but it's actually an ongoing thing for us.    At this moment, we are doing what we can to stay ahead of the game.

ONXX, this little play caught some serious momentum fire today.   The huge gap up is not enough to deter buyers and it inched another 20%+ intraday.   This is not a typical play we'd hold overnight so this is more of an hour by hour thing for us.   Again, if you have fast finger and a suitable appetite for these kind of plays, it does pay to get into it early in the day.   Other than that, your understanding of the news release is as good as ours and we'll just leave it at that. This was simply a headline you cannot pass by early.

BW, speaking of another gap up, this is actually an earning play.   The company guided up for 07 and stock behaved very strongly.   Other than a starter position, we'd have to give this one some more time and room just to see what it's made of.

Okay reversals in USAP, MFW (MDCI continued its bounce) today but not everything reverses.  VARI also did alright but a lot of stuff is lagging any punch.   Watch these 9/14ema levels carefully as we pointed out last night.

..with Love!... signed FC.B

Who you gonna trust in a untrustworthy market on Valentines Day?.... FC. Bernanke of course!.lol...The man blew a kiss and the market caught it big time..every sector got a big wet one from Fed Chairman today!  We won't bore you with this as we just react around here and let others digest and dissect all of this.  All we know is the contenders come out and play and the pretenders stay pat.  It is days like this that you fully understand if you should cut the laggards ( if you haven't the last few days).  If your stock didn't participate today or even yesterday, you are trailing the market.  Today proved the majority of DJIM stocks have been the right play, many toyed with new highs or just had nice action days.  Here is what was in the Box of Chocolates....the spiked ones first

TRT, well excuse if we didn't have time to wrap this one up..lol...we've talked about the lack of love TRT might experience and the reasons why this time around. This is why we had the starter at 13.50 and said we want confirmation over $14 before adding. Well...things changed a bit today and so did our thinking.  Seemingly no one else was connecting the report of the semi AMAT to TRT.   You know,  if you punch TRT competitors.. AMAT is a name you see.   The thinking was simple.  The semi's gap and TRT is sitting in the mid $13's with 30K volume only after stellar earnings.  HUH?..Just like CENX yesterday to a degree, this was a secondary play today on semi's and it was not participating.  We thought this wouldn't last but we didn't expect the rush of 300k plus shares to come in the last 2 hours..lol.  We added as soon as volume doubled from 30-40k time mention and added all the way up before taking some off end of day.  Considering all the time in the world was had for DJIM members to buy TRT since the report, including today under $14.... we can't say we'll be adding in the morning and maybe you should hold off too.

HRBN was the other stock we noted today at 12.70's made a NCH.  Yep, its the same Herbie we introduced at $10 and the spike to 13.70 the next day.  Well, hopefully it got that exuberance out of its system and can hold its gains.  Whatever the case , the China stocks look better as the FXI stabilizes and so we thought we'd go with the small gap open after yesterdays reversal.  We noted the big bids in alert, either this gets taken up into the conference HRBN is at on the 19th and/ or this bidder turns to seller on any bigger ramp up.  Hey, it's a market!

So those were the sweetest gainers but there was more in the box...

USAP made new highs, we have talked about this all week and today was the result.  MFW which reversed along side USAP the other day also finished well.  ENR BW VE OEH CGX HXM all put on a good show. We released most of our VARI as it seems tired and didn't participate.  A nice run for VARI and we'll be back.  It is best to release into a high quietly, nothing beats it after such a walk up since earnings.   So what you have is a bunch of stocks that performed well in a good environment, if you have ones that didn't...you most likely have a true laggard..a laggard is not ONXX that needed to rest after huge gains but an ALGN which can't bust out in a perfect storm for a stock that had its sight on a break.    Simply, you want to be in strength and not in stocks that make you have sleepy money. 

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...

Year of the Pig!

We are definitely enjoying this first trading day of the Pig year.    Of course, the word Pig in Chinese is usually associated with prosperity as opposed to our association of greed.    But today, we are just enjoying being a pig, in either association. lol      Action is pretty broad across the DJIM land and many stocks gained momentum as the index crossed into the green territory.      Here are some highlights...

KRSL, we highlighted this one late Friday and suggested a possible gap up today.   Well we got a gap up and the stock spent plenty of time above $22 today.   That's almost five point play from where we alerted.    We aren't being greedy here and sold most of the trading positions and left with a small trading position.   If this thing gets further momentum tomorrow, we'll definitely chase it but with a controlled pace.  The play as noted was to take advantage of a potential gap we thought we could already see in the $17's Friday being formed....How?...big fat crystal ball!..lol...okay more like a gut of experience.  We did give out the same trade in EFUT, FFHL for gap po'!.  Sometimes its not the length of stay but what you get of it.  If you can get 3-5 pts in 1 day of trading, you're not going to risk it the next day(s).

