|
The contents on this page are a small sample of StockTradersHQ's member resources (FREE Trial!)
1.
Our staff of professional technical traders analyze 1,000's of potential stocks every day to provide you with a list of stock picks with the greatest potential for explosive gains.
2. These stockpicks are traded with our real-time portfolio. Email alerts are sent for every entry and exit. Through the member-only website, you will have our support every step of the way.
3. Our subscription service provides all the resources, stock picks and tools an investor needs to make very profitable, consistent trades while maximizing gains and minimizing losses.
SEE OUR TOP PICKS FOR 2006...
|
|
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Market Recap
Good news for the bulls as follow through selling from yesterday's brutal sell off did not occur today. Part of the reason the markets held up well was due to the ruthless selling in the precious metals sector. Communities like gold, silver and platinum suffered a savage beating with a massive sell off. Normally if gold goes down, stocks will go up, and that is what happened today. The Dow gained +53 points, the NASDAQ was up +11 points, and the S&P gained +6 points. The U.S. dollar also made a comeback after trading near recent 16 year lows.
Yesterday's sell off damaged many of the market's leading stocks. Even with the positive market action today, many charts are still damaged and will need a little time to set up. The over abundance of broken patterns on these once very nice looking charts is discouraging. I have trimmed the back-up watch list (stocks ready to be added to the bulletin) down to only a handful after yesterday's sell off.
Many stops were taken out in the madness yesterday so our portfolio is now over half in cash. I do not want to be in cash in December, because it is a historically good month to be long. But when the market acts this way, there is not much we can do but get out of the way. The NASDAQ can be a great place to make big cash when the market is flying, but when it turns against you, it can turn hard and fast. This can be devastating to a portfolio if you are not prepared to pull the sell trigger quickly. Obey your stop loss rules at all times.
Big Blue's Smart Move
Last week IBM announced that they would sell their PC business. Today the announcement of the sale was made official: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/...
I think this is a very good move by Big Blue. The profit margins for PC's are shrinking and have been getting squeezed for a long time. IBM took a hard look at their PC business and made some tough decisions. Back in 1981, Bill Gates said “640K of memory should to be enough for anybody." Today, computers have many times that storage capacity. Technology has been expanding at the speed of light ever since computing was introduced to the world. We are completely driven by our computers and we will be for many years to come. PC's are commodities now, a must have for any home that can afford one and most people now days can afford one because they are getting extremely cheap. Most of the expense for computers now is in the software that you want to use on it.
With technology expanding as rapidly as it has, there are obvious consequences. Companies that manufacture PC's have to be nimble. The best companies have been expanding their reach into all kinds of electronics. It is an ‘expand or get out of the way' situation. I predict that the sale of PC's will be obsolete within 5 to 10 years. There will still be PC's around, but they will be given away rather than sold. You will get them anytime you sign up for broadband service. Online gaming companies will give away high end systems to anyone willing to sign up for a year's worth of service. It is like some cell phones are today; receive the phone free with a two year service agreement.
We discussed this exact same scenario a week or two ago for satellite radio systems. The hardware is sold as a loss leader in order to obtain a long term commitment from a subscriber. Satellite TV was an early adopter of this type of marketing strategy. They give away the hardware to draw in subscribers. The signal they beam out is where their cash flow comes from. The same will eventually hold true for satellite radio. I believe it will also be the case for PC's. You will pay for the content rather than the hardware. I am sure there will be some extreme high end systems that will always be up for sale, but I predict the common PC will be a give away item before the end of the decade.
This is a smart move for IBM. They realize where the PC is headed and they do not want to be in business of giving away PC's at a loss. IBM will now be mainly a software company. They have enterprise systems and software and market more to business than to consumers. They are cutting the fat and that is a sign of a well managed company with management that can see into the future.
IBM is not a stock that we would ever trade at TWPD because it moves way too slowly. But it is a very solid, well run company that can be placed in a long term portfolio for those with less risk tolerance. It never hurts to have an industry leader with vision in your long term accounts.
OTC BB Watch List
We are going to start adding the closing price the day we list OTC BB stocks on this commentary. It is a little different then the Bulletin stocks. Bulletin stocks are listed as the open price the day after they appear on the bulletin. Since OTC BB stocks don't trade after hours or before the market opens, they will be listed at the price they closed the day they were added to our list. These stocks will stay here until the charts indicate they should be removed, this is so we can better monitor their progress.
CYME - 2.45
GNAC - 1.32
GPSN - .19
PRCY- 1.44
ALMI - .34
PYDS - .33
UGNE - 1.80, this is just about ready to move up big.
VSNI - 1.71, keeping it here, after a rest it should move again.
Stockcharts Listing
Please vote for us once a day at stockcharts.com.
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/Favorites.CServ...
Thank you all for voting.
As always, thank you for your support past, present, and future! Have a great night everyone; we'll see you all tomorrow evening.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
