Actually Bobby, I haven't been overall bullish this past two months until a few days ago, just bullish on certain stocks when they fall too far IMO. I generally like to catch bottoms and hate taking losses. That's my strength and weakness. I have foolishly held most of my stocks through this two-month downdraft but have kept afloat by swing trading. I bought SUNW at 70, T at 33 1/2, VOD at 40, QCOM at 71, COMS at 36 1/2, LOR at 7 3/4, ANF at 9, etc. Trying to scalp 10% pops (not always successfully) until the market steadies itself. As a result I was able to almost break even over the past month. It was exhausting. Two small caps I stubbornly held cost me $10,000 on a $15,000 investment. That hurt. My only stocks which held okay were IBM and UIS. If I had shorted I would have made a lot more. Next time hopefully I'll sell everything when the market turns south then just wait until there's nothing but gloom and doom then buy. One big problem I have (which many share) is an addiction to staying in the market. Very hard for me to ever sell everything, especially at a loss. Even when I know I should. Certainly we all learn our lessons the hard way.
OT - Interesting now how individual investors are driving the market. According to CNBC the institutions weren't playing today. And Naz up 250. Wow. Are individuals like us the leaders now? If so then maybe we should just buy (when we think the price is right) the most popular stocks in hopes of rallies like today's. Check the Hot Topics list or something. Pretty obvious what the faves are though. JDSU, NOK, CSCO, INTC, CIEN, SUNW, QCOM, etc. They may seem highly-priced but boy can they move fast. Former market favorite LU didn't even move until the end of the day. CPQ didn't move at all. Get in front of the herd, huh? Well tomorrow's a different day.
Anyone want to make any fearless predictions? |
