2007--The Year in Review

Year in Review--Part One

Last January I listed six goals for my trading during 2007. Even though the last few months have thrown me for a loop, I still managed to accomplish most of my goals. Here they are:

Beat the S&P 500—The S&P 500 made around 4.24% this year. With a half day of trading left, I think I beat it—by 9 times.

Beat the Stock Superstars Portfolio—I’ve already mentioned that Stock Superstars made (6.1%) this year.

Beat Charles Kirk's Yearly Return—Charles hasn’t reported the return he earned this year, but by tracking the trades he made on his members only site, I think I’ve got him beat.

Make 20% on Portfolio—Doubled it at 40.38%.

Match or beat last year's return (62.44%)—Nope. I think I could have made this goal if I had managed my account better and if I had used some market monitors to let me know when to back off of trading. I was up 52.62% on October 31^st and if I had gotten out there and waited until things turned around a bit, I think I could have beat this goal.

Control my emotional trading and stick with the program—Much better this year, but I still have a long way to go. I learned to manage my risk much better this year and that helped a lot with the emotions of trading. I still allowed too many outside influences to affect my trading.

Another Goal Met . . .

Another goal I had this year was to beat the Stock Superstars service which is a investing newsletter provided (for a fee) by The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII).

I followed the newsletter's advice in 2004 as a new trader and learned a lot about investing and fundamental stock picking.

The service is run by some very smart and seasoned investors who are very transparent in their strategies and performance (a rare combination).

So far this year, the service has made 6.8%--another confirmation that this was a very difficult year to be an investor.

One goal met . . .

The Prudent Speculator is one of the stock newsletters that I've followed for a few years. They have a very "Buffetish" take on the market and do very well year to year holding their stocks an average of five years. I've often considered using their recommendations for my long term portfolio.

Usually, they post their performance on a weekly basis, but since September it has been a lot more sporadic. I haven't seen an explanation, but I assume it might be because things haven't gone very well this year.

Here is their last performance chart that was posted nearly a month ago.

One of my goals this year was to beat the Prudent Speculator's return this year. It appears that I've done that and that is swell. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to detail all of my goals for this year and discuss what I accomplished and what I didn't.

I can't believe how worked up I got over the couple of trades I made today. That's probably not a good sign. I think I felt weird because most of my indicators say that it is still best to stay out of this market.

Overall, this was a good day. I have an option on GLDN that I've had for a month and haven't been able to sell at the price I want. For some reason it blew up today. The stock went up 3% and the option lost 53%! If there is anybody out there that knows why let me know. I'm an idiot.

Dipping my toe . . .

I just can't stay out any more. I've taken a couple positions in MS and XLF. I think the financials have bottomed out and could have a good pop in the next couple of weeks. We'll see. I'm not risking too much and this may help with my constant chomping at the bit. If they go south even more, it will teach me to be more patient.

'Tis the Season

This is me and my swell family. I'm the geek with the stupid Mennonite beard.

I'm very thankful for such a terrific family. My wife is not only beautiful (what was she thinking?), but she is also incredibly smart (again, what was she thinking?). She has been very supportive when I've risked our hard-earned money on my untested stock market ideas.

My kids are great and a lot of fun. They have put up with their parents' crazy careers without complaint.

This is a great time of year to appreciate all we have in our lives. We are spoiled as Americans, and it is easy to lose sight of that and become cynical and unappreciative. I encourage all 3 of you StockPunk readers to take some time out this season to appreciate all that you have!

Not much going on

There's not much happening today in the market. Looks like another good day to get some stuff done.

Short-term indicators aren't looking so hot anymore. Moving averages are flat and there's no real reason to get excited about buying stock.

Lately, I've found Stockbee's Market Monitor to be a very good indicator of market direction. I like using it in tandem with some of my indicators. I think it's a lot better than flying blind and I think I've become a much better trader since I started tracking the overall health of the market.

Not very convincing

Even though we ended up positive for the day, it was still pretty ugly out there. With six real trading days left in the year, I'll need a lot of convincing to get back in and days like this aren't gonna do it.

With a break from school and work next week, I hope to get into the pile of books I've accumulated over the last couple of months. This is also a great time of year to figure out how to give back.

Gap at the open

It looks like the market is going to gap up this morning. I'm still planning to stay out. That gap up in November (blue arrow) still bothers me because the market often "fills the gap" meaning it drops back down and covers the hole that the gap created.

There is the possibility that the bears are done and the Christmas rally will finally take hold. Things are very oversold right now, but there still doesn't seem to be a real catalyst to move the market higher for more than a few days. Until there is, I'm going to watch from afar.

The Nastiness Continues

It is a rare sensation for me to be watching the market from the sidelines. Since 2003, this is the longest period of time that I've avoided trading or investing. I'll have to say that as things continue to decline, it feels pretty good to not have those helpless feelings of "Why am I losing money with everybody else?"

Now that 1460 has been broken through in the S&P 500, I'm not very confident that we won't see more selling through the end of the year. I'm becoming much more secure in my decision to be happy with my returns and regroup after Christmas.

Week In Review 12-14-07

That was one mess of a week and I'm glad I got out on Monday. I'd have to say it was one of the better decisions I've made in the last six months. For the week the portfolio was up 6.5%.

I was a bit shaky on my decision to stay in cash because there were a few indicators that I thought showed that we could be at the beginning of a bull run for a bit. Those indicators have all turned the other direction, so I'll be staying in cash next week as well. That's swell. I'll have to admit on days like today I kind of delight in the market sucking.

That was ugly

I hope none of you bought anything this morning. It looked tempting, but that rally wasn't real. There's a lot of manipulation out there. This isn't a good time to be taking chances with your money. Remember, CASH is a position.

Fortunately for folks still in the market, support held (barely). You still have time to get out of this silliness and enjoy the holiday.

So THAT's what happened

I had trouble figuring out what drove the insane rally this morning after a bizarre day yesterday. Apparently the Fed can't let the market have a few bad hours without getting involved AGAIN.

Frankly, I don't like it. Fed decisions shouldn't control the market like they have recently. Earnings haven't been all that great. Inflation is a real issue for the everyday consumer (I'm sure the big boys on Wall Street have no idea how much a gallon of milk costs). Lower home values are taxing consumers. There really isn't a reason out there right now for things to move higher.

I just don't think the Fed can continue to prop this market up. Things have to return to equilibrium and I'm afraid that just might be the February lows. It's tempting to jump in when things are this wild. But I think it's a fools game right now until things get straightened out.

I highly recommend that you read Charles Kirk's blog every couple of hours. I think he is doing an excellent job of painting a realistic picture of what is happening right now. He may have been a bit conservative throughout the year, but when you're sitting on a million large you can do whatever the flip you want in my opinion.

