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.

Calling in the professionals...

Yes, the title is what it is. I'm actually getting a Financial Advisor. In fact, I'm getting two! My late grandparents left me some money and when I graduated from college it was passed on to me by my father. The same FA that has handled my granparents and parents account was handling this, but I think his time is over, and his conservative approach isn't quite what I'm looking for at my age.

What's interesting is that I now have two advisors with very different perspectives and investment style approaches. One of them prefers iShares and ETF type funds, whereas the other focuses mostly on mutual funds for his clients. And these are loaded mutual funds too. I'm actually a mutual fund hater, and the fact that they're front-loaded as well makes me even sicker to the stomach! But I did this mostly for the learning experience and also as a gauge against my own investing abilities. Hopefully I can get rid of the gag reflex that I'm getting whenever I think about the huge upfront costs and the yearly brokerage fee. Eww. I am happier with the other FA's approach and I'll post more on his style later.

I plan to also compare both advisors, and hopefully consolidate into one FA in about 3 years, depending on who does better. I'm hoping they both do really well, but I really want to actually beat both of them! Only time will tell...game on!

Shorting...

So people ask me why I don't short since I seem to do well at picking crappy stocks on CAPS. Well if you look at my CAPS profile, you'll notice that most of my picks that I short are only giving me a 100 points or so max. But the picks that I've wrongly called to underperform have hit huge numbers. My biggest loser yet is Hawaiian Airlines (HA), which I underperformed and has had a HUGE +100% run since picking it. doh. Fortunately I've picked more winners than losers so far (crossing fingers!).

When buying stocks, the returns are unlimited as the stock price increases and if the stock plummets, the only losses will be what was put in to purchase the stock. With shorting, however, the exact opposite happens! Since we're betting that the company will do poorly, if the company skyrockets 10-fold, so does your loses. That said, compared to a potential gain of only 100% (if the stock price goes to zero), I don't see it being worth the risk at all.

Oil at an all time high...

Oil is up, airline stocks are down huge. My friend then tells me, "Let's buy airline stocks, they're CHEAP!" And my response: "HELL NO!" Never buy airlines, don't waste your time doing the numbers, please just trust me on this one. Unless you are allergic to money and want nothing to do with it. Of course this theory does present a legitimate case for shorting opportunities, but that can be a dangerous ordeal. More to come on shorting later...

Recommended reading...

This book is very simple to read with concise, basic strategies for picking great long-term stocks. What I also like is Pat Dorsey's strategy is extremely similar to the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.

An immediate strategy that I picked up in the first few pages of the book was the need for long-term investing with a minimum amount of transactions:

One should buy stocks they intend to hold for a minimum of a year or more, since short-term taxes on capital gains is an extra 10% more, and that's not including the additional trading fees associated with selling and re-buying of the stock. Overtime, the additional expenses and transaction fees can significantly dent current and potential gains.

Yes, it is quite boring by doing so, but if you think about it....it makes a whole lot of sense!

I really believe this book is great for creating a solid foundation for beginners or as a refresher for experienced investors as well. Definite must-add to your collection!

BADGER BADGER BADGER!!!

Possibly the simplest, most addictive website ever (I have to view it at least once a day, don't ask why cause I don't know either!!!).

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

Bonus: Picture of someone having badgerbadgerbadger live at home! Minus the snake and mushroom. BUT there is a kitty!!!

Garmin!!!

So Garmin (GRMN) reported excellent with 35% increase in total revenues compared to Q1 of last year, they experienced triple digit growth in North America and Europe as well, not to mention a 5 cent increase in EPS. And the market punished it. HARD. WHY?! Bad outlook and the expecting decrease in margins due to the lowering of their personal navigation device (PND) cost. The market HATES them. And I love them! So I increased my position in them, but unfortunately it was a few days ago so I'm down a little more than 11%. I'm still bullish though, and suggest everyone to take a good hard look at GRMN.

