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July 24, 2009

Dow Jones Index Technical Analysis

I pulled out a longer term chart of the Dow and there is what looks like a potential rounding bottom formation and failed signal on this last breakdown. Both of these are bullish. The fundamentals are hard for me to get a hold of here on a lot of stocks and the economy. I'd say stock prices are more likely to be overvalued fundamentally. I also strongly believe we will be in a range-bound market for many years. I'd be very surprised if we saw new highs on the indices anytime this year or next year. I'd actually be scared because I fear what the next crisis will be like. I think the economy and stocks should have cooled off and consolidated with the savings and loan crisis at the least.

All of that totally conflicts with the current market forces that are driving stock prices higher. I don't think market forces are always intelligent but using technicals can give me a better read on the short and mid-term direction. I don't have much experience with the indices technically so I'm treading pretty lightly here. One type of bottom formation is a rounding bottom. It looks very similar to the long term chart on the S&P and Dow. Confirmation would be about 10,000 on the Dow.






























I like this next one the most right here. We were stuck in that range from May until just recently when it looked like the market was going to breakdown. The arrow points to that move. We actually did make a new low there below the chop. Then those sellers and skeptics got wiped out as the market forced them higher and prevented a breakdown. That was the failed signal. What that means is the strength here is very strong. If it can't go lower we can only go higher technically. This is beginning to be confirmed as new highs are being made out of this range signaling more upside potential. If we hold these highs or retest and run there could be much more upside in this rally. Really though, a no brainer time to go bullish and get long was when the failed breakout pushed above the trend support line. I didn't even think about the failed signal because I was expecting more lows and didn't flip the picture around which this chart says to do.






July 23, 2009

Top Short Watches

Congratulations to anyone that saw my Twitter post that GAEC was going to tank. I put that alert up a couple days ago before the annihilation when the stock was at $2.20s. The stock crashed today to $1.10 and closed at $1.60.


These are some of my top short watches.














FRZ sells ice cubes. See a pattern here?














Newspaper company.














Another newspaper














Yet another






























full disclosure: no positions

July 21, 2009

Festival of Stocks at Modern Graham

Check out Modern Graham and the festival of stocks for some investing articles. My post I did on IFON and LDIS is there. I just took off my IFON for a gain of 20%. Post coming up on that and on my 2009 net-net performance.

Net-Net IFON Trade










I'm glad I learned technical analysis because it really helped me out with IFON. Actually, the way it is going right now it may have been the difference between a nice gain and tiny profit or loss. I used that red trend line(in my platform though) to see that the bull run was still alive after it had fallen back to $1 and slowly started creeping up around the same trend line. After I longed it at $1.58 all I did was watch it continue up the line. As it approached the $1.99 resistance from the other week(first red line) without breaking it strong intraday I saw the potential for a double top and pull-back. Not worth the risk of loosing the profits because of that possibility so far into this run it has had. I actually sold it yesterday at 1.92 before that last red day on the chart which is today's action. This exit looks about perfect right now because yesterday IFON only hit a high of 1.96. And right now it is looking like that was the end.

It very well could get a push over $2 but there is just something about those round numbers. Notice it never traded at $2. And I noticed that the buying has been coming every day and that had to end eventually. Drew that with a black circle. I was also thinking about the valuation. No longer in net-net territory here and not the kind of net-net I know well enough to run past that valuation. A buy right around $1 off that pull-back would have been sweet in retrospect because the technicals were there for it to be had but I'm happy with this trade. I had a loss today chasing a momo penny stock so this is offsetting the loss.



full disclosure: no position

July 20, 2009

Net-Net FSI International FSII On Move

I was looking through some scans and this chart stuck out. I drew the resistance line for the range it has been in.














This breakout looked interesting so I checked out some fundamentals. The stock happened to be a net-net. I think it actually rings a bell as a perennial net even though I don't scan for net current asset stocks as often as I used to. Unfortunately, it is a semi and I hate the history of its fundamentals. The fact that someone is buying this here on more than its average volume and taking it up is interesting. I'm thinking that someone may be coming in late? I've noticed some micro-caps like PXG would get accumulated after the bigger companies in the sector all got rotated into. I guess that would make sense because naturally the street is going to go after the Microsoft's first because of the liquidity then when that is exhausted and they still have money to put to work the only place left is smaller market caps.

Hard to find much good going on here. This is possibly better. "The Company intends to manage its operations with a goal to end fiscal 2009 with greater than $10 million in cash, restricted cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities." There is no long-term debt but there has been declining revenue growth and income for years.

Not very excited with the little info I have on the company fundamentally. Just watching this one right now. This isn't a good stock to invest in surely. To trade. Possbily. The technicals point to more potential upside with this rounding bottom and breakout if it holds another day or so. I've been up as much as 6% or so so far in net-net IFON. So far the stock is holding up well.

full disclosure: no position in FSII, long IFON