Poston Financial

Bear Market?

2009-03-13T12:02:00.003-04:00

Nobody told these stocks:

Autozone (AZO)
Netflix (NFLX)
O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY)
Family Dollar (FDO)
American Italian Pasta (AIPC)
Genentech (DNA)
Amazon (AMZN)

Simply Put, "Paulson is The Man"

2009-02-26T11:44:00.002-05:00

Very interesting article on hedge fund manager John Paulson.

http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2009/01/07/John-Paulson-Profits-in-Downturn

This has got to be the trade of the year, maybe decade:

Long before the financial crisis hit, Paulson, according to one person briefed on the trade, invested $22 million in a credit default swap that eventually paid $1 billion when the federal government opted not to rescue Lehman Brothers. That amounts to a staggering $45.45 for each dollar invested. -(Conde Nast Portfolio)

20 Year Charts of the Major Indices

2009-02-26T11:22:00.004-05:00

S&P 500

Dow Jones Industrials

Nasdaq Composite

Stocks Holding Up in this Current Market

2009-02-26T11:06:00.004-05:00

Visa (V)

MasterCard (MA)

Amazon.com (AMZN)

Visa (V) & Mastercard (MA)

2009-02-16T11:35:00.002-05:00

Visa

Mastercard

Mastercard (MA) & Visa (V)

2009-02-09T10:38:00.006-05:00

Mastercard

Visa

Reported 1st Quarter results on Wed., Feb. 9th. Posted earnings of $0.74 cents a share vs. estimates of $0.55 cents a share. Net income rose 35% to $574 million, compared to $424 million in the same time period last year. Net operating revenue rose 17% to $1.7 billion. Total processed transactions rose 8% to 9.8 billion. Adjusted operating expenses fell 4% to $728 million due to the company cutting its professional and consulting fees and administrative costs. Has a net profit margin of 33.01% and a return on equity of 10.48%.

Nasdaq Composite

2009-02-09T10:19:00.002-05:00

The IV Horsemen Are Back

2009-02-09T10:03:00.006-05:00

Apple (AAPL)

Research in Motion (RIMM)

Google (GOOG)

Amazon (AMZN)

Getting back on track

2009-01-21T19:54:00.002-05:00

It's about time I put up a new post. It's been over 3 months since my last one so I figured, eh, what the heck. As far as the markets go, volatility is the name of the game.

Apple (AAPL) released earnings today, their stock shooting up over 11 points after hours. Apple was hovering at a 52 week low near $78. It is now trading above $90. Several traders were using the $80 level as support. If Apple traded below this barrier for a couple days then that would have been a signal to start shorting the stock. Amazing what earnings can do.

IBM reported really good earnings last night. Their stock shot up over 11% today. Other tech notables doing well today are Google (GOOG) and Research in Motion (RIMM).

Dow Oversold?

2008-10-08T11:33:00.002-04:00

Global Meltdown

2008-10-08T09:26:00.002-04:00

Obviously we are in the middle of a global financial crises. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. The markets are playing limbo with each other, seeing who can go the lowest. So far this morning, European markets are down roughly 5%, Asian markets are down about 8%, and Japan is down 9.4% (the biggest single day fall in 21 years). Trading on both of the Russian markets has been suspended, one until further notice and the other until Friday.

This is all seen as a ripple effect after what happened in our markets yesterday. The Dow has dropped 875 points in two days, closing at its lowest point in 5 years. The Dow is now 33.3% below is record close of 14,164.53 it set last year.

Rate Cut

2008-10-08T09:19:00.002-04:00

The breaking news this morning is that the Fed cut its interest rate from 2% to 1.5%. This is being done in an attempt to prevent a global economic meltdown (too late). Along with the Fed, the European Central Bank cut its rate by 0.5% to 3.75% and the Bank of England cut their rate by half a point to 4.5%. The Central Banks of China, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden also cut their rates.

The rate cuts will reduce borrowing costs for Americans who have home equity or other floating rate loans tied to the prime rate.

DUG

2008-10-06T11:10:00.003-04:00

DUG- Ultrashort Oil & Gas Proshares. Corresponds to twice the daily inverse of the price of the U.S. Oil & Gas Index. Currently testing support as it touches its previous high. Look for a possible handle to form, maybe a 7-8% decline. If no handle is formed and the stock breaks through support on heavy volume, then think about buying shares.

