Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Wednesday already

This week has really gotten away from me. I've definitely started off on the wrong foot as far as documenting what is happening during my trading day, and what I'm finding out during my nightly recaps. In fact, last night I did not do my nightly review of my portfolio, most specifically those on my sell list, and it did end up with me missing the fact that a sell order had expired, and I missed my chance to get out of NOEC at a slight gain. Now, I have a really tough decision to make on that one, but we'll get to that in due time.

This post may end up being a little long winded, but I want to go through and document each item on my sell list tonight, instead of just highlighting a couple. Since is growing each day, instead of getting culled back to around 10 stocks like I had planned, I need to really sit down and go through why I am holding each of these stocks with a fine tooth comb. For simplicity, I am going through them in alphabetical order.

ASTM: Source: Short Term Traders board goingin60 (this board requires a paid membership).
Short term traders board has become my new favorite message board, and part of the reason that I am having trouble whittling down my portfolio. There are some great ideas posted on that board throughout the trading day.

Anyway, saw this one thrown out there this morning. I saw that it had gapped down, and decided to take advantage of the possible gap fill. AT 1.12 a share, it seemed that downside could be kept to a minimum.



Tonight I find that the reason the price had gapped down was due to this news article.

Aastrom Direct Offering to Raise $13.5M

My initial reaction is that that is a good thing, and I would expect a gap fill now that the offering has closed. However, being new to the intricacies of how this type of thing effects future stock pricing, this will be a good one for me to watch closely. Did this offering dilute the shares enough that it doesn't easily bounce back? It's times like these that I realize I am just a little baby on this investment learning curve.

CSCA: Source, another IHUB board member, Bobwins. I really like this guys thorough approach to his due diligence. I get more than just ideas from him, I feel like I am really learning something about the things that I need to be looking for in a stock, when I read his posts.

Anyway, I have nothing but great things to say about CSCA. It's up 13.88% since I my purchase on 10/5/07 (12 days ago) at 10.85. It is up a China play, which is why I have it on my sell list (which is basically the list I keep for stocks I need to watch closely). Still no new news since September 6th. Other than that, lots of new highs, and a gap up with a nice finish today. The chart speaks for itself.




EGHT: Source goingin60, yes, I trusted the rainman on this one.

I saw it approaching the resistance at 1.52, with leaps up in the past few days, and decided to go for it. While it closed at 1.48, the same price I had bought it for in the morning, it has reached 1.54 in after hours. There is an earnings call on November 1, which is scheduled for 4:30pm EST. I am curious if calls like that after market close generally are going to be giving bad news, while earlier day calls give good news? That would be an interesting statistic to track!

Anyway, gonna keep an eye on this one, but with the solid support I am seeing around 1.25 for this stock, it just really doesn't seem to have much of a downside at the price I got in at.



Financially, they are showing increases each quarter over the past year in both total revenue and gross profit.

Then we see multiple insiders purchasing stock in August, just before the release in September of

Santa Clara-based 8x8 (NASDAQ:EGHT - News) said its platform "will be the only brand presented and promoted to the roughly 12,000 subscribers who will be left without VoIP phone service after the company winds down its VoIP operations over the next three months."
I really can't think of anything more to add about this company. All the stars on this one seem to be aligned. I will watch it daily, and let it run. I'll sell it on the downhill side.

GAI: Another from the Short Term Trader board, and a friend, John. The chart is pulling back some, but on low volume. I've done my minimum digging around yahoo, and I'm not finding anything terribly compelling about holding on to this stock, other than the fact that 65% of it's shares are held by insiders. It's support is lower than I am comfortable with ($2.57), so I will be seriously reconsidering this position if it dips below 4.45 (10% loss on my investment).



GHDX: Source is vague on this one. It was a long term medical play I picked up from somewhere. The candle chart looks like it may be in for a downturn, including the 10 day moving average moving below the 50.



However it is supposed to be a long term play, and it has a few good points I may investigate further when I don't have so many stocks on my plate to look at. I will evaluate my position on this one if it breeches support at $19.00 (my cost was $19.25).

GNVC: Yet another gem from goingin60

Got in at 2.67. It closed at $2.82 and is up to 2.87 in after hours!

Well, I just spent the last 1/2 hour trying to unlock my computer. Apparently there is a limit to how heavily it will allow me to tax it. I know I had finished a write up on this stock, and started one on LTUS.

Well, folks, here it will have to end, as it is now after 1am, and I have to be up in less than 5 hours for stock market open. The fact that I am going to bed with 8 stocks unresearched alone should be proof that I am holding more stocks right now than I can realistically handle.

Here is hoping that I am successful tomorrow in gracefully exiting some of my lagging positions and resist the temptation of opening new ones. In fact, I will comit to myself right now that I will not even investigate a new stock pick until I have completed posting all of my findings on my sell list review.


Always perform your own due diligence before making any investment.

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