In other news, the oh so wonderful Fed cut sliced the prime rate again, another 0.25%. The market tanked but I'm not worried. We had two wonderful weeks of an upswing. The end of the bear market? Will the Fed keep cutting rates? I can't say, but a famous quote from the Battle of Britain does come to mind:

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

Latest buy...

So I triggered on Canadian National Railway (CNI) last week. So why a railway and why Canadian?

1. Increased pricing can be passed onto the consumers.
2. Higher efficiency compared to diesel/gasoline powered trucks.
3. International hedge against the U.S. economic slowdown.
4. Canada's ports are closer to Asia and Europe.
5. Canadian $ has become more valuable than the U.S. $ in recent years.
6. Railroads are known to be a great recession hedges.
7. Increased energy prices can be passed onto the consumers.

Also, it doesn't hurt that Buffett has been investing heavily in the railroads. It's time for me to follow suit on this latest dip. So far so good!

An insightful cartoon...

From IBD's Michael Ramirez...

Slacker

So I've been slacking with my blog posts and I apologize, especially since a lot has happened since my last post. Pessimism has turned to optimism, and I am now on a buying binge. If anyone has tracked my RLP (Real Life Portfolio) profile on CAPS they'd see that I've been kinda nuts. Besides Philip Morris International (PM), which was a split from my Altria (MO) investment, I've opened positions in First Solar (FSLR), Google (GOOG), Atwood Oceanics (ATW), Cree Inc (CREE), and Visa (V).

I also ended my position in National Oilwell Varco (NOV), which has had a really nice run recently (the sector is really hot right now). I figured that my portfolio is a little energy heavy right now, and I'm more confident that ATW will provide much higher returns than NOV. Also, it doesn't hurt that ATW is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation! I used the NOV sale funds for my second third in OMTR, which has been neglected for some time by Mr. Market.

I don't recommend getting into FSLR and V right now, but CREE, and ATW are still at very enticing prices. PM is a great stock to get into at any price point because of it's long-term prospects and fairly large moat (e.g. Marlboro brand). Yes, it's not for anyone who believes smoking is wrong and cigarette corporations are evil, but in my opinion, everyone has a choice. Kids nowadays are warned not to smoke, but until society says it's uncool, they will still do it.

Finally, I've also entered a small position in KOF, which is Coca Cola's Latin American subsidiary. I firmly believe that Latin America is the next boom (Brazil has already blown up) despite some political turmoil there, and there's no better non-cyclical good than Coke!

Do you have the minerals?

So the market has turned sour, people are screaming recession, the housing and financial industries are have been reduced to rubble, stocks are being sold off and companies are being consolidated for pennies (e.g. BSC). Yes, my portfolio has been equally punished, but to tell you the truth, I've been trying to ignore it entirely. No doubt, I've been pulling my hair out watching every position in my portfolio turn blood red, including my blue-chip Roth IRA positions!

Let there be blood.

And buy more! History has shown us that the U.S. Market has rebounded from each and every dip. It may have taken almost a year or so, but eventually it has turned itself around.

“The key is to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.” - Warren Buffett

Keep a sharp eye on your watchlist and your Tums handy while you try to stomach the upcoming turmoil!

Almost Famous...

I got an email from one of the writers at theFool.com mentioning they quoted me in one of their articles! And must I add it's for one of my more clever pitches on CAPS. Yippee! I'm famous! On a more humble note, CPL is reporting tomorrow at 12pm ET. Let's hope it BLOWS UP! (I'm 1 for 6 this earnings season, but thankfully still in the black overall). Remember to buy in thirds*! =)

*For long positions, it's an excellent strategy to buy a stock one-third of what you allocated for that stock at a time. This will allow for short-term fluctuations in the market environment (or in my case, a bad earnings report!) and will increase your chances of having a good average starting point for your long position.

An update..

