Thursday, April 23, 2009

Stocks for April 20, 2009

Here are the stocks that are passing at least three of my five filters for the week of April 20.

SymbolTop RankedZacks PEG SuppDem VLIBD Stock checkup
ARO 11 199
PNRA 11 199
TNDM111  98
HMSY111  97
COCO 11 190


MANT has dropped off the core list. HMSY (HMS Holdings) is new to the list. HMS contains costs for government-sponsored health and human services programs.

Core list (with n of 10 weeks passing):

SymbolPassing weeks Earnings
PNRA10Earn 28-Apr
COCO9Earn 30-Apr
BCR8Earn 22-Apr
CPSI8Earn 23-Apr
RMD8 
CAI7Earn 29-Apr
APOL7 
CELG6 
STRA5Earn 30-Apr
HMSY5Earn 1-May

moving down this week
moving up this week
new this week

The S&P 500 is again in a cautious Yellow Light mode according to the 1-2-3 model. The Inflation Model is again neutral at zero stars.

Last Friday, I sold some more bear call spreads, this time for the closer-in May expiration date. Monday had a steep drop (289 Dow points), which brought up the value of all of the bear call spreads. (Of course, it ain't over until I close the calls or they expire!) I think another distribution day (high volume, institutional selling) would be in order before I think about opening some bull put spreads.

I had a reasoned discussion with my friend, John C., about whether harsh interrogation techniques have a place within the military. These were spurred by those memos have come out, calling into question the legality of the interrogation. I would have to say that John has helped me to see that there are no black-and-white, "this is torture" arguments. Some detainees may have been injured or even killed, but perhaps thousands of Americans would have been killed if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been successful in flying a passenger jet into Library Tower in Los Angeles. I am still mulling over the merits of the idealistic side ("America has lost its soul through torture") versus the pragmatic side ("No American civilians had died since 9/11 because of those harsh interrogation techniques.")

Have a good week trading. It looks like a sea change is in place.

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