I had promised that I was going to start my own thread regarding stock investments and the markets. So many things have happened since last time I was here and I really do not feel like sharing my knowledge. But a promise is a promise and there have been few people that have emailed me and supported me.

This thread will deal with investing in the stock markets. I will not discuss individual stocks but discuss ETFs like SPY, DIA, IWM and QQQQ. The one good thing about trading ETFs compared to individual stocks is the the ETFs provide instant diversification among similar companies within the same sector.

I will post more as we go along, regarding entry-price, profit-target and stop-losses. I do not think that any ETF is good or bad. It is good only if I'm making money and bad if I'm losig money.

If you have not been in the market so far, please read this as an information piece only rather than my recommendations. There is risk involved and you should know how much risk to take on any position.

Any suggestations, comments and criticisms are welcome as long as it is market related. If this thread gets out of hand and we start discussing off-topics, I'll stop posting.

Have a happy new year!!!! May 2007 bring you and your family lots of joys and riches.

Ira stock recommendatiion - TTM - LISTED ON NYSE , IS STILL CHEAP. IT IS CONGLOMERATE BUT OFTEN CONFUSED AS JUST BEING A MOTOR COMPANY.

Well I was wrong on JDO. My analysis still seems to be correct but my calculation was off.I was looking at the RR, and tried to apply it to JDO which was a mistake. I use the RR to trade short-term and it seems to work well, but obviously did not work on the long-term. I exited out of JDO but I feel that we might have exited right around the low.

I went back and looked at some of the picks to see what we could have done in order to capture the big swing while minimising the risks. I looked at Jhyalincha's picks too to see what characterstics those stocks had before their rise up. I think I have figured it out. We need to look at the weekly prices rather than the daily prices. This would have allowed us to capture the big swings.

More on this later.

Here is my pick for this week:

DSTI...... stop below $4.00.

Regarding DSTI, you might want it to close above $5.20 before buying it.

Emini ji,

looking at DSTI long and hard, looks like investor confidence is rather lacking for the time being. But it might just change.

Again, the solar sector is a hot buzz and the product these guys have might become commodities in the years to come. Commercialization would rather depend on some huge contract by one of the Fed organization or biz company interested in cutting down on energy cost. PV will make some monies, but how and when is the question.

I like the management. Some seasoned gurus at work.

52 week high is 13ish. Low was start of the year around low 3ish...

I am going to see how it fares this week... Will get in if I really like the rally.

STOC and MACD are perfect. Thanks for Clearstation recommendation.

JDO, kinda tanked. But I still think you are right when you say, that it might just have bottomed out, hence a good time to get in, but only for long term.

I am half way thru, Gary Smith. I like his write coming from blood and bones.

Best~!

-B

We are at an important point here. The DOW has been leading Nasdaq and Russell. This usually does not last for long though. Either the Nasdaq/Russell has to catch up soon or the DOW has to give in. Today Nasdaq and Russell took a hit, down more than 1% but there was some buying in DOW. It might be a good idea to cut back a little and get in cash.

JDO had a nice run today but sucks because I don't have it. We might have sold near the bottom. We are getting near an intermediate top here. We could see another 1-3% upside potential but the downside risk is pretty significant.

Look at some of Jhyalincha's picks and look to buy those in pullbacks.

Going to Woodstock on May 5th. It is at the same place it was last year and year before and so on. Anyone has a guess where it is????

Emini,
I copy you on the movement of Dow numbers relative to Nasdaq and Russell..

JDO to me still is a junk. Seeing it for a bit yesterday, gave me an impression that some investors are playing around with 100k shares here and there, making the price action inconclusive. Let us see how far it fares.

Have a great time in Mirapuri? Sounds like a Mirapur somewhere back home or across the boarder.

Best~!

-B

Emini ji,

define pullbacks based on your perceptual filters. Is it the MACDs and STOC,s
if so how?

Thanks in advance for your inputs!

Best~!
-B

Bri: It varies according to your trading style. For a long-term trend follower, it is 2 weekly close with a lower high and a lower low. You'll buy it on or after the 3rd week when daily price closes above the previous week's high.

I have put together a long-term trend following strategy and I'm backtesting on few stocks to see if it holds true, so far the results look good. I will post those in the near future.

Bri: It's not Mirapur. It is in Omaha!!!!!

oops... fallacy of falling into Google trap... *smile* . so makai bari sud make things little easier for guys who wanna get stoned. hahha.. neways, enzoi the well-deserved vacation.

will wait on your results from back testing.

Best~!

-B

RADS met all the criteria for my long-term trend following strategy.
Stop: Below 12.00
Buy at market today.

PS. I'm not buying/selling anything now.

Bri: It's the Woodstock of capitalist. Going to hear Buffett talk.

wow!... Buffett live... Hey write a compo of what you feel if you wanna share. Last I saw em on the TV, I found em to be one-simple-guy who advocated more of coke and burgers than any other things you would have anticipated.

RADS is on the watchglass. Today's open is rather not good for it. Let us see how it rallies.

Best~!

-B

One of the things about back-testing any strategy is that it has to hold true in different market conditions and among stocks from different sectors.

The long-term strategy that I have been testing has held true for most part but now it is time to see if it does good in real-time testing. My pick was RADS. It showed up on the scan last weekend, so for testing purpose let's assume that we bought the stock today at the very high of the day: $13.49. Our stop is a close below $12. We will follow this stock in coming days and see how it does.

In the coming weeks I will post what I am looking for.

RADS is trading at 2.9 percent lower than its 52-week high. It seems to have a great positioning withing the Health-care industry. The management looks great. And they have been positive on the results for most part. The next earnings due on July 23.

I saw that the volume has decreased significantly over the past few weeks. But the average volume seems to be in line with our initial strategy.

I shall see its price action for a day today. If it goes further down on the 13ish. I would get in. Stop of 12 sounds good.

i still hold ESLR at 10.70, and my stop is 9 on it.

Best~!
-B

RDAS is doing good here. It closed around 13.85 today. I am expecting it to go higher as long as the market remains strong.

I ran another scan today and CMGI popped up. It met all my criterias, so it is a buy tomorrow morning with a stop below 2.00. CMGI closed at 2.24.

NEXM is another one with a stop below $1.20. NEXM closed at 1.38.

Today Nasdaq and Russell took charge and marched ahead. This is a positive sign.

Just be very careful with these low priced high beta stocks. These are usually favored by daytraders. It is better not to touch those. The reason I posted those is to see if my testing holds true.

Please forgive my ignorance, just a question.
What does it mean by "stop at $x."? Does it mean sell out if falls below $x or don't buy it below $x?

Thanks
New Trader

Sell and take the loss if the price closes below $X. After we buy if the price keeps moving higher, we'll move the stop to protect the profits.

Somebody brought up DSTI. I milked the sucked for some money a pl of months back. Solar stock, in the same playing field as "ASTI". ASTI if you've been following it, doubled itself a cpl months ago as a result of aquisition. DSTI I think has potential but not a large one.

We're in an uptrend so I intend to jump back in. I've had a successful year in terms of ideas and strgateiges (even though my entries may have gone awry). I'm learning a lot too.

So my advice as someone who's passed the novice stage- work hard, you'll get it eventually. Read, sit by the comp reading as much as you can, read garbage, read good stuff, all the books on investing are out there and Emini has also suggested a few. One of them "How I made two million" by Nicholas Darvas is available online as well.

So good trading everyone!!!