Keeping my eye on the chart

I'm watching a couple of points on the S&P 500. Watch the support at 1460 (solid blue line). I think that's a key number and if we break through it, we might plummet down to the February low of 1377 (red dotted line).

The most recent correction didn't give us that capitulation that we saw in August (blue arrow) and I have a feeling (after seeing the reaction to the rate cut) that we could see some really rough times if we break through that support.

Look at how goofy this market has been since July. Compare it to the nice smooth ride up from March to June. This thing has been a real pain in the buttocks and if we break though 1460 look out below!

Must . . . Resist . . . Temptation

I got that "trader's twinge" in my stomach this morning as the radio was announcing that the pre-market was trading "sharply higher". Should I get back in? Will the bulls take control today? Am I missing out?

Emotions can destroy a good trading plan. I made a good decision on Monday and it would be silly of me to get greedy and jump back in based on the pre-market reaction. OK, I've talked myself into holding tight.

Holy crud! I was right!

It doesn't happen very often, but I called this one right. But, I didn't expect that kind of reaction to a 25 basis point cut. I thought that was already priced into the market. Where do we go from here? Charles Kirk includes several interesting quotes about what happened today on his site.

So far so good

It's nice to see some profit taking ahead of the Fed announcement. It feels very good to be on the sidelines while I watch this action. I expect a jump once the announcement comes, but if it is just a .25 % cut, I think things will pull back to where they were at the open by tomorrow evening. Who knows, but it doesn't really matter when I've got nothing invested.

Time to get some homework completed . . . I hate homework.

Second guessing--Another best day ever

Today I scored my best day ever dollar-wise--I made nearly 5%. The last time that happened was November 6th. November 7th was my worst day ever. My plan today was to sell into strength since this is something I've never done and I've always regretted not doing so as I watched my gains slip away.

But as I look over things tonight I wonder if I made the right decision. I was expecting the Fed's decision to be more of a let down, but folks are starting to talk about a 50 basis point cut or more. My indicators are telling me that we're headed out of a bottom. Stockbee's Market Monitor is in rally mode. Phil Grande is saying "go to cash, now". Kirk went to cash today too. Cramer says expect a 1,000 point rally by Christmas for the DOW. I'm so confused.

Stupid Jim Cramer

No sooner had I sold off all of my positions then I seen this on the Kirk Report. Whatever Cramer. The good thing is if he is right (and I doubt that he is or that the fed will cut rates .50 percent) then I'll just jump back in for a quick ride up through Christmas. Look at me, it hasn't even been a few hours and I'm whining about getting back in. I'm pathetic.

Taking my gains

One of the biggest problems I have is hanging on too long and refusing to sell when the market is showing a lot of strength. I'm trying to change that today by selling into this Pre-Fed rally. I really don't think we can continue rolling on these rate cuts. People will look to earnings when the smoke clears and I'm guessing we'll see a decline again. That's just my guess, but some of the other bloggers I respect seem to see things that way too.

I had hoped to end the year up 30% and I just topped 40% today. I'm happy with that and during this busy time of year (in school, work and at home), I'd like to focus on the more important stuff the rest of the year. The challenging thing for me will be to sit idly if the market storms forward. We'll see how this "experiment" works.

This Week with StockPunk

Looks like this will be a "sit tight" week. Not much changing on the screens, so I'm planning on letting things ride until something dramatic happens. Hope everybody does swell this week!

Week in Review -- December 7th, 2007

This was a pretty good week for me financially. The portfolio was up over 4% and it looks like were at the beginning of a tradable rally into Christmas. My indicators for putting money back in have just gone positive, but I had a feeling last week that things would hang together and we'd be able to make some money going into Christmas. Sometimes my feelings are right.

My plan is to stay fully invested through the holidays and re-evaluate come the first week in January. I'm looking forward to posting my first year-in-review at the end of the month. So far my screens are kicking my tail so it should be pretty interesting when put this last year in perspective.

Is it safe?

It looks like it may be time to go long again. The averages seem to have bottomed out and money is moving back into the market.

This may be short-lived, but with the end of the year window dressing going on, I'm hoping to make up some of my November losses. I'm hoping we see a September-like rally. That would be swell.

More important than the stupid stock market

The last two days have kept me away from trading and they've been awful. I can't discuss what happened yesterday, but today is national news. I grew up two miles from the Westroads Mall in Omaha where 8 innocent people lost their lives today. We have a friend who works at Von Maur and she was there today. She left the store to visit a nearby store when the shootings started. Thankfully, she called us to let us know she was OK.

So right now the market is not the most important thing on my mind. This is a good time for me to be thankful for a healthy and safe family.

Back to the Basics

These last couple of months I've allowed myself to get a bit off track. I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal, I started listening to stock radio shows, and I began participating in a trading forum online. I think I began to get overly confident in the "knowledge" I was gaining and I tried to cram all of that information into a new trading strategy.

I started using some market indicators that supposedly told me when to be aggressive and when to run to the sidelines, and I began using a spreadsheet that calculated the best time to get out of a stock to lock in gains or to avoid big losses. I went to all cash for a couple of weeks and avoided trading (boy that was hard).

With all of that fantastic use of my brilliant trading mind, I managed to loose 25% of my YTD returns by the end of November. When I compared that to my Zweig Relative Strength top 5 screen I was a bit shocked and more than a bit angry at myself. If I would have ignored everything that was going on and just plugged money into that screen, I would have MADE 4% during the month of November. That's a 29% difference between my returns and the returns of an unemotional and completely computer-selected screen.

So, I think that it would be wise of me to quit trying to outsmart what I know works. It's never a bad idea to continue to learn new things and to try to improve on a system that works. But it was obviously a bad idea for me to charge ahead with unproven methods. I got a little cocky and I made a lot of money. The market has a way of humbling me EVERY TIME I get over-confident.

Judging from my e-mails, I wasn't the only one to get humbled in the last couple of months. I hope that we all use this as an opportunity to get back to what we know works and get back to the basic ideas that make money in the market.

Today I made 1.01%. Back to the basics.

This Week with StockPunk 12-3-2007

This should be an interesting week. We'll see if the bulls can remain in control this week. I'm putting more money to work as I'm hoping to catch some of the Christmas rally that typically happens this time of year.

I really did a terrible job trading when things went sour last month. I hope to get back to my trading basics this month and make up for some of my losses.

Month in Review 11-30-07

Yuck! That's about all I can say about November. The portfolio lost 23.52% this month. I think a lot of that loss was unnecessary and stemmed from my lack of commitment to my trading plan. I've learned a lot these last couple of months, but I think it has been a mistake to apply everything that I've learned at once. I'm trying to incorporate to many ideas into my original trading plan and it ended up hurting me this month.