KBW, we were also surprised by its earning and thought it just seemed to good to be true.   This financial company IPO'ed not too long ago and currently have 4 analysts rate it as a hold with low estimate going forward.   This in our opinion will sure change as analysts will have to raise their estimate based on its report today.   The stock also has a very small float and financial stock in this market cap range always look attractive to us.   We are gonna be trading this one higher.

HURC SYNL CGX BW TRT,  all these recent earnings play have enjoyed some nice follow through and made new closing highs.  FSLR FCN are two more we are trading but have run out of space to discuss lately.

EDU, this familiar one which priced its secondary has broken out today on pretty good volume.    We chased some and are keeping a close eye on any further strength.  If this wasn't enough, recent Russian DJIM stocks made NCH's VIP MBT and GLDN is right there.  This is why we started a hit/hold list so your list starts to resemble ours and we all recycle when the time is right.   At this point the lineup at DJIM closely followed is a World Series lineup and there is just no reason to alert/ forum recent DJIM plays like these.  Hopefully you've listed them to trade or still have them in your books as holds. 

ONXX MFW USAP CSV SNCR, these familiar DJIM stocks all have enjoyed some nice gains and we added appropriately with some of them.

The bottom line is, if any stock did not go up in the DJIM land, then it's really considered as a laggard and we are better off just cutting them lose.   Today was not the day to play a 9ema level bounce. When the market is this rosy and most things seem to work, the trading strategy should be focused on "making most bang out of a buck" and we gotta hammer those stocks with the highest momentum.     We are looking forward to trading tomorrow.    A nice reversal of 35pts on the Nasdaq today and the close over 2500.  Now, let's just stick it!

DJIM #9 2007

What was a 4 day shortened week felt anything but as trading seemed to have come to a stall by weeks close.  The week definitely got started on a bang but by weeks end the buyers seemed exhausted and/or just not interested.   So what do you do?.   Well, if you can't buy anything with potential it gives you time to evaluate your holds and maybe sell some into the 'Green'.  It is not the time to get nutty and turn away from what has been working by chasing something just to make a trade.  It is always better to draw down you positions into the green then having to hastily sell if this lacklustre tone continues and we really have an exhaustion day when the selling hits hard.   What the week provided was for some orderly profit taking and by looking at performance of some DJIM's closely followed in the past 5 trading days, so it was not such bad thing or idea to scale down or add to a strong one or two like CSV.

KRSL 28% SYNL 13%  ONXX 12.1  CSV 8.7  TRT 7.3  BW 6.5  CGX 5.9  USAP 4.0 CCOI 4.2 OEH 3.4 GLDN 3.1..and HURC at its highs was up 15% since alert buy in.  Taking into consideration the last few days, these returns at the end of 5 days of trading is nothing to sneeze at.   The week was not all pairing down positions,  there was some buying and adding to these percentage gains in the likes of KBW and to a lesser extend HDNG.   The only one that got away was CYNO, it looks the Directors got a hold of the hacked version IBD too and decided to sell in bunches this week.   Actually this looks like planned selling again and it has never stopped CYNO before from moving upwards, so we expect this to be a hiccup as well.  You could plug your nose and hold your breath till it goes away or you could just sell when a stock is feeling pressure such as this.  We prefer to sell and not feel the pressure possibly take down a stock of ours.  The stocks above are the primary hit/ hold list for DJIM, we might have reduced exposure in some like BW after a big run but these are also the first we'd be looking to throw money back at in the upcoming trading week.

What probably got us through the week was the continuation of the solar plays. Right now, JASO FSLR TSL are providing more than ample opportunity to swing a trade. The good thing is seemingly there is always one moving, so at this point we are hitching a ride here and there and not asking for names.  VTRU VARI , we are waiting on patiently to make a drive for new highs and jump in with some enthusiasm.  The problem is the techs just don't want to lead this NASD to higher ground. 

So...despite the selling in most sectors for 3 out of the 4 days, the NASD and Russell finshed the week up about 1 %.  The Bull/ Bear fight in full force, except the fighting ain't that strong in either direction.  Hope this week is a little more interesting and some conviction comes back.  In the meantime, DJIM will be stay in its own ring and will be after new earning stocks to punch out some profits with.