web analytics

Monthly Archives: April 2011

The Three Pillars of Investing Results

April 30, 2011
By
The Three Pillars of Investing Results

I’ve been tempted lately (if I could only find some free time) to produce a concise educational presentation on the three pillars of investing results.  I’m referring to your batting average, your slugging percentage and your turnover. Your batting average is simply your winning percentage.  If you made 10 trades, and six of them resulted in profits, your batting average would be 60% (or .600 for you baseball fans). Your slugging percentage is your average gain on your winning trades, divided by your average loss on your losing trades.  Using the above example, let’s say your six winning trades...

Read more »

How to Handle Winning Stocks

April 29, 2011
By
How to Handle Winning Stocks

I wanted to start today with a few pointers on how to handle a “good” problem that many investors are experiencing right now: What to do with a stock that, soon after your buy, has zoomed 20% or more in just two or three weeks. Paradoxically, it’s these types of situations that cause the most stress and uncertainty. Profits are good to have, but if a stock goes vertical, you’re left wondering how to properly manage your good fortune. The prospect of making a decision–either sitting tight or selling–can cause investors to behave irrationally. The solution, as usual, is...

Read more »

VMware: An Earnings Season Surprise

April 28, 2011
By

As for my stock idea, I’m going to go with VMware (VMW), a stock that, frankly, I had totally taken off my watch list many months ago. It was a good winner during much of the bull market, but after a mega-run, the stock basically topped out last fall (relative to the market) and has been consolidating ever since. The story has always been solid–server virtualization, which is hugely cost-effective because it allows each server to be used for many different applications.  It doesn’t hurt that this so-called “cloud computing” has become all the rage.  But, while growth was...

Read more »

Shutterfly (SFLY): One High-Potential Stock

April 27, 2011
By

Today’s investment idea is Shutterfly (SFLY), the #1 online resource for storing and sharing photos, while using them to create photo albums, invitations, coffee cups, T-shirts and more. Founded in 1999, the company, historically, has lost money in the first three quarters of every year, making it all up–and then some–in the fourth quarter. But it’s been profitable on an annual basis since 2003, and it’s grown revenues every year as well, telling you its own growth cannot be stopped by a weak general economy. I like Shutterfly because it’s the industry leader, because it’s becoming better known every...

Read more »

Cabot Chart School: How to Handle Winning Stocks

April 26, 2011
By
Cabot Chart School: How to Handle Winning Stocks

Every week we bring you a short video on the current stock market conditions. Today, we have a special, more timeless video. In it, Cabot Market Letter Editor Mike Cintolo discusses how to handle a winning stock, especially one that’s had a huge run in a very short time. There are basically three options: sell it all, hold it all or sell some and hold the rest. This is the more measured approach that Cabot prefers and allows you to reward yourself for being right, lowers your risk and with less on the table, you can give the stock...

Read more »