Starting Line-up Review…

So this month has been really interesting with the stock market and really volatile.

UEPS – Continues to hold good strength and has held up well off it’s support levels.

CNU – Has really shot up off it’s critical support levels. If you bought in at that point, it was extremely risky but it did pay out well so far.

NTES – Was at a good buy in spot and responded well. But the Chinese government has decided to play bully, and their qtr report was not as quite as stellar as the market wanted, but despite a recent drop, has maintained it’s support levels.

GHM – Another stock which has bounced up extremely well off it’s support but perhaps a bit too fast. If you bought in, 30% gain in 3 weeks is certainly not too shabby.

IAX – Is still an attractive play on the pet industry and looks to be worth while for a long term play. This stock seems to be in a trading pattern of a good quick rise, followed by a longer (month or two) period of flat performance. I bet in a couple months it will shoot up once again.

Taking Stock

So I was cruising around the Internet and came across some articles which seemed related to my watch lists.

Some favor my picks, some not so much…

First there was this article which mentioned CNinsure Inc. (CISG) as a strong buy in ZACKS aggressive growth category.
I have gone against my usual theory and held this stock for over a month; and now that it has gotten some “buy” publicity, I am tempted to hold on to it.

But not so much as to keep all of my position in it.

There are two or three from my watch lists which I have been interested in.

NTES recently bought World of Warcraft and is trying to push into the huge Chinese online and gaming market. Unfortunately, China is pushing back. But there are other markets and the rest of the world to sell to so even though NTES has taken even a bit more of a hit from this potentially bad news, I believe it will work out and allow the stock to recover even more.

China Natural Gas (CHNG) is well positioned within the country to take advantage of growing demand and good pricing. Jim Jubak, from MSN Money, had this article which mentioned the Natural Gas industry as a good potential buy. His take was a bit different than mine, but still caught my attention in that I have a Natural Gas company on my lists.

Graham Corporation (GHM) is a diverse well run company which is well suited to take advantage of various sectors of the economy as they rebound; including the energy fields. They have had a string of decent quarterly reports and have enjoyed slow but steady stock growth over the past year.

Last but not least is this article which lists some interesting stock choices for research AND their list of top 50 stocks for the month of November. Now, I have not done this for each and every month but the one or two times I have tracked them against my watch lists, I have done better.
One of the interesting things I find with this top 50 list is that their screens try to anticipate sectors which will do better as well as well positioned stocks for each of those sectors. Each month this list can, and often does, change due to market conditions. It is interesting to see the many Oil and Natural Gas companies listed. Apparently their screens seem to think these sectors will do well.

It will be interesting to see how well I and they do this time around.

September Watch List

OK, so I am getting this published just under the wire.

This month I am trying something a bit new.

I am still keeping my starting line ups and bench lists but now I have been able to incorporate pseudo rankings into some of my screens and have decided to use them as a basis for determining my watch lists. Basically the rankings are the ones which either best match the key criteria of each of my screens or have performed the best based on my filters. The theory being that the top ranked ones have the best chance of matching those goals.

So this is the first month of my experimenting with this slight twist to my system.

Oh, and I can’t tell you how many times my limit orders have come back to haunt me over the past six months. Usually, it is in the form of my stop loss of about 10% – 12%; only to watch the stock bounce back and recover quite nicely.

This last time, however, it was my 10% limit on price increase that bit me. AKA SVA popping to stratospheric heights.

I may be reviewing those in the near future as well, as those seem to be cutting into my overall return record.