I could be wrong, but as far as I'm concerned, even if the market rises another 4% or 5% before April, I'm still comfortable taking some profitable trades off the table, even if I leave a little on the table. If it rises 10%+, I'll be upset. But basically, I'm a pure stock picker now. Whereas, I was a hybrid stock/trend rider before. I no longer will trade the trend, Because I lack confidence in the trend.
Heh, I did that in 2001. That was a hard lesson to learn, and I'm still learning it, since I rode it down with MCI, Global Crossing, Lucent, CSCO (at $70) among others. The flip side of that lesson was, you'll never make it back up if you aren't exposed. I've almost made it all back, which was a feat since I had to come back up 500% from my personal bottom.
Some stocks are going into the red. On my screen I see NILE, MA, JBLU, DIVX, BRCM, AMD, Yahoo, etc. All in the red. Looks like its time to get into CVS... Just take the rest of your cash and dump it in either CVS or some small cap oil company trading in the single digits.haha
Well, to be very honest, 4 out of 8 positions I either exited fully or partially are down today, and some are down big. I am going to defensive. I kept a large (and so far very profable) position in UL, because I believe it and its ilk will weather any downturn nicely - that'd be akin to CVS I'd think. I will look back at yesterday in January-February, and see where things stand. Right now, I am in a comfort zone. I will only enter new positions when a stock is absolutely ruthlessly and irrationally hammered for some particular reason (earnings miss where the stock is disproportionately punished, etc).
I guess it has a lot to do with what stocks you track. My entire screen is green, and I still have some money to spend, so it's irritating. I am watching, with current positions in: CSCO, DVN, DOW, EBAY, GE, AMD (this one's down .13), DIS, MSFT, HW, EMR, ADBE, HD, PWI, LNVGY, PGH, PD, AAUK, GG (gold's down a few cents). I also have some small junk, ADSX, STEM (down), COMS(down... want more but it won't drop enough), OKME, TGEN, PLUG, MTRM. I have a few lazy ETFs, XLP, ADRE, NFJ. I am watching: EFUT, RMBS, HITT, BA (sold this too early), GROW, BHP, MAS, LOW, XTXI for potential entries/reentries. It's all green today (and most days), cept for gold being down .17 atm, and the canadian trusts that pay 16% yields are down a few cents too. Dips should last at least 2 days.
The 2.2% nasdaq selloff on monday was just profit taking plain and simple There was no compelling news or reason for the selloff. Therefore, the prevailing trend will continue which is why the markets are surging and will continue to do so. As they say let your winners run and trend is your friend and a few other stupid sayings.
Are you sure about unilever? http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=UL&p=W&b=5&g=0&id=p16492420750 It is way high above the 52 week moving average and looks like it could form a V-top in a downturn. I like CVS because its trading right under the 52 week average so there is room to move up. How much higher can UL go above the 52 week MA?
Do we simply ignore the charts and the technical signals? What about all that short interest? Someone is shorting here for a reason and they are not intending on losing that cash. There is a time to buy and a time to sell for every stock. The time to buy stocks was in the summer, now its time to sell. There are many stocks in the red today demonstrating that even good futures and economic reports wont push them any higher. Buying in the summer and selling in the winter is an excellent strategy. Some of these stocks may continue to go up, but you cant simply throw your capital about on hope alone. You cant concentrate on doing the right thing. You have to concentrate on doing the wisest thing.
I can't predict the future. I believe the behavior of prices is unfigureoutable. I follow my mechanical trading system rules. Sometimes I think 99 % of what happens is nonsense.
I like UL because of their exposure to Europe, and Euro denominated assets. They are also still undervalued, AFIAC, with a very low P/E ratio (around 8x) and incredible free flow cash, and with a compelling product line in consumer staples.