I’m trying to avoid getting emotionally caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations in the market, but on days like March 1st, it’s tough to avoid feeling a bit carved up. Right now, I’m sitting on about 50% cash, with the majority of my money still going toward oil related stocks. Yesterday (3-1) saw the same dichotomy from last week between the advancing price of oil and oil related stocks going in the opposite direction. I (think I can) understand why airlines and resorts&casinos (for example) get hammered on days when the market drops but the price of oil increases. On the other hand, why a stock like $VLO would suffer is confusing, maybe I’m not smart enough to figure that one out…I dunno.
This market seems to be getting tougher by the day. I have been underperforming for most of 2011, which is extremely disappointing and forcing me to sit back and reevaluate what stocks I’m picking and why I’m picking them (in addition to reevaluating myself). There is part of me that wants to get to all cash and wait for things to shake out.
Who am I kidding? We aren’t there yet…I’m 50% cash and am defensive enough for the time being, so lets find some stocks to buy. I like these three and will likely buy them tomorrow.
OCN
TAN
WFSL
I like the TAN idea. Holding well to the ascending trendline and the 50 day SMA is providing support as well. My only concern is that FSLR, which accounts for a little over 23% of TAN, has been hit pretty hard on solid volume the past couple of days and has been held under it’s 50 day SMA. If FSLR gets a pop, TAN could take off as well. Rest of the TAN components are acting pretty well.
Heh, I sold out of $TAN this morning into weakness. I think I’ve only had a handful of winning solar trades in my career, so maybe I should go back to the drawing board and figure out why the hell I keep throwing money at the industry. Maybe patterns that work for others just don’t work for solar…I dunno. Thanks for reading.