the Trade-Radar + TradingStockAlerts blog

OK, so the title of this post is calculated to make you say "Wha..?" But there is actually a similarity that is worth talking about. Recently, there has been a study released on dieting. The study emphasizes that those people who write down every single thing that they consume are much better at controlling their eating habits and actually losing weight. By documenting their true eating habits, these dieters have a much better idea about what exactly they are eating, where they are giving in to temptation and allowing fattening foods into their diet and where they are accomplishing their goals by eating the right things at the right times. And by tracking their weight as they document their eating, they are forging a relationship between input and output, cause and effect. Thus, they are better able to modify their behavior. The study determined that those dieters who rigorously wrote down what they ate were better able to lose weight and keep it off compared to those dieters...

I have been writing about the TradeRadar software on a regular basis lately but I have not spent much time discussing my results using the software. The Track Profit & Loss page of the TradeRadar site shows the results for the stocks that are in our trading portfolio. Note that the ETFs were not chosen using the TradeRadar software but all the stocks were. The good news is that all but one of the stocks (and one ETF) are, as of today, showing gains. Obviously some have done better than others. All of these stocks have, at one time or another, shown up in an alert list from the Alert HQ process where we scan almost all the stocks on the NYSE, the AMEX and the NASDAQ every weekend looking for BUY and SELL signals. Having used Alert HQ to weed through all the stocks in the general market and provide a short list of investment candidates for the week, I then had to evaluate each one in turn to determine which ones to actually buy. This is easier said than done and it is why I have sta...

This is the fourth article in a series of posts describing 10 tools to help you identify and evaluate good investing ideas. It is based on a post that provides a summary of the ten keys that individual investors should use to identify profitable stock trades. ( Click here to read the original post ) With this fourth post, we will continue another step along the path of finding stocks that seem to have some potential. The first post in the series discussed how to use unusual activity to identify investing ideas. The second post described how to use stock screeners. The third post described how to use lists of new highs and new lows. This post will focus on identifying social or business trends in order to find investing ideas. Information on new trends might turn up anywhere. In conversation with friends or business associates, in newspapers or magazines, on TV or though your work. The key is to be aware of trends and how they start, stop or change. We'll start by describing what...

For those of you who read the second post in the series on how to unlock stock market profits you may remember McDermott International ( MDR ). As part of our discussion on using stock screeners we worked our way through three different web sites, finally ending up with a short list of stocks derived from the Zacks.com screener. McDermott was one of them and we focused on the company as one of the most interesting on the list. Today McDermott announced blow-out earnings. Their profit tripled, they exceeded analyst expectations and announced a two-for-one stock split. The stock gained 4.2% today. I hope readers will continue to experiment with stock screeners. Today's news on McDermott shows screeners can point you to some top-notch investments. Disclosure: I own no shares of MDR

This is the third in an ongoing series of articles where I discuss what I feel are keys to successful investing. It is based on a post that provides a summary of the ten keys that individual investors should use to identify profitable stock trades. ( Click here to read the original post ) With this third post, we will continue further along the path of finding stocks that seem to have some potential. The first post in the series discussed how to use unusual activity to identify investing ideas. The second post described how to use stock screeners. This post will focus on using lists of new highs or new lows to find investing ideas. Key #3: New highs and new lows can point to stocks with momentum or stocks ready for reversals. Looking to ride an existing trend? Know a good stock that is being unfairly punished? New highs lists can identify stocks in a strong uptrend. If you believe in momentum, the ability of a stock to continue to move in the same direction until some event causes ...

Yahoo has been attempting to move toward what some advertisers regard as the ultimate manifestation of marketing: ads tailored to the individual. With the announcement of their SmartAds product, Yahoo is claiming that they can target narrower groups of individuals and target ads more directly to the characteristics of that group. By analyzing users past web behavior combined with what a user is currently doing, Yahoo says they can more accurately determine the kinds of ads that a particular group of users should see. Yahoo's new technology will then cobble together the appropriate pieces to present a complete banner ad tailored to that group. Google has chosen to pursue a different path and has announced that they do not intend to pursue behavioral targeting. They have opted instead to refine their flagship technology around search ads. The enhancement they are currently testing includes the previous search terms as well as the current search terms to determine what ads to show to ...

This is the second in an ongoing series of articles where I discuss what I feel are keys to successful investing. It is based on a post that provides a summary of the ten keys that individual investors should use to identify profitable stock trades. ( Click here to read the original post ) With this second post, we will continue along the path of finding stocks that seem to have some potential. The first post in this series discussed how to use unusual activity to identify investing ideas. This post will focus on the use of stock screeners. Key #2: if you think you know what characteristics make a good investment, use a stock screener to get a list of stocks matching your specific criteria. There are two kinds of screeners: those that are pre-built and those that are configurable. Among the ones that are pre-built, you will find that different sites provide different variations and it is worthwhile to know which site offers which screener. This way, when you are looking for a particul...

