Reconstruction

With all the market volatility and it's crazy ups and downs, I've decided to retire my sea legs and rest on some stable ground. No, I'm not selling everything and buying CDs, but what I will be doing is restructuring my portfolio to about (5) core stocks. Currently in mind is stocks that I already own (GE, GOOG, ABT), and one new (to me at least) behemoth. This stock is Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) which I don't really need to delve into since it's beast and everyone knows it.

As you can see I have strong performers in favorable growth industries, Abbott Laboratories (Medical/Pharma), Google (Technology), Exxon (Energy), General Electric (Conglomerate aka EVERYTHING). I haven't decided on my 5th category though, it's a tie between non-cyclical and a Financial, but I haven't put in the work to decide which has the most potential. Bank of New York Melon (NYSE: BK) and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) are strong contenders, but I also really love Coca Cola (NYSE: KO). It's my daily addiction so why not invest in it right?!?

Over the next 6 months I'll be slowly selling my current positions and cutting them over to my core 5, buying on dips and in thirds (although may be 4ths and 5ths now).

Puppy Market

This past week has been a tumultuous one which reminds me of a young puppy...it threw up it's food (Monday), then it ate some of it back up (Tuesday), gagged and threw up even more (Wednesday)! Finally ate a bunch of it back up (yesterday) and now is trying to hold it down (today).

As gross as it sounds to watch a puppy do this, watching the market the last 5 days and trying to maintain ones composure is as equally challenging.

I'm still long on most of my stocks, definitely will be increasing my thirds on blue-chip, tried and true dividend stocks. More to come soon when I have time (Sorry, it's still baseball season!). Hang in there...

Crisis in Japan

So Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant reactors' suffered through a huge earthquake, a massive tsunami, had their cooling systems fail, a partial meltdown, and now their protective cement enclosure seems to have been compromised, potentially releasing harmful radiation into the water table...

However, out of the ashes has arisen a glimmer of hope...CLEVELAND BIOLABS INC! (NASDAQ: CBLI) Yes, they are back in the news and on a tear! And once again I've initiated a position in them. And once again it was at peak! haha. I can never win. I'm long on this one though, lots of press is good press when it comes to biotechs. Hopefully they can get a lot more when the U.S. military starts to help (and hopefully utilize the CBLB502 vaccine).

Spring Clean-up (Part 1)

It's been awhile since my last post, here's a few moves that I've made, specifics to come later when I have more time...

Bought ABT, AMAT, ALTR, COH, KBE, KRE, MO, MSFT

Bought and sold VFH, JKHY, MUB, ERF

Sold 1/3 PGF.

to be continued...

Bottoms up!

So they've officially announced we're out of the recession, BUT we may go back into a second recession if we aren't careful! I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds like they're saying that they might be wrong about predicting the end and covering their a$$ just in case.

That said, I'm still in the market and still trudging along. It's been awhile since my last post, but there's been nothing much to post. My KRE play hasn't been doing well, but I'm still holding firm in my belief the regional banking industry will pick back up.

As the market has changed, so has my stock picking strategies. I'm no longer looking for the big breakout stocks, right now I'm simply looking for high dividend yield stocks, similar to my PGF and other dividend stocks to my portfolio.

My latest position has been in Enerplus Resources Fund (NYSE: ERF), which I believe is an Natural Gas ETF. Haha, I really just bought this on a whim. My main criteria was high dividend yield at a monthly payout and in a relatively strong investment area with upward potential. I was torn between a real estate ETF and this one. So let's see how it pans out. I bought my first third today and will be adding this to my RL portfolio shortly. I'm also reinvesting the dividend to account for any market fluctuations.

Tumult Thursday

With all the turmoil that's been going on in the market reasonable, surprisingly I'm very calm and collective about the entire situation. I'm still checking my stocks everyday, but it's mostly after the market has closed. I think the up's and down's of the market may cause a few to act irrationally and buy/sell at the wrong times.

Case in point, the dark Thursday a few weeks ago when the market crashed horribly and inexplicably for a brief half hour or so (I actually saw the actual 900 point dip totally by total chance and thought Google Finance was broken!) My immediate reaction was to buy buy buy! But unfortunately my brokerage website had some high volume usage problems so I missed the opportunity to "strengthen" my current positions. But of course, the common investor sold at this time in panic and thousands of people lost a lot of money that day once the dust settled. I would hate to be the one triggering a market price sell order at that exact moment when the market dipped! Lesson learned in many ways.

