Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Jenna who wrote (14692)	9/14/1998 3:25:00 PM
From: TWICK	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 120523

Land drillers PTEN and UTI are fairing much better than the off-shore drillers. For the service sector FGII and KEG are the winners today, which are the smaller companies in the pack. Percentage wise, HAL, GLM, and SLB are lagging behind by almost 40%. Still showing good strength, but I expected the big service stocks to lead that pack. PTEN and UTI are two I picked up between 7 - 1/2 last week for my long hold portfolio. Even if we test the recent lows this fall, winter is coming and El Nino is gone. Good for heating oil prices $^) TWICK

To: Jenna who wrote (14692)	9/14/1998 4:38:00 PM
From: Jenna	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

When to Sell in a Rally and when it is time to hold...? It is obvious that a lot of stocks lost most of their gains this afternoon. So what do you do? First you have to decide what kind of trader you are. Are you looking for investments now? Or are you looking for a 5-10% pop on beaten down stocks that you plan to hold from 1-4 days? (Which is my trading style) If you are holding an earnings play through earnings and its already the second day and earnings have come out and the stock is trending up, I'd expect profit takers to gear up to take their profits. Rarely do stocks continue up much after a good earnings report when they have had a nice run up on anticipation before the report. CDG broke a double top point & figure breakout today and of course it lost it's pep.. THIS IS EXPECTED. Even more than that HBOC which gained nicely in the 7 days leading up to the report actually was down after they beat estimates, so was LEH last quarter and a number of others. I usually sell earnings plays stocks the day the report comes out when its usually at its days highs. Some stocks like ORCL, DELL and CMVT might continue up for a day or more, but these are popular stocks with lots of volume. Smaller companies will rarely enjoy this much 'residue' of attention after an earnings report. Of course after the initial retreat the stock awakens the interest of institutions and once again can make gains. So if you are an investor then I'd hold. For example I held TRV today even though it's off it's highs of the day because I intend to hold that one for a month or maybe much more. I'm holding SKYW even though it's 1 point off its gain because I'm bullish on that one for a longer period as well. But if TRV had it's earnings report today, I'd probably be selling it into strength and buying it back on it's first 'up' day after this retreat. The oil service sector is notorious for very short-lived rallies and I've mentioned it time and time again in the last few months.. WATCH these rallies they are short lived but intense. I don't expect oil service rallies to last more than 2-3 days. Just because a stock is way oversold and down to it's 52 week low and it pops 10-20% during a rally does not automatically mean this stock will continue up to its old highs. It's important you should know that. AFCI is fine and no doubt will advance some more, but it's been killed so much that I'm hard pressed to believe now it's headed back up to its old highs. Just keep an objective view of things. Rallies fizzle... oils are not rebounding and they will probably not enjoy the rally I expect for the airline sector. The good thing is that winter is coming and perhaps we will enjoy some more 2-3 day rallies with gains of 10-25%.. But take your profits.. don't leave them to die out with hopes the sector is now resurrected.. Be cautious... if you are a position trader hold it until the 'position' reverses trend. Don't hold it and expect it to return to old highs.. . Even if the market has reached a 'bottom' (which I don't believe anyone knows) there will still be profit taking for those stocks that offer the quickest gains in the shortest amount of time (i.e. oil service sector, gold stocks, etc..) This last group of stocks (ones that gain a lot in shortest amount of time) might also lose the most when the trend reverses.. To illustrate DELL would have to go from 60 to 80 to get the same gains percentagewise that CDG made in just 3 trading days. So if you had DELL at 60 and it went up to 80 wouldn't you sell? I would....