I've gone to using the 50 day moving average. As a stocks momentum slows the stop loss gets tighter. Whe I used a % a languishing stock never triggered,

Stock Surfer. Wow! Thank you. I just read your blog at Blogspot and printed a copy to give my Mother. To even be mentioned favorably in the same paragraph as Dick Gartman is a true honor. Thank you!

The votes have picked up - thank you!

Thanks for the comment; now let's all make some money together!

I want to know which way the market is going because the stocks that are going up when the market goes up are usually not the same stock that go up when the market goes down. If the market has changed direction I need to be alert and immediately cull the stock that turn down in the "new" market,

My strategy wasn't to be in energy stocks. My screens started having energy stock come up. If 50% of my screened stocks are energy stocks then 50% of my portfolio will be energy stocks not the other way around. 60 days from now I might not add another energy stock; then again maybe I will. My stock screener will determine that not my crystal ball.

I always let my charts and screens do the talking. If the market changes I put all my stocks on a watch list. In fact I cull every night but only those that are not making the grade.

Buy Elan before you forget! I've been following Elan Pharmaceuticals for some time but not for their drugs. I used to live in Gwinnett County Georgia and back then Donald Panoz President and Chairman of Elan was buying up land in Gwinnett to build a winery. I visited it from the beginning and really liked the wine.

Recently, Elan began coming up on my screeners with a 96% buy on BarCharts. The stock began trading above it's 20, 50 & 100 day moving averages which are part of my required litmus test. When Ken Kam started mentioning the stock I knew I had to look deeper into it. Every place I look there are positive stories, when that happens I start to worry.

As boomers approach their 70's they start to worry about quality of life. They see drugs are controlling a lot of the causes for premature death: Weight, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and Cholesterol. Many of their older relatives and parents are living longer but sliding into a dark hole of forgetfulness and death called Alzheimer's. They are really afraid of this disease more than any other.

Elan's trial of Bapineuzumab - nicknamed Bappy may offer protection and cure. Good trial results are all over the news. You may find boomers taking it just because.

Here's my caution: I'd buy the stock on it's technicals alone but it really has a story being covered by the news and a product that may have one of the largest markets in history. Why the caution?

I've seen press releases before about new wonder drugs. Sometimes later phase trials don't pan out or someone else comes along with an cheaper, more effective drug just when you're about to come to market. I worry that Elan may not be able to dominate market share when this drug goes into production.

Buy the stock and ride it on up but PLEASE, PLEASE protect yourself with a trailing stop loss in case the drug gets blind sided by later trial results or competition.

Thanks for the complement. I learned a lot too and can't wait for SLO3 to see if the refinments to my strategies will actually work.

I sure hope there is another SLO3. I want a rematch with Aardvark! Right BeerDuff?

You might want to consider shorting a few currencies

Allen - Why are you rooting for the Amatuer??? I represent all you guys who were in the last Strategy Lab Open. Jim Van Meerten - The Amatuer

Tom - Reading the differences of opinion is what makes these blogs so interesting. Better that reading Politico.com.

Governmental intervention is what happens when there is inadequate govenmental regulation. The velvet hammer wasn't used properly so now they've brought out the sledge hammer.

Governmental intervention happens when governmental regulation is inadequate. They didn't use the velvet hammer properly so now they've brought out the sledge hammer.

One man's terrorist is another man's Freedom Fighter.

D L,

Thanks - right now the Market seems to be in resistence. The bear is weakening but I'm not ready to exchange it for a bull. We need earning and GDP growth.

Great question -
My ETF portfolio returned higher than my Marketocracy portfolio but becuase of the rules. On marketocracy you must stay 65% invested. When the market tanked I could replace long ETFs with short ETFs but in my long and short stock portfolios I couldn;t do that.

Here is the results of my short portfolio:

RETURNS
Last Week 16.04%
Last Month 18.48%
Last 3 Months 84.26%
Last 6 Months 68.48%
Last 12 Months 78.98%
Last 2 Years 98.80%
Last 3 Years 79.77%
Last 5 Years N/A
Since Inception 56.79%
(Annualized) 13.59%

S&P500 RETURNS
Last Week -6.11%
Last Month -3.54%
Last 3 Months -32.29%
Last 6 Months -38.00%
Last 12 Months -38.46%
Last 2 Years -34.85%
Last 3 Years -24.54%
Last 5 Years N/A
Since Inception -20.03%
(Annualized) -6.14%

RETURNS VS S&P500
Last Week 22.16%
Last Month 22.02%
Last 3 Months 116.55%
Last 6 Months 106.48%
Last 12 Months 117.44%
Last 2 Years 133.65%
Last 3 Years 104.31%
Last 5 Years N/A
Since Inception 76.82%
(Annualized) 19.73%