tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94531422012-01-18T09:16:22.081-05:00Looking for value in the shadows of the market. I am Stockcoach, and this is my story.Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1170481119504764932007-02-03T00:08:00.001-05:002009-12-25T15:59:22.605-05:00

It'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 Vice President position at one of the world's biggest financial

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1170279839325357452007-01-31T16:40:00.000-05:002007-02-01T17:39:45.120-05:00

What 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.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1170114965078921712007-01-29T18:49:00.000-05:002007-01-31T05:38:57.906-05:00

Up 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.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169851784920773862007-01-26T17:39:00.000-05:002007-01-26T18:00:17.486-05:00

Although 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!

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169767596860760832007-01-25T18:21:00.000-05:002007-01-26T09:00:14.290-05:00

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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169680967257140752007-01-24T18:16:00.000-05:002007-01-24T19:04:05.370-05:00

It 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169591767716315632007-01-23T17:14:00.000-05:002007-01-23T18:01:35.816-05:00

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 firms

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169319170836516822007-01-20T13:43:00.000-05:002007-01-31T01:01:20.440-05:00

Stupid 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169160042397861762007-01-18T17:34:00.000-05:002007-01-19T08:24:12.350-05:00

Looks 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1169092086395126252007-01-17T22:39:00.000-05:002007-01-18T17:37:05.100-05:00

Up 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168987578462382552007-01-16T17:38:00.000-05:002007-01-17T16:38:48.720-05:00

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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168645187277634262007-01-12T18:32:00.000-05:002007-01-12T18:39:47.306-05:00

It 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.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168576860886773142007-01-11T23:36:00.000-05:002007-01-11T23:41:55.446-05:00

The 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168470471597979552007-01-10T18:00:00.000-05:002007-01-11T13:31:42.433-05:00

Up 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"

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168385305789936912007-01-09T18:17:00.000-05:002007-01-09T18:32:04.806-05:00

Up 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168301020084051682007-01-08T18:52:00.000-05:002007-01-08T19:09:31.980-05:00

Up 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 out

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168216827168007702007-01-07T19:34:00.000-05:002007-01-18T15:24:43.206-05:00

Richard 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168193765649489142007-01-07T12:58:00.000-05:002007-01-07T19:30:46.806-05:00

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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1168036915785398782007-01-05T17:30:00.000-05:002007-01-05T18:13:50.153-05:00

I 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167430414725748952006-12-29T17:05:00.000-05:002007-01-05T19:16:10.980-05:00

* 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167360812819499442006-12-28T21:41:00.000-05:002006-12-28T22:05:56.796-05:00

Up 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 to

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167273277622333042006-12-27T21:25:00.000-05:002006-12-27T21:40:47.483-05:00

Up 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,

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1167171517611368462006-12-26T17:12:00.000-05:002006-12-27T08:46:37.356-05:00

The 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166994120727276422006-12-24T15:59:00.000-05:002006-12-24T16:06:39.306-05:00

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166662712038565462006-12-20T19:53:00.000-05:002006-12-21T16:54:51.586-05:00

Up 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

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166570072932131342006-12-19T18:04:00.000-05:002006-12-19T18:14:32.963-05:00

And again and again and again. The past 9 trading days has seen a slow but steady decline in my portfolio value. I'm down 0.7 percent so far this week. While it is unpleasant to see my accumulated profits for the year steadly evaporate, so far the damage has not been huge, and I am still well positioned to outperform the markets for the year (although probably not this quarter). In the meantime,

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166218210800676212006-12-15T16:25:00.000-05:002006-12-19T11:57:49.680-05:00

The portfolio got whacked this week: down $7,912 (1.0 percent). Hopefully I can make it back next week. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1166067278011004572006-12-13T22:30:00.000-05:002006-12-14T20:04:25.880-05:00

The portfolio has declined each of the last 5 trading days. So far this week, it fell 0.1 percent on Monday, 0.3 percent on Tuesday, and 0.5 percent today. This does not bode well for my goal of gaining for 40 percent for the year. Still, I remain optimistic. This is the time of year when microcaps can really fly. So who knows what can still happen before the end of the year.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1165626109544313522006-12-08T19:50:00.000-05:002006-12-13T02:06:05.846-05:00