*Always do limit orders even if it's at market price to avoid inexplicable swings in pricing.

Batcat!

Morningstar ETF of the year

I hope I won't start making a habit of this, but it's been a long time between the last three posts! In my defense, there hasn't been much happening financially for me. I have been dabbling in some small shares of our local bank, Central Pacific Financial (NYSE: CPF), but it's a penny stock and is just a total gamble to help me muddle through this stagnant bull market. Again, CPF is purely for entertainment, even though I'm up 32% since buying in early March, I don't count this as a real stock pick, esp since it represents less than .3% of my total portfolio!

My latest, serious, stock pick is an ETF. It's called SPDR KBW Regional Banking (NYSE: KRE). Morningstar has deemed this the top ETF of 2010 and they do make some strong buying points. Regional banking has been lagging behind the bigger national banks, so it's about time they "catch up". Also, it's rumored that now that the bigger banks are healthier, we may see more Federal bailout monies trickling down to the smaller lenders. Hopefully this is so and we'll see multi-bagger gains on the sector. I've already initiated my second "third", since my first position was already up 15% and I don't see a downward trend anytime soon.

Long hiatus

Didn't realize that it's been almost 6 months since my last post! Not much has been going on, bought some Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) for it's nice 3% dividend. Vodafone is an international play who also owns 49% of Verizon Wireless. Being a former Verizon employee, I can tell you that VZ Wireless basically supports the other side of the business (internet, home phone, IPTV, etc). This is basically a long-term savings stock for me since savings interest rates has dropped well below 2%. Yuck.

I've also purchased Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) after they had announced their purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation with a 50-1 stock split. I'm totally playing investor psychology on this one. A $60 share price for BRK-B stock is irresistible and hopefully will open up new money from smaller investors like me! =)

OMTR SOLD!!!

BREAKING NEWS, Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR) is being sold to Adobe Systems Inc (NASDAQ: ADBE)! It was quite ironic since I was discussing my portfolio with my coworker this morning and mentioned to him that it'll be awhile until I sell OMTR since I'm still down 17% on it, unless they get sold of course...and they did! How awesome is that!? So I'm selling, as much as I like Adobe, I'm gonna take my gains from the sale and probably try and sneak back into Adobe later on at a lower price. Let's cross our fingers that it doesn't sky-rocket!

Super saver

So I got an email from my bank, HSBC, regarding an interest rate adjustment.  Wasn't surprised by this but I did enjoy the results of a recent survery that they have done.  Here it is:

• Active Savers, a group of people characterized by their dedication to saving, entered the recession better prepared than others because of their savings lifestyle. They have not had to take drastic measures to adapt to uncertain financial times and are less likely to have had to cut back on spending, eating out, and making large purchases.
  
  
• For more than half (57 percent) of Active Savers, learning to save started at a young age. Putting money away is a value their parents instilled in them (73 percent).
  
  
• Savings comes first for nearly half (46 percent) of Active Savers. They’re willing to make sacrifices in order to be able to put money away.
  
  
• Overall, a majority of the population has not allowed the economy to hamper their savings plans—81 percent have been able to put the same amount away, if not more.
  

Some very profound information right there...I'd like to thank my parents for teaching me the value of money at an early age.  I had no allowance so I had to make the most of what I had!

On a side note, I've sold my positions on ISRG and NOV.  I still think those companies rock but my initial positions (which I did not initiate any new thirds on its way down) are down more than 50%.  This will take at least a 100% gain to get my money back anytime soon so I've decided to end my commitment and take advantage of the tax break!   

So with this extra cash on hand, I've decided to gamble a bit and bought some shares in MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM).  I think the gambling industry (i.e. Las Vegas) has been hit really hard by this recession, but will eventually springboard back.  Hopefully, I'll come out with some nice gains in the process.  Again, my position in MGM is less than 1% of my total portfolio value so please treat it as I do.  I wouldn't risk my entire life savings on it since there still be more downside to that industry.

POWER UP!

So on Friday, I decided I wanted a dividend-heavy, large cap, preferrably wide-moat stock  and couldn't decide between General Electric (NYSE: GE), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) or INTC (NASDAQ: INTC).   After much debate, number comparisons, and a lot of hair pulling, I decided to get none of them!  haha.