Compare my returns to the Zweig Relative Strength screen that's my favorite. It MADE over 9% this month. While I fiddled and faddled with charts, screens, radio show diatribes, and news, my dumb screen made money without any brain power. I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

GHM made 55% this month. I bought it at all the wrong times because I kept trying to time things just right.

We'll see how the rest of the year pans out. The market has taught me quite a few lessons this month and I'll be doing a lot of thinking, analyzing, and reading to try to apply the lessons to my trading next year.

On the fence

I'm not quite sure how to evaluate the last couple of days. I'm hopeful that the rally will continue through Christmas. But there are a few things that have me concerned.

I was hoping to see the volume today surpass the last two days to really confirm that we were headed in the right direction. Volume was about half of what it was yesterday. I have a feeling that we might fill in the gap opening over the next week or so.

I'd also like to see the percentage of stocks in the NY exchange pop over its 20 day moving average. It's close, but we could see a bit of reversal as that gap gets filled.

So, for now, I'm cautiously putting some money to work in my trading portfolio while I let my long-term money take a break.

Yay

Apparently this was the day to do some trading. I did very little, and made a few bucks. I've got eight long positions right now in my trading account while my long term accounts sit in cash.

We'll see if this thing has legs. My gut feel is that with year-end coming up, that we'll see a pretty good move up. After that, your guess is as good as mine. My goal is to maintain my 30% gain through the end of the year.

My stupid stock trading strategy

Well, it looks like I was right about the bounce. I was just wrong about what stocks would benefit. Part of my problem is that I am chasing a 40% year end return and time is getting short. The market doesn't care about my targets and is quite happy to take money away from me when I make unwise decisions.

I'll have to admit that I've really struggled over the last month. In the past, I've experienced a week or two of slumps where things don't make sense. But it has been a long time since my struggles have been so consistent.

Making new mistakes

I thought I could ride this morning's bounce so I bought 3 stocks and put tight 2% stops on them hoping to glean 5 times my risk. If you've read this blog for any amount of time you are probably thinking to yourself, "I bet it didn't go the way he hoped it would." and you would be right. I stopped out of all of them within 30 minutes.

I guess I can chalk that up to another hard lesson learned. I'm back to cash.

Another ugly one

Sorry this is so late--I was out ringing bells for the Salvation Army. My returns in the kettle were about as anemic as my trading lately, so maybe it's just me.

I'll have to admit that even though I sound confident about staying in cash, I'm really not. This morning I was chomping at the bit as I saw many of the stocks on my watch list leaving me behind as they shot skyward. I was kicking myself for not taking a position in BIDZ last Friday, but then congratulated myself for my "discipline" as it nose dived after taking off again this morning.

Despite the general ugliness in the market, we still haven't seen the "capitulation" candle (blue circle) that we saw back in August. So even though we've reached the August lows, I would feel a lot more confident that we've seen the bottom of this downturn if we got a panicky day like that. So for now, I think it's best to wait this one out until things for sure turn for the better.

This Week with StockPunk 11-26-07

Although the stock screens I follow have done OK in the last couple of weeks, I'm still inclined to stay out of this mess for a bit longer. Despite Friday's impressive gains, I still think this market has a lot to prove before I risk some more money. This should be a very interesting week, but I'll be watching it from the sidelines. Good luck out there!

Time to quit whining

I know I've been on a downward spiral of whining and misery these last couple of weeks. And although I've been kicked in the shins repeatedly by this ugly market, I still have a lot to be thankful for during this season.

For a couple of years I celebrated Thanksgiving in Timisoara, Romania with my wife and friends. We cooked 5 anorexic chickens to feed 10 people. The heads and the feet we're included with the chickens, but we didn't cook those (there is nothing more unappetizing than chicken feet in my opinion).

Despite having very little, our Romanian friends were the most grateful and happy people that I have ever met. I look back on those celebrations fondly as they taught me incredible lessons about what it truly means to appreciate friends, family and life.

These days my job is living with and taking care of 8 teenage girls. They come from all sorts of backgrounds, but many of them have had some pretty awful childhoods. It is quite a privilege for me and my wife to introduce a happy and reflective Thanksgiving day to many of them who can't remember a happy holiday.

Thanksgiving is a busy time for us (we're having over 35 people eat with us this year), but it is always a great time to reflect on how good I have it. Here is a short list of things that I am thankful for this year:

• A loving God who refuses to toast my innards when I act like an idiot
  
• A loyal and loving wife who allows me to risk our hard-earned money in the crazy world of stocks
• Parents who taught me well and continue to give me wisdom and advice
• Two great kids who love their mom and dad and are a lot of fun to be around
• A great career that allows me to pursue my interests and influence lives
  
• Living in a great nation that allows its citizens to be free and to pursue their dreams
• Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and pistachio nuts

I encourage everyone out there to make the most of this special holiday. Put this dumb market on the back burner and enjoy your time with your friends and family!

Benefits of blogging

One of the best things I did this year was starting this blog. Even though it gets tiresome sometimes to write (especially after an awful day), the encouragement and ideas that continually flow in keep me motivated and excited about the future.

I love it when people write me and share their own triumphs and horror stories. It's comforting to know there are people out there that are taking it on the chin when I am too. The comments that the blog receives are almost always encouraging and positive.

This has been my most productive year yet as far as learning goes. I'll be sharing some of the things I've learned in my year-end wrap up. Hopefully by then, the market will have turned around and given us all a profitable Christmas.

Thanks to all of you who take the time to enhance my dumb blog and keep it coming!!

All the wrong moves

I'm about to give this market up. Every time I make a decision lately, it turns out to be the wrong one. I can't believe how many head fakes we saw today.

I bought a stock yesterday that went up 15% today. I sold it after it had dropped back to 5% and it went on to hover just about 2%. I thought I was pretty smart to get out, and then things reversed again and on it went back up to 7%.

I just ate two chocolate chip cookies to make me feel better. Maybe I should REALLY sit this one out for a while.

Maybe this is just a really hard market to trade. If it is, that's good because it teaches how to handle future difficult markets.

Dang It!

I just can't seem to catch a break, and I'm guessing a lot of traders are feeling that way. I felt pretty good about getting some of my money back today after my stupid decisions yesterday. I looked things up after lunch and YIKES! After the S&P broke through 1425 I got a little panicky and sold most of my positions. I probably should have waited for the August lows (around 1406) but I didn't one to compound my dumb decisions of yesterday.

We'll see how things close. It looks like things are coming back a bit right now. What a confusing market.

This is good though. I am learning a lot about trading in a really volatile market that is making everyone (including me) scratch their heads.
You'll notice that the S&P is getting dangerously close to the "time to get out" indicator (where the Price line (red and black) meets the 20 month moving average (blue bar).

