First, congrats if you positioned some money in and out of solar stocks over the last two days. Did you scale out a little today and take profits? May not have been a bad idea with the afternoon market weakness.
Ok, everyone. Before I jump into a few new stock picks, I think I need to emphasize what I posted Saturday afternoon in the blog titled Laser Focus.
“when there is a lot of anxiety in the market, you gotta focus on what works for you – make your watch lists, stick very close to your trades, set stops, and leave your emotions out of it. You could buy a stock at 10am and sell at 10:30am for a small loss because your stop was taken out. That’s ok. On to the next trade. Don’t take your failed play to bed with you and have to pray that it doesn’t gap down in the morning. This is supposed to be fun, remember?”
You gotta keep in mind, when the market is nervous, your money can disappear like a 6 pack of beer in my frig (that’s pretty fast).
For me to profit in the momentum swings and uncertainty we’re seeing right now, I shorten the length of time I hold positions and sell on any weakness. I also don’t hold trades into earnings. Remember, trades are not the same as investments. Trades are all about momentum and taking advantage of news, opportunities, rumors, technical moves, etc. An earnings announcement can kill all of that. Gambling in a nervous market isn’t a good idea. I will only trade if the setup satisfies what I was hoping for and I sell when it hits targets or shows weakness. Oh, and keeping plenty of cash in hand doesn’t hurt either.
Unless I really know the company, the last thing I’m going to do is buy it when it’s down. To me, that just means it’s down – not a bargain. Give me support and a reason to believe you’re not going any lower, then you’ll get my attention. Bargains are found in understanding companies balance sheets, pipeline, etc.
Risk management people 🙂
OK – let’s look at a few charts before I crash for the evening.
@buysellshort had a few picks this evening, of which two I really like for speculative scalps. The first is ICAD and the second is PTN – In ICAD, I’m looking for a move through MA200 and trendline resistance – first target 1.70, then 1.90. I will not hold under MA200 if it fails to move.