This is the first in an ongoing series of articles where I discuss what I feel are keys to successful investing. It is based on a post that provides a summary of the ten keys that individual investors should use to identify profitable stock trades. ( Click here to read the original post ) There are two basic steps to investing. First, you need to find stocks that seem to have some potential. Then you have to determine whether these stocks are actually good investments. There are many stocks that at first glance look interesting, but further research reveals that there are too many negatives to warrant taking a position. This first post in the series starts at the beginning: getting good investment ideas. Key #1: If something special is happening to a stock, it will be reflected in some kind of unusual activity in the markets. As individual investors, we will never be the first to know; however, unusual activity can be an early sign that allows us to follow the Wall Street professional...

Where does a regular person get investment ideas and how does he or she differentiate between the good ideas and the bad ones? I will present 10 tools that can help. And you don't have to be an investment professional to understand them. Getting good investment ideas Good investment ideas come from many sources. The key is to always be on the lookout. The five sources below cover a lot of ground: 1. Stocks with unusual behavior - this is one of my favorites. This category could include stocks with higher than normal volume, price spikes, options activity, crossing moving averages, breaking trend lines or resistance/support lines, gaps up or down, etc. There are a number of sources for lists of most active stocks ( Schaeffer's Research , Wall Street Journal Online , Quote.com , etc.) Briefing.com's InPlay feature (available here at Yahoo Finance) is great for stocks showing unusual price or volume activity, breaking resistance/support, reacting to various corporate news ev...

Ok, I finally sold my last few shares of SanDisk ( SNDK ). Having posted a list of bottom-fishing candidates for this month's pick a few days ago, I expected to choose one of them as the Pick o' the Month and immediately put the money to work. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, however, I have fixed a bug in the Signal Strength calculation for SELL signals in the TradeRadar software. The new version gives the same SELL signal ( click here to view full size) on the QQQQ but now it looks strong enough to give me the confidence to act upon it. QQQQ sell signal. As a result, I turned around and purchased the ProShares UltraShort QQQ ( QID ). The "Ultra" classification means they are trying to achieve twice the daily performance of the associated index; in this case, the NASDAQ 100. So if the QQQQ is going to go down, QID should start moving up and moving up smartly. I have been considering doing this for a while, at least since mid-December when TradeRadar first st...

It is getting about that time when we announce the Trade Radar Pick o' the Month. I haven't made my mind up yet but I wanted to list a few stocks that have developed promising patterns but haven't quite generated unambiguous BUY signals. The current list is as follows: National Interstate ( NATL ) - provides insurance for the transportation industry (today's close: $26.70) Diodes Inc ( DIOD ) - semiconductor manufacturer (today's close: $36.27) Evergreen Energy ( EEE ) - provides lower emission fuel to coal-fired utilities and industries (today's close: $10.48) Alkermes Inc ( ALKS ) - a pharmaceutical company with an alcoholism treatment (today's close: $15.04) Abaxis ( ABAX ) - makes easy-to-use blood test kits for humans and animals (today's close: $21.80) All of these stocks have been trending downward for the last few months, some more steeply than others, but have recently announced better earnings and/or have garnered analyst upgrades. I am def...

Time magazine recently ran its Person of the Year feature and it was "You". Time was trying to recognize all the ways that average folks are gaining their 15 minutes of fame, becoming instant pundits and sharing their opinions and lives with one another. Time also made a point of showing how the Internet has enabled much of this activity with web sites like MySpace and YouTube and the millions of blogs that have sprung up. The techies look at this ferment as one aspect of Web 2.0, where the Internet is evolving from being company and commerce driven to being more interactive in both technology and the kinds of bottom-up creativity that take the form of online sharing and collaboration, social networking sites, wikis, etc. Some of us who are serious about investing are, shall we say, "of a certain age" and tend toward the conservative. We are not so likely to be embracing every new Internet fad that comes along. Nevertheless, if you are an investor and you are out th...

With this month's pick I am continuing a trend of identifying lesser-known stocks that are undergoing a reversal and appear to be moving up. Stock markets have been red hot in China and India for the past year. This month's pick is a Chinese stock, PacificNet (PACT) . The TradeRadar BUY signal was first flashed on 12/19/06 at $5.23. Since then, the stock has seen more good news and has moved up to $6.18 as of the last trading day of 2006. To see this TradeRadar BUY signal, click here . Note that the signal strength is pretty decent and the signal shape is quite well-defined. This leads me to believe we have a real reversal underway and that the newly established trend upward will continue. PACT has exhibited plenty of volatility over the years though so I am sure the path upward will not be smooth. PACT had recently taken a hit as a result of taking charges for exiting a business segment related to telecommunications. They are continuing with their involvement in providing CRM ...

