This Week with StockPunk

A few additions to the StockPunk watch list. SYNL and VSEA are both in the semiconductor industry. That's about all I know. If I try to find out any more, I'll over-analyze things and end up creating more problems for myself.

Some of you have questioned my use of stops last week. I told everybody that I was swearing off stops from here on out. Here's what happened:

I forgot about a 5% trailing stop on MIDD that I had placed weeks ago. It triggered and I didn't have any real reason for having the stop. MIDD is once again on my "buy" list but I'm holding off since I sold it just a few days ago.

My other stops were 3% trailing stops on stocks that had dropped off my list. The stops didn't work for me in either situation so I'm thinking in the future that I'll just follow the stocks and sell them at my own discretion.

A few folks have asked me if I own every stock on my Punky Stocks watch list. No, I don't. Right now I own (or will soon own) six of the nine. The Punky Stocks list is not a "buy list". It is a list of stocks that I find very attractive and that are candidates for my portfolio. I don't divulge my portfolio list to discourage "copy cat" traders who think that because I've got some good returns that I am some sort of guru. I've tried the copy cat approach with dismal results (see my results for 2005) so I wouldn't recommend it.

My goal with this site is to demonstrate that you can do well as an individual trader in the stock market. It doesn't take a degree in securities (mine is in marketing--a "C" average) to buy and sell stock and be profitable. I hope that I am able to encourage folks each day with my drivel.

Marathon Trading

A friend asked me today why most people don't invest like I do if it is so simple and generates such good returns. I told him that there are several reasons:

• people think you have to be on the "inside" to make any money
• people don't trust the financial markets and feel that it's all a big scam
• people are too afraid to lose money so they choose very conservative investments
• people are to impatient and get scared with negative returns and bored with incremental returns

I told him that trading and investing is a lot like working out (he's a body builder). It takes a long time of good days and bad days to see any results. Sometimes at the end of the year you're surprised at how well you've done even though the day to day routine doesn't reflect that.

My wife ran a half-marathon today (I can run a half mile). There's an investing analogy in there, but I just wanted to let everybody know because I'm pretty impressed.