Instead, I purchased an international ETF that I found on SeekingAlpha called Powershares International Dividend Achievers (NYSEArca: PID).  I'm not going to get into the ratios and what not on this ETF, but a few interesting things attracted me to the ETF besides it's holdings portfolio:

• PID has a higher YTD market return than most of the dividend ETFs I analyzed.  
  
• PID also has an above-average yield of 6.23%.  

Of course, this isn't as amazing as the dividend-heavy ETF, Powershares Financial Preferred (NYSEArca: PGF), which boasts a hefty 15.88% yield.  But, I'm not the type to put all of my eggs in one basket and I've been on a PGF shopping spree in both my Roth IRA and investment accounts.  Although I do believe that the Financial sector has the possibility of making the most gains in the next 3 years, but I think I'll sleep better at night knowing that it isn't making up 30% of my investment portfolio.

*Tip: When investing long-term (3-5 years) for your Roth IRA, it's a good idea to focus on dividend-heavy ETFs or large cap stocks with high yield percentages (preferably with wide-moats).  This will be advantageous to you since the dividends are paid out tax free, allowing you to reinvest in the stock or use for other stock purchases and won't be deducted in the future when you withdraw from the fund.

SOLD!

Sold WFC yesterday as planned, shoulda waited a day since it's up a little more, but it's ok.  I'm also hoping to sell CREE and possibly OMTR, but I'm in no rush since I don't mind waiting to get back to even.  Don't get me wrong, all are still solid companies, I just need the capital to shift my portfolio to a more dividend-intensive focus.  I'm really excited to see how the credit companies fare this earnings season with all the recent pull-backs in the credit market by the big banks...

Megadeth!

My future sugar momma, Meredith Whitney, said this latest Financial Sector bull run will be short lived.  According to a recent Forbes article, she still believes that the top banks still have not properly reserved against greater than expected losses in home prices.  Her forecasts for 2009 and 2010 are much lower than other analysts' estimates.  However, she does believe that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) will meet Wall Street's estimates.  

A more detailed explanation her Financials analysis are found on this Forbes video interview.  It's a bit long but I highly recommend it.  She provides some excellent insights on the future of our country's economy.

For me, the last time she called Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) overbought, I went the opposite way and bought (back in December).   DOH.  I only hit the black with the recent WFC announcement!  I'll listen to the expert this time, and plan to ride this supposed bear market "bull rally" with trailing stops on my Financials.  I still think there will be a Financial bear run (later this year), so hopefully around 3rd/4th qtr I'll pull the trigger again to get back into the Financials...let's see how it turns out!

What's up WHAT'S UP?!

Just got back from the last round of vacations (Japan, Tahoe, Japan again) so I've been out of the tumultous market for a bit.  While I was in Japan (the 2nd time), I did buy some Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).  This was an emotional play for me, but I just couldn't pass up Microsoft at $18!  It's looking good so far.

I also purchased my 2nd third of General Electric (NYSE: GE) yesterday.  I'm not convinced that the market is going up from here, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to buy GE at $10.  I'm already prepared to buy more at $6 if it gets that low again (limit orders are IN!).  I also plan to increase positions in PGF and rebuy PM.  The yield on PM is looking very very yummy.

The market did great in March and is off to a good start this month.  However, the third week of April will be the true test on whether this is a fools rally or not.  GE, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), and Citigroup (NYSE: C) all report during that time.  We already know that the numbers will be bad, but maybe the outlook will have a bit of a silver lining on the horizon?!  Let's hope so.

Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing

*This is from awhile back but I just had to post it for the archives...

Below is the complete email conversation that Adelaide man David Thorne claims he had with a utility company chasing payment of an overdue bill.   

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David, 
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane, 
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.

Regards, David.

 

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David, 
Thankyou for contacting us. Unfortunately we are unable to accept drawings as payment and your account remains in arrears of $233.95. Please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.32am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane, 
Can I have my drawing of a spider back then please.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.42am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear David, 
You emailed the drawing to me. Do you want me to email it back to you?

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.56am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Yes please.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 12.14pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Attached

 

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 09.22am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Whose spider is that?