On Wednesday I was ready to celebrate another $10K+ week but then that sneaky Mr. Market snuck up behind me with one of those WWE type metal chairs and ...thump, I had lost the majority of my accumulated weekly gain. PAM, NYER, PDEX, CHK, DAGM, they all ganged up on me today. Still, the portfolio gained $4,047 (0.5 percent) for the week. Not as good as the Russell 2000 or any of the other major

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1165461556052449192006-12-06T21:43:00.000-05:002006-12-07T11:00:59.983-05:00

Up 0.4 percent today. I am always struck by stories like these that remind us just how small (though not necessarily insignificant) our world is in the great scheme of things. There are at least 100 billion stars in our galaxy and at least 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe. And standard cosmological models of inflation suggest that if the entire universe were reduced to the size of our

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1165358338685791032006-12-05T17:33:00.000-05:002006-12-05T17:43:58.093-05:00

Up 0.3 percent today. I sold my remaining 600 shares of TSTC. The stock made a big move today along with many other "China" stocks. While I was impressed with TSTC's momentum, especially towards the end of the day, I usually think it best to sell a stock that moves up 25 percent on no news. Even a cursory look at the 2 year chart for TSTC suggests that the stock has never been able to hold a

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1165284486376860042006-12-04T19:47:00.000-05:002006-12-08T08:29:31.180-05:00

Up 0.4 percent today. It was another one of those days. I was happy to see my portfolio rise, but a little annoyed by how much better the Russell 2000 did. One blogger that I follow quite a bit is Charles Kirk (I like his site so much that I even pay $50 to be a member. In fact, his website is the only trading resource that I pay money to use). His style is quite different from mine. I tend to

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1165010348027069512006-12-01T16:58:00.000-05:002006-12-01T16:59:08.030-05:00

And speaking of a few good trades, ENPT soared this morning after reporting a very strong earnings report. Unfortunately, just like CBTE, this was a small position for me. I had sold half my ENPT shares a few months ago and so as of this morning, I only had 2500 shares to my name. I sold 1750 of them for an average price of about $6.40 during early trading. My decision to sell most of my shares

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164945037422283412006-11-30T22:36:00.000-05:002006-12-03T22:11:38.066-05:00

The portfolio fell 0.4 percent today. For November, the portfolio gained 2.9 percent. Unfortunately, with only one month left in the quarter, I am lagging both the Russell 2000 and the NASDAQ. I have outperformed the major US indices every quarter since the second quarter of 2004 (when I got greedy and put 25 percent of my portfolio into a single stock and had it blow up in my face...last time I

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164837993128533022006-11-29T16:59:00.000-05:002006-11-29T17:06:33.163-05:00

Up 0.6 percent today. Low float stocks continue to get lots of attention. Among those in my portfolio, ASCEF and SPOR both saw nice pops today. Hopefully some of my bigger positions like DYNT and JOB will also get noticed. I see Cramer is getting rather testy and defensive about his track record. His email exchange with CXO Advisory is quite amusing.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164750829151874202006-11-28T16:53:00.000-05:002006-11-28T16:57:26.216-05:00

Up 0.8 percent today. Knowing when to sell is never easy. In fact it’s a lot more difficult than knowing when to buy. Usually with microcaps, if you sell after a 10 or 15 percent move, you can buy the stock back at your original buy price. But on days like today, when microcaps are in play, it’s a lot more difficult. Some stocks will make breakouts on high volume but then wilt after a few minutes

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164671173805934432006-11-27T18:38:00.000-05:002006-11-28T00:29:46.833-05:00

Down 0.5 percent today. Well that's one big fish that got away. I had a limit order to buy 8000 shares of CNLG last week but it never got filled. Today the stock moved up 300 percent. Grrrr! That would have been a nice stock to own during today's market meltdown. I did buy 5000 shares of US 1 Corp (USOO.OB). The stock has a P/S ratio of less than 0.1 and has been consistently profitable of late.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164402002710702922006-11-24T15:54:00.000-05:002006-11-24T16:06:21.740-05:00

Up $11,043 (1.4 percent) for the week. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164149169751838342006-11-21T17:31:00.000-05:002006-11-22T10:57:01.500-05:00

