Latest Trades

I've had my eye on a few things since my last post, so here's a quick update.

C: I unloaded my 600 shares of Citi (C) last Friday at 4.36. So far, that seems to have been a good decision. It closed at 4.09 today. Keep in mind I'm a swing trader. I think that C has a long term potential to go higher, but with the US government threatening to unleash their 27 billion share tsunami on the market (at some unspecified point in the future), I'd rather wait til that's done before getting back in.

WFR: MEMC, maker of silicon chips for computers and solar panels. I bought this last fall, has spent the winter in the toilet, is finally moving again, looks like it may go higher. I'm finally in a profit position but holding on. I have a stop for half my position at break-even, letting the rest ride. Closed at 15.51 today, consensus target is 16.98. Should benefit from the alternative energy hysteria and the recovering economy.

GAZ: I took a flier on the natural gas ETF, GAZ last week at 10.28. It looked like it was putting in a bottom. I was wrong. I took a small loss after two days and got out. Glad I did too, since it went lower after that. Today, GAZ closed up 16 cents at 9.74. This stock (and the entire commodity) has been beaten down so hard for so long I really have to believe that it eventually has to rise from the ashes at some point. But since I now have another nick on my hands from catching the falling knife (again), I'm going to wait for some solid evidence of a turn-around here. I'm watching though.

AUY: Gold, gotta love it. AUY, Yamana Gold, is my favorite gold proxy, mostly because I can afford it at its present price of 9.81. It seems to be holding support in the $10 area, it's come way down from it's March high at 11.20, and I'm hearing noise about gold demand from China. I'm long AUY and looking to buy more.

SLV: the silver ETF. I went long last week at 16.57, sold yesterday at 17.03. I thought I'd get more out of it, but hey, you take what you get. SLV is at the top of its recent trading range right now so I'm not looking to get back in right away. But it's always a good play on a pullback. Silver never goes out of style.

IRBT: iRobot, the company that brings you the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, as well as bomb cleaning robots for the US Army. Being the lazy sort and a techno-geek, I love this sort of stuff. Plus, the Roomba actually works. It cleans my floors by itself leaving me more time to watch the markets. I took a flyer on this one yesterday afternoon at 15.58. They must have seen me coming because it promptly dropped 50 cents right after that. But it was up today a bit to close at 15.28, so I'm going to hang on a while longer. That's the beauty of swing trading - I can wait. I think it's going higher. It looks oversold on the stochastic, CCI, and RSI.

Disclaimer: I am long AUY, WFR, and IRBT. I have no other connection to any of these companies, other than owning some products from iRobot. (Hopefully it goes without saying that I am trading real money, not paper trading).