Dear Jane, Are you sure this drawing of a spider is the one I sent you? This spider only has seven legs and I do not feel I would have made such an elementary mistake when I drew it.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.03am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, Yes it is the same drawing. I copied and pasted it from the email you sent me on the 8th. David your account is still overdue by the amount of $233.95. Please make this payment as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.05am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Automated Out of Office Response

Thankyou for contacting me. I am currently away on leave, traveling through time and will be returning last week.

Regards, David.

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.08am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Hello, I am back and have read through your emails and accept that despite missing a leg, that drawing of a spider may indeed be the one I sent you. I realise with hindsight that it is possible you rejected the drawing of a spider due to this obvious limb ommission but did not point it out in an effort to avoid hurting my feelings. As such, I am sending you a revised drawing with the correct number of legs as full payment for any amount outstanding. I trust this will bring the matter to a conclusion.

Regards, David.

 

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 2.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, As I have stated, we do not accept drawings in lei of money for accounts outstanding. We accept cheque, bank cheque, money order or cash. Please make a payment this week to avoid incurring any additional fees.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 3.17pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

I understand and will definately make a payment this week if I remember. As you have not accepted my second drawing as payment, please return the drawing to me as soon as possible. It was silly of me to assume I could provide you with something of completely no value whatsoever, waste your time and then attach such a large amount to it.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Tuesday 14 Oct 2008 11.18am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Attached

 

broke as a joke

I just got back from Tokyo, Japan last week, it was great seeing first hand the culture that directly influenced the way I was raised.  Besides the part where I got sick (caught a bit of the flu epidemic that's going on there right now), it was an excellent experience and a 100% definite do-over next year.  If I have the money of course, since I've been maxing out my 401k, which I highly recommend everyone should do since the market is really low (also since this year's max contribution has been increased to $16.5k).  So I'm hurting a bit in terms of having petty cash to spend, but it's all part of the plan to retire early, comfortably.  The Tahoe trip that I'm taking this week isn't going to help my savings growth though!

Anyway, I sold my PM position to buy some Wells Fargo Company (NYSE: WFC) a few weeks ago.  Both are up but I think I'm better off with WFC.  After this storms subside I agree with Morningstar that the Financial Sector will have the most gains in the next 3-5 years (which is a gimme since they've been taking the most losses in the past year!).  I also increased my position in PGF today.  Let's hope for a nice boost in Financials while I'm in Tahoe ignoring the market!  =) 

Credit Card Captain Crunch

I sold my entire Visa (NYSE: V) position today for a small loss.  The recent credit crisis is making me a bit apprehensive and I especially do not like the fact that companies are pulling credit from individuals (see previous post).  This means less credit card use and less transactions which in turn equals less profit for Visa.  Global economic downturn is never a good thing.

Visa is still a great company with a decently huge competitive moat therefore I would still recommend the stock.   But I did have a little too much allocated into Visa and feel that they are much better, cheaper companies out there that are basically selling for HUGE HUGE discounts.  General Electric (NYSE: GE) at $12 was such a STEAL, but alas, I had no capital on hand to purchase it at that price.  Now THAT was frustrating!  

I'm still expecting some more bad news, so I'm keeping a keen eye out on the unemployment rate.  To me, it's a good indicator on how the economy is fairing.  If I miss out on 10-20% in overall growth, I'm fine with that since I'm still long-term in majority of my holdings.

The sexiest woman alive (to me)...

Meredith Whitney, one of the few people to predict the current bear market, is my current crush right now.  She is definitely not your stereotypical "blonde".  I thought the only smart blondes were yellow labradors!  jp.

I'm still not paying much attention to the market, but recently a friend of mine posted a link on Facebook of a very interesting video of her current opinion regarding the financial market (and the overall market in general).  I will be very weary of putting in additional thirds at this time, especially since I don't believe the bottom has hit.  The S&P at 741 hurt a lot, but there is a strong possibility that it won't be absolute bottom because of the current liquidity crisis.  I guess only time will tell when to really get back in (Christmas sales, 1st/2nd qtr reports/adjusted outlooks, length of this deep recession).

Like I said before (and Buffett, Cramer, etc), there is no way to accurately predict absolute bottom or absolute top.  The best solution is to buy in thirds (whether it's on dips, bad/good news, time periods, etc).  The main thing is to spread out positions in stocks with huge competitive moats and hold for the long term (3-5 years).

