GSA Portfolio Comments   PR** (+7%), ME** (+7%), AK** (+6%), AS** (+5%), BI** (+4%), EL** (+3%), VP** (+3%), VV** (+1%), JA** (+1%),

• 2012-02-03: We took **** profits in ****. You may want to try for a larger move if you hold this position.

• 2012-02-03: Took **** profits in **** on the earnings gap up.

• 2012-02-02: **** triggered and was purchased.

• 2012-02-01: Adding **** ($12.34) and **** ($18.95), both high RS names to the watch list.

• 2012-01-31: **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-28: Adding **** to the watch list for a buy above it's **** pivot. **** exceeds all our sales and earnings growth criteria (accelerating triple digit EPS growth, accelerating double digit sales growth), is undervalued on a forward PE basis, sports a healthy ROE of ****, and shows good accumulation in a tight 4-wk basing pattern, providing a maximum trade risk of **** if purchased at the pivot point.

• 2012-01-27: Nailed down **** profits in ****. Selling ahead of earnings Monday, and again selling a bit sooner, until we see more wins.

• 2012-01-27: Took a position in this recent top-ranked breakout - ****.

• 2012-01-26: Watch list candidate **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-26: Sold **** for a -**** loss.

• 2012-01-25: Nailed down **** profits in ****. Taking profits a little sooner till we get more wins under our belt.

• 2012-01-25: Watch list candidate **** triggered and was purchases for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-24: Adding **** to the watch list for a purchase above ****. **** is trying to break out of a short cup-with-handle formation.

• 2012-01-23: **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-22: Watch list candidates for Monday: **** (above ****) for a trade risk of -4.16%, **** (above ****) risking -6%, and **** (above ****) risking -3.9%. Try not to chase gaps above these pivot points.

• 2012-01-18: We have a day stop on **** at ****, just below today's low.

• 2012-01-18: Stopped out of **** for a **** loss.

• 2012-01-17: Both **** and **** tirggered, and were purchased for the GSA Portfolio. 

• 2012-01-16: Adding **** to the watch list, which shows accelerating sales AND earnings growth, a high ROE of 34%, good valuation and group action. Chart pattern shows a 27 week cup-with-handle pattern. With a trigger point at **** and a stop at **** (bottom of handle), it provides a trade with a tight risk of a little over ****.

• 2012-01-15: For Tuesday, we have two names on our watch list - **** above **** and **** above ****. We continue to be incremental in building the portfolio - no more than 5-6% in any one position.

• 2012-01-13: **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-12: **** is such a thin name that we need to call our broker to open a trade. Removing from watch list.

• 2012-01-12: Updating pivot point for **** to $50.77 and **** to $116.95.

• 2012-01-11: Adding **** (pivot $23.91), **** ($117.55) and **** ($12.92 - thin) to the Top Picks Watch List.

• 2012-01-10: **** triggered it's $15.40 pivot and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-10: Don't care too much for the outside day and reversal off new all-time highs in ****. Sold at a tiny profit, basically break-even.

• 2012-01-09: Stopped out of ****.

• 2012-01-09: Bought the breakout in this high ranked stock - ****. 

• 2012-01-07: Added **** (pivot $50.82) and **** ($15.40) to the Top Picks Watch List for Monday. 

  We now display two more metrics on our charts: Return on Equity (ROE) and Institutions Buying (or Selling). For long selections, look for an ROE of 15% or higher. The Institutions Buying is shown as a ratio - 1.0 or above indicates more heavy volume buying than selling. We measure this ratio by comparing prices moving up on above average daily volume against prices moving down, over the last 13 weeks. 

  Both ROE and Institutions Buying are available to filter against in our Quick Screener, which now is linked off the main navigation bar at the top of all our pages. As a final note, we also offer all our members a 1-On-1 Training Webinar on "How to Pick Stocks Using the HI-EPSRS Database" each weekday at 9.00p Eastern. Feel free to schedule yours using the link at the upper right hand corner of any page.

• 2012-01-05: Watch list candidate **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2012-01-04: Watch list candidate **** triggered. We took a small position in this name based on a breakout from a high tight flag pattern with a 4-week base.

• 2012-01-03: Many stocks from our watch list triggered this morning. We took a starter position in **** to see if this rally is for real.

• 2012-01-03: Today we had 13 names trigger their buy points. However, 11 of these 13 names ended the day below their trigger points. Maybe these will work out within the next few days, or maybe they wont and these breakouts will once again fail. The market may continue to repeat it's trend-less nature from last year.

  So we continue to take only a few positions, investing 5% or less of our portfolio into any one stock, and being extremely quick with cutting losses. This market will eventually come around and provide us with a strong trend to profit from. It is simply a matter of time. So please be patient, protect your capital and remain true to your strategy and trading rules. For now, trade small and trade light.

• 2012-01-01: We have included 15 names in the Top Picks Watch List for Tuesday, January 3, 2012. Please check out the pivot points on these names. If these trigger, we will take small starter positions in 1-2 of them, since the portfolio has not yet shown much upward progress. 

  We're glad that a very tough 2011 has come to a close, and we can start afresh in 2012. We sincerely thank many of you for supporting our services over many, many years. Wishing each one of you A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year! 

• 2011-12-30: **** triggered it's buy point and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-12-29: Added **** ($48.17), **** ($204.92), **** ($15.30),  **** ($381.32), **** ($84.51) and **** ($21.51) to the watch list. Removed **** and ****.

• 2011-12-28: Adding **** ($58.04) and **** ($40.35) to the watch list for Thursday, December 29.

• 2011-12-27: Comments: Dow Theorists rejoice! Transports confirm Dow's move above October highs. Looks like we have a new bull on our hands.

• 2011-12-27: **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. This is a high relative strength (99) name. Testing out the market with a small 5% position.

• 2011-12-27: ****, **** and **** on deck for Wednesday, December 28. All have an RS rating of 97 or higher, with tight basing patterns, and a maximum trade risk of -6%.

• 2011-12-26: **** at $34.42 and **** at $22 have been added to the Top Picks Pivot Point Watch List.

• 2011-12-21: Adding **** to the Top Picks Watch List for a buy above it's pivot point of ****.

• 2011-12-14: Out of **** for now with a -2% loss.

• 2011-12-12: We have added five additional names to the Pivot Point Watch List for potential buys. We are seeing a number of constructive chart set-ups - the key question now is whether the market will allow for these future breakouts to occur, hold and follow through. Time will tell.

• 2011-12-10: We've added 11 names to the Pivot Point Watch List for next week. Please check out the GSA Watch List link for a list of these names and their associated trigger buy points. Remember to step into this market in a measured way - if you show progress first, only then do you add names to your portfolio. We plan to take a few of these positions, if they trigger.

  This week we've also introduced a new Quick Screen - Bollinger Band Squeeze. Often after a period of volatility, stock start to tighten up their chart patterns as they carve out a base or consolidation. Volatility will usually contract as the stock readies for it's next move, either up or down. Bollinger Bands measure this volatility using two standard deviations on either side of a 20 period moving average. When these bands tighten up (get close together), it often signals that volatility may now increase in the future. Observe the daily chart of ****, a candidate on our Watch List - these are the patterns that this screen may help you uncover. Comments, questions always welcome.

• 2011-12-08: Exited **** on a break below Wednesday's low. Keeping losses as low as possible.

• 2011-12-07: **** has pulled back to it's most recent breakout point. We will take a small 5% position if **** takes out today's (Wednesday) high of ****. 

• 2011-12-07: **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-12-06: **** triggered it's buy point, and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-12-05: Adding ****, **** and **** to the Pivot Point Watch List for a buy above their respective buy points.

• 2011-12-04: We have now provided you the ability to screen for overbought/oversold conditions on our Quick Screen Symbols Map page. Overbought and oversold indicators should be used with extreme care, since sometimes a stock that is oversold may continue to do so, with prices declining further, specially in bear markets. Likewise, in bull markets, stocks can keep going higher, while remaining overbought. We measure overbought/oversold conditions using the WRSI(8) indicator as shown on all our charts. We also have provided you the ability to screen for stocks close to a recent low or support point using three levels - less than 10%, 5% and 3%. 

  As an example, screening today for stocks with "Support Less Than 3% Away" and "Daily Oversold" yields two names - **** and ****. Both these names have the potential for a short-term bounce, although **** has poor accumulation/distribution. As always, if you want to play these short-term bounces, enter the trade only on price movement in your favor, e.g., the stock takes out a previous high.

  Did not see any good weekly set-ups to put long-term money into this week. The market needs to take out it's October highs, before one can claim that a new uptrend is in place. We are close to this point, but no cigar yet. Still remains a trader's market, in our view. 

• 2011-11-30: If **** closes in the red today, we'll be booking profits on our remaining position.

• 2011-11-30: Took profits in ****. Will look to re-enter at a more attractive point, if possible.

• 2011-11-29: **** - Classic head & shoulders top forming on weekly? Could be a short below last week's low, if the market rolls over.

• 2011-11-29: **** acting strong today on good volume, following through on yesterday's move. Being up nearly 20%, look to book at least some profits (maybe sell a partial position). Earnings are scheduled for December 8, 2011.

  On a programming note, we have made a few changes to the Swing Trading Portfolio buy rules, to see if performance can be improved going forward. Please check out the page if you are interested. 

• 2011-11-28: **** has a strong weekly chart, valuations, group action, RS 97, ROE 22%, earnings estimates have been increasing. Volume needs to increase today. Need to see if the breakout holds.

• 2011-11-23: Out of **** for now.

• 2011-11-22: **** moved into new high ground today, and we added to our position. Watch it closely to see how it reacts here. You don't want to see a reversal (close < open) or even a full retracement of today's range during the next session. 

• 2011-11-22: Starting today, we have made a few changes to our Auto Portfolio rules. As you can see from the GSA Auto Portfolio page, the auto portfolio has under-performed the market since around 2008, after a period of significant over-performance from 2004 to 2007. Our speculation is that there could be a few reasons for this: 1) Breakouts haven't worked quite as well during this period, the portfolio being stopped out quickly since the purchase is made after the breakout. 2) Every system has a life-span, after which it stops working, and 3) We are in a secular bear market that began with the crash of 2008. 

  Whatever the reason, we think the following modifications are worth implementing: 1) Minimum relative strength of stocks picked by the portfolio is 95. 2) Earnings estimates must be increasing, and 3) Trigger point is now the Weekly RSI/MACD Crossover, which may or may coincide with a breakout from the base.

  Your comments and questions always welcome.

• 2011-11-21: Stopped out of ****. Have stops just under today's low point on **** and ****. **** and **** holding up relatively well, given the state of the market.