The portfolio gained 0.6 percent today, finally pushing through the "psychologically crucial" 800K barrier (what, I don't get my own CNBC special?). TSTC, BDR, and the Jobster all helped out. I shorted 500 shares of CAO this morning thinking that the stock would slide after the company preannounced revenue for the quarter that was below analysts' consensus. I was wrong. It went up. Go figure. I

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1164065427217292732006-11-20T18:16:00.000-05:002006-11-21T11:14:25.076-05:00

The week started off on the wrong foot as my portfolio sank 0.2 percent. I sold my remaining shares of TSYS. I still like the stock and I suspect it will go higher, but the stock has gained about 60 percent in the last two months despite the fact that earnings estimates for 2007 have been reduced, so I though it would be prudent to take my profit and put the money into other names that haven't

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163803741615427392006-11-17T17:45:00.000-05:002006-11-17T17:50:01.723-05:00

The portfolio staged a bit of a comeback today, gaining 1.2 percent, thanks in part to BNSO and SCOP (what's up with the volume in SCOP?). For the week, I gained $12,120 (1.5 percent). While that's less than the Russell 2000, it is good enough for new portfolio high, and that's enough to make me happy. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163727510896229762006-11-16T20:33:00.000-05:002006-11-16T20:38:30.936-05:00

What's up is down and what's down is up. The Naz was down this morning, and my portfolio was up 0.6 percent. The Naz finished up for the day, and my portfolio finished down 0.2 percent. Go figure. The best case scenario for me now is if the market simply consolidated. Not up, not down, just sideways. Traders are greedy and arrogant now. I just need them to get bored with liquid stocks and shift

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163646123637003502006-11-15T22:01:00.000-05:002006-11-15T22:02:03.723-05:00

I just can't seem to be able to string two up days together. Down 0.3 percent.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163468772679044372006-11-13T20:42:00.000-05:002006-11-13T20:46:12.736-05:00

More of the same I'm afraid. The market move higher again today while my portfolio moved lower: down 0.3 percent. As they say, tomorrow is another day.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163195908288470252006-11-10T16:49:00.000-05:002006-11-10T17:02:36.273-05:00

There is no way to sugarcoat this week. The portfolio did very poorly, losing $2516 (0.3 percent) while the Russell 2000 gained 2.2 percent. That's one of the worst weeks of underpeformance that I have ever experienced. Still, one week hardly makes a trend. My view is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. A week like this one is disappointing to be sure, but it would take a long string of such

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163116108961432092006-11-09T17:40:00.000-05:002006-11-10T12:49:11.216-05:00

I think from now on I will start reporting my results ELOY-style: "I had a very strong day today if you exclude all the stocks that went down...blah blah blah". Alas, ELOY I am not. Today turned out to be a tough day (with the portfolio losing 0.8 percent) largely on account of DYNT, my second biggest holding. Make no mistake, this was not a good quarter for them. But having said, they did

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1163036555983666732006-11-08T20:30:00.000-05:002006-11-09T20:51:08.100-05:00

The market continues to move higher. My portfolio also managed to saunter to a new all time high today, but on the whole, I've been underperforming badly, gaining only 0.7 percent in total over the past three trading days.There's a new king in town and his name is JOB. I've been buying shares of JOB here and there over the past month and the stock is now my biggest position. JOB is extremely

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1162590574308837172006-11-03T16:38:00.000-05:002006-11-07T07:12:33.523-05:00

No thanks to PXPL, the portfolio stayed in the black today and finished the week up $813 (0.1 percent). I'm not sure where the market goes from here. I guess if I had to be on one side or another, I'd be in the bullish camp. One thing I'm noticing is that the vast majority of traders were caught off guard by the market rally over the past 2 months and are still sitting on the sidelines with huge

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1162506066126814342006-11-02T17:01:00.000-05:002006-11-03T11:23:15.870-05:00

I just couldn't catch a break the past few days. EGR and NSYS reported excellent quarters and the stocks didn't budge. On the other hand, PEAK and SCOP (two position that I had increased only recently) reported disappointing quarters and got ripped apart. On the bright side, I think PEAK's and SCOP's strong balance sheets will preclude any further price declines, but obviously, the market action

