Trade Ideas for 12/10/08

A very nice pullback day today, orderly (no gaps) and just enough to look like a completed consolidation for a run up. In a bull market, you'd jump in with both feet on every one of these types of setups. The odds were just so much in your favor. But we're in a bear market now, so even though the setup looks delightful, circumstances have shown that it pays to be cautious. Even should the entry turn out successful, caution is warranted on the exit. For example, think about booking some profit at the end of strong days, and in the mornings if there's a gap up. Nevertheless, by my read the market is prepped to go higher, and there should be a couple days left in the tank, even after a breakout, before the imminent b-wave pullback (q.v. yesterday's post).

VMC was sold today for a 7+% profit as the pullback took it below the bottom of yesterday's gap. Otherwise, no new transactions.

Current Holdings
Ticker	Basis	Closing Price	Perf.	Sell-Stop	Additional Exit Guideline	Chart
AN	7.01	9.68	+38.1%	8.46	Consider selling on a close < 9.56	Chart
DAL	8.88	10.87	+22.4%	9.89	Consider selling on a close < 10.52	Chart
ORI	10.01	9.41	-6.0%	8.98	N/A	Chart
JWN	13.06	12.50	-4.3%	11.25	Consider selling on a close < 12.35	Chart

It was originally my intention to give at most one trade idea per day, and slowly that number has been inching up... to 5 ideas for tomorrow. Hey, charts look constructive, and if you're the type that likes to throw caution to the wind and just rack up a bunch of positions in one day, there have been much worse times to do so. Many of my recent suggestions are also on my own personal list: F, ASTE, OMCL, SIRF, NRG, LNG, HMY, CEF, SSO... too many to list and I don't want to have to keep track of them in case they do get elected, so consider them honorable mentions. The "official" signals are:

Trade Ideas for 12/10/08

Ticker	Entry	Exit A	Exit C	Chart
MELI (Mercadolibre)	16.12	13.88	N/A	Chart
PNK (Pinnacle)	6.81	6.19	N/A	Chart
TNE (Tele Norte Leste)	15.41	14.38	N/A	Chart
WDR (Waddell & Reed)	13.63	12.49	N/A	Chart
MA (Mastercard)	151.51	142.27	N/A	Chart

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