  On a programming note, we have now included a SHORTING version of our Quick Screens Symbols Map. Although, shorting is much, much more difficult than going long, some of you might find this feature useful. For short candidates, make sure the 50-day moving average is in a downtrend with the stock below it, preferably close to it allowing a tight stop at this line. Stock must be more than +20% off it's high, A/D less than 1.0, earnings estimates being lowered, with valuations being high. You can access this feature off our Quick Screen Symbols Map. 

• 2011-11-21: Out of **** and **** at small losses.

• 2011-11-17: Stopped out of **** - keeping losses small.

• 2011-11-17: Stopped out of **** and ****.

• 2011-11-17: Stopped out of ****. Good stocks being tripped up by market weakness.

• 2011-11-17: Out of ****. Protect your capital by keeping losses small. Although small losses can add up, they are much easier to recover from than one big loss. The mathematics of losses works against you.

• 2011-11-17: Exited **** and ****, both showing unhealthy reversals off new highs.

• 2011-11-16: As anticipated, **** triggered it's buy point, and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. **** also triggered.

• 2011-11-15: **** triggered it's pivot buy point.

• 2011-11-15: **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio - relative strength 99 play.

• 2011-11-15: **** also triggered it's buy point. Did not enter - too many names in the portfolio right now. Will watch to see if we make progress overall.

• 2011-11-15: Added ****, **** to the watch list. Also, updated trigger buy points on ****, ****. Finally, **** looks like it's going to trigger it's buy point Wednesday. 

• 2011-11-14: ****, **** and **** triggered and were purchased.

• 2011-11-14: Stopped out of ****.

• 2011-11-13: We have added 15 names to the Pivot Point Watch List. Please check them out by clicking the GSA Watch List link in the upper right hand of our member's page. We will enter trades on these names as/if they trigger their buy points. 

  This week a member pointed out that he did not know about our Quick Screen Symbols Map feature. This feature is accessible from a link just beneath the Quick Screens area at the top of each page. Basically, this page allows you to quickly combine several Quick Screens and view the resulting symbols/charts instantly. The filters that we use most often are A/D rank A or B, Relative Strength above 90 (preferably 95 or higher!), Near 52wk Highs, having Upward Earnings Estimates. We then like to time our entry using other filters such as Constructive Basing Action, Low Risk Trade Near Pivot Point, Cup and Handle Pattern, Base Breakouts or Recent Breakouts. Almost all our Watch List candidates meet these basic requirements. 

  If you have had a tough time trading in this environment, you are not alone. It has been a very difficult year trying to make money either on the long or short side. Trying to buy breakouts the next day has not worked well for quite some time now. Hence we have tried to buy stocks at pivot points prior to a breakout to new high ground, trying to get in a bit earlier. Or one might wait until after the breakout, allowing the stock to pull back in price and observing it's price action. In any case, our Top Stock Picks haven't zoomed up 20 or 30%, but instead have made small gains only to give them back later. When the portfolio is not making as much progress as you would hope, scale back a bit - take smaller than normal positions and have smaller than normal profit expectations, while cutting losses sooner. Hopefully, a better trading / investing environment is just around the corner.

• 2011-11-11: **** triggered and was purchased.

• 2011-11-10: Adding **** to the watch list for a purchase above Thursday's high of ****.

  We haven't been stopped out of any of our holdings yet. However, in today's manic market anything can happen, and so we're keeping all our positions on a tight leash. If the stock doesn't act right, we may not wait until our maximum loss of -7% is hit and may chose to exit a bit earlier. Careful out there.

• 2011-11-08: **** and **** both triggered and were purchased for the GSA Portfolio

• 2011-11-08: Watch list candidate **** triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-11-08: Adding **** - pivot buy point ****, and **** - pivot buy point **** to the Watch List. 

• 2011-11-07: Top Stock Picks candidate Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc (ULTA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-11-07: PNRA triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio, while we got stopped out of HITK (will look for a re-entry point, if it sets up again).

• 2011-11-07: Looking to get back into HITK above Monday's reversal high of $34.57 with a maximum trade risk of 4.28% - it's daily range. 

• 2011-11-05: EXR, LQDT, PNRA and OXM are included in the Pivot Point Watch List for next week. We will take a few of these positions, if they trigger their buy points.

• 2011-11-03: HITK and IACI both triggered their buy points.

• 2011-11-02: Updating pivot buy point on HITK to $35.48, just above yesterday's high.

• 2011-10-31: Stopped out of AZO for a -2.6% loss.

• 2011-10-31: Adding Hi-Tech Pharmacal (HITK) to the Watch List above $36.18, and Susser Holdings Corp (SUSS) above $22.50. 

• 2011-10-30: Adding Liquidity Services (LQDT) - pivot $33.50 and IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) - pivot $42.62 to the Top Picks Pivot Point Watch List.

• 2011-10-27: Took +15% profits in SPRD and got stopped out of PRGO for a -4% loss.

• 2011-10-27: Took +8% profits in PNM on the gap up this morning.

• 2011-10-27: Tightening up the stop on SO to $42.76, just below yesterday's reversal.

• 2011-10-26: DG reversing off a new high - taking small profits here.

• 2011-10-26: Stopped out of CPSI ahead of earnings.

• 2011-10-25: AZO triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-10-24: Adding Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG) to the Pivot Point Watch List, for a buy above Friday's high of $420, with a stop below $400, for a maximum trade risk of -4.8%.

• 2011-10-24: ISRG triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-10-24: CPSI and PRGO both triggered, and were purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-10-24: Adding Autozone Inc (AZO) to the Pivot Point Watch List, for a buy above it's $332.68 pivot, stop at $323.70, for a maximum trade risk of -2.7%.

• 2011-10-23: Adding Computer Programs and Systems (CPSI) to the Pivot Point Watch List, for a buy above it's $72.88 pivot, a stop at $68.90, for a maximum trade risk of -5.5%.

• 2011-10-21: Being up +6.25% on PNM Resources (PNM), we are raising our stop to breakeven.
  

• 2011-10-19: Adding Perrigo Co (PRGO) to the Top Picks Watch List with a buy above it's $99.62 pivot point. Both SPRD and PRGO will be purchased once they trigger.

• 2011-10-19: SPRD triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-10-15: Adding Spreadtrum Communications (SPRD) to the Top Picks Watch List for a buy above it's $22.39 pivot point.. 

• 2011-10-12: Nasty reversal on the open in DG - protecting yesterday's low with a DAY STOP ORDER to exit at $38.46.

• 2011-10-12: Broadsoft (BSFT) shows a breakout today from a flat, multi-week basing pattern. RSI is moving above 70 on both the weekly and daily charts, so could be an interesting entry point, if the general market holds up. Worth watching.

• 2011-10-11: DG breaks out to new all time highs this morning - need to see how it reacts at these levels.

• 2011-10-10: Top Picks Watch List candidate PNM Resources (PNM) triggered it's buy point, and a small position was taken in the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-10-07: Adding PNM Resources (PNM) to the Pivot Point Watch List, for a break above it's $16.93 pivot on high volume. Support is at $15.81 for a maximum trade risk of -6.6%. PNM has a base correction of about 25%, and is now forming a tight handle. Fundamentals aren't the greatest.

  If these names (PNM, DG) trigger their buy points, we will be taking smaller than normal (starter) positions to see if they work out.

• 2011-10-07: Dollar General (DG) triggered it's pivot, and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-10-06: Adding Dollar General (DG) to the Pivot Point Watch List, for a break above it's $38.39 pivot on high volume. Support is at $35.83 for a maximum trade risk of -6.7%. 

• 2011-09-29: Stopped out of balance of AAPL at break-even.

• 2011-09-20: Adding Baidu (BIDU) to the Top Picks Watch List, for a buy above the $151.11 pivot.

• 2011-09-20: Taking profits in AAPL on half our position. Letting the other half ride, with a stop at break even.

• 2011-09-19: Moving stop on AAPL to break-even.

• 2011-09-17: Potential SHORT swing trade opportunity exists in WW Grainger Inc (GWW) off a new high reversal on +195% average volume. Accumulation/Distribution rank is less than 1, and RSI shows a divergence with price over the last several sessions. Short entry to be below Friday's low of $159 (no gaps), with a stop above Friday's high of $165.6, providing us a maximum trade risk of -4.1%.

  Long setups in this market are still very limited, so trade very light and defensive.

• 2011-09-15: Hi-Tech Pharmacal (HITK) has formed a nice cup-and-handle pattern. We are watching HITK to see how it reacts at it's 52-week high around $33.

• 2011-09-14: Looking to test this market with a small pilot buy in AAPL above the $388.61 pivot point. Stop to be set just below the $371.90 low for a low-risk trade of -4.3%.

• 2011-09-14: Apple Inc (AAPL) triggered it's buy point, and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-08-31: Today, even as the averages finished the day with mild gains, our Industry Map shows you how poor the breadth of this advance is - there are only 38 groups this week showing internal strength. Also, our Swing Trading section shows 9 bullish signals for 44 bearish ones.

  We are looking to go short 1-2 names (e.g., TIF) from our Swing Trading page, those showing a reversal off today's high (doji or engulfing patterns) possessing poor accumulation distribution ranks, poor group ranks, overvalued, etc. Note that we show precisely what the entry and stop prices should be, with the risk of the trade identified up front. In this environment, keep your trade risk extremely tight - no more than -3% or -4%, take smaller than normal position sizes, and don't enter the trade if the stock gaps away against your entry.

• 2011-08-20: We continue to stay on the sidelines. This is a very risky environment to be trading any names, either on the short or long side, due to high volatility which shows no signs of abating. This week, we saw a substantial narrowing in the breadth of market leaders as shown by only 56 industry groups exhibiting strong stocks. In bull markets, a minimum of 90-100 industry groups are normally profiled in our Industry Map page. Also, sentiment indicators refuse to show extreme readings - the AAII reading of bullish individual investors again went up, while bears went down! This indicates more pain to come before the bulls finally throw in the towel. Finally, and most importantly, we see almost no stocks with constructive basing patterns being formed. Remain defensive and keep the trading to a minimum.

• 2011-08-11: We continue to maintain our 100% cash position since July 28, 2011. Today, looking at the AAII sentiment numbers, the level of bullishness actually went up from last week - quite the opposite one would expect after such a huge decline in the averages. It means the average investor looks at this nearly 20% decline as a buying opportunity. No one knows for sure where the bottom is, and we don't need to guess or try to pick the bottom - we simply need to wait until we see stocks setting up correctly before putting any money at work. Patience and discipline is the key here.

• 2011-07-28: Moving to 100% cash for now.

• 2011-07-27: Setting a day stop order at $31.50 on HURC (below today's low).

• 2011-07-27: Stopped out of HURC.

• 2011-07-27: Stopped out of MW.

  All you can do in this environment is to respect the market, bend with it, and honor your stops.

• 2011-07-27: CPO announces earnings tomorrow, July 28, before the bell. We are going to try and hold through earnings, since CPO has beaten estimates in each of the last four quarters. 