This indicator does a pretty good job of predicting long term trends. Note that the last time the lines intersected was mid-2003 when this bull market started. The next couple of months should give us a good idea if this bull is over for a while.

Hopefully it won't last for 3 years like the last time. Or maybe we'll have a repeat of 1998 where it bounced off and went on to new heights for the next two years. Time will tell. The important thing is to be careful out there.

A better day?

So far things look good for a bit of a rebound. I have no clue whether this is just a head fake or whether we've reached the point where the bears can no longer drive things further down.

Despite all the carnage, there are still folks out there who think things still look good.

Bullish Jim is one of them.

Charles Kirk has an enormous amount of information every day that will help you figure this thing out. I never get tired of reading his blog.

I'm an idiot

I was just fishing for good news this morning, and as little as there was, I still convinced myself to make some trades. After all, it's the week of Thanksgiving! Things always go well this week!

I turned a potential positive day into a big losing one--down 1.64%. I traded four stocks early and they all turned on me. Lesson learned (probably not).

This Week with Stock Punk 11-19-2007

Besides a couple of options that refuse to stop out, I'm sitting on a bunch cash. It looks like I'll be doing that the rest of this short week unless I see a couple of quick plays that I can sell before Thanksgiving.

My watch lists are pretty anemic with very few actionable indicators on the charts. If you are a mechanical investor, it doesn't matter. You just keep plugging away--buying the stocks that show up on the screen. It's going to be funny if my unemotional screens beat my own performance by the end of the year.

Week In Review 11-16-2007

Despite the sell-off of nearly every one of my positions, I still managed to lose 3.44% this week. I was able to keep myself from trading at all which is a good thing. The bad thing is that my screens all beat me, and some have overtaken my returns again.

It will be interesting to see how the year ends up. I was feeling confident that this downturn would be short lived, but now I'm not so sure. I'm looking for some bullish confirmation and I'm just not getting it.

Today I thought I'd jump in for a few quick day-trades, but I couldn't find any good setups. GRMN was the only stock in my screens that I didn't look at this morning and of course it shot up today. I'm such a dweeb.

I've been listening to Phil Grande's radio show lately. He's an angry man with many conspiracy theories about the stock market and an avid hatred for Jim Cramer. He's got some interesting ideas, but he sure makes it hard to be long in this market. Maybe he's right.

Ongoing suckiness

Things continue to struggle in this market and it looks like it might not turn for the better until after Thanksgiving.

I'm planning to wait until things bottom out again (like they did in early September) before I put money back in this market.

I'll have to admit--I really don't understand options. I've got a couple that made it through the carnage. Today the stock that my option contract follows lost 2.33% but the option gained 24.56%. I'll take it, but it confuses me.

No trust for this market

I had a few pangs yesterday as the market continued to rally. Then it got all ugly again.

I'm nearly 100% in cash, and I'm not in a hurry to get back in to this mess yet. Today is looking like another ugly one.

Just be patient. Things will come around again. This is usually a great time of year to go long, but it makes sense to let things settle.

Finally some relief

After the worst week in the market since 2002, we're seeing some buyers come in to the market. On days like these I have to fight the thought that I sold too soon. I didn't--I followed my plan and I probably would have lost more if I had held on, but those feelings always creep in when things reverse.

Looking better . . . maybe

The premarket looks better this morning. I'm not biting yet. It seems like a lot of traders think we're oversold and are looking for a bounce.

More ugliness

I sold most of my positions last week and my portfolio still managed to loose another 4% today. That doesn't make me happy. I'm glad I heeded my own advice and avoided buying anything today. When the DOW was up 80, I got a little twinge in my stomach. It's a good thing I ignored it.

• Worst recession since the '30s?

This Week with StockPunk

I'm not planning on any new purchases this week. I think there is a possibility of a continued downtrend until around options expiration this week. I'm still counting on a good run through January, but right now all indicators tell me to wait this one out for a bit. The challenge will be for me to actually do that.

An Awful Week--The week in review

That was one of the worst weekly showings that I've ever had. I lost over 10% and I'm starting to feel a lot less confident that this is a minor blip. I've been ignoring a lot of traders who are smarter than I am who have said we're in trouble. I hope that they are wrong, but for now, I'm not buying anything new.

• Another Zwieg groupie
• Phil Grande says he predicted this week back in March. He's got some interesting things to say on his radio show.
• I may have got my butt kicked, but I'm still way ahead of the geniuses at Stock Superstars and the Prudent Speculator.
  
• Point and Figure Charts explained (and explained well)
• I've learned that it's not a good idea to buy options during a down trend.

I tried to be a calming voice yesterday to friends who were calling me in a panic over the recent unpleasantness in the stock market. I used to get that way too, but having suffered through several inexplicable declines, I've started to take it all in stride.

Chris Perruna has an excellent article (with charts!) that says it better than I can. The bottom line is to hang in there. Learn from what is happening and make yourself a better trader.

I HATE YOU, MR. MARKET

Actually, I don't hate the market. I hate all the wimps who panic and sell with every little bit of news that comes out.

If you read this blog at all, you know that just about every time my portfolio makes a yearly high, I end up giving a bunch back. I get a knot in my stomach whenever I start to make money, because I know I'm about to get my butt kicked. The last couple of days are a prime example. Tuesday I was up 53%. Today (so far) I'm at 42%.

Whenever I get the wind knocked out of me, it causes me to rethink what I am doing. So, I probably learn a lot more from losing than I do from winning.

One of the mantras of traders is to never trade against the tape--meaning the broad market really controls everything. It's hard to make money when no one else is.

The problem is, you never know if things are headed higher, or if they're about to crumble. But there are indicators out there that are extremely helpful in determining what's going on behind the scenes.

Here is a simple chart that helps give me an idea about what's going on. I first saw this kind of chart on Pitbull Investor which is an awesome site that offers some really great tools for very little money.
The chart uses simple moving averages but it gives me a nice picture of the market. If I would have used this chart in making buying decisions over the last 3 months, I would be a lot better off today than I am. If I wouldn't have made any buys after October 22nd, I'd be sitting on about 50% instead of near 40%. I could have avoided a 20% drawdown in August if I would have quit buying around August 1st.

Part of my problem over the past 4 years has been my inability to be patient and wait for the productive times while sitting out the nasty ones. Maybe this thrashing will slap me around enough to create a change in my trading. We'll see.

There are amazing tools out there for free that would have costs thousands of dollars a few years ago. I need to use them better.

My worst day ever

Down 4.86%! Sometimes I hate the market. My unbridled arrogance has given way to fearful humility. OK, not really, but I really got sand kicked in my face today. The good news is I took a bigger hit percent-wise just a couple of months ago. So this isn't as devastating as it seems, but I lost more money than I have since I started trading in 2003.

