Watchlist

DJIA10447.93  chart+127.83  chart +1.24%
NASDAQ2233.75  chart+33.74  chart +1.53%
S&P 5001104.51  chart+14.41  chart +1.32%

JSDA1.01  chart-0.02  chart -1.94%
PNRA85.02  chart-0.19  chart -0.22%
C3.91  chart+0.03  chart +0.77%
F12.07  chart+0.36  chart +3.07%
FSLR136.45  chart+1.56  chart +1.16%
BWLD47.41  chart+1.78  chart +3.90%
MGM9.84  chart+0.33  chart +3.47%
CAKE25.75  chart+0.79  chart +3.17%
ATK70.96  chart+1.02  chart +1.46%
DIA104.58  chart+1.30  chart +1.26%
KO57.56  chart+0.18  chart +0.31%
GS147.29  chart+7.51  chart +5.37%
MSFT24.29  chart+0.35  chart +1.46%
BAC13.50  chart+0.22  chart +1.66%
CSCO21.04  chart+0.52  chart +2.53%
PIR7.80  chart+0.15  chart +1.96%
2010-09-03 16:02

My Game Plan.

I have come to a conclusion on how to avoid recent market pessimism and volatility, and at the same time cover my personal finances.

It is simple to avoid pessimistic markets and strong volatility by not being invested. This is the move that I decided was best for future market conditions. I view the markets with a very conservative perspective at this point. The emphasis on NOT losing money, greatly outweighs the risk involved with MAKING money. You should never watch your portfolio bleed losses.

I sold off my portfolio recently, nearly half of it I converted to cash. I believe that the market is at a stall. I expect markets to move sideways or lower in the future.

I am not a pessimist on the market. I am big on timing it all right. NOW is NOT the time to be digging your heels in for any big plays. If you have the resources to do so, perhaps the swift drops are perfect opportunities. But if you are like me, and have less than 10K invested, it should not be worth losing any money or gains. Your money is precious, don’t lose it because the rest of the world is in chaos. Sit out, pay off your debt with any gains you have had recently and set up a savings plan to start adding funds to your portfolio after you have cleared any amount of debt.

A clean balance sheet leaves only positive futures.

Where Are We At, Are You There Too?

OK so I have not been posting frequently. I am glad to say that there is a good amount of activity on MoneyJog.com, even without new posts. This is good to see, as it means we have some consistent followers, thank you! But at the same time sorry for not posting frequently recently.

The Dow has been holding above the 11,000 level. A good sign. We are working our way through earnings season. It seems to me that some companies are showing positive signs for the market as a whole. This includes some restaurant names, such as YUM brands, Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD), Mc Donalds (MCD) and a fantastic outlook on Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG). We are even seeing the infamous First Solar (FSLR) move higher, perhaps a buy on a possible $20 spread to the 150 range.

FSLR on a 5 day chart, seems rather volatile. However, if you look at the chart FSLR gaps down (gap down means to open considerably lower than the previous days close) throughout most of the week. After every gap down, it consistently rebounds which implies buyers are most certainly buying on the stocks weakness and holding it consistent. It looks from a technical point-of-view that FSLR is developing a floor at and or around the lower 130 range. Take a look, I am not a sold buyer in this one yet. But I could put some faith in this name infamous for its sudden volatility.

Also I would like to address the recent stall within Citigroup (C). At $4.80 a share, this name has too much long term growth potential to ignore. It seems to have a rather strong wave of resistance (the stock is being sold off) around 5 and a nickle. Considering the recent and RAPID upside Citigroup (C) has seen over the last month, it is easy to write this stall in the equity as most likely profit taking. Buyers are definitely making entry points in Citigroup (C) as people who have seen possible 60-70% returns, take profits off the table (MoneyJog.com can report 47% gains out of an estimated 60-70% possible returns under perfect trading). I have very much considered selling off my entire position on some of the recent up days. However the only thing that keeps me from making that sell and taking my profits is the fact that I see this name going considerably higher in the course of a year. Sometimes stocks are tricky to time. In fear of missing the next big swing up, I am rather happy to just hold my moderate position at 3.90, almost a dollar lower than its current levels.

I was reading some online articles the last few days (unfortunately I didn’t think to save the links to post here later). One article discussed how portfolios comprised primarily of lower priced stocks (often also considered riskier stocks) consistently out-performed portfolios of widely held names. The premise behind this was that even though a lower priced stock may be deemed more “risky”, the percentage gains they go through can very much turn the tides on trying to beat market returns. I thought this article was very interesting, as it made me think of my Citigroup (C) position/holdings, and the large returns from such a “risky” name.

Today I also enjoyed 4 espressos from Borders, and browsed through some business books. I ended up purchasing a book called Trend Following, learn to make millions in up or down markets by Michael W. Covel. The book seems to offer sound advice on following markets moving higher or lower. Perhaps you could find a copy and get a bit more knowledge of investing/trading! It cost me $24, and will end up (likely) giving advice worth (I estimate) another $800 in returns, as it discusses ways to imply better leverage.

Untill I read a little bit, or something in my eyes deemed “interesting” happens in the markets, that’s all I have for now. Please remember to browse through our new pages for investment ideas.

P.S. I have recently started working with programming in Microsoft Visual Basics, rather old but I understand it much more. I am working on creating a “quick analysis” program for picking stocks that are expected to yield on average, higher returns. I plan to test and ”tweak” the program for the next several months (likely all summer), to see if the programs projections hold at all consistent or, to any degree reflect future performance of tested equities.

Citigroup (C).

Hopefully you have been able to browse through some of our new pages featured in our last post “Updates to MoneyJog.com”.

Monday Citigroup released earnings of 15 cents a share, which beat out analysts expectations of break even earnings. Poor analysts in my eyes. Citi shares jumped up 7% Monday and closed out today moderately higher, up about 2%. Huntington Bank releases its earnings tommarrow. Following the JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup earnings I am willing to bet any amount of money Huntington will show positive earnings. Huntington Bank closed up 7% today.

Updates To MoneyJog.com

You should notice some additional pages along the top of your screen (PATTERN ANALYSIS CHARTS, RECENT TRADES, and BUY/SELL CALLS). I think the most useful of the new three pages is most likely the BUY/SELL CALLS page. Also all pages should be fully up to date.

It has been a while since I last published a post. Since my last post, our Citigroup position has increased to show 42% gains. An outstanding performance, when markets are expected to rise less that 12% this year (quadruple returns!).

Please check out our new pages. The BUY/SELL CALLS page should be relatively easy to understand and gives you many investment ideas or atleast names you can trade in and likely see positive returns.

Check back soon for new posts as we will look to cover markets more in depth as the Dow flirts around the 11,000 mark.