• 2011-07-26: Stopped out of NATR. Top Picks Watch List candidate HLF triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-07-26: Top Picks Watch List candidate FURX triggered it's pivot point.

• 2011-07-26: Exited the balance of our UA position, on price action post earnings.

• 2011-07-26: Test.

• 2011-07-25: Stopped out of RPTP.

• 2011-07-25: UA set to announce earnings tomorrow - we are selling half our position to reduce risk in this name.

• 2011-07-23: Top Picks Watch List candidates for next week: GCO $56.84, BGS $21.31, HLF $59.82, COO $82.24, TWIN $40.82, FURX $18.27, BIIB $107.33, MKTX $26.25, SIRO $56.18, TSU $50.80, MA $322.28, GT $18.13, OYOG $107.25.

  Note: Being nearly fully invested, GSA will take positions in only one or two of the above names, in the order that they trigger their respective pivot points.

• 2011-07-22: Nailed down profits in CPX.
  

• 2011-07-21: Top Picks Watch List candidate CVI triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-07-21: Note NATR has not been sold from the GSA Portfolio. Error in prior e-mail.
  

• 2011-07-21: CPX releases earnings tomorrow (7/22) before the market opens. Watch the price action closely today to see if there are any warning signs. Being up +10% in this name, we are inclined to hold through earnings, IF the price action continues to hold up today.
  

• 2011-07-20: Selling out of balance of HUSA shares - just under break even.
  

• 2011-07-20: Top Picks Watch List candidate NATR triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-07-19: Top Picks Watch List candidates PDC and UA both triggered and were purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-07-19: Adding NATR (pivot $20.12), CVI ($27.04) to the GSA Top Picks Watch List.
  

• 2011-07-18: Top Picks Watch List candidate RPTP triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-07-17: Pivot point Top Picks candidates for next week: PDC (pivot $16.23), RPTP ($6.75), UA ($81.82).
  

• 2011-07-14: Stopped out of KKD.
  

• 2011-07-13: Took a position in HURC on it's follow through from a 9-week breakout. Adding to the Top Picks portfolio.
  

• 2011-07-08: All our holdings except HUSA (we took partial profits yesterday) held up very well today, closing in the upper halves of their daily range, a positive sign. We continue to take cautious positions in this market, with a definite bias to the long side.

  At the request of a member,  we have made a change to our Chart Fest page. You can now quickly narrow your chart searches to stocks trading above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Please feel free to check out.
  

• 2011-07-07: Top Picks Watch List candidate MW triggered and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-07-07: Nailing down profits on half our position in HUSA. Will let the other half ride.
  

• 2011-07-05: Top Picks Watch List candidates CPO and CPX triggered and were purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Stopped out of IPSU.

• 2011-07-05: ADS and HUSA both triggered today.
  

• 2011-07-03: Adding ADS (pivot $95.29), CPO ($56.51), TITN ($30.38), FRX ($40.54), HUSA ($18.47), MW ($35.05) and CPX ($34.77) to the GSA Top Picks Watch List.

  Happy 4th everyone!
  

• 2011-07-01: Nailing down profits in MPEL.
  

• 2011-06-29: Stopped out of a small position in IDIX.
  

• 2011-06-28: Top Picks Watch List candidate MPEL triggered it's buy point, and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-06-28: WCG, IPSU and IDIX all triggered.
  

• 2011-06-27: Top Picks Watch List Candidate KKD was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-06-26: Adding KKD (pivot buy point $9.49), IPSU ($20.92), IDIX ($5.44) to the Top Picks Watch List.
  
  

• 2011-06-22: Adding WCG (pivot $51.68) and MPEL (pivot $11.81) to the Top Picks Watch List. Stocks still seem to be setting up a bit here - looks like we need more constructive action in the market before we can start to see proper base structures completing.
  

• 2011-06-13: Stopped out of GGG. No stocks in the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-06-09: AAII Bullish/Bearish investor sentiment levels now at August-September 2010 levels, right before the market staged an impressive multi-month rally. Stay tuned.
  

• 2011-06-09: Stopped out of TRCR.
  

• 2011-06-09: Stopped out of FEIC.
  

• 2011-06-08: Setting tight stops on TRCR at $24.72, FEIC at $37.64 and on GGG at $47.95.
  

• 2011-06-06: Stopped out of ZOLL.
  

• 2011-06-01: Top Stock Picks candidate Graco Inc (GGG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Zoll Medical Corp (ZOLL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-06-01: Top Picks Watch List candidate FEIC triggered it's buy point and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-06-01: Stopped out of ALB - flat.
  

• 2011-05-31: ALB showing signs of reversing off it's high on low volume - raising stop to $0.05 below today's low of $69.90. In the current environment, do not hold stocks that exhibit any signs of weakness or hesitation.
  

• 2011-05-28: We are adding FEI Co (FEIC) to our GSA Top Picks Watch List for next week, with a buy above $39.75 and a stop below $37.69, for a maximum trade risk of 5.3%.
  

• 2011-05-27: ALB triggered it's buy point and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-05-26: Adding Transcend Services (TRCR) to our GSA Top Picks Watch List on a buy above the $26.19 pivot.

• 2011-05-26: TRCR triggered it's buy point and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-05-25: Adding Albermarle (ALB) to our GSA Top Picks Watch List on a buy above the $70.12 pivot.
  

• 2011-05-24: Looking to enter swing trade positions in two names Wednesday: AKRX and INTX. Both have strong accumulation distribution ranks and are breaking out of tight flat bases. Will be buying on strength only - AKRX above $7.08, and INTX above $15.68, with tight 5% to 6% stops. No longer term positions being taken, until our market direction indicators improve.
  

• 2011-05-21: For swing trading positions, we have now begun annotating our charts with the term "Low Risk Trade". Here's how a stock qualifies as a low risk trade:
  1. The stock trades in a basing pattern, between a pivot point (short-term high) and a support low (short-term low).
     
  2. The support low is no greater than -7% below the pivot point, offering a tight stop loss on any long positions.
     

  Since we buy on strength only, a typical trade could be entered a few cents above the pivot point, with a stop set a few cents below the support low. Now you have entered your trade knowing in advance what your potential risk is. Always, always know the point at which you will exit a position before hand, if the trade goes against you.

  The "Low Risk Trade Near Pivot Point" screen can be run from the Quick Screen drop-down, and also from the Quick Screen Symbols Map, where you can add additional screening criteria to it. For example, including "Earnings Accelerators" with "Upwards Earnings Estimates" can give you an excellent source of ideas. Right now, with the market in a correction mode, none of the names returned were screaming to be bought. However, this should change soon.
  

• 2011-05-19: Graco Inc (GGG) has formed a short tight basing pattern and provides a low risk entry point above today's high of $50.17. With a support low at $47.58, you can limit your risk to around -5% on a trading position in GGG.
  

• 2011-05-18: Looking for a short-term trade in BODY above yesterday's high of $25.85.
  

• 2011-05-18: At a member's request, on all our charts we now display a "Support Low" price, which is a recent low price that may act as a level of support. One could use this price to: a) Set stops a few cents below, and b) Enter new positions no greater than 7% to 8% above.

  Market seems to be trying to find a bottom. We will be looking for stocks setting up near their pivot points with tight chart patterns. Patience is warranted here.
  

• 2011-05-16: Stopped out of SCSS. Now sitting on 100% cash.
  

• 2011-05-13: Stopped out of ISTA for a small loss.
  

• 2011-05-12: Don't like the market action here. Taking small profits on the majority of our holdings: ANF, COO, OXM and ORCL. Better to nail down small profits and re-valuate later.
  

• 2011-05-12: Nailed down +18% profits on half our position in VRTX.
  

• 2011-05-12: Took profits on the balance of our VRTX holding. Don't like to see a stock making a new high on below average volume.
  

• 2011-05-10: ISTA triggered it's buy point, and we initiated a position.
  

• 2011-05-10: Top Stock Pick candidate SCSS triggered it's buy point.
  

• 2011-05-09: VRTX trying to break out to new highs. We have a trigger in place to pyramid into this name above $56.72.
  

• 2011-05-09: We pyramided into VRTX on it's new high breakout.
  

• 2011-05-09: Another biotech name showing good accumulation and a tight base is ISTA Pharmaceuticals (ISTA). We have a trigger to buy ISTA above $11.02.
  

• 2011-05-09: Adding Select Comfort Corp (SCSS) to the Top Picks Watch List, with a pivot at $17.50, it's 52-week high.

• 2011-05-08: We only have one name for a Top Pick candidate going into next week: Old Dominion Freight Line Inc (ODFL), which has a pivot at $38.47. A purchase at $38.49 with a stop loss just below $36.16 (low of the recent pullback) would yield a trade with a risk around -6%. Try to get into the habit of backing into your trades by first estimating potential risk. Look for recent support levels on the chart for establishing your stop losses, and enter a position only if you can limit your losses to -7% or less.

  Also, our under-invested position continues to demonstrate our defensive nature in the market right now - maintain tight stops with lower than normal profit expectations.
  

• 2011-05-06: We pyramided into our position in OXM on a breakout to new highs.
  

• 2011-05-03: Took profits on the reversal in IPGP.
  

• 2011-05-03: Selling BGC at a very small profit. Will re-evaluate for another entry point.
  

• 2011-05-03: Stopped out of HMY and LXU.
  

• 2011-05-03: Exited positions in RNOW, AIRM and NDSN. Stay true to your stop losses. Market may correct here some more.
  

• 2011-05-03: OXM triggered it's $34.50 pivot point and our limit buy order was filled.
  

• 2011-05-02: AIRM triggered it's buy point.
  

• 2011-05-02: HMY and COO both triggered their buy points. We pyramided into COO.
  

• 2011-04-30: Adding HMY to our watch list - pivot point is at $15.62.
  

• 2011-04-29: Exited NVMI for a small loss - 50 day moving average has turned down, and A/D rank is now less than 1.0.
  

• 2011-04-28: Took profits in BIDU.
  

• 2011-04-28: Adding to our GSA Watch List (potential Top Picks candidates):
  
  1. SUP - pivot $25.74
     
  2. VIV - $42.51
     
  3. SATS - $38.12
     
  4. OXM - $34.48
     
  5. AIRM - $68.88
     
  6. COO - $75.39 (pyramid into this name, if you already have a position)
     
  Trigger point is $0.02 above the pivot.
  

• 2011-04-21: DFS and ORCL triggered their pivot buy points.

• 2011-04-21: RES and VRTX both triggered at their pivot points. Chart pattern on VRTX looks promising.

• 2011-04-20: Watch list candidates ANF and VMED triggered their buy points. VMED actually blasted higher and is nearly 4% above the trigger point.

  We have also added the GSA Watch List link at the upper right hand side of our pages. Start using a watch list (if you haven't already) to enter your trades at specific buy points prior to the market open. This will help you catch breakouts at the exact pivot point, without the stock getting too extended.
  