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1162332146243712992006-10-31T16:54:00.000-05:002006-11-02T12:21:20.456-05:00

Up 0.4 percent today. For the month of October, the portfolio gained $36,235 (4.8 percent), the best monthly performance since April. However, despite this solid result, I did underperform the Russell 2000 by 0.9 percent in October. Interestingly, despite the constant chatter that investors are finally shifting money away from smallcaps and into large caps, the Russell 2000 has outperformed the S

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1162256678303648522006-10-30T19:58:00.000-05:002006-10-30T22:02:57.293-05:00

My portfolio meandered out the gate this morning, looked around, ate some hay, and then took a nap: up less than 0.1 percent for the day. Yes, microcaps are volatile. But most of that volatility is idiosyncratic. So if you have a well diversified portfolio (in my case, no stock is currently greater than 4 percent of the portfolio), you're not really taking on any more risk than someone who owns

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161981834604308052006-10-27T16:32:00.000-04:002006-12-06T22:30:31.856-05:00

My portfolio would have stayed in the plus column today were it not for PTG getting hit over the head with a two by four and losing more than 10 percent of its value. Still, I ended the week with a profit: up $4,824 (0.6 percent), more or less in line with the overall market (p.s. when I say "profit", all I really mean is the change in my portfolio, not a realized capital gain).Quite a few

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161907802018133432006-10-26T20:06:00.000-04:002006-10-26T20:14:24.343-04:00

Up 0.6 percent today. I bought 600 shares of Bronco Drilling today. The stock trades at 5 times 2007 earnings and is projected to grow at 25 percent over the next five years. Cheap enough for me.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161814918689752152006-10-25T18:05:00.000-04:002006-10-26T01:23:14.080-04:00

Up 0.2 percent yesterday and up another 0.2 percent today. Because I work full time, I do not devote much attention to the stock market during the day. Usually that's not so much of a problem because I don't daytrade so there is no need for me to focus on my positions every minute of the trading day. However, every once in a while, an easy lay-up will arise and I just won't be able to react in

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161658004239389102006-10-23T22:18:00.000-04:002006-10-23T23:05:28.936-04:00

The week was off to a rocky start with my portfolio losing 0.2 percent today. Back in May of last year, I entered all my positions at Openportfolios.com, a site that allows users to create model portfolios that are viewable by the public. I haven't touched that portfolio since because I wanted to see what would happen to it if I didn't adjust any of the positions. Here's where things would stand

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161380630538644372006-10-20T17:28:00.000-04:002006-10-20T19:11:10.183-04:00

Although my portfolio wasn't quite able to stay in the plus column today, on the whole, this was a solid week, with my portfolio making gains four out of the five trading days. In total, the portfolio gained $12,993 (1.7 percent) to a new all time high of $784,079. And even better, I handily outperformed the indices this week, which is the first time I've been able to achieve that in quite a

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161294573148865322006-10-19T17:45:00.000-04:002006-10-19T17:49:33.176-04:00

Okay, so I shorted EBAY this morning in the pre-market. I thought the stock would sell off just like YHOO did a day earlier after announcing lukewarm results. I was wrong. Well, that's $400 I won't see again. Anyway, aside from that little faux pas, the rest of the portfolio did well, with gains in TSTC, VTEK, and NYER propelling it to a 0.7 percent gain and another all-time high.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161221200002555882006-10-18T20:34:00.000-04:002006-10-19T08:30:38.196-04:00

The portfolio continues to march ahead, gaining 0.1 percent yesterday and another 0.3 percent today. Most of today's gain was due to Vodavi (VTEK), which popped up 8 percent in the last 30 minutes of trading. Then, shortly after the market closed, Vodavi announced that they will be acquired by Vertical Communications. Both Vodavi and Vertical surged in the last half hour of trading on high volume

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1161044456288450022006-10-16T19:14:00.000-04:002006-10-16T20:22:55.496-04:00

Up 0.6 percent today. One of the things that I find amazing is how many people there are who are obsessed with the stock market but have never bothered to read any of the thousands of research papers about the stock market. It's like to trying to become a surgeon without every bothering to go to medicine school. Some might argue that the academic literature is irrelevant. But that's a rather

