Stocks Made Strong Gains Today

The stock market had a 2 day rally today. This made it difficult for us to do any shorting in the last two days. We expect tomorrow to be different.

Here are the numbers for today.

Dow closed at 11,105.85  up 44.73  (+0.4%)

Nasdaq             2,532.15  up 37.06  (+1.49%

S&P 500           1,172.87  up 10.60 (+0.91%)

Tomorrow we have picked one stock to short. We are going with LCC. US Airways closed today at $5.64. This was up 0.79 (+16.29%). 

Considering the effects of Hurricane Irene, August traffic for the airline was up 1.1%. This is after canceling about 25% of its traffic from August 27 to August 29. Overall, the industry was profitable in the last quarter. This came as a surprise to some because there was a  40% jump in airline fuel during the last quarter.

We believe that the stock will settle around $5.24 by the close of trading Thursday.

The housing market is still trying to gain a footing. Until this happens travelers will be putting all their extra money in their houses.

Market Down For the Count

The market still can't get any traction. Stocks remain at the bottom of the tank. And there are concerns about the Euro. Stocks in the housing sector remained depressed.

Dow closed on Friday at 10,992.13     -303.68    -2.69%
Nasdaq                            2,467.99      -61.15      -2.42%
S&P 500                         1,154.23       -31.67     -2.67%

Here are our picks for shorting and how they performed.
TIN closed at 31.05 up +0.16%
SWS closed    5.25  up +3.55%
MTG closed   2.37 down -12.22% (MTG might suffer the same fate as PMI, unless housing recovers)
CONN closed 8.02  up  +4.16%
CALP closed 10.45  up + 0.19%

At the beginning of the week we were looking at GKK trading at 3.17, and it ended the week 3.38. We also looked at LIZ trading at 5.52. LIZ closed at 5.05 so this was a good short for us. The final stock we liked was CEDC trading at 7.10. Friday it closed at 6.08. This one was a home run for us.

Investors were disappointed with Ben Bernanke because he did not detail any new programs to stimulate economic growth. Also, there are concerns that Greece might default. Add this to the downgrade of the US by Standard and Poor's we we can understand why stocks are declining.

Look for our sell short picks for Monday.

P.S. Please pray for the families of all those that were killed or injured in 911 tragedy.

How Will Market react to President Obama's speech?

Great speech from the President earlier this evening. More jobs will definitely help the housing market.

Some millionaires are crying themselves to sleep tonight. They might have to pay a bit more taxes.

The market was down again.

Dow down  -110.05  (-1.04%)
Nasdaq       -19.80   (-0.78%)
S&P            -12.72  (-1.06%)

These were our picks to short.

TIN  closed at 31.00 up +0.01
SWS closed at 5.07 up + 0.11
MTG closed at 2.70 down -0.18
CONN closed at 7.70 up +0.15

MTG was our only winner. The other three picks were solid but did not perform as we expected. SWS and TIN were flat again. We were blown away by CONN.

For tomorrow we will go with CONN, SWS and TIN. We would add another pick, Caliper Life Sciences. CALP closed up 41.14% and had a great volume of over 39 million shares traded. That was yesterday. Tomorrow is a new day and some investors will be cashing in their profits.

Three Day Losing Streak Comes To A Halt

The stock market had a fantastic day.

Dow rocketed and closed up +275.56 (+2.47%)
Nasdaq                            up +75.11  (+3.04%)
S&P                                up  + 33.38 (2.86%)

Remember our picks for shorting? TIN and SWS? The timing was off a bit. Thursday will be the day! SWS closed at 30.99 up 0.45%. And TIN closed at 4.96 up a whopping 3.77%.

Two more picks for Thursday. Conn's Inc., and MGIC Investments. Conn closed up 38.79%. One of it's best days. And MTG was up 25.76%. Another surprise, when you consider that the housing market is still in bad shape.

Pay attention! Our picks are all for shorting.

Let us know how you are doing.

Have a great day.

Stock Picks That Made You Money Today

The market was down again today.

Dow was down -100.96 (-0.9%)
Nasdaq down     -0.50   (-0.26%)
S&P 500 down  -8.73   (-0.74%)

Our picks did okay. Central European Distribution (CEDC) was the big winner for our followers. CEDC closed at 6.49. This represented a loss of 0.61 or -8.59%.

Another pick Gramercy Capital Corporation (GKK) closed at 3.05, down 0.12, or -3.79%.

Our third pick Liz Clairborne (LIZ) was unchanged at 5.52. Early trading dropped LIZ to around 5.30 but it rebounded very well.

For Wednesday's trading we pick SWS Group Inc (SWS) and Temple-Inland Inc (TIN). SWS closed today at 4.78 (+27.47%). We believe SWS will close around 4.20 tomorrow.

We believe the other pick TIN will have a closing of 30.46.

Many experts expected the housing sector to lead the way to recovery. So far we are still waiting. TIN and GKK are carrying the load.

Good luck and have a great trading day tomorrow.

Short Sell Picks Week Of September 6, 2011

This is a short week and an emotional week. We celebrate Labor Day in America with unemployment still sitting at 9.1%.

We remember 9/11 with heavy hearts. It's hard to focus on making money with so many emotions floating around. But we have to get the job done.

Our first pick for the short sell is Gramercy Capital Corporation. GKK last close was 3.17 up 0.38 (+12.81%). Gramercy Capital is a commercial real estate finance and property investment company. On September 1, 2011 the company announced a settlement of Gramercy Realty's mezzanine loans. The deal transfers 317 properties to  KBS Debt Holdings LLC. Gramercy will continue to manage the properties through December 31, 2013 for an annual fee of $10 million.

Another short sell pick is Liz Clairborne Inc. LIZ closed at a respectable 5.52 up 0.46 (+9.09%). Unfortunately, we believe LIZ will fall back to around 5.23.

And finally, Central European Distribution Corporation should fall to about 6.95. CEDC last closing was 7.10 which was up 0.58 (+8.90%).

Stocks lose for the week... Storm clouds ahead

It was another rough and tough on Wall Street. The market was down again. Terrible job numbers. Companies just are not hiring. Banks are being sued. Could a recession be on the horizon?

Dow closed down a lot. -253.31 (-2.2%)
Nasdaq                          -65.71  (-2.58%)
S&P                               -30.45  (-2.53%)

The spot light shone on Corelogic Inc. CLGX was up again. The company closed at 11.42 (+0.62%). Is this company really looking for a buyer or a possible merger? Or is this just hype? Personally, I don't see any deals happening this year.

Our short sell picks for the week did very well. The lone holdout was Camelot Information Systems, CIS. The company finally came around to our liking. It closed down at 5.22 (-8.42%). At the beginning of the week it was trading at 5.62.

We will be doing some analysis over the weekend. The housing sector need a serious look. There is so much going on with bad mortgages. We will post on Sunday evening. Hopefully there will be about 5 or 6 good short sell pick to start next week's trading.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, your rate should be dropping. Touch base with you lender. Ask about your LIBOR.