I know you probably won't believe this, but I was set to buy some Tinsley Wednesday morning, until I discovered that it had doubled. I was not happy.
I ran a screen a week or two ago, looking for companies with low P/E's and high growth rates, and after downloading reports from Edgar reduced my list to six companies. One of them, Engineered Support (EASI), started moving up before I could buy any -- and I don't like chasing stocks.
I bought some Del Global (DGTC) and McRae (MRI A), and plan to add to my positions. I also would like to buy some Supreme Int'l (SUPI) on a dip. The fifth company on my short list, Westerbeke (WTBK), is growing and has good numbers, but is so small and in such a boring industry that I probably won't bother. They make diesel engines and engine/generator sets for sailboats. I think there must be a hundred manufacturers in that field. The sixth company was Tinsley. I just noticed that they were an optics company with government contracts, and somehow missed the tie-in to the semiconductor industry. Even so, they had great growth and ratios. The problem was they had rapist market makers, and were showing a 8.25 bid/11.25 ask spread, and only traded every few days. At first I decided not to mess with them because of that, but then I decided to call the company Secretary, which I did Tuesday at 5:15 eastern time (2:15 Pacific). He seemed surprised to hear from me, no doubt because they were just about to announce the takeover, but when I complained about the NASDAQ spread, and asked what they were doing to establish a more orderly market, he said they were trying to get onto the AMEX exchange. He mentioned that their business was going great, and told me about the semiconductor tie-in. Alas and alack, it was too late. The market had already closed, and by the time I checked into placing an order Wednesday a.m., I was shocked to learn that 30,000 shares had traded, and that the price had skyrocketed.
If I had been one day earlier, I could have doubled my money. Life isn't fair. |
