One New Speculative Long Position And One New Very Speculative Long Position For Wednesday’s Stock Market Session

February 19, 2008

Not only were my short scans dry but my long scans were full of very sloppy chart patterns in the stocks that I am not already long that are moving up. So many stocks are so choppy and V-shaped that it is just hard to go long anything, even with fantastic fundamentals and it being in a strong industry. The fact remains that before the longs are going to be safer and produce bigger gains, we probably have a lot more of this action since the leading stocks (GOOG RIMM AAPL BIDU) continue to trend lower and the leaders come through either old commodity stocks, defensive stocks, or extremely thin small-cap insurance/bank stocks. However, tonight there were two OK charts but both are very thin and are dangerous for newbies to trade. If you experienced though, I don’t see what a 100 shares here or there would hurt with commissions being so low nowadays and these chart patterns possibly having a great chance of working. CASH IS KING, in this market! Be careful out there.

new speculative long position: HA

HA is putting in a very bullish reversal, closing at its HOD, breaking out over the 50 day moving average, on extremely strong volume. Going to take another shot at this stock and its chart because the BOP is still very green and today’s surge in BOP with volume and price spiking helps make it even look nicer from its September breakout. The strong accumulation that is littering this stock since then must be partially due to the strong recent EPS and sales growth. Whatever it is, it does not matter. What matters is that the stock just keeps moving higher. Newbies should probably avoid this one. But if you do go long this stock, make sure you go in with a limit order only. Cut your loss with a close below the 4.88 level, if the stock does not move higher immediately.

new very speculative long position: LRT

LRT is bouncing off the 50 day moving average and breaking out to a new 2008 high, closing at its HOD, on very strong volume. This is an extremely speculative stock with it being cheap and it averaging only 58k shares daily. However, the uptrend from the September lows came on very strong accumulation with BOP going max green. And after a low volume pullback the stock bounced in December on strong volume with BOP going green again. Now after an even more flat and quieter base, the stock has popped on nice volume, closing at its HOD with BOP going green. This is a nice chart for such a messed up market. Newbies should probably completely avoid this and experienced traders/investors must use a limit order only . Cut your loss with a close below the 50 day moving average, if the stock does not move higher immediately.