I guess the silver lining is that I'm still up 46% and I was up 43% when the DOW hit 14,200. So if things recover by the end of the year (and I think they will) were looking at some decent gains before all is said and done.

Another crummy one coming

Invariably after a really good day, I usually have a really cruddy one. Today looks to continue that tradition. Sometimes I wish I was a day-trader. My goal is to avoid watching the market today and let the positions handle themselves. I'll let you know how I did tonight.

My best day ever

Dollar-wise today was the best day in my trading history. It was my best day percentage-wise since August of 2006--up 3.98%.

This is one of the reasons that I tend to stay fully invested at all times. You never know when your train is going to come in and sometimes it happens when you least expect it.

I enjoyed re-reading Nicolas Darvas' book How I Made $2,000,000 in The Stock Market during my vacation. Even though it is a bit light on usable information, it does show the power of ignoring the crowd, the news, and the chatter and following your program without wavering. He lost a lot of money when he started listening to other traders and the media.

Even though I enjoy reading what other traders think about the market, I think I would never make a trade if I didn't follow my own program. No matter how good things are, there are always folks out there saying it's about to get bad.

So, I guess my advice for everyone out there is--Ignore everything and follow your program.

Week In Review 11-2-2007

A wacky week that rarely made much sense to me. The portfolio gained a wimpy .80% this week while most of my screens did pretty well despite the overall markets tanking at the end of the week. I was up nearly 53% for the year until Thursday--my dreams of riches were dashed. I guess I'll have to wait until next week.

Jittery Market

I wasn't really expecting things to go the way they did today. I thought that there might be a slight pullback, but nothing like the way it did by the end of the day. I was only down a half percent until things dropped the last hour. I ended up losing nearly 3% overall.

Fortunately, I gained about that yesterday, so I ended up with sort of a wash.

Days like this used to make me sick. But I have confidence that what I am doing is working and today presents an opportunity for further growth. I still think things are headed higher by the end of the year, so don't let one day (or even several) spook you out of this market. There is money to be made out there and you can't get to it if you are wimpy and stand on the sidelines.

A day like today . . .

Sucky days like today are the bane of emotional traders (I still count myself among this group). Nothing seems to be working. Stocks that were making huge gains are taking huge losses. I'm down way more than the market and there's really no explanation why out there.

It's easy for days like these to shake your confidence and make you question yourself. Don't let it happen. It's how you handle the crummy days that separate you out from the traders who lose money.

My first instinct is to panic, take my losses and run. Even though I've been doing this for four years, I still get caught in unrealistic thinking--that I should never have a down day. However, experience tells me that this is all part of trading.

It best on days like these to let your trading plan do the work. Turn off all news and all the tickers and do something else. The market will take care of itself and your portfolio will recover.

Since the majority of StockPunk readers said the news feeds were worthless, I removed them. Power to the people.

I haven't been as diligent with my posts lately. Life has been busy with work, school, and family.

Yesterday was a good day. Up 2.86%. The last three months of the year are usually the best for my screens. Last year, over half my gain came in during October, November, and December. I've got high hopes for this year as well and everything looks pretty good right now.

Week In Review 10-26-2007

What a wacky week! I can't believe I actually made money--and good money at that. I had a hard time avoiding the news and I benefited from all the power and internet outages.

For the week the portfolio was up 7.52% which brings the portfolio to its highest point this year at a little under 48%.

I assumed that my mechanical screens would struggle this week, but they ended up doing pretty well.

I took my first foray into options today, and it wasn't as confusing as I assumed that it would be. I'll keep everyone updated on how things progress, but I see some opportunities in the options market and I need to quit being scared (and ignorant) of them.

I've got a bad feeling about this . . .

Every day this week has been crazy with the ups and downs of the market. So far I haven't been dinged too badly, but there have been some mornings when I was down 3%. We're starting to hear the doom and gloomers trumpet the end of all things again. I wish I was an emotionless being and could just focus on the 10 stocks that I own and quit worrying about everybody else. But, alas, I just can't do it.

First the power was out and then my internet connection went out and has been out since Tuesday That has helped me from looking too much and being influenced by the large swings this week.

I stopped out of three stocks today and I feel pretty good about where I got out. I lost nearly 16% on one this week which is my largest loss this year. Ouch. Fortunately other stocks have picked up the slack.

I don't feel like it is time to run to the sidelines, yet. Some of the market indicators that I follow still look strong. It's just kind of weird out there right now, so choose your poison wisely.

I'm liking it . . .

Another crazy day that ended up pretty nicely--up another 2.06%. The day started off cool and then things took a tumble and then, once again, the power went out. I wasn't able to get online until 9:30 tonight and once again, the blackout benefited me.

People are getting jumpy in after hours trading, so we'll see how tomorrow flows, but so far, I'm pretty happy with how this week has progressed.

That's more like it

I gained nearly all of Friday's losses back and ended up 2.45% today. I made a couple of buys this morning, they tanked, and then the power went out for the rest of the day. I wasn't able to look at anything until an hour after the close. So my new strategy is to buy in the morning and then cut the power to the house.

Zack's Research Wizard 6 months later

It's been nearly 6 months that I've been using Zack's Research Wizard and I'm starting to regret my decision. The screener is still a very powerful tool, but I'm relying on it less and less as I learn more screening and analysis techniques.

I think the thing that I've struggled with most is the support that I've received from Zack's. The salesmen assured me before I purchased RW that they would design screens around my ideas. I've given them qualifiers a couple of times and I have not heard back from them for four months. Not a peep.

There is a real lack of support for such an expensive product. I think it would really help to have a user forum available. Any sort of communication on a weekly basis would be great.

I truly think that RW is a great product. It has a lot of cool features--the backtesting ability (as flawed as it may be) is unique among stock screeners.

But I'm finding other screeners that are just as neat for far less money. I think I'm going to let my subscription run out in another 6 months.

My first house

Not all successful traders have huge houses. This is mine. It's my first house ever.

OK, it's not quite built yet. But it will be by next March. I've tried to figure out the best way to buy it. Do I pay cash for it? Do I put as little down as possible and use the money to make more money (I'm leaning in this direction)? Do I put 20% down (most people think I'm crazy if I don't)?

I know that the stock market is unpredictable, but If I can average over 20% a year, wouldn't it be better to let my money grow than to put it all in the house? There sure are a lot of opinions out there dagnabbit.

That Certainly Sucked

Today sure took the air out of my sails. I was getting all geared up to blow past my YTD return of 43% and the market took some back from me. I guess I can't complain since my portfolio barely moved from last Friday's close, so despite the weakness of the broader market, I'm doing pretty OK.

