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.

thanx a lot. i really appreciate ur advise

I was expecting a break today but the market managed to close slightly in the green. One of the things that caught my attention was that the short ratio has been the highest in few years. For those of you that do not know about short selling, it is basically selling stocks that you do not own. You borrow it from brokers and sell it. The benefit of it is that you'll make money if the market goes down and you'll lose money if the market goes up. It is very risky and is NOT a good idea for a regular person tho short. Leave that to the professionals.

So with such a high short ratio if this market can hold at this level, we could go higher. Heavy short interests are usually happen towards the bottom, not near a top.

So after my analysis, I am neutral at this point.

Here are some of my picks.
XLNX, MPWR, ALTR. These stocks had a decent increase in short interest.

Like I have said before, if a stock falls 10% from your buy point, take the loss.

I'm excited that there is more participation now.

fyi......When I say neutral, it means buy a little and see how it goes. When I'm bullish it is buy and hold. After a bull run if I'm neutral that means, take some profits.

The market opened higher, went up a little bit and started selling-off. This huge volatility is going to produce a very strong move but I can't tell whether the direction is going to be up or down. In this case, it is better to stay on the sidelines and let the market find a direction. In order for me to be bullish, I will like the S&P to CLOSE ABOVE 1430.

There are lots of bad news coming out. The debacle of the sub-prime lenders is one major one. No body has been able to identify yet how bad of an effect will that have on other sectors. The confrontation with Iran is another one. Crude jumped up pretty well in the last few days. Today there was the news about US imposing tarrifs on Chinese paper. All these factors point to a higher inflation. The good thing is that the market is still holding strong with all these bad news, so when we get good news it will move higher.

I have heard some rumours that the US and UK are likely to attack Iran. I'm not sure whether it will be a full fledge war or just attack on their nuclear reactors. If that happens, the market might sell-off on the news but will sky-rocket after that. If there is an attack, that will happen most likely sooner than later.

I'm still trading here and there but nothing major. Once I'm able to identify the direction, I'll go all in.

thread bookmarked.

One of the things about being successful in any profession is to keep learning. It is important to understand new developements and adapt to it. Same thing applies to trading too. In the past few months as people who have been following me here know that I had a pretty good run to figure out what the market was going to do. We have been able to buy at the low and sell at the high. This has a lot to do with luck but preparation was important too. In the past when I started I was not always lucky or prepared, I have lost a lot too. The only good thing was that I took notes of what I did and where I did the wrong things. The money was something that I could afford to lose. I was speculating/trading with what I could afford to lose.

The reason for all the above is because I'm trying to tell that just because we had a good run does not mean a thing. Things can chage soon and we could have another bad run. It is important to not let the guards down and be prepared all the time.

Eminitrader whats your picks for this week....

Wating for some tips for this week...

Well right now I do not feel comfortable about this market. This is stuck in a range. I'd like to see S&P 500 close above 1430. Today it closed at 1424. Hopefully, we will find a direction soon. I'm still neutral. Once the market goes above 1430, I'll post some stocks that look good to me.

I have been selling around 1428 and will keep on doing that till it close above 1430. For rest of you that do not and SHOULD NOT short, stay in cash. We'll jump in when the opportunity presents itself.

I have been looking at some oil related stocks and some mining stocks that look good. Although these do not go up as fast as tech stocks, they go up.

Will probably post some tomorrow. Watching the college basketball final today.

Today's the market managed to break the previous resistance. It is time to look at some stocks to buy.

ONSM - 2.44
SIGA - 4.83
ASTI - 8.23
KRSL- 19.45
XLNX - 25.92
ALTR -20.20
TTWO - 21.24

MPWR - get rid of this crap. It was down today.

These stocks should move up.

In order to stay ahead of the game it is necessary to find out what factors could effect the fundamentals in the future. Hurrican season is ahead of us so it is a good idea to have some oil related stocks.

Some of the Solar stocks should do good with high oil prices and a Democratic congress. I like ESLR - 10.19.

I have put today's closing price next to the stock. Every 2-4 weeks we can come and evaluate how the stock is performing. Do not worry about the daily fluctuations, as long as it is holding up well over a long period.

I still like GROW - 31.87 but I do not want to chase it anymore.

We are going to see some selling near the high, but this market is showing strength here and we'll probably break the high.

Take your loss if the market falls 10-15% from your buy point.

This looks like a broad based rally. Pretty much every sector is making a new high. If you want to diversify get some mining stocks. Those should do good too. If any stock looks intersting, post it here and we'll look at it together and I'll give my input too. Damn I feel like Cramer!!!

For people that are more conservative QQQQ, DIA, SPY and IWM will work.

Eminitrader,
There are thousands of stock how many should one pursuit? What is a selection criteria?

Aman: It all depends on how much money you have and what type of risk are you willing to take. If you have less than $10,000 to invest, then go with QQQQ, IWM, SPY or DIA. These are exchange traded products, more like a mutual fund that trades throughout the day. Usually there is less volatility with these.

If you want to do individual stocks, those are a bit more risky. They can go up or down a lot.

Here is how I came up with the stocks. I looked for stocks that have been down recently but still managed to stay above their 50 day moving average. Then I looked for stocks with a price gain and an increase in volume.

The other way to do is to look at the sector that is showing strength and buy the strongest stocks in the sector. So if you want to buy financial stocks then go with GS.

Please read Secrets of Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets by Stan W. That will help.

If you buy a stock, any stock and the next 2 days market is up more than 0.5% each day but your stock hardly moved or went down, then it is time to dump that stock and look for another one. Similarly, if the market is down more than 0.5% but your stock is down less or slightly up, then it is time to add more to the position as the stock is showing strength.

If your stock is Tech related, compare it to QQQQ and if it is small cap compare it to IWM and if it is large cap compare it to SPY to find the relative strength.

Hey Eminitrader, thanks for your inputs. I know GS is one of the strongest on financial Sector, what do you think abt LEH and MS,I am seeing few growth on those too. Got some portions divided on three of those , what do you think about it? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

WTF is ETF?

;p

by Mother of God,
is ETF
related to
MMMF?
;p

ETF= Exchange Traded Funds. Like mututal funds (in the sense that they are an aggregate of a lott of companies) but can be bought and traded on a exchange much like stocks.

damn, havent been posting on sajha for a while. Glad to see eminitrader still posting. I'm hoping to get back soon into the markets. Just too scary right now.

Oh

And here's one of my proud picks-ASTI. I got sick the day I was going load up on it and couldn't.

$%R#@$@!#. I am so pissed.

Check out ASTI's recent run. That would be my pick. Diminishing volume but should see a rise soon. It's testing resistance today. I'd buy tomorrow if it opens above 9 and place a stop at 8.90.

Another solar:- DSTI.Bottomed out, excellent time to fish.

What say you emini?

Some of yesterday's picks did well where as some of them did not. The best were SIGR and ESLR. Both were up nicely. The worst was KRSL. I noticed this morning that I should not have recommended KRSL because of the average volume that it trades in a day. It is necessary for the stock to have an average volume of atlease 150,000.

The best way to buy is to put these stocks in yur watchlist and watch it for the first half hour ie.8.30-9 EST. After the 1st half hour buy it if it goes above the 8.30-9.00 high. This way although you won't be buying at the low price you won't be buying anything that is going down.

QQQQ, DIA and SPY were all up and IWM was slightly down today.

Netfreak: I like GS the most but LEH and MS should be good too.