My strategy: Continue to distract myself and try as hard as possible not to look at my brokerage account everyday (occasionally is okay) until 2nd or 3rd quarter of next year, saving as much money until then to pour into the market.  =)

quickie post

Started a position in General Electric (GE) and increased my Visa (V) position by another third last week.  I think this might be rock bottom (Buffett says it's time to buy U.S.), but my coworker and I agree it's going to be an up and down market for the next year or more prolly.  Hopefully we'll never hit below 8k for the DJIA!

blalalalalala

Hmm, i haven't posted in awhile.  But I haven't done anything since that while.  Yes, I missed the up and downs of the past week, in fact, i haven't even looked at my portfolio in almost a month!  I'm sort of glad I didn't, I would definitely be looking on the balding side (from pulling my hair out!).  So the question is, what to do, what to do!?  Will the market rebound?  Is this bottom?  Should I sell and take the losses while it's still up?!!

I personally am not doing anything.  I'm not going to try and play the volatility, especially in the finance market.  My reasoning?  If I looked at PGF earlier this week I might have actually considered selling and taking a huge 30% loss.  Which would have then have rebounded and I would realize that if I stayed in it I'd be almost at even....which would then result with me walking out in front of a fast moving bus.  lol.

The lesson learned here is to simply trust one's system, set proper tolerance levels and most importantly being consistent and sticking to it!  Comparing oneself to the S&P 500 or Russell indexes definitely helps in justifying your losses.  Heck if they're doing worst than my portfolio, i feel great!  Even if I'm in the red....

Sell time..

I always have this problem about when to sell. So today, I'm just doing it. Not thinking about the what ifs or could have beens. I finally broke even on Ingersol Rand (IR) and is by far one of my weaker stocks (in terms of growth potential). I'm going to use the sale from it for a new investment pick or expanding a third on existing picks.

Amedisys (AMED) got pummeled today, almost 18% down with no news. I did a little research as to why the sudden drop and found a VERY interesting article from CitronResearch.com. I'm not saying that AMED is a poor company, but I am going to lock in my profits for now until the rumor mill is shutdown and emotions ease up. Hopefully I can get back in at a better position in the end as well.

On a plus note, CREE is blowing up after hours. Apparently they reported well. Let's hope for a good boost tomorrow morning...

oh my OMTR!

So Google got worked last Friday, I'm most likely initiating another third on them if they should drop more. OMTR just got absolutely obliterated in after-market trading today after their earnings release....down 15%! So the question is, will I buy more OMTR?! Most likely not. I've initiated two of my three thirds on them, so I'm definitely gonna wait for a larger hit before I "back-up the truck."

Much much better opportunities out there at this moment...

Preferred BEST!

I recently pulled the trigger on this great Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that I recently discovered from an article I read on Morningstar.com. The article pretty much sums it up on why I invested in the Powershares Financial Preferred Portfolio ETF (PGF). I really wanted to get into the financial sector since it's dropped so heavily, but was fearful about more negative news and as a result more downward sloping charts. PGF basically hedges me against that since it purchase preferred stock.*

*Preferred stock is basically a stock that acts like a bond. If a company were to go bankrupt, bondholders would be paid first and then preferred stockholders. Common stockholders would be last, and normally they get paid ZERO.

So why an ETF? Choosing which company would pull through this U.S. mortgage crisis is like throwing darts at a dart board! Fortunately PGF hedges me against that. Yes, the gains may not be as great, but ETF significantly lowers my risk and may still return some decent gains as long as the overall sector does well. Also, the low expense fees (compared to that of most mutual funds) is niiiiiiice.

ENERGY OVERLOAD!!!

Just sold my energy stocks, it's a little late for it since it's been "dropping like it's hot" recently. I think I'll be staying away from FSLR from now on, I've made nice profits off of them in the short term, but I believe companies such as Nanosolar may win them out in the long run. I think going for an ETF such as QCLN will be a better play for me in the future.

I will definitely be repurchasing ATW in the future though, I really like this company and it doesn't hurt that it's a TMFSA recommendation. Again, the energy sector is out of favor at the moment and I will be re-appropriating those funds to better investments.