So we have the latest reports: inflation is off the charts, housing prices are dropping at record rates, consumer confidence is extremely pessimistic, bond insurers are teetering on the edge of losing their AAA bond rating and the market is......going UP?!

I have no clue what's going on, apparently bond insurance rating is more important than consumer outlook and inflation! On the brightside, I found an interesting company during my research of this market freakyness.

The company, CPFL Energia S.A. (CPL), is a utility company in Brazil. YES, Brazil. I recently read an article about Mr. Buffett buying the Brazilian Real since he was bearish towards the U.S. dollar. Let's face it Bernanke is letting inflation out of control and the market will soon respond. But I'm not going to get into that. Basically, in order to hedge the U.S. market going sour, I've decided to play the Brazilian economy. Yes, they have been through many crises in the past, but they have since turned the economy an entire 180 degrees. Inflation rate in Brazil has gone from 25% to less than 5% in the past 6 years!

With ever increasing energy prices, a growing economy, and high barriers to entry, this Brazilian utility should be an excellent play. Not to mention their PEG ratio is just under 1.10!

The Investor's Mind

I thought this was funny but very very TRUE. Another reason to keep long on your positions and to buy in thirds!

Portfolio update..

So if anyone listened to the Omniture (OMTR) conference call today, things sounded "ok". But just "ok" wasn't good enough for investors and in turn they punished OMTR down over 4% in after hours trading. If you include the -8% prior to closing, that's almost 13% overall for the day! Eeek.

I guess analysts were expecting something above their expectations, similar to how if you buy your girlfriend flowers every week they'll expect it EVERY week. The one week you forget, you get yelled at!!! Maybe OMTR should be more like AAPL and underscore their estimates every period (similar to how I NEVER get my gf's flowers!). haha, well despite the punishment they received today, I shall remain resilient and will still stay long on this position.

Another stock that I recently purchased is National Oilwell Varco (NOV). They also reported outstanding but for some reason was punished as well. I think the entire sector is falling out of favor with the hedge funds due to the recession crisis. Ah well, I'll stick with this long-term as well and try to ride out the impending storm.

For my Roth IRA I also decided to pull the trigger on PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (PBW), which is basically an alternative energy ETF. It's been getting beaten down pretty well as the solar sector has been, so I figure it's a good time to get in. Another long position here.

I've also created a CAPS profile to reflect my real-life portfolio and it's now featured on this site as well. Enjoy!

Lake Tahoe

So a bunch of my friends and I went to meet my cousin up in Tahoe earlier this month. We timed it perfectly and got there between 3 winter storms! Pretty scary driving, but overall it was a great trip and definite do-over next year (maybe back to Utah instead though).

I see stupid people...

Whenever you make a bonehead mistake, just view this pic and you'll feel much better!

Speaking of which, does anyone know Mr. Bernanke's email address? Send him this so he won't feel so dumb for cutting the Fed rates and killing the U.S. dollar!

The sky IS falling!

Yes, it's true, chicken little is actually right for once. For the time being of course. The sky WILL fall for a bit, Wall Street WILL be running around like chickens without heads for awhile, but as history shows the market WILL return to it's previous levels and WILL increase even further!

So anyway, yesterday, was Martin Luther King Day thus the U.S. stock markets were closed. However, the rest of the world who did NOT have the day off to celebrate MLK's b-day (which they should!) were busy freaking out about the feared U.S. recession.

So by sheer dumb luck I put in orders for Coach (COH) and Southern Copper Corporation (PCU) over the weekend (while I was at home being unsociable and my friends were partying). Well, not so much dumb luck since I felt it was a great time to start positions in both companies.

COH, which my little sister LOVES btw, is now expanding to Asia markets. The buzz is that Asia is sooooo hot right now (like Hansel hot!). So I figured I'd initiate a small position. I should have put in more!!! The market opened at well under 4% (COH at -6%) and rebounded a bit. COH ended up being up 8%! Sorry everyone, I know most of the investors are getting pummeled right now so I should definitely be happy that my oh so very small play did well.