• 2011-04-20: Adding to watch list: MDSO - pivot $26.53, DFS - $24.99, RES - $26.02.
  

• 2011-04-19: Watch list candidate IPGP triggered a buy at it's pivot point.
  

• 2011-04-19: Watch list candidate RNOW triggered a buy at it's pivot point.
  

• 2011-04-19: Stopped out of MERC.
  

• 2011-04-19: Taking profits in FMCN here.
  

• 2011-04-18: Adding IPGP (which acted strong today) to the pivot point watch list, with a buy above the $61.63 pivot.
  

• 2011-04-16: Constructive chart basing patterns to keep on your watch list for next week:
  1. ANF - pivot point at $70.35.
     
  2. RNOW - pivot $33.53.
     
  3. ORCL - pivot $34.43.
     
  4. VMED - pivot $28.16.
     
  5. VRTX - pivot $48.94.
     
  Purchase would be two cents above the pivot point, and a trigger would include these names into our Top Picks portfolio.
  

• 2011-04-15: Today, at the bottom of all our charts, we have started showing an Average Earnings Estimate Change percentage. Often, the best stocks have analysts continuously revising their quarterly (and yearly) earnings estimates upwards - now you can quickly spot this trend. We use an average of the next two quarters and two years to compute this figure. Look for positive earnings estimate changes on your stocks!
  

• 2011-04-12: Took a small position in NVMI right at it's pivot point of $10.25.
  

• 2011-04-12: Stopped out of TER.
  

• 2011-04-11: Watch list candidate General Cable Corp (BGC) triggered it's pivot and was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Will be adding it to our Top Picks for performance tracking and monitoring.
  

• 2011-04-09: Constructive chart basing patterns to keep on your watch list for next week:
  1. BGC - pivot point at $45.65.
  2. RAX - pivot $44.19.
  3. AXE - pivot $73.56.
  4. ROYL - pivot $6.45
  5. CXO - pivot $109.95.
  Purchase would be a few cents above the pivot point for a swing trade setup.
  

• 2011-04-08: Teradyne Inc (TER) is following through on our cup and handle breakout alert that we posted a few days ago. Initiating a position here.
  

• 2011-04-07: Take a look at the cup and handle developed in Cooper Companies (COO) - we have a limit order in place to buy above $70.05. COO purchased 4/7/11.
  

• 2011-04-07: Cooper Companies (COO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2011-04-07: Stopped out of OVTI.
  

• 2011-04-06: Stopped out of DEPO.
  

• 2011-04-06: Took small profits into the Bearish Dark Cloud Cover pattern in HOC - oil companies weak today.
  

• 2011-04-06: Flat on RES - daily chart pattern looks to be breaking down.
  

• 2011-04-05: Today, we have included a new Quick Screen - stocks Near Pivot Buy Point. A pivot point is usually a short term high within the stock's basing period which can act as minor resistance. If this level is taken out, it usually bodes well for the price action. This screen filters those candidates trading within 5% of the nearest pivot point, going back 8 weeks - a great resource to build a watch list of names that could potentially break out. For example, today on BGC, the 3-mo daily chart now shows a pivot point of $44.75, the intermediate high established about 4 weeks ago. A break above this level would be considered bullish. Comments welcome!
  

• 2011-04-05: Teradyne Inc (TER) shows a cup and handle breakout from a 7-week basing pattern and may be set up as a good swing play. How we focused in on TER? 1. Pulled up the Quick Screen Symbols Map page (which allows you to quickly build upon several screens). 2. Selected Near Pivot Buy Point, ATR Compression Pattern, Undervalued and showing Earnings Acceleration, all reasonable attributes to possess. 3. Out of 8 symbols returned, a visual scan of the chart patterns shows TER's constructive base.
  

• 2011-03-31: Top Stock Picks candidate Holly Corp (HOC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Focus Media Holding Ltd (FMCN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Nordson Corp (NDSN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-03-30: Top Stock Picks candidate Depomed Inc (DEPO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate OmniVision Technologies Inc (OVTI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-03-30: Tight 6-week, near-perfect, cup and handle breakout in NWY - C ranked stock, but chart pattern and A/D are compelling for a swing play.
  

• 2011-03-29: Cup with (small) handle breakout on OVTI. Last 4 quarters EPS: 118%, 268%, 231%, 700%.
  

• 2011-03-29: 7-week flat base breakout in DEPO.
  

• 2011-03-28: Top Stock Picks candidate RPC Inc (RES) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate LSB Industries (LXU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Baidu Inc (BIDU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-03-26: RPC Inc (RES) shows a breakout from an 18% 15-week basing pattern, accelerating earnings, strong group action, institutional buying, and a strong ROE of 30%. Initiating a 5% portfolio position in RES.
  

• 2011-03-26: Re-initiating a 5% position in past Top Pick Baidu (BIDU).
  

• 2011-03-26: Base on top of a base breakout in LSB Industries (LXU).
  

• 2011-03-25: Another cup and handle pattern that seems to be shaping up well is Accelr8 Technology Corp (AXK). We have placed a limit order to buy above $4.50, the high of it's handle.

  Remember, smaller than normal initial positions, then pyramid up.
  

• 2011-03-24: Initiated a small position in MERC - cup and handle pattern developing, with accelerating sales and earnings, undervalued on a P/S basis. Note: GSA purchased this position 3/24/11.
  

• 2011-03-23: Still maintaining our cautious stance in this market - this rally needs to prove itself by presenting more than just a handful of names breaking out of bases. One look at our Industry Map will give you an idea of the breadth of today's rally - where's the participation? Please remain patient - a few more days and this situation will resolve itself.
  

• 2011-03-18: Manitex International (MNTX) has formed a perfect cup and handle pattern, and broke out yesterday. Provides a good entry point with a tight stop below the high of the handle at $5.92.
  

• 2011-03-17: Weight Watchers International (WTW) shows a tight base at it's 20-day moving average, with the daily RSI crossing over above 70. May provide a decent swing entry with a tight stop at $57.43.
  

• 2011-03-16: Stopped out of AAPL at it's GSA trailing stop loss line.
  

• 2011-03-14: Maintaining a high level of cash in the portfolio for now. For those still wishing to dip a toe in this market, check out the cup and handle breakout on SPPI, which is holding up well today in the face of a weak market. If anything, take smaller than normal positions, along with smaller profits and losses.
  

• 2011-03-14: Multi-week breakout from a very tight base in CBLI, perhaps due to it's profile: Cleveland Biolabs, Inc. engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of products for cancer treatment and protection of normal tissues from radiation and other acute stresses.

  Maybe a play on the unfortunate tragedy unfolding in Japan.
  

• 2011-03-09: Stopped out of VSEA.
  

• 2011-03-05: This week we have introduced a new Quick Screen to our feature set - the ATR Compression Pattern. Often stocks, before taking off, experience a compression in volatility or a tightness in it's chart pattern, where it trades within a tight daily range. We screen for this pattern by measuring the stock's 14-day ATR (Average True Range) and compare against the current price. Stocks whose ATR/Price is less than 3% meet our definition of the ATR Compression Pattern. (This concept is similar to a Bollinger Band squeeze.) An upside breakout from a compression pattern may be worth noticing. Also, take a look at the Quick Screen Symbols Map page - we think we have made it more useful to quickly hunt for ideas, and to combine Quick Screens.
  

  We are not initiating any new positions in this market on Monday, until we see how the current consolidation/correction plays out. Keep the powder dry for the moment.
  

• 2011-03-01: Took profits in IPCM - showing uncertainty at it's 52-week high.
  

• 2011-02-27: Another short-term set-up for next week is in our previous Top Pick, SPRD which has bounced nicely off it's 50-day moving average. RSI (8) has crossed above 30 from an oversold condition. Earnings are due out March 3 - SPRD has met or exceeded past estimates in 3 out of the last 4 quarters, is still undervalued on a PEG basis and has a healthy ROE of 28%. We have an order to buy Monday, barring any surprises.
  

• 2011-02-26: Take a look at the high volume breakout from a tight base in FXEN. Could be set up for a quick swing trade. FXEN's Oil and Gas Drilling & Exploration industry group had a strong up day on Friday. In the current market, keep losses small, and take profits sooner. We'll have to see what next week brings with respect to any fresh set-ups.
  

• 2011-02-25: Stopped out of VSCP.
  

• 2011-02-23: Took profits in CRUS, stopped out of MGIC.
  

• 2011-02-23: Maintaining tight stops either at the GSA Support Line or at -7% from purchase price, whichever is higher. Also, VSCP set to announce earnings tomorrow - raising it's stop to a nickle below yesterday's low - $2.55.
  

• 2011-02-23: Stopped out of BIDU and GSIT.
  

• 2011-02-23: Took our +117% profit in AMRN on a break below it's 50-day.
  

• 2011-02-22: Top Stock Picks candidate GSI Technology Inc (GSIT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-02-22: Stopped out of RDWR and ZAGG.
  

• 2011-02-17: Stopped out of JAZZ this morning.
  

• 2011-02-16: Top Stock Picks candidate Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc (JAZZ) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-02-15: Top Stock Picks candidate Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc (VSEA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-02-14: Top Stock Picks candidate Apple Inc (AAPL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate VirtualScopics Inc (VSCP) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Radware Ltd (RDWR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-02-14: VSEA a bit more extended above our GSA Support Line than we'd like to see. Warrants a smaller initial position.

• 2011-02-13: Buying the pullback in VSCP.
  

• 2011-02-12: Taking another stab at the breakout in RDWR.
  

• 2011-02-11: Just a brief clarification between the Top Picks Portfolio and the GSA Live Portfolio, since this has led to some confusion in the past.

  The former is a model portfolio where new Top Picks are included to comprise 5% of the portfolio. Then, the logic in the model takes over and figures out when to pyramid (buy another 5%), and when to sell. Often, if the model portfolio is fully invested, a new Top Pick won't be included, as was the case with Baidu (BIDU).

  The latter is our Live Portfolio, where we actively manage the positions, making buy-sell decisions ourselves. Emotions are involved, and every trading rule that we follow hasn't been programmed into the model. So, the holdings over time will be different from the Top Picks Portfolio. Further, our initial position in any new name is at 10% of the portfolio, so there will be fewer names than the model. We also find it difficult to watch 10 names closely, and are considering limiting our live portfolio to only 8 names (12.5% each). Too much diversification = "diworsification". Risk reduction, in our view, is better achieved by knowing your stocks well, and watching them like a hawk.

• 2011-02-10: Top Stock Picks candidate Baidu Inc (BIDU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-02-10: Stopped out of LDK.
  

• 2011-02-09: Took profits in ASYS - reversed hard off a new high.
  

• 2011-02-08: Comments:  Past Top Pick EZCH reversing off a new high on brisk volume. Will take profits if it doesn't right itself.