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1160774455976959162006-10-13T17:19:00.000-04:002006-10-13T17:20:56.033-04:00

This week was much like the last few weeks. The portfolio continued to push ahead, rising 1.8 percent to a new all time high, but in relative terms, I continued to lag the Russell 2000. One of the things contributing to the drag on my relative performance is my large cash position, which is now nearly 25 percent of my portfolio. On top of that, I have some stocks (CNSI and OLGR) that are being

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1160693161629693442006-10-12T18:34:00.000-04:002006-10-12T19:18:12.483-04:00

Just like last week, the portfolio continues to putter along (gaining 1.1 percent so far this week), but in terms of relative performance, I continue to badly trail the NASDAQ and my comparator benchmark, the Russell 2000.I couldn't help but laugh when I saw MNCS.OB this morning. So much for that amazing stock that doesn't go down. The company's press release was particularly entertaining: "we

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1160436487116759812006-10-09T19:23:00.000-04:002006-10-09T19:54:05.773-04:00

Down 0.1 percent today. I started a new position in PTG. The company has lots of cash and a big buyback underway. Given the growth in its software business, I think PTG can earn $1 million this year, which would give it a price to enterprise value of about 4, definitely an attractive multiple in a market where smallcap value stocks have become scarce. I'm in for 1500 shares and will consider

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1160181711797263692006-10-06T20:20:00.000-04:002006-10-13T10:38:30.950-04:00

It was an excellent week for the markets, with the Russell 2000 leading the way with a 2 percent gain. My portfolio, however, lagged far behind, and gained only 0.2 percent. A profit is a profit, but obviously it's disappointing when I underperform by that magntitude.And now for my first ever "dubious stock of the week" award. This week the prize goes to MNCS.OB. No revenues, virtually no assets,

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1160004246390508462006-10-04T19:11:00.000-04:002006-10-04T19:26:18.723-04:00

To quote Homer Simpson, I've been busier than a Japanese beaver the past few days, so I haven't had time to think much about the market. Basically, I've been checking my portfolio at the end of each trading day, but that's about it. And so far my performance this week has not been good. Down 0.9 percent Monday, down 0.1 percent yesterday, and up only 0.4 percent today, on one of the biggest days

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1159565445797980782006-09-29T17:30:00.000-04:002006-10-04T13:26:46.186-04:00

hahahahaha.. I told you STKC was a POS but you stupid longs wouldn’t listen. Horrible results. It’s not too late to get out longs. I’m not covering my short till we are under a dollar.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1159565357857291742006-09-29T17:29:00.000-04:002006-09-29T17:29:17.856-04:00

5:52PM STKC third quarter profits down 57 percent. Lowers guidance: now expects full year profits down 15-25 percent compared to earlier projection of increase of 5 to 10 percent.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1159565326178275012006-09-29T17:28:00.000-04:002006-09-30T00:44:18.976-04:00

Third quarter profits of $45,643Outperforms benchmark Russell 2000 by 5.9 percent during quarterUpdates full year guidance Stockcoach (Nasdog: STKC) today announced profits of $45,643 for the third quarter of 2006 compared to profits of $106,629 for the third quarter of 2005, a decrease of 57 percent. For the nine months ending September 30, 2006, profits declined 7 percent to $153,893, compared

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1159216848820124762006-09-25T16:25:00.000-04:002006-09-27T20:49:01.006-04:00

The portfolio gained 1.1 percent today to a new record high thanks almost entirely to a single stock: SPPI. The stock rocketed up 45 percent today on word of positive results from Phase III trials of one of the drugs in its pipeline. I have 4000 shares of SPPI and I didn't sell a single share. I think the stock has $7 written all over it. I also said goodbye to an old favorite today: TRT. I sold

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158958739949411912006-09-22T16:47:00.000-04:002006-09-24T10:46:24.043-04:00

Trio-Tech's 50 percent surge helped to keep me in the plus column for day. Although I sold half my position early in the day to lock in some gains, I am impressed by how well the stock was able to consolidate its gains and even make a new 52 week high towards the close. Thanks to TRT, ACSEF, CPAK, and a few other stocks in my portfolio, it turned out to be a good week, especially in relative

