Trading Ideas or Investments for Shorter Time Frame

[clarkrl2]

Sold AFSI (Amtrust Financial Services) @$40.44 for a loss of 9.1% in two weeks.

[clarkrl2]

Bought FNHC (Federated National Holding Company) @24.40 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen.

[clarkrl2]

Sold BBSI (Barrett Business Services Inc.) @$40.27 for a loss of 27.0% in about seven weeks. I didn't do a very good job managing this stock. Last week there was an article on Seeking Alpha which warned of problems with this company at that time the stock fell sharply. Since I didn't see anything wrong with the company I decided to hold it until the weekend. This week it never hit my limit order so I wound up selling today. Had I been smart I would have sold last week for a loss of about 20%. That 7% difference is a lot of meal money.

[tyfighter3]

Jun 4, 2014 10:50:22 GMT -5 tyfighter3 said:

10:15 am BLT 12.18
11:30 am BLT 12.27
winner

My take on short term is if your not buying a stock for the long term you want to trade it in the shortest time frame you can and make sure it's a winner. I don't look past a trade lasting over a hour and a half short term. JMO

Clark, There is too much going on in the World right now to hold stocks that you want to trade short term for 2 to 3 months. Too much vollatility going on with them and you want to be on the right side of that. It also helps to know the stock your trading or have been following it for several months before stepping in. Plus you want to have stops inplace to save you from a 27% loss. JMO 

[clarkrl2]

I still hold BLT which closed at $15.50. So I'm not sure what your point was with that. I do not day trade and since I work full time that type of trading is not an option for me.

A stop loss may have helped with BBSI but I've been burned with stop losses in the past so I don't use them. I admittedly didn't manage this situation well. Your opinion is welcome but I do pretty well over the long term with my methods.

Also I recognize volatility is a problem right now especially with the small and midcap stocks I like to trade. I am managing that by cutting back on my allocation to stocks. As of Friday's sale I am holding only four out of a potential maximum of ten. Also I will likely trade out of BMO on Monday which barring a catastrophe will be a gain of more than 10%. Providing I don't add another position that will mean I will be down to 30% of my maximum positions.

Current Holdings

Stock...................Buy Price.....................Friday's Close

BMO....................$65.87.........................$74.14

BLT.....................$12.18.........................$15.50

ALL.....................$61.50.........................$61.41

FNHC..................$24.40.........................$25.85

[clarkrl2]

Sold BMO (Bank of Montreal) @$73.43 for a gain of 11.5% in 7 months.

[clarkrl2]

Sold BLT (Blount Intl) @ $14.75 for a gain of 21.1% in 4.5 months.

I am down to two positions and am reluctant to add new positions but I have one open limit order for PFBC (Preferred Bank).

[clarkrl2]

Bought PFBC (Preferred Bank) @$24 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen.

[damnotagain]

Take a look at RGEN repligen. 

[bimetalaupt]

C

Fast Sto (14,1,3)  5 year graph
%K crossed D% to 64

%D now at 55.14 on the rise

target 59.38

Just a thought,

BiMetalAuPt

[damnotagain]

RGEN up 6% for the week. Look for it to go higher

[clarkrl2]

Aug 7, 2014 9:03:16 GMT -5 clarkrl2 said:

Bought BBSI (Barrett Business Services Inc.) @$55.20. Lately I've been doing more selling than buying. I'm trying to add at most one stock per week until the volatility stabilizes. Unless the chart for the Russell 2000 starts looking better or I see something I really like a lot, I won't be buying anything else until next week.

This post I indicated nervousness about the Russell 2000. I'm thinking the chart is looking much better now. weekly chart Russell 2000 . I would be more inclined to buy at this point in time however I lot of stocks I am looking at are overbought. I think I will at least temporarily remove my self-imposed no more than one buy per week restriction.

The chart of RGEN looks good but it is also a little overbought. chart

[clarkrl2]

Bought HCI (HCI Group) @$46.95 the stock is falling after an earnings beat. It's already down to $43.03 at this time.

Bought TTWO (Take-Two Interactive) @$26.

Insurance companies have been taking it on the chin. In addition to HCI, I own shares of FNHC which has performed very poorly over the last few trading days but is up some today. I really haven't found any explanation for this.

[clarkrl2]

Bought ELX (Emulex Corp.) @ $5.56 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward revisions screen.

[clarkrl2]

Bought PJC (Piper Jaffray) @$57.50 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward revisions screen.

[clarkrl2]

Sold HCI (HCI Group Inc.) @$41.81 for a loss of 10.9% in two weeks.

Sold FNHC (Federated National Holding) @$24.63 for a gain of 0.9% in two months.

[clarkrl2]

Bought SANM (Sanmina Corp)@$24.50 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward revisions screen. The stock's slow stochastic indicated it was oversold premarket this morning.

[clarkrl2]

bought AMBC (Ambac Financial Group) @$25.24 from the earning beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen.

[clarkrl2]

Bought OUTR (Outerwall) @$69.37 from the earning beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen. They have recently increased prices. 

[clarkrl2]

Bought ISLE (Isle of Capri) @7.85 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen.

[clarkrl2]

Sold SANM (Sanmina Corp) @ $23.05. for a two months loss of 5.9%.

I don't have a replacement for this yet plus it looks like the daily charts for some of the major indexes are breaking below support trend lines. A lot of the investments I make are small or midcaps so I look at the Russell 2000 a lot. An etf that tracks this index is IWM.

www.finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=iwm

My favorite chart is a weekly chart that shows the elder bars, parabolic SAR, and the 10 week sma. stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=IWM&p=W&b=5&g=0&id=p65895331607

The elder bar has turned red for IWM and is below the 10 week sma. The parabolic SAR is still positive.

[clarkrl2]

Sold PFBC (Preferred Bank) @ $25.38 for a gain of 5.8% in two months.

I still haven't found another stock to buy.

[clarkrl2]

sold PJC (Piper Jaffray Co.) @$25.90 for a loss of 9.8% in two months. The time for selling PFBC was closer to three months.

[Value Buy]

Are you still holding Isle of Capri?

[clarkrl2]

I still own ISLE and it's been doing very well. It does have a history of extreme price swings.

[clarkrl2]

Sold TTWO (Take Two Interactive) @$27.80 for a profit of 6.9% in about three months.

[clarkrl2]

Bought DAC (Danaos Corp.) @$5.90 from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen. Truthfully I don't have any idea how this company will be affected by the Greece debacle but I like the chart and it meets the criteria I am looking for.

stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=DAC&p=W&b=5&g=0&id=p81941649103

www.zacks.com/stock/quote/DAC/detailed-estimates

[clarkrl2]

Bought VOYA (Voya Financial) @$43/share from the earnings beat MRQ with recent upward estimate revisions screen. Chart and earnings data linked below.

stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=VOYA&p=W&b=5&g=0&id=p69136983242

www.zacks.com/stock/quote/VOYA/detailed-estimates

[clarkrl2]

Sold OUTR (Outerwall) @66.39 for a loss of -4.3% in about 9 weeks.

[clarkrl2]

sold ELX (Emulex Corp.) @$8 for a gain of 43.9% in about 3.5 months.

Edit: Today's gain of more than 25% was due to an acquisition by AVGO (Avago).