I have added another new feature called the Investor Toolbox. There are more financial sites out there on the web than can be counted. Most of them are looking to make money through paid subscription. I have listed sites that provide a significant amount of free content or tools. They are serious about providing a "try before you buy" experience for their customers. I have categorized the sites based on their strengths and have provided comments on what is best or most unique about each site. Some sites are mentioned more than once because they are strong in more than one category. Speaking of which, the categories are as follows: Stock Signals and Technical Analysis Big investing sites Track the Market - Live (quotes, news and charts, delayed 15 minutes) Stock Screeners Charts Analysis and Commentary Download Historical Quotes Investor Education I'm sure the list is not exhaustive but we've got a solid set of tools to support your investing activities and make the pa...

I have added another new feature to the web site associated with this blog. It is called the " Daily News ". I have pulled together financial news, opinion, analysis and commentary from a variety of sources across the web. Some sources are well known, some are not. All are of high quality and are updated throughout the day. If you are an investor, you will appreciate getting all this in one place: Seeking Alpha Ticker Sense Business & Finance from Digg.com ETF Trends DigStock.com Schaeffer's Daily Market Recap Scheaffer's Daily Market Blog Financial blog posts from Tailrank Yahoo Business News Read the Daily News and be prepared for your trading day. More important than your first cup of coffee!

Gloom and Doom Everyone has heard that the real es tate bubble has burst, interest rates are not conducive to homebuying, it's a buyers market, new home construction is plummeting, houses are sitting unsold for longer periods of time, etc. Stocks of most builders are well off their highs. Some say we have not yet seen the bottom in this market. All this is enough to attract those with a contrarian bent. If you are looking to buy when the news is bad, could this be a good time to jump in? It all depends on how you approach the real estate market. What we have seen in the real estate market is the demise of easy money and, with it, the demise of the McMansion. There is still significant activity in more modest homebuilding as well as in urban apartments, offices and condominiums. The companies that are diversified or derive significant revenue from these still active areas are prepared to rebound or, indeed, already have. Those companies that are still addicted to the wide margins av...

I have been busy enhancing the blog and the associated web site. I have added two new features which will be updated on a regular basis: The Weekly Market Call - here I use the Trade Radar signal to indicate whether the current trend in the three major market averages (Dow Industrials, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100) is steady or changing. This is presented as a simple up or down indicator. The current week is compared to the previous week. If last week was up and this week is down, for example, it means Trade Radar is signalling a top with a reversal to the downside in progress. Pick o' the Month - here I will highlight stocks or ETFs that, according to the Trade Radar signal, are undergoing a reversal. On the web site, I will soon be rolling out a page that shows what the Trade Radar software looks like. Here you can see screen shots of some of the most important features of the program. I will also provide a link to the Help file so you can get an idea of how to set up and use the syst...

Introduction Many money management professionals take advantage of various hedging strategies to avoid being whipsawed by the markets and to avoid losing money in down markets. They may use combinations of swaps, options, futures and derivatives to offset risk and to generate returns when traditional investments are losing value. Some of the investment tools used by these professionals are now available to the public. There are several companies that have developed families of mutual funds and ETFs that bundle all these exotic vehicles into easy to understand funds that track common indexes. I will focus on two companies, Rydex and ProShares, as I describe a strategy that will allow you to invest and profit like the professionals. Both companies have products that track, as a minimum, the Dow, the NASDAQ 100 and the S&P 500. What is interesting and pertinent to our discussion here is that they also have funds that track the INVERSE of the associated index. For example, if one fund...

With the market in uncertain territory lately, the buy signal for FCEL did not come through. The stock has been mostly down for the past week and TradeRadar clearly indicates this is not the time to buy. As for the other two picks I have posted about, Generex (GNBT) and Eight-by-Eight (EGHT) have both slowed their advance. Generex continues to put out press releases about successes it is having with its new drug delivery systems and Eight-by-Eight recently announced that Office Max will be carrying it's products. The news is decent but the charts are weakening. An analyst announcing that he still has doubts about EGHT effectively killed a bounce-back in the making in that stock this week but I am still rating it a hold if you had purchased at the time TradeRadar gave the buy signal. I am still holding GNBT, as well.

As I said in my previous post, it would be prudent to watch this stock for a few days. Well, it sure got hammered today as the entire stock market had its worst day in months. Caught in the down draft, FCEL moved in the wrong direction and the TradeRadar signal didn't get to a level that provided any confidence in going long. I have previously stated that charts are great but you should pick stocks that have reasonable business fundamentals. FCEL is lacking in this area and has registered a string of losses over prior quarters. This could be a time when I am proving the rule rather than finding an exception to it. We'll keep watching but I am already losing confidence.