Let's hope for a good earnings season, but I have a bad feeling it'll be gloomy (look at VMW today, EEK!).

blah la la la la la la

I'm trying my best to ignore the portfolio today. My dreams from last week have yet to materialize, maybe I shouldn't have told anyone about them until they came true! I've literally resorted to actually doing some work at work (I'm usually tracking my portfolio news for the majority of the morning), looking at non-stock related sites (such as this), and of course, writing in this blog. Oh well, let the madness ensue. I'm still seriously considering buying NVDA, but I didn't have a chance to crunch the numbers this weekend (lucky for me they're down a little more today).

Watchlist update...

I've been having dreams about my portfolio recently, getting 1-2% gains nightly. In last night's dream it was up 7% in just one day! But alas, the exact opposite has happened (I'm obviously no psychic!).

As a matter of fact, it's pretty darn ugly out there at the moment (like my ex-gf with no make-up, eek!). I've been only watching the news feeds and playing CAPS the past couple of weeks, basically distracting myself to help me ignore the daily horror!

Seriously, my portfolio has fallen quite significantly with the latest dip. We're even past the lows hit earlier this March (Victor was right, I hate him). What to do, what to do!?!?! My conscious is telling me to sell everything and lock in the measly 2% gain that I'm still up. So I do the exact opposite. I'm updating my watchlists (mainly with long-term value plays) and will prolly trigger thirds in existing positions.

A couple of suggestions to watch, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was hammered hard today on poor Q2 earnings outlook. They also screwed up their packaging and some pre-gen cards were damaged during shipments. Not very good press out there on them at the moment, but these are the exact opportunities I look for when determining an optimal entry point. Nvidia has surpassed ATI as the dominant player in the video graphics market, and I see a Intel vs AMD relationship between the two top companies. I'm doing some number crunching this weekend to see if this 30% drop this weekend was justified.

Another watchlist add would be Coach (NYSE: COH). Retail has been hit hard and although COH is increasing market share in Asia, their stock has been bent over and taken it hard. Again, a little more research won't hurt before triggering, but I might be initiating my last third in COH very soon.

Finally, I really like how Lloyd's TSB Group plc (NYSE: LYG) is looking from a valuation perspective. Although an international play and not tied to subprime mortgages, it's been punished all the same since it belongs to the same sector as Bank of America, Citigroup, etc. They've yet to cut their dividend so I think we'll be seeing some nice margins even if the price remains stagnant. Besides a dividend cut, global-wide economic downturn is also a concern therefore I'm keeping this play on the bench for now. I'd like to see how Great Britain is affected by the U.S. recession before taking a swing here (If you ever noticed, CAPS is like my Triple A baseball and my portfolio is the MLB).

Well, that's enough homework to do for the long Independence Day weekend, enjoy the fireworks everyone!

Gaga for Google

I just bought my second third of Google today. Price was decent and I'm only up 15% from my previous buy. I'm hoping for an upbeat earnings report, if it's the opposite then I plan on initiating my last third in this great company.

Amen for AMED!

I'm seeing blood red in my portfolio today, so I bought more. =) AMED wasn't down a lot but I think it's at a good buy point right now so I initiated my second third in it. It's still fairly undervalued and if it drops back down to it's March lows (mid 30s), I'll definitely trigger my last third. Stay the course here and dust off your watch lists...deals will continue to pop up if this dip continues!

Trigger Time!

So if anyone's been paying attention to my KinzoRLP CAPS profile, they'll notice that I've made a couple more position adds to my personal portfolio.

I bought my second third in Canadian National Railway (CNI) for my Roth IRA. They've been getting beaten down quite a bit recently due to fears of a U.S. slowdown. History has proven, however, that industrial railways are a solid recession-proof industry.

The second company that I initiated a small position in is called Ingersoll-Rand. Yes, this is out of my norm, large-cap blue-chip type stock is definitely too slow for me. But similar to CNI, there's a lot of deals in the industrial sector due to market pessimism, getting into a large-cap industrial play was exactly what I've been waiting for. Why? Well, ever since they announced to merge with Trane, I've wanted to get into the company. As with a lot of the companies out there, I believe they're at a great buy point (PEG ratio under 1).

Also, I'm testing the Dow Theory on its concept that stock market averages must confirm each other. To summarize, if the the manufacturers are producing more goods, then the transportation industry will have to ramp up as well. The transportation industry is at an all-time high therefore I feel that the manufacturers will need to catch up. I'm definitely not a technical trader, but I do believe it definitely helps in determining optimal entry points.