I had promised that I was going to start my own thread regarding stock investments and the markets. So many things have happened since last time I was here and I really do not feel like sharing my knowledge. But a promise is a promise and there have been few people that have emailed me and supported me.

This thread will deal with investing in the stock markets. I will not discuss individual stocks but discuss ETFs like SPY, DIA, IWM and QQQQ. The one good thing about trading ETFs compared to individual stocks is the the ETFs provide instant diversification among similar companies within the same sector.

I will post more as we go along, regarding entry-price, profit-target and stop-losses. I do not think that any ETF is good or bad. It is good only if I'm making money and bad if I'm losig money.

If you have not been in the market so far, please read this as an information piece only rather than my recommendations. There is risk involved and you should know how much risk to take on any position.

Any suggestations, comments and criticisms are welcome as long as it is market related. If this thread gets out of hand and we start discussing off-topics, I'll stop posting.

Have a happy new year!!!! May 2007 bring you and your family lots of joys and riches.

Pupiffy: I'll hold onto INTC right now. Semis are doing pretty good. If INTC is able to close above $23, it could go much higher. everytime it got near $22.50, it has seen some resistance. Right now the market looks strong so hold on to it.

Check this out:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/simons-griffin-lampert-earn-more/story.aspx?guid=%7B55DBE196%2D3461%2D495D%2D8B27%2DDE4CA6C5641D%7D

EM, i was just reminding J for the conflict of interest as he is in IB.

Emini: You are right in that you save premium if you get out at a stop loss placed at the strike price of the put. But I was thinking of buying a put option only because the stock has a high volatility (large beta). I do not want to sell, buy, and sell… again…I guess, I am looking for a little longer term (3+ months). You could be right—buying a put could be totally unnecessary.

I am planning to get into trading options after few months when I feel more comfortable and when I will have some money to risk: D (poor student).

Good Morning all,

Emini ji your two new picks, I have put under the watchglass. I have been in and out on ESLR. Still kinda apprehensive about it, albeit, the MACD and STOC point brighter future. I also seen large number of stocks being traded on this particular item.

JDO for some reason, is very interesting. I see on certain days the volume is 100k and on certain days it swings to millions. Hmmm? I still think that peeps are having good feel on this one. Let us see.

Guest4, Options not being my domain, I would try and learn from yours and Emini's conversations.

Jyalincha ji, I dig your strategy. Initially when I started couple of months ago, I was a baby crawling. Meaning I would just sell the stocks making few hundred quids here and there. Last night I sat down to figure what if I had those stocks for "hold", hmmm the difference was a quite a few +ve quids. Anyways, like Emini ji said, I am into Intra-day only. And Long term is defined at one quarter, like yourself.


Best to all traders on this wonderful Thursday.

Best~!

-B

Preface: ESLR, JDO and the likes.


There are 193 countries in the world.
None of them are energy independent.


The fact is, the vast majority of countries rely on the few energy-producing nations that won the geological lottery, blessign them with abundant hydrocarbons. And yet, even regions with plenty of raw resources import some form of energy. Saudi Arabia, for example, the world's largest oil exporter, imports refined petroleum products like gasoline.

So if energy independence is an unrealistic goal, how does everyone get the fuel they need, especially in a world of rising demands, supply disruptions, natural disasters, and unstable regimes?

True global energy security will be a result of cooperation and engagement, not isolationism. When investments and expertise and allowed to flow freely across borders, the engine of innovation is ignited, prosperity is fueled and the energy available to everyone increases. At the same time, balancing the needs of producers and consumers is a crucial as increasing supply and curbing demand. Only then will the world enjoy energy peace-of-mind.

Succeeding in securing energy to everyone doesn't have to come at the expense of anyone. Once we all start to think differently about energy, then we can truly make this promise a reality.

Source: WSJ Chevron's Ad this morning! visit www.willyoujoinus.com

here's some more stks that popped into my watchlist this morning: CCK, AMAT and MOV. I do not own any of these, but they match my 'filters' for stock I would be interested in, and I may purchase them. Once again, this is not for intraday folks.
I do not trade stks anymore to make a living. I now deal with valuations of companies for mergers and acquisitions. The stks I am providing are merely a resource I have available, one I hope will help you guys in finding some decent investment options. The stop loss I have is purely to protect myself if the value goes down below my loss threshold, since I do not have time to watch the markets like I did.
like EMT said earlier, please do your due diligence prior to settling on your picks. I do this for fun and small profits now, whereas earlier in my career my livelihood depended on picking the right stocks. We all invest for different reasons, but the goal is to make a profit. Do not buy these stocks if you are not comfortable with its fundamentals.

jyalincha ji,

all your picks are up.... nice forecast I say.

I dig ya on your strategy. Inside scoop on M&A. Hmm you on LBO, or what? Tell us more if you are only comfortable to share.

Best~!

-B

Emni...
JDO is below 2.20
whts your take on that?

Hankhora,

also Emini ji....


I am out. Sold it all. I saw the competetiors going green while market seem have shown no mercy on JDO.

INPC; got rid of too.

But, I got into ESLR-one more time chasing. STOP is 9ish.

Best~!

-B

JDO is not acting right here. Today it closed below $2.20. That was where I had said that I was going to exit. So I'm moving my stop to $2.15 which is a penny below today's low.

I haven't run any scans lately so I'll just wait till the summer is over to post other picks. Keep an eye on Jhyalincha's picks, they seem to be doing good.

How you guys think about F for long term about two quarter

Emini,
JDO is down and out for me. I am seeing not much happening. And or course investor's confidence does seem to lack on this one, as I observe the volume swing of the said stock. I got out at 2.17. Had some loss to take and something to learn in the process.