It would have been better for me to take a few more days of vacation because two of my big drains today were purchases I made the last two days. It's hard to say what this all means, but I still think things look good for a strong finish to the year. Hopefully this is just a good time to take advantage of some consolidation and panic over a few wimpy earnings announcements.

I plan to update my screens on Sunday. I need to figure out this week's gains and losses and I'll post those before Saturday evening.

It's good to be back

Although I had a terrific time with my wife in Jamaica, it's good to be back home. My wife took this photo of me sunning on the beach. I added the stupid thing of me dreaming about stocks because you really can't take a picture of a person's thoughts (or so I've been told). My wife won't let me include a photo of her even though she was the best looking woman on the beach (or in Jamaica for that matter).

We scuba dived a couple of days and the reef wasn't as bad as my environmentalist brother suggested it would be. There were , however, many cages underwater full of crabs, lobsters, rays and fish that were soon to be harvested by local fisherman. That made me feel kind of bad, but I ate a lot of fish anyway.

My portfolio survived my absence (or maybe because of it). I read a few books during my trip that focused on two of my interests--WWII and um . . . the stock market.

I can't believe that it has taken me an entire day just to get caught up on things. Apparently the market decided that it could move on with out my constant monitoring. That's what I love about the whole market show. Every day is different, there is always something new to learn, and you can go on a vacation and the market is still doing its thing when you get back.

Is it NASDAQ's Time?

If you take a look at the major composites, you'll notice that all but the NASD have recently broken through their 2000 highs. The NASDAQ is still nearly half of what it was in 2000.

Maybe the last few days are indicators of where the next phase of the market is headed.

Tech has been hot lately. People are starting to upgrade to take advantage of the new features in Windows Vista. Apple just released a robust new operating system. Folks are wanting new computers for Christmas.

Will tech catch up with the rest of the market? We'll have to wait and see, but things sure look like they are moving in that direction.

Up and Down

I haven't been able to gain much traction this week and that seems to be the overall feel of the market so far. I've read that this is often how the first couple of weeks in October trade.

I'm off to Jamaica tonight so I will be away from an internet connection for 5 whole days. I was silly enough to check on things during our last two cruises (at like $3 a minute on a dial-up connection) so this will be a real challenge for me. I'm sure it will be a good experience and teach me some good lessons about my constant battle with my emotions.

Have a great week!

Ho Hum

Not much going on today. The portfolio was up .19%.

A few more folks have added to the margin debate. Check it out and add your 2 cents if you haven't already. I went against what I said just a few days ago and added margin to my account. I don't plan to use it yet, but I'm getting tired of waiting for trades to settle before I can safely make another trade. We'll see if I blow up my account.

Four more days to Jamaica. Tick tock, tick tock.

This Week with StockPunk

Last week was pretty strong and we're heading in to another bout of earnings. So far things look good.

I've got 20% of my account in cash right now, so I'll be looking for some opportunities this week. Most of my screens have remained extremely stable during the last few weeks so I don't really have any exciting picks.

The "To the Moon" screen has some new candidates, but I'm not too keen on jumping on them just yet.

Have a terrific week and trade well.

Taking Profits

One of the things I struggle with most in my trading is knowing when to sell. It doesn't matter if the stock is rising or if it is falling, pulling that trigger is just plain hard. That's probably why there are so many different ideas, theories, and discussions about the subject.

Chris Perruna has an excellent article on how to take profits at his blog. I've experimented with several ways of taking profits and preventing losses. Right now I am focusing on a volatility system which seems to have a lot of promise.

The best thing any trader can do is to tap in to the wealth of information out there. There has been no time in history where more information has been available--and most of it is free. Take advantage of what is out there to make yourself a better trader and a better person.

Tools I Use

My hard drive gets loaded with tons of stuff each week (photos, video files, programs) and I sometimes forget where everything went. I use WinDirStat to get a visual representation of my hard drive so I can find where those huge files are lurking and either archive them or get rid of them.

The program is free and a great tool for somebody that uses their computer for many different things (hopefully you're not so addicted to trading that you don't have other interests and hobbies)


Right now, my favorite stock screener is AAII's Stock Investor Pro. It's inexpensive (about $200 per year) and the build-in screens are invaluable for creating powerful watch lists. I've used it over the last three years and I've been very happy with it.







I use Scottrader Elite to monitor the market when I want up to date information. I usually only look at it during the open and close of the market because I can get too wrapped up in market swings during the day. It's a pretty powerful tool and free with a Scottrade account with over $25,000 of capital.




I use a Yahoo Widget to monitor my watch list during the day. The quotes are delayed 20 minutes and this helps me avoid the emotionalism I am so accustomed to. The widget hangs out on my desktop and updates itself regularly throughout the day. It gives me a nice visual on how things are going and it looks cool.

These are just a few of the tools I use on a daily basis. I plan to continue this "series" once a month to let you know what kind of tools I find especially helpful with the kind of trading I do.

Week In Review 10-05-2007

Not a bad week even though the indexes did as well as I did. I made 2.21%. My screens struggled this week and it seemed like the large caps ruled the week. Tech stock seem to be gaining quite a bit of momentum lately as well.

I lost out on a decent move by NOV. I sold it on a gut feeling and got burned. I ALWAYS get burned when I trust my gut. Watch me, I'll probably make the same mistake next week.

Boy, that's ugly. GRMN appeared on my To The Moon screen on Monday and promptly dropped like a brick. I don't own it.

I've noticed a pull-back in a lot of recent big gainers this week. That may be a healthy sign of rationality.

China stocks are lighting up one of my momentum screens like a Christmas tree. I'm not taking the bait, but you could probably make some quick profitable trades if you don't hang around too long.

I'm letting a couple of trades settle until the end of the week. I've got some pretty tight triggers set on the rest of my portfolio--nothing above 5%--so we'll see how the rest of this week pans out.

My dumb emotions

Today I lost 1.41% and I got all worked up about it. What's wrong with me? I know better.

I'm experimenting with using volatility stops with my trades and so far I'm liking it. It really helps with the decision making and helps me keep a majority of my profits. If I continue to use it, I'll give everybody the details.

You can find several short interviews with popular stock bloggers here. Pradeep at Stockbee is the latest. Interesting stuff.

I exited two positions today--NOV and FTI. Both were good trades that took over a month to be really successful.

Here's another guy that shares his returns with his readers. I love to compare different strategies and different traders to see how they do in different markets. I wish more bloggers would post their results on a weekly basis. Maybe I'm too competitive.

I'm beating the pants off of Stock Superstars and The Prudent Speculator. Yep, I guess I am too competitive.

Thanks for those of you who gave their two cents about using margin. I'm leaning toward avoiding it. It doesn't seem to be as widely used as I thought.