  Also, took profits in SPRD. 
  

• 2011-02-08: Took profits in EZCH after 9 weeks of holding.
  

• 2011-02-07: Will take profits on any SPRD weakness tomorrow, which reversed off a new 52-week high, and is at our target price of $22.50-$23.40.

  Also, nice move on Monday's Top Pick VSCP (+12.71%) - too bad we didn't have the ammo to purchase.
  

• 2011-02-06: Last week, we introduced a couple of minor new features to the website in the Quick Screens area that may help with idea generation:
  1. Screen for stocks Near 50-day Moving Average. Institutions often step up their purchases in stocks finding support at this level. However, not every stock that is heading towards it's 50-day is a buy candidate - it could be the beginning of a down trend. To avoid this, look for an orderly price pattern, with the green volume bars exceeding the red volume bars, i.e., volume on up days exceeds volume on down days in the basing period. We like to see the highest volume bar during the consolidation be an up day (green). Some of these names could be potential pre-breakout candidates, and one could get in before the next breakout to new highs.
  2. Screen for stocks showing Institutional Buying. We look at net institutional purchases within the last 3 months. This is another quick way to focus on institutional money flows.
  3. Finally, we also show the Quick Screen Symbols Map. Here you can quickly see all the symbols that meet one or more of our 10 Quick Screens. This is another easy way for you to find stocks meeting multiple quick screens. When a stocks meets 6, 7 or 8 quick screens, it's worth looking at.
  As always, comments and feedback welcome.
  

• 2011-02-05: VSCP - lower priced, speculative play, daily chart looks great. Note: GSA may not take a position in this, due to being fully invested.
  

• 2011-02-04: LDK Solar - moving stop up to $12.18.
  

• 2011-02-03: Took a small position in yesterday's Top Pick IPCM.
  

• 2011-02-02: Top Stock Picks candidate Amtech Systems Inc (ASYS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-02-01: Taking another stab at ASYS near it's 50-day moving average.
  

• 2011-02-01: IPCM emerging from an oversold situation, finding support at it's 50-day moving average. Note: GSA may not take this position, due to being fully invested (swing trades).
  

• 2011-02-01: ENTG breaking out again. Note: GSA may not take this position, due to being fully invested (swing trades).

• 2011-01-28: Brief update - we'll be reentering positions in two of our previously stopped out Top Picks - SPRD broke out yesterday to a new 52-wk high on good volume, and ZAGG bounced off our GSA Support Line exhibiting an oversold RSI 30 crossover.
  

• 2011-01-28: Top Stock Picks candidate China MediaExpress Holdings Inc (CCME) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Cirrus Logic Inc (CRUS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-01-28: Well, CCME was a fine trade (not) - stopped us out immediately. Need to scale back a bit here.
  

• 2011-01-26: Today on the Chart Fest page, we have provided you with the ability to receive e-mailed charts when stocks exhibit an MACD/RSI crossovers or an ATR trend change. This is similar to the "Breakouts and Gaps" chart e-mails you may have signed up to receive. You may find these useful if you are an active trader.

  Also, a few nights ago, a member suggested we provide the ability to quickly filter for stocks that are oversold on an RSI basis, i.e., daily RSI below 30. His observation was these stocks seem to bounce off these levels, and could be potential swing trade setups.

  So we've now included the ability to filter for candidates making an RSI 30 crossover from an oversold condition. Please spend some time analyzing the daily charts on our website (as I did), and you may find this to be a good swing trade entry point with the following conditions: 1. 20-day and 50-day moving averages must be rising (most stocks in our database). 2. Stock should be finding support at these averages, preferably the 50-day or at the GSA Support Line. 3. Stock should have spent a few days being oversold (blue RSI region), shaking out weak hands. 4. Don't forget to establish your stop-losses and profit targets at the time of trade entry.

  As always, comments welcome!
  

• 2011-01-24: Top Stock Picks candidate LDK Solar Co Ltd (LDK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-01-24: Stopped out of CYD and ZAGG (probably at their low points). Try to focus on playing defense by taking small losses, and the offense will take care of itself. Remember, you can always buy back the stock again if it acts right.
  

• 2011-01-21: Took profits on the low volume new high in GSL.
  

• 2011-01-20: Stopped out of several quality stocks today - LNG, RDWR, CRDC, ZIXI and ENTG.
  

• 2011-01-19: Top Stock Picks candidate Cardica Inc (CRDC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-01-19: Took profits on the Bearish Engulfing Pattern (reversal) in SPRD.
  

• 2011-01-19: Stopped out of KLIC.
  

• 2011-01-18: Top Stock Picks candidate Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc (KLIC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Magic Software Enterprises Ltd (MGIC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-01-16: On a member's request, today we have added a new feature to the website. From the Chart Fest page, in addition to screening by MACD and RSI signals, you can now filter for stocks exhibiting an ATR Trend Change. These include all stocks that are flipping trends from long to short and vice versa, based on a 2-, 3- or 4-ATR level. We have also included an annotated example on the page to help explain what we mean by an ATR Trend Change. This may be useful in catching some early trend reversals, specially after a sustained up or down trend. Comments welcome!
  

• 2011-01-14: Took profits on the high volume reversal off new highs in IDCC.
  

• 2011-01-11: Top Stock Picks candidate Zagg Inc (ZAGG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-01-11: Stopped out of AERL.
  

• 2011-01-10: Top Stock Picks candidate Cheniere Energy Inc (LNG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Global Ship Lease Inc (GSL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Asia Entertainment & Resources Ltd (AERL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2011-01-10: We were stopped out of DDIC intraday, as it tripped our stops set at the GSA Stop Loss level, and then regained most of the day's drop. Events like this happen - doesn't mean we have to abandon or change our strategy. Instead, we'll be watching DDIC closely for a potential re-entry point on a new high breakout. For now, funds released will be invested in the fresh breakout on ZAGG, another top ranked past Top Pick that acted very well today.

  Also, in case you haven't noticed, we have included a new Chart Slideshow feature on the website, which makes it easy to quickly cycle through daily and weekly charts from the Quick Screen and Chart Fest areas. This makes it easier to look for quality chart set-ups as the first step in our analysis.
  

• 2011-01-03: Took profits on NVMI - new highs on lower volume.
  

• 2011-01-03: Took profits on ARTW - reversing off a 52wk high. Happy to exit this somewhat illiquid position with a gain.
  

• 2010-12-27: Top Stock Picks candidate DDi Corp (DDIC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-20: Top Stock Picks candidate Spreadtrum Communications Inc (SPRD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-15: Stopped out of ASYS and ZAGG.
  

• 2010-12-13: Top Stock Picks candidate InterDigital Inc (IDCC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-10: Top Stock Picks candidate Zix Corporation (ZIXI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Zagg Inc (ZAGG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Radware Ltd (RDWR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-10: Stopped out of LLEN.
  

• 2010-12-08: Stopped out of EXK.
  

• 2010-12-07: Top Stock Picks candidate China Yuchai International Ltd (CYD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Endeavour Silver Corp (EXK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-07: Tight stops in play on EXK ($6.67) and ASYS ($22.37) at the 2-ATR level. Both stocks had bearish reversal days today on above average volume.
  

• 2010-12-06: Top Stock Picks candidate L & L Energy Inc (LLEN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate EZchip Semiconductor Ltd (EZCH) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-03: Top Stock Picks candidate Entegris Inc (ENTG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Amtech Systems Inc (ASYS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-12-02: Today we have included a new feature - from the main page, you can now view larger 6-month charts showing volatility based stops. Traders often use the Average True Range (ATR) of a stock to set stops. ATR is a measure of the variability of a stock on a daily basis, averaged over some period (e.g., 14 days). Stops are then set at a multiple of the ATR, e.g., 2 x ATR, 3 x ATR, etc. Shorter-term swing traders may opt to use a 2-ATR stop, while longer-term position traders may use a 4-ATR stop to take profits or limit losses. It also helps to compare an ATR based stop with one based on support-resistance levels, which are also shown on our charts. Irrespective of which stop level you use, the key is to have one in place at all times. Comments welcome!
  

• 2010-11-29: Interesting divergence seen between price and the overbought/oversold RSI line on daily charts of SPY and DIA. Markets could be looking at a short-term bounce.
  

• 2010-11-25: Today we have launched the Swing Trading Portfolio, with specific buy-sell rules based on stocks selected from our Swing Trading section. Any system worth it's merit must be able to demonstrate real-world applicability, by showing what to buy, how much to buy and when to sell.

  In the past, we have heard from members about how they are not able to stick to a trading plan, either selling too soon, or getting emotionally tied up to a stock. We've tried to address these concerns by setting different portfolios to follow. The Swing Trading Portfolio is for those interested in holding stocks for 1-10 trading days (two weeks). In today's market, we think it is important to manage your portfolio using multiple strategies - some holdings must be long-term, while others could be shorter-duration trades.
  

  Please make sure you understand the portfolio buy-sell rules correctly, since you have to set up your trades (buy stop limit orders) prior to the trading day by looking at our Swing Trading section. Contact us if you need ANY clarification. Also, this portfolio has been tested for only a few months and during a strong period in the market. No guarantees how it will perform over the longer term. Time will tell.
  

  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
  

• 2010-11-23: Stopped out of NBIX.
  

• 2010-11-19: Treading (and trading) carefully in this market - yesterday's rally showed little conviction, with only a few quality breakouts making the cut. One look at our Industry Map shows less than robust participation by leading industry groups. The ratio of bullish to bearish swing trade signals was about even. We're maintaining tight stops on our underweighted portfolio of four names.

  For Friday, short term trades are on MHR (nice breakout from a multi-week base) on the long side, and AXL (bearish engulfing pattern) on the short side. As always, stop or stop limit orders only so that we buy on strength and sell short on weakness.
  

• 2010-11-15: Top Stock Picks candidate Amarin ADR (AMRN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd (NVMI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-11-14: In addition to entering into our Top Pick AMRN Monday, we are also going to take another stab at NVMI, a recently stopped out Top Pick. NVMI has broken out of a long (although a bit loose) base, and provides a great entry point.
  

  Also, we have added some additional content to our Market Direction > Market History section. We now show historical monthly returns for the current year of the Presidential Term. In the past, there has been a significant difference in market returns obtained during different years of a President's term in office - years 3 and 4 seem to have better returns. Try and be aware of these patterns, and where in the cycle we are in relation to them.
  

• 2010-11-10: Shorting some names on weakness today - SLW, PIR, FRG, ANV and HOGS. All have bearish candlestick patterns, near daily lows, and sold off on strong volume. Silver and the Industrial Metals and Minerals industry groups were the top worst performing groups yesterday (SLW and FRG in these groups).
  

• 2010-11-10: Watching past Top Pick TQNT making a new high on lower than average volume - will probably take our +19% profits at the close, if volume doesn't improve.
  

• 2010-11-10: Took profits in TQNT.
  

