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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Autumn Henry who wrote (81017)	1/28/2000 11:02:00 PM
From: Andrew G.	Respond to of 120523

OT: Autumn: I will tell you: I have been using a speculative trading portfolio to position and swing trade in various stocks. Almost all of these stocks are small caps or micros (otc:bb). I have not day traded any position this year so far, and only day traded 6 or 7 positions all of last year. It's nerve racking to try to stay on the plus side no matter how good you feel your picks are. Monday was gargantuan for me. My total trading portfolio ended the day up 35.5% All 21 stocks that I held over from last Friday were up. I cashed out of ~70% of my holdings by days end. Since Monday, I backed down 9.1%. I'm up 288.42% YTD. I don't know what others do but what works for me is to study charts every night, read the message boards (SI, RB, Yahoo, and numerous others), scan through newsletters, and the online news feeds. I keep every position under 5% of the total portfolio. This way I limit any potential downside risk in any single position. Because of the overall bearish tone of the market, I'm now 76% cash. My main reason for trading OTC:BB is that the Nasdaq, NYSE and AMEX are all very vulnerable to program trading. ECN's and financial institutions have much more command over stock movement than newsletters and buzz/hype on message boards. In contrast, the OTC:BB seems to move like a separate market onto itself. When the big boards are tanking, the BB crowd are jumping for joy because many of their picks may still have untarnished momentum. BB's are much more driven by hype/buzz and pending news. Human emotions, to me at least, are much more easier to discern than the random effects of programmed trading systems. Both can be unpredictable, but the buying of high-tech stocks like DELL or MSFT these days for a swing trade is crazy IMO. Which way does the wind blow ? With respect to the markets in general, I will say this much. December and January are make-hay months. The January effect was extraordinary for small caps and BB stocks the last several weeks. I have no idea if it will persist into February. Doesn't look too hot right now. Major caveats: OTC:BB generally exhibit extreme volatility, and unless you have a real good sense of what is driving a stock up or down, it's best to stay clear of it. OTC:BB are vulnerable to MM manipulation. It is in some respects the Wild West of trading. Few laws and much unfairness. In all cases trade at your own risk. I know that Jenna generally does not talk about OTC:BB stocks so I hope she will not mind me posting this reply to you. BTW, Jenna is an excellent stock trader. Best wishes.