DJIM #17 2007

Last week was quite the interesting week.  We go off to a fast start as our closely followed from the previous week struck new big highs come Monday..TSL $68.9, JSDA $32.6, UXG $7.17, JASO $28.30.  What followed was our noted exit before the downdraft began for these plays, which included a few D-grades of note we alerted to Tuesday premkt.  In regards to D-grades, we've said many times we prefer to move on when we see these hit the wires.  Yes..even if your stock wasn't D-graded but is in the same sector, you can expect a sell-off as well.  Especially after a big momo run.  Coincidently, what followed was a few days of boring action in the small caps as the larger caps moved forward.  This action, this divergence started getting many out there saying the market was hanging by a 'thread' or was 'troubling', as the broader market was not playing along.  To us, this isn't some conspiracy that the market is going to implode....it was just boring as we all probably had a rush going into the week off the momentum runners that ran into Mondays action.  Luckily, we had AVNR for a few days to keep us sane ..or is it insane if we're playing these?.  By end of day Friday, we had the large caps confirming the trend, we had the Nasdaq showing support and moving higher on bullish earnings all over the place.  Do we think the bearish mood on small caps seen mid-week will continue?....NO!....if the earning keep surprising!   It's just a matter of time before small-micro caps play along in the bullish trend.   See yesterday note with charts.  Also, S&P Equity research reasserted late last week that mid cap asset class is where investors should stay focused in '07 , going against the grain of Wall street by saying this class will out perform the large caps.   This week as seen in our earnings dates calendar, small caps earnings will start to flood the market and we will most likely concentrate on new names going forward or looking to recycle names off reports. A few small cap stocks came out with excellent earnings last week. These include...

SYNL, its Q1 profit increased to 56c, a fivefold increase yoy and sales climbed to 44.4mln. The report was also sequentially better which shows growth not only year over year, but Q after Q which we like to see.  We didn't feel SYNL was the type of stock to chase pre market, especially as it hit $37.  We simply thought we might get some selling early from those anticipating excellent earnings and holding through, we thought we could get it cheaper.  The stock never saw those premkt highs Friday.  The stock bounced off the recent high, filling the gap and we bought back a position.  Still under a million shares traded, but we definitely like the volume bar it put up Friday and think this could start to trade a little differently than it did in the past 6 months.

ATR, manufacturer of dispensing systems for personal care, cosmetics, food and beverage put out a nice report as well last week that we covered Thursday. A nice spike at the open to $77 before closing up at $75.12. 86 EPS/89 RS #'s.

DXPE, a combo of a favourable chart and the good ole pre-earnings walk up played a role in its 9% action Friday. We are trading this and will let loose our positions before earnings on the 24th.

Steels/speciality Alloy manufactures, we are still holding SCHN.  Other stocks in these groups of interest to trade are RS and TONS.  TONS is for the bungee jumping aficionados.  USAP and its steel-alloy group have a nice chart after a recent pullback.  If the group has a breakout, we'd look for USAP again.

Solars, volume has declined daily on almost of the players. The short squeeze, momo run is over for now.  We have no reason to test the calm waters.  We'll be there when the waters get infested again.       We are also away from the cheap mining plays here as we head into earnings for the smaller names.

Shipping stocks like DRYS have been doing well lately, ISH remains a play too look at.  Very small float here. RCCC, FCSX, ROS, MFW, GLDN, USAT, TNH , some names up there on the watch-trading list going into the week,  but we'd expect new earning names to take the thunder away from the more mature plays in the coming week or maybe a biotech feverish stock or two to be the big plays.

TXN, AMZN, AAPL...

There definitely is a pattern going on.   Big tech stocks delivering good earning and pushing the market up along the way.   It feels good out there, especially for those co's that have delivered optimistic news, earnings related or not.    This is good news for everyone.    When market is in a good mood, it's just much much easier to deal with everything else.    We don't necessarily have to trade THE stock in news such as AMZN or AAPL, but we can take the advantage of the rosiness of this market to tackle other stocks that we are familiar with and in our niche.     There have been tons of small caps releasing earning these days and with the help of the generosity of this market, we can sure capitalize on some good stuff out there.

First of all, you have to make money on a day like today.   What we said this morning was vital to tackle today.  If you aren't, then there's something wrong with your holdings/strategy.    What's a cure?   Dump the laggards and get into the winners.   Yes, it's that easy.    For us, we only fall in love with a stocks action, never the stock itself.   So if a stocks action gives us headache, we cut it and move on.

Earnings play!    We have stressed enough times that a pre earning run is merely a PRE earning run.    Holding through the earning defeats the purpose of playing the pre-earning run.   This is not a complicated concept but a much useful discipline for DJIM traders.   We don't hold into earnings, period. We just play earnings.  There are quite a few earnings related plays today so we'll go over some of them...This morning we gave our strategy to a few names we'd closely monitor for a potential play...