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158808523505119832006-09-20T23:14:00.000-04:002006-09-20T23:15:23.536-04:00

The portfolio managed to gain only 0.1 percent today. EWEB is finally showing a bit of muscle, but all my other major positions are sucking wind.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158715566962477352006-09-19T21:15:00.000-04:002006-09-19T21:26:07.013-04:00

The market got hit hard this morning on Yahoo's warning, apparently stemming in part from weaker than expected advertising on its finance site (considering how many Yahoo message boards have become shadows of their former selves after the new format was introduced, that's not too surprising). To make matters worse, news that there had been a coup in Thailand rattled the markets with memories of

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158625225008540642006-09-18T20:00:00.000-04:002006-09-18T20:39:26.066-04:00

The portflio gained 0.6 percent today thanks partly to a continued nice move in shares of TST on news that the company will be moving from the AMEX to the NASDAQ. A reader asks if my long and short positions all represent currrent holdings. The answer is yes. All the positions listed are stocks that I currently own. However, there are a few stocks that I currently own but have not listed on the

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158428457742790052006-09-16T13:30:00.000-04:002006-09-18T01:47:24.083-04:00

It was a lackluster week for my portfolio. My portfolio gained 7R to the power of pi multiplied by the cosmological constant, all divided by the square root of three rabbits. Or for all you non-traders out there, 1.0 percent ($7,402).As I've mentioned before, the historic patterns tends to be the following: large cap stocks make big gains, traders get more confident, and as they get more

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158266754973309282006-09-14T16:37:00.000-04:002006-09-15T03:48:03.876-04:00

The portfolio was down 0.3 percent today. My post on the merits of R has spawned a lively debate in the comments section. First, let me say that I continue to have utmost respect for such traders like Trader Mike and Richard at Move the Markets who attest to the usefulness of R. These guys are talented, take their jobs seriously, and from what I can tell, they are both great traders. However, at

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158189321849672062006-09-13T19:11:00.000-04:002006-09-16T01:58:53.346-04:00

The portolio gained 1.0 percent today. I can’t recall when I first heard the term “R” but I do recall my initial reaction. It was a bit like what one’s reaction would be if your uncle Buck tried to “debunk” Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. You’d just smile and nod. R is a measure of trading performance that tries to gauge one’s return relative to the amount of risk one takes. Specifically

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158108551839292062006-09-12T20:44:00.000-04:002006-09-12T20:49:11.910-04:00

Well, the Russell 2000 is up huge so far this week and I'm in the red! The portfolio fell 0.4 percent today and gained only 0.1 percent today. Hopefully the rest of the week will be better.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1158031961056785602006-09-11T23:29:00.000-04:002006-09-11T23:32:41.083-04:00

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1157752631466871812006-09-08T17:18:00.000-04:002006-09-11T15:08:40.190-04:00

Well, I guess it was inevitable that I would have to take out "Big Red" #ff0000 to update the weekly results for the blog. It was not a good week to say the least, with the portfolio losing 1.7 percent of it's value. The only transaction of significance this week was my sale of ACY. I've been holding this stock for over a year and it's almost doubled since then. The stock is still trading way

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1157684497136413422006-09-07T22:49:00.000-04:002006-09-08T03:51:01.003-04:00

Down another 0.6 percent today. I'm now down 2 percent for the week. I know that's not huge in percentage terms, but it's still about $15 K, which is huge. Maybe that's because 6 years ago I was still a university student and 5 dollars seemed like a lot (wow, has it really been 6 years?). Actually, 5 dollars is still a lot of money to me so losing $15 K really does suck.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1157591166071720872006-09-06T21:00:00.000-04:002006-09-10T04:05:00.190-04:00

Bad day, don't wanna talk about it, down 1.1 percent. Yeah, I know the market also tanked but I thought I had structured my portfolio so that I would have a sufficiently low beta and high enough alpha in order to escape days like today. On a positive note, I would like to thank Quant Investor for his kind words about this blog. Keep up the great work, Quant!