United States Gasoline Fund

2008-10-06T11:02:00.004-04:00

UGA- tracks the price of gasoline at the pump. This etf has broken through its support and is now setting fresh lows. These lows have not been tested since back in February. There is a big discrepancy between the price of gasoline on the market vs. what we are paying at the pump.

Inverse ETF's

2008-10-06T10:39:00.006-04:00

With the market in a correction, consider looking at some of the inverse ETF's listed below.

DXD- Ultrashort Dow 30 Proshares. Corresponds to twice the daily inverse of the Dow 30.

QID- Proshares Ultrashort QQQ. Corresponds to twice the daily inverse of the Nasdaq 100.

SDS- Ultrashort S&P 500 proshares. Corresponds to twice (200 %) the daily inverse of the S&P 500.

Interview w/ Dan Zanger

2008-09-03T14:58:00.005-04:00

Attached are interviews with Dan Zanger from http://www.chartpattern.com/cf/index.cfm. Its about 3 years old but the principles he talks about are priceless. Always invest in the leaders. Granted, he took some serious risks (shorting ebay before their earnings report), but they all played out in his favor. The greater the risk, the greater the reward. To sum it up, he's the ultimate momo investor. Not many people can say they made $3.2 million dollars trading in one day.

Part I:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7710736047622561973

Part II:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8202422563036820659&q=dan+zanger

Part III:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2623777107662847866&q=dan+zanger

US Dollar Up ETF (UUP)

2008-09-03T10:17:00.003-04:00

The dollar moves inversely with the price of oil. Oil goes down, dollar goes up. Pretty simple. Broke out to new highs yesterday on tremendous volume, showing strength. 2nd gap up; notice that it didn't fill the first one.

IPC The Hospitalist Co., Inc. (IPCM)

2008-08-12T11:31:00.003-04:00

This could be a good stock to add to your portfolio. The Biotechnology/Major Drug/Healthcare sector has been doing quite well recently. The fact that this is a recent IPO makes it even more attractive.

ETF- Powershares DB US Dollar Index Up

2008-08-12T11:09:00.003-04:00

This ETF is a good play on our economy right now. As the price of oil falls, the dollar strengthens. Notice the volume over the past couple days.

HTLD

2008-08-11T10:59:00.001-04:00

JBHT

2008-08-11T10:56:00.002-04:00

ODFL Approaching Buy Point

2008-08-11T10:53:00.002-04:00

GWR Breaking Out

2008-08-11T10:46:00.002-04:00

GWR is currently breaking out of a nice cup w/handle pattern

Stocks to watch for Monday

2008-08-10T15:29:00.011-04:00

Urban Outfitters (URBN)
Symantec(SYMC)
Parexel (PRXL)

MacDonald's (MCD)
IIVI networks (IIVI)

Fuel Systems, Inc. (FSYS)
Covance (CVD)
Ansys, Inc. (ANSS)

My weekly watchlist consists of the following stocks:

*GENZ, *TMO, *FMC, *TDY, *IT, *EME, *LPNT, FFIV, ASIA, *DRIV, *APEI, *KSU, IDSA, *OLN, *DXPE, *PWR, *WRC, WAB, *HIL, KNDL, WBSN, *UTHR, MANT, ATVI, IWOV, TRLG, GRC, ICLR, SYNA, *NCIT, CMI, *PMTC, SY, QSII, ADBE, GTIV, BWLD, *ANSS, APH, VAR, MCD, *PRXL, *CVD, *IIVI, *SYMC, URBN, ORCL, RSG, BEC

Keep an eye on stocks in the software programming sector, the charts look very bullish.

Industry Group Snapshot - Trucking

2008-08-08T13:29:00.011-04:00

Werner Enterprises (WERN)

USA Truck (USAK)

Universal Truckload Services (UACL)

Saia, Inc. (SAIA)

Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL)

Marten Transport (MRTN)

Knight Transportation (KNX)

J.B. Hunt (JBHT)

Heartland Express (HTLD)

Dynamex (DDMX)

Con-way, Inc. (CNW)

Celadon (CLDN)