These are the only stocks I'm sticking with for the time being. I'm not that sharp (I wish I was), but I've learned not to mess with a hot hand until it doesn't work anymore. My own KISS method.
That's what I did for a while, but they're a bit too pricey right now and they move up too slowly. That and my CX took a beating today (stupid housing). If you want to make money, you cannot be buying yesterday's hot news and mining has been hot news for months. I've been looking at not growing so fast sectors that will soon need to play catch up... which right now is pharmaceuticals, medicals, drugstores. I bought NBIX and NUVO for very nice pops in the last 2 days, and I'm watching PFE and BMY for the longer plays. CVS is a nice little canary for me there that cannot lose (but isn't going to soar either). I rarely give this kind of opinion on a public forum before the fact, so don't get used to it. Do some serious due diligence research before you hop in, but the whole pharma/med sector has not been very hot and may be overdue. There are some very nice up and coming plays in it if you do your homework well.
Recommendation: Depending on your level of risk, you might want to look at options in slow moving beasts. I love leverage and options in slow moving beasts are rather cheap due to their volatility. Big beasts that are trending tend to remain in trend and I've found buying 2-3 month off options either out-of-the-money or deep in it are great values! The deeper in the money the less you may lose and there is comfort I find...but when you recommended VLO, even though options were slightly pricey, they were simply an easy buy because the company was in a great big trend and the options I had bought grew a TON. My patience kills me when it comes to these moves but I picked up some options on PCU when it was around $60 for a few bucks 2 month ago that I think expire in April and are now worth $17 or something stupid. I didn't hold because of my impatience...but the leverage in these big movers might be a fun trade for you because the only downside to the industry mentioned is pretty much the speed at which it moves...options change that game more to my risk liking. That being said...if you like options. This year buying Puts in housing I'm not sure you'll be able to miss much. There are some really really susceptible companies that are still trading rather close to their 52-wk highs that have some surprising exposure to the problems...even though they all do. It's going to be like tech stocks in 1998 going the other way soon. Cheap options flying in percentage gains. Good luck!