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1157503540079334002006-09-05T20:33:00.000-04:002006-09-07T00:25:27.136-04:00

A lousy day today: down 0.3 percent, largely on account of EWEB. EWEB seems to want to reinvent itself on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. First it was an ISP. No wait, then it become an IT consulting company. No wait, then it became a real estate company. No wait, then it became a venture capital fund supplying money to semiconductor start-ups. All within the space of 3 months!!! I'm sure

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1157155980381143952006-09-01T20:03:00.000-04:002006-09-05T13:01:51.946-04:00

My portfolio gained $11,295 (1.6 percent) this week. While that's nice money any way you slice it, I did underperform both the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 this week and also for the month of August. There is certainly truth to the old adage that a rising tide lifts all boats. As the graph below illustrates, my portfolio has continued to recover along with the rest of the market and is now only 1

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1156973678868277452006-08-30T17:26:00.000-04:002006-09-01T16:17:22.366-04:00

Up 0.1 percent today. On the whole, it was not a good day for my portfolio. Without IFON, I would have been in the minus column for the day. I bailed on GV. My initial motivation for buying the stock was that it was excessively oversold. Although it didn't bounce as much as I had hoped, I am prepared to take my 12 cent profit on 5000 shares and move on. This is not a stock I want to hold

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1156893837547894702006-08-29T19:09:00.000-04:002006-08-30T17:09:03.720-04:00

Despite a big move in OLGR yesterday on news that the company was being bought out, my portfolio managed to eke out only 0.1 percent. Today was better, however, with the portfolio gaining 1.0 percent. I sold half my shares in obesity drug maker ARNA today. I am not sure why the stock was up. Perhaps it was due to all the stories in the news today about the latest obesity study showing that

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1156541147165364502006-08-25T17:17:00.000-04:002006-08-28T09:41:41.893-04:00

It was a fairly sleepy week for the markets and for my portfolio. All in all, my portfolio gained $1934 (0.3 percent), which compares favorably with the S&P 500 (down 0.6 percent), NASDAQ (down 1.1 percent), and the Russell 2000 (down 1.7 percent). The only transaction of significant was my decision today to sell all my shares in LKI. Although the stock have been showing some strength in recent

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1156370604172187322006-08-23T17:57:00.000-04:002006-08-23T18:03:24.226-04:00

Down 0.5 percent today. Yeah, I know watching my portfolio go nowhere for the past four months hasn't been too fun for you or for me. But sometimes reality is boring. Part of the problem is that traders seem to have lost interest in microcaps. However, if the market continues to recover, I think we'll see a lot more interest in the microcap realm. There's a definite order in these things. First

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1156295871938249962006-08-22T21:14:00.000-04:002006-08-24T18:21:30.646-04:00

Down 0.2 percent. I picked up 5000 shares of GV at $1.09 today. This is my fourth trip on the GV Express in the past year (The GV Express stops at only two stations: Pumpsville and Dumpsville; make you sure you get off at the right one). I think the stock's fundamentals are good enough that it is unlikely to fall below a dollar. On the flip side, the first inkling of a hurricane hitting the Gulf

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1156217139693223352006-08-21T23:19:00.000-04:002006-08-22T19:33:17.043-04:00

Nice day today: Up 0.3 percent. I sold half my shares of CRWS last week and I'm regretting it. That stock is a beast!

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155935527559054392006-08-18T16:30:00.000-04:002006-08-19T13:04:22.086-04:00

My portfolio gained $16,491 (2.3 percent) for the week. Obviously, that's a nice gain, but the fact of the matter is that I still underperformed the Russell 2000 by a wide margin (the Russell gained 4.8 percent for the week). Still, I'm not going to cry any crocodile tears. Sixteen grand is a lot of money, much better than a sharp stick in the eye as one of my good friends in high school would

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155760407030475182006-08-16T16:24:00.000-04:002006-08-18T08:22:48.776-04:00

Everything I've done with my portfolio so far this week has been crap. If I sell it, it goes up. If I buy it, it goes down. I even managed to screw up with OCCF. And ya, I do notice the irony in all this after I wrote about the "George Costaza trading system" last week. I guess I'm George. Meanwhile the NAZ and Russell are both up over 4 percent and I ain't getting any of it. I'm taking the rest