• 2010-11-09: Took profits on the high volume reversals of EBIX and SMTX, and was stopped out of SGEN (below 50-day) and KERX. Day trades ended flat today STRI (-0.93%), DKS (-1.25%), ANSS (0.54%), TRS (1.97%), GG (gap-no fill), for a small net positive return of 0.07% vs. -0.66% for the Nasdaq.

  Note: Site undergoing technical problems today. Thanks for your patience.
  

• 2010-11-08: Luck still on our side on day trades executed Monday - LULU (1.28%), VGZ (1.80%), SNIC (no fill) for a total gain of 1.54% vs. 0.04% for the Nasdaq. Trades for tomorrow include ANSS and TRS (from our Swing Trading pages), and STRI, GG and DKS (from our Active Trading page - breakouts).

  Also, keeping an eye on past Top Pick SGEN which is trying to hold on to it's 50-day moving average. Watch for a move above or below this level. 
  

• 2010-11-06: Last Friday, we day-traded (gasp!) select stocks that made our Swing Trading selections to see if there was an edge in our earlier outlined strategy. Buy stop limit orders were placed on six names - TRGL, WNR, HL, SMSI, TLEO and LNN, the first four of which were filled. Results after commissions were -1.73%, 1.30%, 4.63% and -0.54% respectively, for a total gain of 0.78% for the day vs. 0.06% for the Nasdaq. Not too shabby, but could be pure chance as well. Won't know for sure, until we try this some more. For Monday, we are looking at VGZ, LULU and SNIC. Will try and report back results daily.
  

• 2010-11-04: Members have often inquired about a day trading strategy using our service. Although we've tended to stay away from day trading, one could potentially use our Swing Trading page for day-trade setups. Entry criteria: Look for stocks closing at highs for the day on robust volume, having good liquidity (>1%), a strong MACD crossover, RSI line moving up (>70), purchase would be between $0.10 and $0.15 above the previous close (i.e., a stop limit order to buy on strength) the next day. Exit criteria: On order entry and execution, set a trailing stop loss of 1% below the current price, and let the day unfold. Maximum risk would then be 1%, while the potential reward could be 2% or more, if the stock follows through on the strong volume breakout.

  On inspection, stocks meeting these criteria today are: SMSI, HL, WNR, TLEO, PCS, LNN, EXK, SSRI, LTD, CAT among others. Feel free to comment or to share your strategies!
  

• 2010-11-02: AKRX, TMRK and FMCN show up as potential trading opportunities from our Swing Trading page. As always, buy on strength only.
  

• 2010-11-01: Past Top Pick NOG reversing a bit off a new 52-week high - setting protective stop at $17.99, at our purchase price.
  

• 2010-11-01: Didn't like the action on NOG today - closed out for a small 5% profit.
  

• 2010-10-26: Top Stock Picks candidate SMTC Corp (SMTX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-10-25: Tight 24-week base breakout on SMTX, with a daily MACD crossover as confirmation of timing. High ROE of 40%. Lower priced issue, so definitely a speculative purchase.
  

• 2010-10-24: The Industry Group - Restaurants had a strong day Friday, with a number of names spiking up. Looking for short-term, swing trading opportunities in the three names - BJRI, CMG and CAKE that had the highest relative volume as seen on our Market Snapshot page. Positions to be taken only on strength above Friday's highs.

• 2010-10-18: Top Stock Picks candidate Arts-Way Manufacturing Co Inc (ARTW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-10-18: Today, we have included a new feature on our Market Direction page - the percent of investors who are bullish and bearish, as reported by the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). These figures are updated by AAII weekly (Thursdays), and are often used as contrarian indicators, e.g., view the spike in bearish sentiment early in 2009 just before the market advanced strongly. Similarly, see the spike in bullish sentiment twice in 2007, before the market tanked later in the year. We are using a 2-standard deviation band (5 years) to measure extreme values.
  

  As students of the market, it behooves us to add these sentiment measures to our tool set. Keep one eye on these indicators at all times.
  

• 2010-10-16: Taking a small, speculative position in ARTW.
  

• 2010-10-14: Top Stock Picks candidate Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc (KERX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-10-13: Tip: Away from your computer a lot? Now you can receive daily-weekly charts of breakouts and gaps via e-mail to your smartphone. Chose from A, A-B or all ranked stocks to limit the number of e-mails. Never miss a quality breakout again!
  

• 2010-10-11: Top Stock Picks candidate Neurocrine Biosciences Inc (NBIX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-10-09: Tight high volume breakout on NBIX.
  

• 2010-10-05: Brief note - we have recently redesigned our Market Snapshot page, which quickly shows you the five best and worst performing Industry Groups for the day, along with associated stocks moving up or down on high volume. Use this feature to see where the smart money is flowing. Comments welcome!
  

• 2010-10-04: Top Stock Picks candidate Northern Oil and Gas Inc (NOG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Seattle Genetics (SGEN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-09-28: Long MACD Swing Trades on strength for Wednesday: BTN, HMIN, KKD. Set profit targets at 5%.
  

• 2010-09-27: Top Stock Picks candidate TriQuint Semiconductor Inc (TQNT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Ebix Inc (EBIX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-09-26: On Friday, one of our trend following ETF's (QLD/QID) signaled a change of trend in the NASDAQ. It remains to be seen whether the other averages will follow suit. We are consequently adding two Top Picks to the GSA Portfolio - EBIX and TQNT. Need to see if the market will begin to reward longer-term position trades. Maintain tight 7% stop-losses on any core positions.
  

• 2010-09-19: Swing trades for Monday:
  1. LONG positions on strength - CHTP (high volume breakout, bullish MACD crossover), LOGM (high volume day Friday, bullish MACD crossover), KRA (closing at high of the day, strong volume, bullish MACD crossover)
  2. SHORT positions on weakness - SINA (failed breakout, bearish dark cloud cover, valuation), CDE (bearish engulfing pattern on high volume), HAIN (bearish MACD crossover, valuation), CCK (bearish MACD crossover, high volume sell-off, valuation).
  We are also exiting our trend-following position in QID to focus the GSA portfolio on our swing trades, which seems to have worked well over the last few weeks.
  

• 2010-09-16: Short swing trade positions for Thursday: LOGM, CVLT, and CRM - all three showing a bearish MACD crossover, falling RSI line, recent topping days, and are significantly overvalued.
  

• 2010-09-14: Short swing trades on weakness for Wednesday: DFS (confirmation day after bearish doji, overvalued, RSI breaking 70), COL (ditto).
  

• 2010-09-13: Long swing trades for Tuesday: NBIX, NVMI and DTG. As always, buy on strength.
  

• 2010-09-11: Swing trade opportunities for Monday: Long GEOY (MACD about to cross over, tight 5-week breakout), Short JLL (reversal off high Thursday, bit over-valued). As always, stop buy (or short sell) orders to be placed, above (or below) previous closing price. Aim for 5% profits in this fast moving market, with a 4% stop-loss. Let the edge of these patterns add to the probability of the trade working out.
  

• 2010-09-08: Potential short-sell swing trade opportunities for Thursday: KRA, JKS and ANV - all reversing off new highs. Stop trades entered on weakness below Wednesday's closing prices.
  

• 2010-09-04: Swing trade opportunities for Tuesday on these A ranked stocks - NXTM, BIDU and ULTA (MACD crossing over, RSI line trending higher, prices above all moving averages).

  Next week is key for the DJIA - it has bumped up exactly against it's 200-day moving average. Watch to see if the index gets slapped down or is able to break through. Although the market may be looking slightly better technically, characteristics are far from a wildly bullish situation. Still trading only short-term positions with tight stops.
  

• 2010-09-03: Swing trade positions for Friday: ARGN, SOLR, EZCH, SOLF, PANL, ASYS. All possess tight daily charts, high ranks, strong volume action, and an MACD crossover signal. Buy on strength only (buy stop market order ten cents above previous close), with a profit objective of 5%.
  

• 2010-08-29: This is still going to be a trader's market until our long-term, trend following indicators turn positive. Short-term, swing trading positions we are taking on the long side (based on breakouts and MACD crossovers) are HAIN, VIT, SLW, TSL, VHC, RDWR, ARMH, RAX, RVBD and HS. Target profit objective is +5%.
  

• 2010-08-21: In this age of short-term trading, we have added a new screen to our Swing Trading section. Now, along with signals generated by the Japanese Candlestick Patterns, we show those stocks that have exhibited an MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) Crossover signal. This may help active traders pinpoint their trades using this momentum/trend following indicator.

  A few points to note: Use the MACD signal as a confirmation signal only. For example, if you wanted to short a position for a swing trade, look for a prior uptrend in both price and MACD over several days or weeks. Then the stock should exhibit a short term topping day (reversal off high, a candlestick reversal pattern, etc.). Finally, you would enter the trade on the MACD Crossover signal. As always, chart patterns should be somewhat tight and orderly, not wide and loose.
  

  Remember, no indicator is perfect - there is no holy grail in trading. But when you have as many indicators as possible going for you, the odds of success in the trade working out are much higher. And at the end of the day, it is all about getting the odds in your favor.
  

  Comments, suggestions, questions always welcome.
  

• 2010-08-11: Stopped out of NVMI.
  

• 2010-08-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd (NVMI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-08-08: We looked closely at one of our most frequently occurring Japanese Candlestick Swing Trading signals - the Bearish Doji, to see if there was a definite edge in trading these signals over a 1 to 10 day period. Here is a summary of our set-up:
  1. Period investigated was 2/6/2009 through 7/31/2010, nearly 2 years.
  2. Total Bearish Doji signals were 549.
  3. However only 213 signals had a confirmation day, following the signal day, being defined as: High doesn't exceed signal day's high, close is below the signal day's close, and the confirmation day close is in the bottom 70% of it's daily range, i.e., doesn't close with strength.
  4. Take the trade (short) as close to the end of the trading day.
  5. Stop loss was set at 10 cents above the signal day's high.
  6. Results were evaluated at different profit objectives: 4%, 4.5%, 5%, 5.5% and 6%.
     

  And the results at each profit objective:

  1. 4% Profit. Total loss: -264% (67 trades stopped out). Total profits: +440% (110 trades hit profit objective). Total timed out after 10 days: +31% (36 trades). Net profit +207%.
     
  2. 4.5% Profit. Total loss: -287% (72 trades). Total profits: +437% (97 trades). Total timed out: +37% (44 trades). Net profit +187%.
     
  3. 5.0% Profit. Total loss: -298% (74 trades). Total profits: +455% (91 trades). Total timed out: +46% (48 trades). Net profit +203%.
     
  4. 5.5% Profit. Total loss: -310% (78 trades). Total profits: +451% (82 trades). Total timed out: +51% (53 trades). Net profit +192%.
     
  5. 6.0% Profit. Total loss: -334% (81 trades). Total profits: +444% (74 trades). Total timed out: +65% (58 trades). Net profit +176%.
     