DXPE, earning came out last night and stocks action delivered today.    What may cause this is the possible fact that the stock did NOT have a typical pre-earning run-up prior to the announcement.  It just had a fews days sandwiched between a so-so day.  The stock price pretty much sat in a flat line since the last earning report and this time it just jumped much like last time.   Like we said before, seasonality factor favours DXPE, BTJ kind of stocks going into the summer.    The action today only further confirms our thesis and we bot some during today's run-up. Our approach was to watch tape, the market reaction after the bell and "go from there".  Soon, it was clear the crowd, the market wanted a piece of DXPE.

RVBD,  "We will play accordingly if we see it has potential to smash that level or if it does". Well as it happened, low $33 area was attacked and we entered into this play. We are not chartists, but one look at the chart today showed and area of tops from Dec to March. Our 'charts for dummies', handbook said if it takes this level, we'd like to play it. The factor of a hot tech market made RVBD an easy choice today.

BTJ, much like DXPE, this one did very well off the earning.   Mood is very positive for this sector and we have no reason to doubt that this one can run much further.     Float is small with this one and it doesn't look like it'll give up its spot on IBD100 list anytime soon. 

What did these 3 have that SILC didn't?. A mixture of sequential growth and good guidance, something SILC didn't.  If reading numbers isn't your game, let the market make the deciding factor for you before you enter a trade.  Simply..you want to be where there is a influx of money going in..not going out. The easiest way to do so is WAIT!.  Also, it is not just about reading the headline numbers.  If that was the case we'd all be buying EML today!

SCHN, oh how we like this steel earning addition to DJIM. Closed up another 6% higher. This is up from $45 when first intro to a high of $53.50ish today.

IDSA, this is and old friend for us that came out with results mid day.    The stock caught on fire b/c of the recent surge in scrap metal stocks and whole sector in general.   What got us more intriguing is the fact that IDSA's IBD number 90 90, prior to the report, is good enough to get on the IBD100 list.   Be caution though, this one is volatile and can turn on a dime.    We do, like the risk/reward of this one at this point given the rosiness of the sector, the market in general and the potential IBD fever attached to it.

PAE, this one was profiled in briefing yesterday but we mentioned it 8 trading days ago b/c of its earning, plus a recent alert on a move on $2.   All we can say it is a beautiful thing to sell our stocks into briefing profiles that get new bait for our already discovered fish!.  This one has gone up nearly 50% ( 1.70 to 2.50 close today) since our Journal on it but you'd hardly notice it b/c of its cheap price and with what's going on with all the other action. " Usually a stock turning the corner on profitability gets some attention sooner than later.  It actually got into IBD's top earning announcements column and might get a look Monday or simply crawl slowly upwards from here.   It can be a complete bore or its numbers and float and price will get some cash into.." DJIM 

MTOX ROS keep on ticking best. Some others we were trading today in smaller sizes and/or closely watching, MFW RCCC CYNO BW(eps in am).

Complacency...

This market definitely feels like there's high level of complacency built in.   We kicked off the week with a hostile bid offer from AA for the good ole Canadian Alcan.   A potential deal like this always spurs activity in the sector and we are seeing the spill over effect into a few stocks.   This and other M&A activity is definitely good news for overall market.   What this means is that since market has been getting constant flow of fresh bullish catalysts, participants are willing to throw money into other secondary plays.   This, in turn, props our index higher and makes every trader feeling positive and optimistic, and willing to commit capital.

SYNL, technically, this one looks really good given the volume + price action today.   For those that may not know, today's action is the result of Louis Navaliier recommendation, so we heard.    The last L.N. play we touched was UIC which was actually quite a while ago.   However, it did give us more than a dozen points added on.   How do we play this then?  Well, we are willing to give this one some room to move so we'd be looking for continuation of strong volume in order for us to continue the ride. This is no different than a Briefingcom profile, a Cramer blurb that picks up on a DJIM stock long ago discovered.  We'll take it all and have an advantage of already cashing in once or twice and knowing the trading habits of the equity in question.

FSLR, perhaps the easiest points, or the safest points, have already given to us by the end of today.    What does it mean then?   We think once the earning fever dies down with this one, it may trade back to the old form again.   We are keeping a close eye on this one and especially on the volume.  Still this report is more optimistic than the last and might make FSLR a better long term bet for new money.

NGA, this one needs a pullback badly, we think.   Why?   The stock looks more tired each day compare to the previous one.    We don't think the run-up is far from over and we are here to buy the dip aggressively.   De ja vu!     We have probably pointed this approach out many times before.  For an EPS momentum stock,  the FIRST pullback should always be aggressively bought.   This to us is not a wait and see play at this point.   We are simply trusting our own experience and instinct to play aggressively on this one.   We like this one a lot.

VOXW, just last night we said not to lose sight of this one. Today's range almost 2 points or 30%.  Volume was higher than the last weeks big day, so some money is discovering the run-up potential in this name.

Some other notable plays we like today include VDSI TNH SCHN and BTJ and these aren't strange stocks to DJIM.   At this point, we are just curious to see how broadly this market can participate so we can find diversified opportunities to trade. Since capital preservation is key here, not meaning doing nothing but rather taking profits when we get a nice ride.   Today, we were glad to have our capital securely away from DNDN, IDSA.