My friend Sean continues to hold on to IESV.OB. This is a good example of a stock that "can't get any lower". He bought it at 5.5 cents. It touched 3 cents today. That doesn't seem like much of a drop, but that's about a 50% decline.

The last time I bought an OTC (over the counter or penny) stock it went up over 10% after I bought it. I soon realized that it was my purchase that had moved the stock up. It didn't trade another share for 4 hours! Then somebody sold a bunch and I lost like 25%. What an idiot, I was.

Margin anyone?

I've never used margin (unless you count the extra money from school loans that I choose to trade). I'm considering it now, but I'd like to get some opinions out there from people if you have. If you'd care to post your experience here, please do!

Wow -- Dow 14,000

Well, we managed to claw our way back in about a month from the despair of August's plunge. I was kind of hoping the market would struggle for a while longer. I'm not real comfortable with these short-lived corrections.

My portfolio is near where it was when the correction began. That's good, but I feel like I'm just being swept along by the market. I like it better when the market struggles while I brag.

I didn't get my screens updated over the weekend. I hope there aren't any goofballs out there that actually trade my dumb screens. I use them to show the realities of mechanical trading. They're a good tool, but they are no substitute for knowing what you're doing.

I'm learning a lot over at Stockbee's members only area. If you like the mechanics of finding good trades, there is a goldmine of information at that site.

Week In Review 9-28-2007

Not a bad week. I wasn't around much to monitor things and that worked out well for me. I'm inching toward my year high for the portfolio. I'd be happy with a 40% gain for the year. Ugly showed that he had a 100% gain for the MONTH. Why am I not trading the way he is? I probably couldn't hack it.

I printed out an application for some margin at my broker but I didn't fill it out. I'm too scared.

Scuba Trip

A few of you have inquired about my upcoming scuba trip. This one isn't too spectacular. It's in Jamaica. My scuba purist brother told me to "enjoy the dead reef". He is the director of invertebrates at the Omaha Zoo. It angers him when I eat shrimp ("Do you know how many other animals had to die in those shrimp nets?"), when I take a cruise ("I hope you know they dynamited a healthy reef so that ship could dock."), and when he sees my neglected coral tank ("You're an embarrassment to the aquarium industry.").

I put this stupid video together so you could see me underwater. Our favorite scuba trip so far was to the Fiji Islands. I have never seen so much life underwater. The Caribbean is pretty boring by comparison. I've been spoiled.

We're staying at a Sandals resort and they offer free scuba diving as part of the package. They don't however, offer free internet access. Weasels.

Getting more exciting

Today the portfolio popped a bit which made for some good entertainment. It was up 1.79%. I made a selling error yesterday with PKOH (which I bought over a month ago). It hasn't done anything so no big loss. I still whimper when I see a stock do well after I've sold it, but that's something I need to work on.

Right now I'm trying to take advantage of this irrational market. I've been a bit hesitant to stay in after an awful August, but so far things are going pretty well.

Like Charles Kirk, I sure wish I would have bought this one. Here's a guy that bought it and then sold it with a wimpy 2% stop. There's always a stock like that somewhere, even in a sucky market. That's what makes this "treasure hunt" kinda fun.

That Chris Perruna sure knows how to pick 'em.

Learning from investing mistakes.

Not too exciting

The last two days have seen my portfolio meander back and forth but really hasn't done much one way or the other. Life has been very busy, so the market hasn't been a priority lately.

My wife of 15 years (what was she thinking) and I are going on a scuba vacation in two weeks. My goal is to ignore the market completely during that time (except for the books I bring) so I won't be posting at all. I'll let everybody know before I leave (like you care anyway).

Charles Kirk has a huge list of links if you need something to keep you entertained today.

Kinda Boring

I pretty much expected today to go the way it did. Nothing too impressive or too frightening. I lost about the same as the market as a whole. No big whoop.

Week In Review 9-21-2007

Not a bad week even though I got beat by some of my screens. The portfolio was up 5.93% for the week. I'd feel better about this week's performance if the rest of the market hadn't gone haywire. So for now, it's hard to tell if I'm just riding the wave of enthusiasm.

The DOW is just under 200 points away from the all-time high again. I guess I would rather have clawed my way back while the indexes all struggled. It makes me feel like my gains are tenuous. If things do rocket back down, I hope I'm smart enough not to make the same mistakes that cost me nearly 20% the last time things broke down. Maybe I should go back and read some of my old posts.

This month I'm doing some research on stop losses. Every few months I change my ideas about the best way to manage my account. The whole stop loss issue gets me all worked up. Here's a decent article in Smart Money Online about using stop losses.

These guys have a much better survey than mine this week. I hope their sample is larger than mine.

Trading for a living

Today didn't end up as strong as I thought it would, but it was still decent--up 1.17%. I've got a couple of stocks in my portfolio that just aren't moving with the trend. I'm thinking about booting them out if they don't show some action by Friday.

Now that things are looking a bit better for the year, I went back and looked at the mess that I made of August. One of the concepts in Trading for a Living (see earlier post) is to quit trading for the rest of the month if your portfolio drops from 6% to 8% in value. That would have put me at about 36% at the end of August. Instead I traded myself down another 12% by the end of August.

Although it is a bit arbitrary, I think it is a good idea to refocus after that kind of draw down. It is obvious that things aren't quite working out and taking a few weeks away from the market can be enlightening (I wish I could speak from experience, but I can't--at least not yet).

Help Us Ben Bernanke, You're Our Only Hope

Blogger has been giving me fits all day long, so I apologize for this late post. I can't quite figure out how the discount rate effects EVERYTHING. Apparently it does.

The portfolio was up 3.03% today--not too impressive given the general market was up nearly as much. I'm hoping the euphoria lasts for the rest of the week. I'm up to my 30% goal for September. Yahoo!

Chris Perruna has an excellent article about using position sizing to manage risk on his website today. I've mentioned before that the whole risk management thing is new to me this year. It's all so simple and straight-forward, but it doesn't seem too many traders do it. It's one of the reasons new traders flame out so quickly. I think I just got lucky.

Check out Ugly's Bob Dillon's stock picks video. It made me laugh.

So Far No Good

It appears that the bulls really haven't shown up much today and may be waiting for the "real deal" tomorrow. USA Today announced that the fate of the stock market was to be determined tomorrow.

I don't know about everybody else, but I'm not waiting on the sidelines. I'm fully invested (and losing so far today). I'm getting tired of being burned every time I try to time things. I do much better when I pick a stock and let it do what it does.

