Picks and Pans

My stock watch lists had a lot of speculative stocks this month, more than usual. Speculative stocks are riskier investments and their price fluctuations are usually more volatile. My results so far reflect just that.

Here are a couple examples:

EMAN
This company produces diodes and other optic and electronic parts that are necessary for the latest and greatest tech/AV craze – 3D! Its stock was on a rocket ride recently and like many fast flyers ran out of fuel and fell almost as quickly.

GENT
A Biotech/Pharm company that has posted good profits and expects positive cash flow for 2010; which is always a good thing. They are also looking for FDA approval to market products in the US.


















Looking at the patterns, GENT (although more volatile in price fluctuations) is actually the stronger pattern. GENT was in a good pendant (or triangle) pattern with progressively increasing high price points and (higher) low price points.

At the beginning of the month, EMAN, was still performing strong with good momentum, money flow and relative strength. But as you can see, that trend broke. Rather suddenly.

Unfortunately I invested in both.
Fortunately I had a stop loss (sell point) set on EMAN which limited my losses.
Unfortunately, (because I have a real job and am not a day trader and needed to wait for funds to clear) the stop loss did not kick in right away and I was a couple days later than I would have liked.
Fortunately GENT was still in its strong pattern and I was able to recoup most of my losses.

So, the end result is…

My first investment of GENT is up well over 30%.
My attempt at a quick hit on EMAN resulted in about a 17% loss.
My reinvestment added back into GENT recovered most of that 17% back.

End result, about 15% profit for the first 2 weeks of April. Not bad, could have been better, but could have been a lot worse.

It is hard to tell, but it looks as though GENT might be leveling off now in strength and price patterns so, I’m taking my profits and looking for another stock play to round out my 2nd half of April investing.