An Update...RVBD, FSLR, PCAR

Recently, I initiated small positions in Riverbed Technology Inc (RVBD) and First Solar, Inc (FSLR) for my high-risk high-yield account, and Paccar Inc (PCAR) for my long-term Roth IRA account. I just realize that at this moment I'm actually averaging a better return in my Roth IRA (+19%) than my high-risk account (+14%)! This is mainly due to building positions in DEEP, SSW, RVBD, and FSLR, but I'm still impressed at the short-term gains on my long-term IRA stocks (+5 years).

So a little insight on my three new positions...

1) RVBD is a technology company, who specializes in WAN acceleration products for enterprise level (mid to large sized) organizations in need of high speed interconnectivity. They one several awards since 2005 for their WAN accelerator, and will probably keep winning with their ingenuity of their products. So far RVBD has blown away competitor Cisco (CSCO) and have such a huge edge, that it'll be some time until other companies can begin to recapture the huge WAN market share that RVBD has bitten a chunk into. RVBD has beat estimates the last two earnings reports, but that's about all the reports they have made since they are a recent IPO. I look forward to more great things as this company expands with the U.S. and Internationally with their proprietary WAN acceleration product (competitive moat!).

2) My second pick, FSLR, is a solar company (alternative energy). The company develops a proprietary solar panel that uses SIGNIFICANTLY less silicon than other manufacturers. They do take up a little more space since they are less efficient, however, they do see reaching solar grid parity (where it is the same price to have a solar plant vs. a coal/oil plant) in as early as 2010, depending on oil prices.

I'm really late in the game for this stock, i've been watching it ever since it killed me in CAPS and hit 40 points (almost 100% gain from when i first underperformed it). Since then i've seen it rise higher and higher, and all the time i kept thinking to myself, "ok i'll buy on the next dip," and then "no wait, it might go back down more" after it did dip. After the last rally I told myself, "screw it," and bought a third* intending to place more positions later, pending a huge drop or increase in price (which i should have done from the start!). Let's hope that the steam hasn't run out in this engine and we'll hopefully see it hit even higher highs with the next earnings report (which looks promising since they just landed 5 huge contracts worth over a billion dollars).

*Always buy in thirds when going long term, it's less risky and allows you manage swings and obtain a good average price level. For me I like to purchase on 8% or more swings (negatively) or when a stock hits its 50-day Moving Average (don't forget to pay no less than 2% commission for each position, it's just not worth it otherwise!).

Lately (this and last qtr), a lot of companies whose reported excellent revenue and growth have been PUNISHED with extreme prejudice because they've lowered future outlook/estimates (fear of a weakening U.S. economy).
A solution to this is to look for companies that are taking advantage of the U.S. economic slowdown such as PRAA (who buys defaulted loans at a huge discount and collects the debt themselves for a hefty profit) or international companies not heavily affected by the U.S. Economy such as FSLR , PCU, or my next stock pick, Paccar Inc.

3) Not only is PCAR an international company and won top awards in their industry, they've also started development of improving their trucks to be 30% more fuel efficient within the next seven years using hybrid technology. This is a HUGE selling point for these gas-guzzling beasts and shows potential for greater growth in the future. Bottom line, the company has great fundamentals, best overall ranking in its group, and not very well known. Most importantly for me from a long-term standpoint, they give a very generous special dividend at the end of the year on top of their quarterly dividend (which is almost as wonderful as a stock repurchase plan!).

I've already hit my 10 position limit* for my high-risk portfolio, but I'll be ending my position in FCFS very soon so i'll have some room for something else. I thought the poor economy would have a little better effect on FCFS's financials, but it's been a sloppy roller coaster ride for this stock for a year now and i think it will be some time before it will be able to break out of its base. I'll probably be watching from the sidelines by then, but ah well, NO REGRETS!

*It's a good idea to limit the amount of stocks you have in your portfolio at one time, having more than that will be just way too hard to keep up with! Especially for high-risk volatile stocks (although it's the slow decliners that tend to sneak by my radar and kill me the most!).