Speaking of timing, I have found that waiting until lunch time when making a buy has helped me tremendously with my emotions and with getting a decent price for a stock. I used to buy before 10:00 am and often sat there with my hand on the trigger waiting for the best time to jump in. I ALWAYS second guessed my decision no matter which direction the stock headed.

Things usually level out during lunch time and it seems to me to be the best time to place a trade. I'm in a much better frame of mind to make a decision and I usually can get a better feel for where the stock is headed for the rest of the day.

No Rapture

I guess the Rapture was supposed to happen on Friday. Curiously, I haven't gotten any e-mails yet explaining why it didn't.

This Week with StockPunk

Everybody's talking about this being a wild week. It should be fun. I've been getting a lot more "buy" signals lately and I'm chomping at the bit to recover some of my August losses by the end of September.

From what I've been reading lately (see earlier post), "chomping at the bit" describes a trader who is pretty much an idiot. In fact I've noticed that many trading traits that I possess are considered "dangerous".

I think the best thing for everybody who reads this blog to do is to sit back and watch me systematically self destruct. And while you're at it, click on a few ads that you see on StockPunk. I've made 9 cents so far in September. Quit laughing.

Week In Review 9-14-2007

This was kind of a dull week for me. The portfolio drifted back and forth but really made no big advances either way. I made a tad over 1% this week, which I guess is better than losing.

Next week looks to be the most interesting out of the month of September, although I think next week's decisions have already been built into this week's prices. We'll see.

Pradeep over at Stockbee has a new members-only area. I joined a few seconds after he put up a "Join" button. The suggested cost is $50. I paid more because I think the information he provides saves me that much worth of time each week. I would encourage anyone who like to trade to join. It's money well-spent. Quit being so dang cheap.

No "Chewbaca Howl" this week

My arrogance last week has been replaced with humility this week. The market is handily beating me so far.

I finished Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom by Van K. Tharp about a month ago and I began reading Trading for a Living by Dr. Alexander Elder this week. I've learned a lot from both books.

I am in no way prepared to make a living from trading yet. I hope to be able to however, in 5 to 10 years. But in preparing for that kind of life, there are many things that I never took into consideration. Both books addressed these issues and more:

• My records were good, but they didn't really tell me anything.
• My risk was way above what it should be for each trade, and a string of losses could have possibly wiped me out.
• I was way too emotional about the market and couldn't believe how it seemed to move against me every time I traded.
• I had too many different things influencing my trading (screens, other traders, news, daily fluctuations).

I think I've really matured this year as a trader (hopefully by year-end my returns will reflect my new-found maturity), but needless to say, I have a long way to go.

Howdy

I've been very busy the last two days, so I've missed a couple of posts. I didn't have much to write about anyway, the market has been kind of lethargic. The portfolio has barely moved.

Rosh Hashana

Chris Perruna has a nifty article on his take on the upcoming Jewish holidays Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

I've gotten e-mails recently that explain that Rosh Hashana 2007 is the day all Christians will be "raptured" out of here. So I guess it doesn't matter anyway.

Not much to talk about

Not much went on today. I lost 1%. I held on to SILC too long and then sold it at its low. Call me an idiot.

This Week With StockPunk 9-10-2007

Not much happening this week. I still plan to be fully invested unless things take a dramatic turn. I'm feeling better about how stocks have acted in the past couple of weeks. Things seem to be getting back to normal (at least for me and the screens I use).

My goal for this month is to take my return above 30% with my goal for the year being 40%. We'll see how things play out.

Week In Review 9-7-2007

That was a nasty week. I was feeling all good about myself going into Friday morning. I looked at the premarket and got that sinking feeling--why am I not a day-trader? It sure would be nice to be sitting on a big pile of cash in the morning when everything goes to pot. Maybe some day I'll get it figured out. For today I lost 2.20%.

The week wasn't too awful. I made a little over 1%. If I could just do that each week--hmmm. A good sign is that I got handily beat by a couple of my screens. There are a few stocks that are doing quite well out there and I capitalized on a couple SILC & FTI.

It will be interesting to see what Monday will bring us.

Ugly Chart

I used to read Ugly Chart every day, but when he started trading futures I lost interest. He's been writing some interesting stuff recently and I love his sense of humor. He still seems to be more of a day trader, but his concepts fall in line with some of my ideas.

He also has some hilarious videos and great sarcastic commentary. So I'm putting Ugly Chart back on my list of Great Stock Blogs list. Check it out.

Stock Screens

Chris Peruna has a good article on creating several stock screens that he has found perform pretty well. I'm always looking for interesting (and profitable) stock screens and I appreciate anybody who is willing to share the "mechanics" of their screens.

I've been visiting his site more and more recently. It's a great source of information. I'm adding it to my "Other great blogs" list.

Holy Job Report, Batman

I don't know how one stinking indicator can get people so worked up, but apparently it has this morning. SELL, SELL, SELL!!! Wimps.

I'll take it

I made a whole .03% today. I'll take it. This has been a pretty good week. I've been able to recover about half of my losses since the downturn in July. Stocks are starting to click like they used to. Even if things continue to meander like they have the past couple of weeks, I think there are still opportunities to capture quick moves. Just be nimble and not too greedy.

Chewbaca Howl

One of my favorite stock blogs used to be Solitaire Trader. He hasn't posted for about a year, but when a stock made more than 10% in a day for him, he did a "Snoopy Dance". I had a Snoopy Dance stock yesterday SILC.

One thing that makes me all giddy inside is when the market has a sucky day and I make a few bucks. It doesn't have to be much. Even one buck is OK. All right, even if I LOSE LESS money than the market as a whole, I'm happy.



Today I made .48%. I'm doing my Chewbaca Howl. ARRUURRAGUH!!!

Not too shabby

I debated about going all in today and I haven't had much time to monitor things, but I'm pretty happy with my decision making so far. The portfolio was up 2.81%.

I've got myself spread out a little more than usual. I own 10 stocks when my average is 5. With things as volatile as they have been, I figured it might behoove me to broaden my stops a bit. Wider stops might have helped me in August (see my previous post for some reasoning).

I'm checking out another stock service this month. As I learn more and become more comfortable with my style of trading, I like to go back and review things that have piqued my curiosity in the past. I'll let you know about my experience in more detail next month.

More about August

I was quite surprised when I went over the Zweig screen for August. I base a lot of my trading on that screen and I figured it would have taken it on the chin during the month of August. On the contrary, it made 5.27%. Buying all the stocks you see in the chart on the first day of August and holding them through today would have beat me by 20% this month. That makes me question my tactics a little bit.

A couple of stocks caught me by surprise this month. I didn't have BW on my watch list this whole month and it was the best performer in the screen. I also ignored HRS and jumped out of VMI too soon.

I'm not sure if this month was an just a fluke, but I'm sure there is some further analysis that I can do to figure out what went wrong.