Color Code your shopping list

Most of us may not have enough cash to diversify to the n'th degree, we end up buying 2 or 3 stocks and hope to make big gains. I for one do not trade every stock that looks attractive (and write about in my blog). A friend asked me "whats good to buy today". I was surprised, thinking I actively update my blog and he is not paying attention to what I say in my postings, by now he should have known whats good to buy! So I simplified! .. Hope he understood, my sense of diversification goes beyond sectors, or strategizing by playing some defensive names, I mean buy PUTS aggressively to hedge If you must participate and itching to go long. Knowing he is not a person to buy puts (as he calls that counter-intuitive) I tried to suggest some names in the spirit of festive season and DOW being up over 200 points.

US consumers shop this month, charge on plastic, buy Video games and electronic gadgets, and every money manager wants to show they were smart enough to pick hi. tech winners.

Shopping: AMZN EBAY
Plastic: MA
Video Games: SNE GME AVTI
Hi Tech.: GOOG AAPL RIMM

Sell into rallies! What is good to Buy now

I would like to make it clear that I view rallies here as selling opportunities and see more signs of bear market (till further notice), good thing about bear markets is that they last 6 months,. Although its hard to find names which are safe to buy (or safer than others) but trading opportunities are there and I am trying to find some, In terms of stocks which are continuing their uptrend this year, I am looking at Deere company (DE) and Master card (MA). Charts are showing strong uptrend intact. These are companies with history of exceeding estimates and exceed expectation quarter after quarter. A good point about master card is, they make money out f each transaction and they are not tied to credit problems (they d not share risk with bank and money institutions). Also looking into shorting financials and Housing related stocks in short term rallies. ALthough market is up today, Housing stocks and financials are not participating otherwise I would have bought some puts again. I am looking into buying puts on Lennar Corp (LEN) judging from other housing stocks, LEN has more room to fall. [Note: If Fed decides to intervene and bail out financials again, all bets are off , and some names which are not so hot today should be bought again.] I am watching indecies and they are all down substantially and breaking all sorts of support levels, thats why I think rallies are short lived.

Tale of Two Stocks

One lets you sleep better at night and one doesn't. Looking at the following charts, buy the one which is making higher highs and higher lows vs. the one which is making lower highs and lower lows. It can't get simpler than that. Well you know its not all that simple. Just playing with some trading ideas, I still can not commit serious cash, either way. I say buying KO 62.5 Calls for Jan or Feb, an much smaller commitment to buying Puts on Bed Bath and Beyond would be good. Market just decided that slow economy and recession in horizon and sold off financials and retailers (like many other mornings, this past couple of months). I changed my story about year-end rally till I see one, Not hoping for one. Till then being long in KO and MO suites me well.

Back to shorting some of the Financials

For the upcoming week, I am considering to short some of the financials which had a good run in the past few days, MBI went from 31 to 42 and now back in 37 range, MTG , and many others exhausted their rally up to their resistance level and pulled-back, bears will be in charge again, with Fed not easing in any time soon, these guys have less chance to sustain their current prices. Zion is another one, mentioned in Tomorrow's Newspaper , still a good short. [More expensive the stock, more room to go down, I am hesitant in rushing to short the ones below $15 like PMI]. There are so many of them but we need to pick one and remain on the side line to protect our hard-earned cash. I am now 50% cash (thats up from my usual 10%-20%). I am going to purchase some Dec Puts on some of the names I mentioned here. Bough MO, IDXX (Split announced and coming soon which helps sustaining its current price at least) Also bought puts on Starbuks (SBUX) today toward the end of the market. I am also looking to buy calls on Coca Cola (KO). If Fed step up and intervenes, all bets are off, and some of these names which are short sell candidates will be buy,buy, buys .. Should be agile and ready to reverse course, I am not married to my own thinking and theories, you shouldn't be either. Cash is the king, have some handy.



Making A Bullish case for Education, Buy Apollo Group Inc. (APOL)

The SCHOOL/Education Sector is doing extremely well, maybe no one is looking, you think! In slowing economy and god forbid recession environment, education companies make good money, People have to re-educate themselves, make themselves more marketable, APOL had a great rebound at 70 and then On Friday (off of the 30 day MA)I will be buyer of this stock as well on a pull back.

Speculative Buy (Bio-Imaging Technology Inc -- BITI)

Look into BITI (Bio Imaging) stock is under $10 and its at 52 weeks high!

PEG = 0.87 [ Below 1 is BUY BUY BUY] meaning its PE is too cheap compare to its 5 yr projected Growth ] Only 3 analyst following the stock, still unnoticed by investors' community.

Market Cap (intraday)5:	109.57M
Enterprise Value (17-Nov-07)3:	95.05M
Trailing P/E (ttm, intraday):	55.95
Forward P/E (fye 31-Dec-08)1:	36.15
PEG Ratio (5 yr expected):	0.87

Shares Outstanding5:	11.66M
Float:	7.70M
% Held by Insiders1:	37.77%
% Held by Institutions1:	20.20%

BUY Candidates: SDA, CALM: Experimenting with somewhat unexciting sector never the less, their charts looking good and should attract one's attention if you are looking for which group of stocks went up in the past couple of days. These stocks are not widely followed, and you need to do your own homework, I am just putting their chart here to follow them and see their future action.



SHORT Candidate: Rh Donnelley Corp (RHD)

Accerelated insider selling while stock moving higher, Very high PE and PEG comparing to its industry norm.

EPS (ttm):	0.115				0.55
P/E (ttm):	373.57				18.54
PEG (5 yr expected):	3.34				1.55

Bulls vs. Bears

BULLS Playground



BEARS Playground

Bulletproof Your Portfolio

Investors should shield themselves from the coming housing-led recession with a bulletproof portfolio, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Thursday. These are stocks with international exposure and steady income. 1. Altria (MO) 2. Freeport-McMoran (FCX) 3. Foster Wheeler FWLT (Global Construction) 4. Transocean (RIG -- Deep water drilling with no exposure to US restrictive oil fields) 5. Medco (MHS) He mentioned KO also. I am also adding MON, MOS, APA, POT, ABX or NEM to the list, these are commodity stocks, playing the fear factor. I also looked at SCHOOL Sector and names like APOL and DV are doing well. Looking at their charts make you believe that money flow is still good in these stocks. He also mentioned to stay away from Financials specially PMI, MTG and MBI. I would use any strength in these stocks as a selling opportunity and buy PUTS.