tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94531422024-03-23T13:50:00.710-04:00Stockcoach's CornerLooking for value in the shadows of the market. I am Stockcoach, and this is my story.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger426125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1170481119504764932007-02-03T00:08:00.001-05:002014-07-24T05:04:53.704-04:00Thank you and GoodbyeIt's been over two years since I started writing this blog. My goal for this blog was to share with you my experiences as an investor. I hope I've succeeded. I know I've learned a lot in the past two years, and much of it I learned from you. But like many good things in life, this blog has come to an end. Recently, I was offered a position at one of the world's biggest financial companies. I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1170279839325357452007-01-31T16:40:00.000-05:002007-02-01T17:39:45.120-05:00January ResultsWhat JOB giveth, KTCC taketh away. Yesterday was going well until I bought KTCC right before the close. Within a couple of minutes, the stock tanked big time. Oh well. Despite KTCC, I'm still up 1.4 percent for the week so far.For the month of January, the portfolio gained $41,578 (5.3 percent), my best month since last April.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1170114965078921712007-01-29T18:49:00.000-05:002007-01-31T05:38:57.906-05:00A JOB well doneUp 0.2 percent today mainly on account of a low volume move in TRNT. The Jobster (JOB) reported a strong quarter tonight. JOB is my biggest position (4.5 percent of my portfolio), so hopefully the stock will rock n'roll tomorrow.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169851784920773862007-01-26T17:39:00.000-05:002007-01-26T18:00:17.486-05:00Weekly Summary: A good week for the portfolioAlthough OCCF did not do nearly as well as I had hoped today, I managed to stay well in the plus column for the day and for the week. For the week, the portfolio ended up gaining $11,429 (1.4 percent), the fifth consecutive week of positive gains. I'd like to thank Jonathon at Valuewiki for his nice comment about my blog.Have a nice weekend everyone!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169767596860760832007-01-25T18:21:00.000-05:002007-01-26T09:00:14.290-05:00OCCF: very nice!Down 0.4 percent today. Optical Cable reported a very strong quarter this evening. OCCF is a medium sized position for me (a bit less than 2 percent of the portfolio). It's good to see that their business is starting to turn around. Hopefully they will be able to maintain the momentum. I have not been hestitant to express my displeasure with OCCF's management in the past, so hopefully they won't Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169680967257140752007-01-24T18:16:00.000-05:002007-01-24T19:04:05.370-05:00Nice dayIt was a nice day for the markets, especially the Naz. My portfolio managed to gain 0.6 percent thanks to decent moves in OCCF, AIH, and a few other stocks. On days like today I have no illusions that I can outperform the market. That's okay. My outperformance typically comes on down days, not up days. RACK continues to taunt me. I thought after yesterday's nice recovery there would be more Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169591767716315632007-01-23T17:14:00.000-05:002007-01-23T18:01:35.816-05:00AIH: Not enough!Down 0.1 percent yesterday but up 0.4 percent today. After today's close, Ablest (AIH), a stock that I own, received a going private proposal for $7.50 per share. Considering that the stock is currently trading at book value and the company is profitable and has a steady history of revenue growth, I think the offer is grossly inadequate. Given the amount of the liquidity that private equity firmsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169319170836516822007-01-20T13:43:00.000-05:002007-01-31T01:01:20.440-05:00Weekly Summary: Back Above $800KStupid RACK prevented me from having a 5 digit gain this week, but considering that both the NASDAQ and the Russell 2000 were down for the week, a gain of $9,225 (1.2 percent) is still one I am very happy with. With this week's gain, my portfolio is back above $800K. Let's hope it stays there. In retrospect, I think the only reason I bought RACK was because I am having so much difficulty in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169160042397861762007-01-18T17:34:00.000-05:002007-01-19T08:24:12.350-05:00Out of PEAK and FNLYLooks like I may have selected the wrong answer in my little reader poll off to the left as RACK continues to vex me greatly. Anyhow, I am not sure what to make of the recent market action. I am not too inclinded to read much into it. Most likely this is not the beginning of a major correction. However, I'm not inclined to take any chances. With that in mind, I pruned two of my less favorite Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169092086395126252007-01-17T22:39:00.000-05:002007-01-18T17:37:05.100-05:00Rack of PainUp 0.3 percent today. I don't know what I was thinking. I bought 500 shares of RACK this morning. I'm not even sure why. It's not the sort of company that I would normally purchase. The stock gaped down 35 percent and I just figured it would bounce. It didn't, and I am now $700 down on this position. I guess I will hold until the company releases earnings in a couple of weeks. I need to avoid Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168987578462382552007-01-16T17:38:00.000-05:002007-01-17T16:38:48.720-05:00Who doesn't love CATS?It was a good day for Stockcoach, with my portfolio gaining 1.0 percent thanks to lots of nice moves in many of my favorite positions (TAIT, BRNC, TRNT, etc.). I picked up some shares of CATS last week. The stock is trading close to book value and has lots of cash on hand and no debt. The lone analyst that follows the stock increased earnings estimates last month (always a good sign). The only Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168645187277634262007-01-12T18:32:00.000-05:002007-01-12T18:39:47.306-05:00Weekly SummaryIt was not a particularly memorable week for the portfolio. The portfolio gained $7,431 (0.9 percent), not bad in its own right, but vastly inferior compared to the Russell 2000 (up 2.4 percent), and the seemingly indefatigable NASDAQ (up 2.8 percent). I sold 1000 of my BELM shares. I will hold on to the rest with the aim of selling them in the mid-8 range.