Aman,
my suggestion would be not to get into Auto stocks. They are very slow movers. For the stocks to go up, F will have to sell significant numbers of Cars/trucks, which to me, at this point, sounds rather unrealistic. Still go for what you feel. TMC is a tough competitor, NO?

I hold, ESLR, NFLX only. I am looking to some of Jyalincha's picks that did pretty well yesterday.

Remember today is Friday, and the market behaves differently on Fridays and Mondays. That is what I observed. Correct me!

Best~!

-B

JDO was a tough one, it seemed to do good the first few days but after that you know the story. This is part of the game so it is very necessary to understand your attitude towards risk and your risk tolerance. This is where the principle of BET SMALL comes into play.

There was another pick XLNX around late March that is doing good. I beleive it was trading around $25 that time and now it is at $30.

I noticed that I was using the short-term strategy to trade the long-term too which obviously does not seem to be working.

I am back-testing a weekend strategy, where you run the scans on weekend and open a position on Monday, then you put your stop and every week depending on the market you change your stops. This should take about 4-6 hours a week and has the tendancy to capture the big swings.

I will post those when I have time.

what you people think of LVLT, ADR and CNXT?

Emini,

thanks for the comments. Yes, I dig it, and I do understand that all of us gotta be accountable for our decisions. What you have been saying and sharing, are all worthy of due considerations, in process of learning and finding out what works best.

We all shall wait on the new strategy work-outs over weekend for capturing gains during big swings. Thanks for that in advance.

Just got out of court. Won a case against law firm. Feel very,very good about. F the stocks for today at least.... hahaha

Best~!

-B

IPOs.


Two picks that will definitely bring monies.

ARUN on WLAN wireless infarstructure.
CLWR mass distribution of wirless WLANs.

please keep these two on the watchglass. I am not sure what would be a good entry pricing on these. Although, I have seen that 16 and 13 seem to be bottom price for CLWR and ARUN respectively, speaking of my observation so far.

Best of Luck!

-B

Tauke ji...

what is ADR? was not able to find it listed!

well, CNXT and LVLT do not look that interesting to me. I know LVLT has large sum of resurrected-monies from Warren Buffet, but I still don't see it going anywhere.

CNXT, it is like TXCC or for that matter, lots of other semi-conductor companies going through a rough patch. Only because we are talking about "outsourcing" and cheap labor.

Best~!

-B

hello all,

for readers here minus the WSJ subscribers, I find this letter to be very simply straight-forward.

Well, to liken this read to some of the novice requests here at Sajha as to what you need to be a trader; I purpose that enough of the pre-requisites are mentioned here that is if you know what you are reading.

Best~!
-B



'They May Be Hard to Identify'
April 28, 2007

In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors March 1, CEO Warren Buffett announced his search for a successor as chief investment officer. Below, his explanation of why he's looking and who he's looking for. (See related article, and read excerpts of some applicants' letters to Mr. Buffett.)

* * *

I have told you that Berkshire has three outstanding candidates to replace me as CEO and that the Board knows exactly who should take over if I should die tonight. Each of the three is much younger than I. The directors believe it's important that my successor have the prospect of a long tenure.
[Warren Buffett]

Frankly, we are not as well-prepared on the investment side of our business. There's a history here: At one time, Charlie was my potential replacement for investing, and more recently Lou Simpson has filled that slot. Lou is a top-notch investor with an outstanding long-term record of managing GEICO's equity portfolio. But he is only six years younger than I. If I were to die soon, he would fill in magnificently for a short period. For the long-term, though, we need a different answer.

At our October board meeting, we discussed that subject fully. And we emerged with a plan, which I will carry out with the help of Charlie and Lou.

Under this plan, I intend to hire a younger man or woman with the potential to manage a very large portfolio, who we hope will succeed me as Berkshire's chief investment officer when the need for someone to do that arises. As part of the selection process, we may in fact take on several candidates.

Picking the right person(s) will not be an easy task. It's not hard, of course, to find smart people, among them individuals who have impressive investment records. But there is far more to successful long-term investing than brains and performance that has recently been good.

Over time, markets will do extraordinary, even bizarre, things. A single, big mistake could wipe out a long string of successes. We therefore need someone genetically programmed to recognize and avoid serious risks, including those never before encountered. Certain perils that lurk in investment strategies cannot be spotted by use of the models commonly employed today by financial institutions.

Temperament is also important. Independent thinking, emotional stability, and a keen understanding of both human and institutional behavior is vital to long-term investment success. I've seen a lot of very smart people who have lacked these virtues.

Finally, we have a special problem to consider: our ability to keep the person we hire. Being able to list Berkshire on a resume would materially enhance the marketability of an investment manager. We will need, therefore, to be sure we can retain our choice, even though he or she could leave and make much more money elsewhere.

There are surely people who fit what we need, but they may be hard to identify. In 1979, Jack Byrne and I felt we had found such a person in Lou Simpson. We then made an arrangement with him whereby he would be paid well for sustained overperformance. Under this deal, he has earned large amounts. Lou, however, could have left us long ago to manage far greater sums on more advantageous terms. If money alone had been the object, that's exactly what he would have done. But Lou never considered such a move. We need to find a younger person or two made of the same stuff.

The good news: At 76, I feel terrific and, according to all measurable indicators, am in excellent health. It's amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow.

Just my guess, companies like JDO with small no. of employee and revenue is very volatile and does not follow market rules. Even when the company is not having any good or bad news for that time period they can be heavily swinged by a single big investor trying to lure small investor. So I think they are not for defensive invester.