It looks like July saw the bottom of the market for a while; things seem to have stabilized. Reading market pundits is amazing; half of them are expecting a boom, the other half are expecting a bust for the rest of this year. My prediction: one of them will be right, the other one wrong. Actually, I think that as soon as the Fed stops raising interest rates – and that looks to be soon – then the market will take off suddenly. I plan to be in the market when that happens.
I’ve decided to start phasing out the YLDEARNYR screen which by far has been the biggest culprit at keeping my returns below the market this year. Bleh.
I’m also going to ease back into 6/3 options for the next few months until April ’07.
- Last 4 weeks: +1.4%
- Last 3 months: -3.9%
- Year to date: -1.6% (Dow is +4.6% ytd from 10,718)
- Last 12 months:-0.9%
Holding for another month:
| Ticker | Bought | Now | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMA | $55.03 | $58.36 | 2 | +6.1% | Comerica, Inc. This one is back from the LPEYLD screen. |
| DDS | $26.04 | $30.77 | 3 | +18.2% | Dillard’s Inc. From the H52EARNPS screen. |
| EME | $49.17 | $53.80 | 1 | +9.4% | EMCOR Group, Inc. From the H52EarnPS screen. |
| NITE | $15.33 | $15.94 | 1 | +4.0% | Knight Capital Group, Inc. From the LowPEZLTD screen. |
| VOL | $48.50 | $43.79 | 1 | -9.7% | Volt Information Sciences. From the Screamers screen, now on the H52EarnPS screen. |
| WM | $45.96 | $45.16 | 2 | -1.7% | Washington Mutual. From the LPE_YLD screen, now the YLDEARNYR screen I don’t like. |
Selling these:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP | $34.99 | $28.62 | 2 | -18.2% | Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. See why I don’t like the YLDEARNYR screen? |
| CELL | $13.60 | $15.02 | 1 | +10.4% | Brightpoint, Inc. From the LowPEZLTD screen. Hey, I sold a winner. |
| FDG | $41.01 | $29.37 | 5 | -28.4% | Fording Canadian Coal Trust, from the YLDEARNYR screen. Did I mention I don’t like this screen? |
| FSII | $6.94 | $5.55 | 1 | -20.0% | FSI International, Inc. From the Screamers screen. Ouch. |
| OXY | $104.52 | $107.44 | 1 | +2.8% | Occidental Petroleum Corp. From the TREPPE screen. |
| SWFT | $30.42 | $26.44 | 3 | +10.9% | Swift transportation Company Incorporated. A real yo-yo; down -6.1%, up +10.9%, and sold at a loss of -13.1%. From the TRPPE screen. |
New stocks for this month:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMI | $121.82 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Cummins, Inc. From the TREPPE screen. |
| COKE | $58.18 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Coca-Cola! I love Diet Coke. For some reason this was on the Screamers screen. |
| ISSX | $23.67 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Internet Security Systems Inc. From the SOS_Ancer screen. |
| KG | $16.99 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | King Pharmaceuticals. From the LowPEZLTD screen. |
| KMX | $35.02 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | CarMax, Inc. Hey, I have to buy a new car soon. From the TREPPE screen. |
| NTY | $29.47 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | NBTY Inc. Almost sounds like a frozen yogurt company. From the Screamers screen. |
6/3 Options:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .GPIAK | $3.50 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | GPI Group One Jan 55 Calls. Will sell in early November. |
| .IQACH | $6.60 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | ILMN Illumina Inc Mar 40 Calls. Will sell in early November. |
The next trade will be September 11.
Chasing the Wind 
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