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168576860886773142007-01-11T23:36:00.000-05:002007-01-11T23:41:55.446-05:00Tough DayThe market was on fire today but my portfolio still managed to lose groud, falling by about 0.1 percent. When I checked my Ameritrade account after the close, it showed that I was up over $2000, but when I entered the new portfolio value in my spreadsheet, I was actually down for the day. This seems to happen often with Ameritrade. I wish they would fix that software glitch. Not that Ameritrade Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168470471597979552007-01-10T18:00:00.000-05:002007-01-11T13:31:42.433-05:00BELM for a tradeUp 0.3 percent today. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will try to do more short-term trading this year, which I hope will boost my portfolio's returns. With that in mind, I picked up 2000 shares of BELM. BELM has just broken out from a 30 percent orthogonal fibonacci channel, the stochastics look great, and the stock chart is showing the famous "dog with long tail holding a cup of coffee" Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168385305789936912007-01-09T18:17:00.000-05:002007-01-09T18:32:04.806-05:00KEQUUp 0.5 percent today. Kewaunee Scientific Corp (KEQU) makes the furniture you would find in most science labs. While domestic sales have been weak, sales to Asia have been growing nicely, and the company's profit more than doubled last quarter compared to the previous year. To quote the company's CEO: "Regarding our current fiscal year, we expect the last six months to be profitable and much Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168301020084051682007-01-08T18:52:00.000-05:002007-01-08T19:09:31.980-05:00Tormented no moreUp less than 0.1 percent today. Back in May I rolled the dice on TORM and lost big time as the stock proceeded to decline 50 percent over the next couple of months. I held on, and even added more shares below $2. It paid off, after bottoming at around $1.50, the stock has rallied to $3.40. I've been selling shares along the way and today I completely closed the position. In the end, it turned outUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168216827168007702007-01-07T19:34:00.000-05:002007-01-18T15:24:43.206-05:00More on fundamental versus technical analysisRichard from Move the Markets posted the following comment about my earlier post:I guess, in short, I understand trading based on news, and I (sort-of) understand value investing, but I don't understand how one would go about doing short-term trading on fundamentals.The markets are pricing in everyone's best guess about what the fundamentals will look like in the future, right? So, whether you Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168193765649489142007-01-07T12:58:00.000-05:002007-01-07T19:30:46.806-05:00Haven't I taught you people anything?So I put up my reader poll on Friday and so far only 25 percent of you have gotten the correct answer, which of course is "fundamental analysis". I know that the rest of you chartists think you can actually develop profitable trading systems based on the rantings 12th century Italian mathematicians and other such nonsense, but let me assure you, time will prove you wrong. Technical analysis is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168036915785398782007-01-05T17:30:00.000-05:002007-01-05T18:13:50.153-05:00A new year beginsI always enjoy the feeling that one has when a new year begins. One can put past mistakes behind them and start fresh. As far as investing is concerned, regardless of how well or how poorly you did the previous year, the counter gets set back to zero and everyone goes back to the same starting line. Of course, that warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing you have a perfect decision making record for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167430414725748952006-12-29T17:05:00.000-05:002007-01-05T19:16:10.980-05:00Stockcoach Reports Record Full Year Results* Full year profits of $232,076, up 13.9 percent* Fourth quarter profits of $78,183, up 109 percent* Outperforms benchmark Russell 2000 by 21.5 percent for the year and 1.6 percent for the fourth quarter * Announces $50,000 special cash dividend Stockcoach today announced profits of $232,076 for 2006 compared to profits of $203,666 for 2005, an increase of 13.9 percent. For the fourth Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167360812819499442006-12-28T21:41:00.000-05:002006-12-28T22:05:56.796-05:00The final trading day of 2006Up 0.2 percent today. Tomorrow will be the last trading day of 2006. In the past, the last day of the year has brought all sorts of surprises for microcap investors. First, you have the tax loss sellers who procrastinate about dumping their losers until the final hours and then finally relent and send in market orders to sell at any price. As an investor who tends to buy stocks that are closer toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167273277622333042006-12-27T21:25:00.000-05:002006-12-27T21:40:47.483-05:00The ifonistasUp 0.9 percent. Okay, give me a break. IFON announces some rinky dink contract to sell Lucky Goldstar handsets in Latin America and the stock is up 60 percent. Yes, as you can probably tell, I'm rather bitter, having sold the stock way too early this morning, thereby leaving lots of money on the table. Oh well, sera sera. In addition to IFON, SPOR helped me out. Still, depite these nice gains, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167171517611368462006-12-26T17:12:00.000-05:002006-12-27T08:46:37.356-05:00CPAK and KINVThe portfolio managed to gain 0.5 percent today thanks largely to news that CPAK was being bought out as well a low volume surge in shares of Kentucky Fried Investors (KINV.OB). While my limit order to sell a few shares in KINV.OB was partially filled towards the end of the day, given all the insider buying in the stock, I wouldn't surprised if someone knows something. Anyhow, I'm still trailing Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166994120727276422006-12-24T15:59:00.000-05:002006-12-24T16:06:39.306-05:00Merry Christmas!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166662712038565462006-12-20T19:53:00.000-05:002006-12-21T16:54:51.586-05:00"Real time" alertsUp 0.1% percent. Only the Bozo kept me in the plus column today. I'm starting to get annoyed with Scottrade's "real time" alert service. Today's alert notifying me that DAGM's price had risen to $2 arrived in my inbox about 40 minutes after the fact, by which time I couldn't act on it. I'm not sure if the issue has to do with my computer at work, or with Scottrade itself, but regardless, I'm not Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2