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155597959772277292006-08-14T19:22:00.000-04:002006-08-16T11:49:24.016-04:00

Lousy start to the week: down 0.6 percent. I sold my remaining Broadcon shares for a big fat loss. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to these large cap stocks. I still have my MRVL shares. Deep underwater with those too. Hopefully the stock will move up a bit so I can get out before they report earnings late this week, which I am sure will be crap.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155331726693697842006-08-11T17:05:00.000-04:002006-08-14T20:43:10.006-04:00

My portfolio continues to tread water. For the week, I lost $4,875 (0.7 percent). This does, however, compare favorably with the rest of the market, which saw even deeper declines, with the S&P 500 losing 1.0 percent, the NASDAQ declining 1.3 percent, and the Russell 2000 shedding 3.2 percent.For nearly a year now, I've been thinking of ways to compliment my longer-term focused investing with

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155243630772647032006-08-10T16:53:00.000-04:002006-08-11T00:33:43.433-04:00

I got my ass kicked today: down 0.8 percent. A reader asked my thoughts about the state of the market and where it's heading. I don't know if I have a good answer. In the near term, I think the market is more oversold than overbought and once August is out of the way, I wouldn't be surprised to see a nice rally. Longer-term, I think we are in a sideways market. I've believed that for the last two

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155168450577498622006-08-09T19:50:00.000-04:002006-08-09T20:40:08.030-04:00

Up 0.5 percent today thanks largely to a continued surge in ENPT. Although I still think ENPT has a lot more room to run, I decided to play it safe and sold half my shares at $2.92. I also started a new position in FNLY. Finlay is an interesting company in many respects. The company is profitable and the stock is trading at about 50 percent of tangible book (and book value will increase further

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1155082785190291012006-08-08T20:12:00.000-04:002006-08-08T20:19:45.216-04:00

The portfolio got hit over the head with the ugly stick today. Down 0.9 percent. Blah.

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1154982895903212212006-08-07T16:18:00.000-04:002006-08-07T16:37:55.030-04:00

I'm back from my brief vacation. As far as my portfolio is concerned, last week was pretty forgettable. I sold a few stocks (IFO and COBR) and bought a few stocks (a new position in JOB, and added to my positions in ACSEF and SCOP). All the trades were done through preset limit orders. I basically looked at the headlines for my portfolio before the market opened, put in a couple of orders, and

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1154123823724612022006-07-28T17:33:00.000-04:002006-08-07T11:06:07.623-04:00

My portfolio gained 0.6 today to finish the week up $15,588 (2.2 percent). Not bad, but not as good as the major indices. For the week, the S&P 500 gained 3.1 percent, the NASDAQ gained 3.7 percent, and the Russell 2000 gained 4.2 percent. With one more trading day remaining in July, I again find myself in the unenviable position of trailing the S&P 500 for the third month in a row.Well, I was

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1154045284763696222006-07-27T19:55:00.000-04:002006-07-28T15:00:00.110-04:00

Down 0.2 percent today. Learning to trade well is a lot like learning to bat well in baseball. To bat well, you have to practise a lot and you have to learn from your mistakes. You also need to know when to swing and when to hold back. Trading is the same. I don't really believe in mechanical trading systems because they overlook the important element of intuition. And I believe that intuition,

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1153962116529357102006-07-26T20:51:00.000-04:002006-07-27T21:49:13.326-04:00

Up 0.5 percent today. I was having trouble falling asleep last night. Lying in bed, I started thinking to myself what I would do if I got so rich that I didn't need to trade any more or so poor that I couldn't afford to trade. I realized that I either way I could never leave the game. If I blew it all, I would just sweat it out until I could raise new capital to put back into the market. And if I

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9453142.post-1153867322507433552006-07-25T18:37:00.000-04:002006-07-26T10:00:33.750-04:00

Up 0.9 percent today. I started a new position in ENPT. It's a small position (5000 shares). I dated the stock back in 2003 and made some good money on it. The stock is more expensive now but the fundamentals are also better, so I think there is good risk/reward here. Unless the market collapses or the company's fundamentals deteriorate, I figure the stock will eventually reach book value, which

Stockcoachnoreply@blogger.com2