In times of AIG

Where there is nothing left but wait till AIG comes with 75 billion bucks, we should be thinking in holding cash, and foresee new chances to get our portfolio running in a very very volatile market. By saying so, I willing put some thoughts on the table as nothing but bad news are coming from every single place, market, or country. What to play? a question that still should take us to books and do what we hate to do: wait. Take your positions and hold´em until it breaks your stops, that´s the only way you can stay cautious and at the same time can have a bite of the of a turning market, a market where there is no direction or trend any longer as everything is on the floor or going ahead to it. Despite this you can call some longs and some shorts that make worth your time.
longs: Barrick Gold Corp, General Electric, Tesoro, Pacific Ethanol, Office Depot and Hecla Mining.
shorts: Deltic Timber, Northern Trust, Covance, Walter Industries, Flowserve, Capitol Federal Financial, Valmont

keep an eye on: Amgen and Wallmart

More of the same

stocks petit stocks...The floor is on fire!

The floor is on fire! (and believe me the roof is on fire as well!) but today am bringing some stocks I feel comfortable with (technically speaking), regardless what´s truly hot now days: currency corrections!, I will focus myself in those stocks with prices so low that value seems to be calling me to trade them. You can go for Hecla Mining or Quicksilver ( with very nice graphs and figures) but I might halt on Office Depot where a bounce back into "what used to be historic lows" might bring back today a 30% return on investment if you are buy the stock, of course you can always go to options (calls) to bring back some leverage to your pocket with a 6 to 12 month time frame. Other nice stock is Biovail, with more than tested floor it seems like is burning down there and jumping from that hot line can air its potential. At the same time commodity related stocks like Hecla Mining can diversify your portfolio and some how give you the advantage to trade oil non-impact stocks (as this is not much of a true quote as everything is impacted by oil, but). In the past volatility has played a key role in making a decision of whether to take or not stocks with a beta that will show little reaction to major changes in the benchmark index used, in order to make safer portfolio... I think this is nothing but a different way to go...but not a safer one since any stock should suffer investors anger or optimism. Consider this stocks as something else for next 6 months trading range.