As for PCU, it was just a greed play since their hefty dividend should be released soon. =)

The Recession is in session people!!!

Although they still have yet to admit it, I'm thoroughly convinced that the U.S. economy is now in a recession. We have yet to see the jobless and inflation data, but things aren't looking good at all. And now the Fed is scrambling to make adjustments. The problem is, the economy is like a huge oil tanker, making adjustments now will only affect it's positioning miles ahead from now.

Yessir, Captain Bernanke f'ed up. He hit reef and the resulting oil slick will soon be killing the cute, innocent seals.

And now he's asking Congress and Little Bush to bail him out by offering tax cuts and injecting money to save the financial institutions who are being hit hard by the spillover from the subprime mortgage fiasco.

So what to do now. I'm a peon so my opinion on the subject doesn't have any clout, but I do believe that we should not focus on what happened, but concentrate all of our efforts on the problem at hand and how to fix it. Meaning, help the people who were told they could afford their subprime mortgages when in actuality they couldn't. It's their blood, sweat and tears that made this country what it is, don't punish them for being tricked.

Again, the Economy is going to go into a recession, it's inevitable. But we still can prevent this recession from being the largest in U.S. history and quite possibly a 2nd Great Depression. Yes I've said it, DEPRESSION. It scares me to say it, just like a hyena saying Mufasa, but you have to admit it's not a complete impossibility!

With this in mind, I reluctantly admit that I am thoroughly EXCITED.* History has shown that after the worst recessions that the U.S. Economy has faced, the market has responded with the best bull-markets soon after. I think camistocks has put it best in his CAPS blog. I highly suggest one to read it for some consolation to this economic disgust.

*According to past data, a good indicator of when the economy is recovering from a recession is the Unemployment Rate. As rates go up, the market goes down and vice versa. According to NorthernTrust.com, the average S&P 500 decline was about 20% with each U.S. recession, lasting about 6-9 months on average.

DOH!

I sensed a downward spiral after the recent stall so should have ejected but I decided to ride it through...and CRASHED...

Just as I feared, my once favorite stock CBLI, plummeted 60% on news that they did not win their DoD contract bid. I WAS up 18% on the stock w/ the few shares I had repurchased, and that turned into a 42% loss or so. It hurt my overall portfolio total quite a bit (couple percentage points) Didn't help that the overall market is in a downward trend. I'm just glad I still wasn't invested as heavily as I was before, therefore minimizing even HUGER losses (see previous post for more info).

Still, I'm quite upset since I forgot to put a trailing stop on CBLI, especially since I had my previous t-stop trigger right before their initial slide from $12 to $7. Being up on a volatile stock gives you that much more incentive to put a t-stop on it, especially since the sudden cancellation of the year end meeting was a huge WTF indicator for me. But alas, I forgot, and paid for it. Lesson learned.

*When purchasing speculative, volatile stocks such as biotechs or IPOs (that I highly suggest NOT to purchase unless it's play money that you don't mind losing), always remember to add a trailing stop (I personally use a percentage stop) to minimize huge losses. Depending on volatility and market cap of the stock, adjust your stop to vary on the amount you are willing to lose (the more volatility and lower market cap will require a higher t-stop percentage).

On the bright side, it did make me wonder who the contract was awarded to, so I did a little research and found out that Osiris Therapeutics (OSIR) won the DoD RFP, most likely because their drug (Prochymal) is already in the FDA Fast Track Phase III trials, whereas CBLI's Protectan CBLB502 is only in Phase II. So, I did a little research, liked what I read and initiated a small position in the company. Hopefully I can make back some of the gains lost if OSIR can win the Department of Health and Human Services RFP as well. Again, another speculative pick that I'm willing to lose money on so REMEMBER YOUR T-STOPS!!!