  As you can see, targeting a profit objective of 4% to 5% can yield a significant net profit using this swing trading strategy. We have implemented this approach on our real money margin portfolio, dedicating about 10% of our portfolio to each trade. On average, we expect to see about 2 to 3 signals (with a confirmation day of course) every week.
  

• 2010-08-08: Taking a small position in Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd (NVMI).
  

• 2010-08-01: We've received a few questions from members regarding our Swing Trading section using Japanese Candlestick patterns, and how best to trade these short term opportunities. We've expanded this section a bit, to show precisely how the pattern (e.g., the Bearish Doji) is to be traded using a graphic example. Please check it out.

  In this "fast money" environment, it doesn't hurt to have a trading portfolio as a complement to a longer-term investing approach. Also, since our intermediate trend signal still continues to point down, we are reluctant to initiate any core "Top Picks" positions at this point.
  

• 2010-07-17: We continue to maintain our short stance via leveraged ETFs. Our market indicator has been stuck at a Bearish signal for the last several weeks, while overall breadth remains poor, with less than 50 Industry Groups making our database. In bull markets, we typically see 100+ groups participating.

  On Friday, all three major market indices got turned back from their respective moving averages - the Dow from it's 200-day, the S&P from it's 50-day, and the Nasdaq from both it's 50- and 200-days. Be vigilant out there - this is a trader's market.
  

• 2010-06-20: Ran a quick search using the "Base Breakouts" screen. On the weekly charts shown, notice the non-confirmation of the RSI (Wilder Relative Strength Index) line against the price action of the stock. In 16 out of the top 20 results shown, the RSI line is "sputtering", indicating poor price action. We normally want to see the RSI line trending up sharply, breaking through the 70 level, confirming the breakout in price. This scenario simply confirms other bearish indicators on the rest of our site (e.g., only 44 industry groups showing strong performance, instead of the normal 100, trend following signals still negative, etc). We continue to maintain our short positions, until proven otherwise.
  

• 2010-06-17: Will be taking profits and closing out our position in SBUX on a move to new highs on low volume.
  

• 2010-06-17: Took profits and closed out SBUX.
  

• 2010-06-11: Over the last month or so, one of the lessons that the stock market has taught us, is the discipline of following a strict stop-loss strategy. Back in April, a lot of investors (including us) fell into a sense of complacency and didn't execute as much discipline in sticking with robust stop-loss strategies.

  With the markets behaving in such a maniacal fashion, we thought we would revisit and refine our loss-cutting strategies just a bit, with the over-arching goal right now being capital preservation.

  The key concept with any trade is to get to a position of break-even as quickly as possible. To achieve this goal, here's how we have modified our stop-loss strategy in the model portfolios:

  1. Every long trade starts off with the current 7% stop-loss setting (no change here) - and live not mental stops anymore.
  2. If this trade starts working in our favor and shows a profit of 7% or more, we raise the stop to our purchase price, essentially attaining a break-even status if the trade was to fail going forward.
  3. The remaining strategy of taking profits at 25% to 30%, holding for a period of 8 weeks, etc., remains unchanged.
  4. Similarly on the short side, we move our stops to break-even quickly, if the trade moves in our favor by 5% or more.

  We think this should reduce the amount of slippage we've experienced in our model and live portfolios due to increased market volatility. We have also shown these stops on our Top Picks Portfolio and Auto Portfolio pages.

  Would be interested to hear your feedback on this subject.
  

• 2010-06-08: The third (and final) of our Trend Following ETF's has flipped signals. Only time will tell if these signals will undergo reasonably quick reversals, or if a longer term trend following period ensues. Our job is not to predict, but to recognize the market for what it signals right now, and to follow our trading rules and signals.
  

• 2010-06-07: Stopped out of LOCM
  .

• 2010-06-06: Another of the leveraged ETF's has flipped signals in the Trend Following model. Also seeing a few more short names (PCP, ROC, KRC, LEN) in the Top Picks portfolio. These stocks meet the following conditions - poor accumulation/distribution, trending down, trading below a key moving average, and over-owned by institutions.
  

• 2010-06-03: Following our new Trend Following signal, we will be switching out of QLD and into QID in the GSA Live Portfolio. Since this model has only been tested for 3.5 years, we fully expect several whipsaws along the way. But follow the signals, we must.
  

• 2010-06-01: Stopped out of CBPO.
  

• 2010-06-01: Exited out of EZCH and KMGB on our tight stops. Also, reduced our exposure in QLD significantly. All three major indices now below their 200-day moving averages.
  

• 2010-05-27: Stopped out of ZIOP for a good (not great) profit.
  

  Nasdaq reclaimed it's 200-day, but Dow and S&P have yet to do so. We continue to maintain tight stops on all open positions.

• 2010-05-26: The GSA Top Picks Portfolio page showed 7 new SHORT names. Take a look at these stocks, and the rules listed on why these names popped up. We may SELL SHORT some of these names at the market - need to look at them some more. Trend following model has not flipped to bearish yet, but it's getting there.

• 2010-05-24: Placing live stops just below last week's lows on most of our holdings in the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2010-05-23: Quick comment - will be adding more shares of QLD to our trend-following live portfolio. Also, taking a look at the #1 ranked stock in our database for a potential Top Pick add as well.
  

• 2010-05-17: Top Stock Picks candidate China Biological Products Inc (CBPO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-05-16: Taking a 5% position in CBPO.

  Pros: Increasing earnings estimates, undervalued if the 30% projected growth rate holds, low institutional ownership (8%) with all of it being recent, being added to the Nasdaq Biotech Index, chart in an 18-week basing pattern challenging it's 52-week high, has 8 out of 10 markers of our Past Winners, great entry point above the $12.96 GSA Stop Loss level.

  Cons: Somewhat lower liquidity (0.6%), GSA Portfolio already quite exposed to Biotechs.
  

• 2010-05-09: Held onto all GSA Portfolio positions during the craziness in the market. In fact, we added a bit to positions we were under-weight. Coming weeks are key to see if the markets gets its legs back.

• 2010-05-05: Maintaining a tight stop at $23.76 on LINC, which managed to hold above this level on the recent market sell-off.
  

• 2010-05-05: Stopped out of LINC intra-day. Will also monitor KMGB to sell on weakness below today's close.
  

• 2010-04-30: Took profits on half our position in ARIA, after holding for around 8 weeks.
  

• 2010-04-29: Exited our position in CVVT.
  

• 2010-04-28: CVVT broke through it's 100-day moving average on above average volume. This could be a bear trap, but since we don't know if this is true, we will sell our position in CVVT on further weakness Thursday. Gut feel is that a bottom is in place, so we'll try and give it one last smoke.
  

• 2010-04-26: Top Stock Picks candidate Local com Corp (LOCM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-04-24: LOCM: Strong Q1 results, accelerating sales growth, 4 quarters of earnings surprises, under-owned by institutions, high accumulation/distribution rank, new high on strong volume.
  

• 2010-04-19: Top Stock Picks candidate Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc (PRX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-04-17: Trading PRX for BELM in the Top Picks Portfolio. Flat 15-week breakout on PRX, looks undervalued if the +50% projected growth projections hold, 4 consecutive quarters of earnings surprises, positive EPS estimate revisions. Group action (131) less than desirable.
  

• 2010-04-11: We've added a minor new feature that you might find useful. Lot of us are often away from our computers during the trading day. Now, you can keep up with the market by receiving a timely, short e-mail of "Breakouts and Gaps" charts, sent to your handheld device. These e-mails contain two small images (3-month daily and 1-year weekly charts), allowing you to take a trading position if the chart pattern seems ideal.

  You can sign up for this feature on the "Active Trading" page after you log into the Member area.  Please note: Several e-mails will be generated during the trading day, so please add the e-mail to your Contact List to avoid these being labeled as Junk or Spam. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
  

• 2010-04-05: Top Stock Picks candidate KMG Chemicals Inc (KMGB) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Boise Inc (BZ) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-04-03: KMGB: Accelerating earnings, healthy 23% ROE, 4 quarters of upside earnings surprises, 18-week basing pattern.
  

• 2010-04-03: BZ: High institutional buying, accelerating earnings, ROE of 28%, long 6-month base breakout,
  

• 2010-03-31: Exited EBIX for a -8% loss.
  

• 2010-03-30: EBIX and JMBA are on close watch - will exit these names on further weakness Wednesday.
  

• 2010-03-29: Top Stock Picks candidate Jamba Inc (JMBA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-03-29: BELM: Buyout news out!
  

• 2010-03-29: Re-entered a position in past Top Pick EZCH.
  

• 2010-03-27: JMBA - Speculative takeover play, potential business turnaround, price gap up (3/26) on 4x volume.
  

• 2010-03-25: Exited (for now) EZCH for a 13% gain.
  

• 2010-03-24: EZCH had an "outside-day" today on above average volume, after attempting to make a new high. This is usually a short-term negative. We're going to place a Stop Sell Order to exit EZCH below $19, with the intent to get back in at a later point (either closer to a support line, or if it proves us wrong and moves straight back up to new highs).
  

• 2010-03-22: Top Stock Picks candidate ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc (ZIOP) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Bridgepoint Education Inc (BPI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-03-20: BPI: 6-month breakout from a 28% base, seems highly undervalued, increasing institutional purchases, monster ROE (56%), large % of float has been shorted.
  

• 2010-03-20: Adding a small percentage (5%) of ZIOP (18-week breakout) to the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2010-03-15: Top Stock Picks candidate Bell Microproducts Inc (BELM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Ebix Inc (EBIX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Starbucks Corp (SBUX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Ultra QQQ ProShares (QLD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-03-14: BELM: Consolidating after recent base-on-top-of-base breakout, triple-digit quarterly earnings, ROE of 132%, net institutional purchases, seems undervalued with a PE of only 7.8.
  

• 2010-03-14: Getting back into one of last year's winners EBIX, as it reclaimed its 20-day moving average this week. High earnings and sales consistency, strong group rank (8), high ROE of 37%.
  

• 2010-03-14: Getting into the tight 8% breakout on SBUX, to provide some large cap exposure to the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2010-03-14: Based on our bullish stand on the US market, we are also adding QLD to the Top Picks portfolio (and live GSA Portfolio), and will trade QLD based on it's Trend Following Model.
  

• 2010-03-10: Top Stock Picks candidate China Valves Technology Inc (CVVT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-03-09: CVVT: Undervalued stock, consolidating in a base at it's 20-day moving average, after a recent breakout. Shows significant institutional buying, with 5 analysts rating the stock a Strong Buy. Good entry point, trading less than 14% above it's 50-day moving average, while the 1-year weekly shows an established uptrend.
  

• 2010-03-08: Top Stock Picks candidate EZchip Semiconductor Ltd (EZCH) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Lincoln Educational Services Corp (LINC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-03-06: EZCH: Earnings acceleration, four quarters of positive earnings surprises, strong group action (21), institutional buying.
  

