Trade Ideas for 12/24/09

The market gently rolled to new highs today. While the S&P didn't look that impressive, among individual charts, I saw a lot of crazy breakouts. Here's a random sample. The same thing happened last year at this time (in the middle of the worst stock market crash), with stocks peaking on the third trading day of the new year. The pattern then was a consolidation the week of Christmas followed by a furious rally the week of New Year's. Something similar could be happening this year, too, but we must be open to the possibility that the rally portion started this week. To hedge for that possibility, please book 25-50% of existing long holdings tomorrow. Sell 25% from the stronger holdings and 50% from the weaker. We bought all of yesterday's ideas and sold SMN for a loss. Keep in mind that tomorrow is a half day.

Current Holdings
Ticker	Basis	Closing Price	Perf.	Sell-Stop	Addl Exit Guideline	Chart
AONE	16.81	19.33	+15.0%	17.34	N/A	Chart
VVUS	8.76	10.02	+14.4%	8.99	N/A	Chart
ZSL	4.71	4.67	-0.8%	4.49	N/A	Chart
FST	19.61	23.50	+19.8%	22.65	N/A	Chart
CBG	12.31	13.81	+12.2%	13.47	N/A	Chart
DEI	13.89	14.72	+6.0%	14.58	N/A	Chart
SBGI	3.81	4.14	+8.7%	3.68	N/A	Chart
VCI	18.84	19.01	+0.9%	18.26	N/A	Chart
CPST	1.30	1.26	-3.1%	1.22	N/A	Chart
URE	6.71	7.12	+6.1%	6.71	N/A	Chart
GOLD	80.64	82.14	+1.9%	79.27	N/A	Chart
BVF	14.11	13.95	-1.1%	13.89	N/A	Chart
VMW	43.01	43.18	+0.4%	42.10	N/A	Chart

Not that we don't already have a lot of positions, but a few charts look good. We're in a sweet spot in the rally right now, but at some point the market will pull back, probably sharply, and stop us out of all our positions. So be wary of taking on too many.

New Trade Ideas

Ticker	Entry	Exit A	Exit C	Chart
FMC	57.01	56.19	N/A	Chart
AAV (Advantage Oil & Gas)	6.81	6.57	N/A	Chart
MET (MetLife)	35.91	35.18	N/A	Chart

Please refer to "How To Trade The Ideas" (right-hand side) to read this table.