• 2010-03-06: LINC: Triple digit quarterly EPS%, strong group action (19), under-valued, institutional buying, 20% ROE, breakout from a 18-week 19% base.
  

• 2010-03-02: Top Stock Picks candidate Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARIA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-03-02: Another source of short ideas is the "Short Candidates?" section on the Daily Report. Take a look a the charts of stocks "Reversing Off New Highs" - AutoZone (AZO) caught our attention, with a one-day reversal on 4x average volume, near it's 52-wk high. Showing poor GSA Rank (C), no Group Action (0), and over-owned by institutions, we're looking to short (if shares are available) on weakness below $164.74.
  

• 2010-03-01: High volume (4x) breakout from a long 13-week base on Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA), showing strong group action (Top 7), accumulation distribution of 1.46, on positive news, with a slightly volatile chart pattern.
  

• 2010-02-26: Stopped out of CNU for a -9% loss.
  

• 2010-02-25: Don't forget to look at some short ideas as well. On our main screening page, you can click on the "Save GSA Recommended SHORT Criteria" button to save our short search criteria, e.g., GSA Rank < 60, Acc/Dist < 1, Overvalued, Institutional Ownership > 70%, Trading Below 200-day MA, Trading More than 20% off High.

  Running this screen returned Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ). Take a look at it's weekly chart - looks like it wants to roll-over. We have a stop-market order to short (if shares are available) on weakness below $9.69.
  

• 2010-02-25: Stopped out of CYCC for a -10% loss.
  

• 2010-02-24: Stopped out of NEP for a gain of 69% as it broke through it's 50-day.

• 2010-02-22: Top Stock Picks candidate Continucare Corp (CNU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-02-21: CNU reclaimed both it's 20- and 50-day moving averages. Showing accelerating earnings and sales growth; earnings consistency of 0.88, sales consistency of 0.84; undervalued with increasing institutional purchases, trading only 12% off new highs. Stop loss to be set at it's GSA Support Line of $4.17.
  

• 2010-02-18: Top Stock Picks candidate Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc (CYCC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-02-17: CYCC trying to establish it's uptrend on positive news Wednesday. High accumulation/distribution rank, strong group action (2), looking to breakout from a small 4-week base. Going to put 5% of the GSA Portfolio into CYCC with a tight 10% stop.
  

• 2010-02-05: CWS and KERX hit our stops. Small positions in NEP and CGEN remain in the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2010-02-04: Took profits / stopped out of CMFO, CGA, JST, CSIQ, SEED and LFT.
  

• 2010-02-01: Took profits on CYTX.
  

• 2010-02-01: Stopped out of SIGA.
  

• 2010-01-30: Last week all three major indices failed to hold support at their respective 100-day moving averages, a level of support that hasn't really been tested since the March 2009 rally began. In January, the Dow returned -3.5%, far worse than the market's historical average +1% gain for this month.

  The GSA Portfolio, after having a strong start in January, by the end of the month took a beating as well, and we were stopped out of a few quality names. We now have tight stops (actual, not mental) in place to protect gains and limit further losses on all positions in the portfolio.
  

• 2010-01-29: Exited positions in HEAT, HITK and TPI, all trading more than 25% off their highs.
  

• 2010-01-25: Exited our position in MAIL.
  

• 2010-01-12: Top Stock Picks candidate China Wind Systems Inc (CWS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-01-11: Top Stock Picks candidate Compugen Ltd (CGEN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-01-11: Putting <5% of the GSA Portfolio into CWS. Take a look at the flat basing pattern breakout on CWS's 3-month Daily chart. It makes the decision to enter the position less daunting.
  

• 2010-01-10: Taking a small position (<5% of the GSA portfolio) in CGEN on a pullback from it's recent high-volume breakout.
  

• 2010-01-03: Top Stock Picks candidate IncrediMail Ltd (MAIL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2010-01-01: MAIL possesses a great looking chart pattern, with a breakout December 30, 2009 from a long 17-week base on 3x average volume. MAIL in our #2 ranked group - Business Software & Services, and boasts an ROE of 45%. Based in Israel, seems like no analysts cover this stock yet.
  

• 2009-12-21: Top Stock Picks candidate Hi-Tech Pharmacal Inc (HITK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-12-20: Taking a small position (<5%, since we are fully invested) in HITK, a past Top Pick from 3 months ago. On Thursday, HITK broke out of a 10-wk base on strong volume, with another follow-through volume day on Friday.
  

• 2009-12-07: Top Stock Picks candidate Tianyin Pharmaceutical Co Inc (TPI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate China North East Petroleum Holdings Ltd (NEP) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-12-05: Flat 16-wk base breakout on TPI. Lower priced stock, so will be limiting live portfolio to 5% max. (TPI will not be tracked on the Top Picks portfolio, since that is almost fully invested). Also, no deliberate attempt to position the portfolio into so many Chinese names - they just seem to have the best chart breakouts.
  

• 2009-12-05: Breakout may be developing on NEP. Lower priced stock, so will be limiting live portfolio to 5% max. (NEP will not be tracked on the Top Picks portfolio, since that is almost fully invested). Again, no deliberate attempt to position the portfolio into so many Chinese names - they just seem to have the best chart breakouts.

• 2009-12-01: Top Stock Picks candidate Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc (KERX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-11-30: Top Stock Picks candidate SIGA Technologies Inc (SIGA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Origin Agritech Ltd (SEED) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Cytori Therapeutics Inc (CYTX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-11-30: Breakout on good volume from an 8-week base on KERX, which is trending up while finding support along it's 50-day moving average. Re-initiating a position back into this recent Top Pick.
  

• 2009-11-29: Flat 18% breakout from a 21-week base on SIGA.
  

• 2009-11-29: Monster breakout on SEED. Taking a 5% position to see how this plays out.
  

• 2009-11-29: Getting back into the breakout on CYTX, a past Top Pick.
  

• 2009-11-23: Top Stock Picks candidate Canadian Solar Inc (CMFO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate SmartHeat Inc (HEAT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd (LFT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Jinpan International Ltd (JST) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate China Green Agriculture Inc (CGA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-11-21: Getting back into the breakouts on HEAT, JST, LFT and CGA.
  

• 2009-11-21: Breakout from a 21% 16-week base on CSIQ.
  

• 2009-11-20: Top Stock Picks candidate China Marine Food Group Ltd (CMFO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-11-19: Putting 5% of the GSA Portfolio into CMFO, which looks like it wants to breakout from a 15-week base.
  

• 2009-11-12: Stopped out of APAC , our remaining long position.
  

• 2009-10-30: Exiting most of our holdings in the market today.

  Probably trading a bit on emotion, but do not like the action of the US market at this point.

• 2009-10-28: Took profits in PEGA on trailing stop trigger.
  

• 2009-10-28: Stopped out of UEC, KERX, CHNG . Market seems to be entering a correction period.
  

• 2009-10-27:

• 2009-10-21: Stopped out of HEAT and CRY .
  

• 2009-10-20: Stopped out of OREX.
  

• 2009-10-15: Top Stock Picks candidate APAC Customer Services Inc (APAC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-10-14: Flat breakout from a 20-week base on APAC, leading Business Services group, undervalued, with increasing institutional ownership.
  

• 2009-10-13: Took profits on our remaining holdings in PWRD, on a break below it's 50-day moving average.
  

• 2009-10-12: Top Stock Picks candidate China Natural Gas Inc (CHNG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-10-12: Took partial profits on PWRD, which is attempting to find support at its 50-day.
  

• 2009-10-11: 18-week cup-and-handle breakout formation observed on China Natural Gas Inc (CHNG).
  

• 2009-10-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-10-08: Exiting Past Top Pick China Green Agriculture (CGA) for new pick Uranium Energy Corp (UEC). CGA is off more than 20% off it's highs, and below it's 50-day. On UEC we observe a cup-and-handle breakout from a 17-week base, which allows for a tight stop if price action turns negative.
  

• 2009-10-04: HEAT and CRY will be sold from the GSA Portfolio on further weakness Monday, since they are trading below our stop-loss levels.
  

• 2009-09-29: Top Stock Picks candidate SmartHeat Inc (HEAT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-09-28: HEAT uptrend being established. Strong ROE (60%), accumulation-distribution and quarterly EPS%. Definitely a bit speculative - putting only 5% of the GSA Portfolio into HEAT.
  

• 2009-09-21: Top Stock Picks candidate Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc (KERX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Hi-Tech Pharmacal Inc (HITK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-09-21: Perfect World (PWRD) reversed off a new 52-week high Monday on low volume. We will exit PWRD on weakness Tuesday, barring any positive breaking news. This has been a big mover for us, and we can always buy it back.
  

• 2009-09-19: Breakout from a 7-week base on Wed, Sep 16 seems to be holding on KERX. Will take an initial 5% position, with plans to pyramid, if the stock moves in our favor.
  

• 2009-09-19: HITK showing accelerating quarterly sales and earnings growth. Chart a bit extended.
  

• 2009-09-10: Top Stock Picks candidate Orexigen Therapeutics Inc (OREX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-09-09: Stopped out of ABAT.
  

• 2009-09-09: Speculative play in OREX. Good high volume breakout from a flat 8-week base, allowing for a tight -7% stop-loss.
  

• 2009-09-08: Top Stock Picks candidate CryoLife Inc (CRY) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-09-06: We have introduced a new feature on our site - Trend Following. This is a systematic (non-discretionary), long-term trading system using leveraged (2x) ETFs. All our investing principles are based on trend trading, i.e., letting your profits run with the trend, while cutting losses short, and so using leveraged ETFs seems to be a natural extension for us

  We have back-tested three ETFs against the NASDAQ, Dow and S&P 500, since late 2006, when these instruments began trading. Results are encouraging, although this would be somewhat expected, given the highly trending nature of these markets over the last year. Keep in mind that trend following may involve significant drawdown (loss of capital) periods, specially in a non-trending environment, and never gets you in at the very bottom, or out at the very top. Instead it is designed to catch the bulk of a trending move.
  

  We have implemented this strategy on a portion of our live trading portfolio this past week. A margin account is needed for this strategy, due to the nature of these positions. Please feel free to check out the Trend Following link, after you are logged in. Make sure you understand the strategy fully, and are comfortable with the risks involved, before implementing it. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

  Have a great Labor Day weekend!
  

• 2009-09-03: Stopped out of Orchids Paper Products (TIS).
  

• 2009-09-01: Exited CKSW on failure to re-claim it's 50-day moving average.
  

• 2009-08-31: Top Stock Picks candidate KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp (KPPC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-08-28: Exited UTA on a break below its 50-day moving average and violation of trailing stop-loss line.
  

• 2009-08-24: Top Stock Picks candidate Orchids Paper Products Co (TIS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-08-22: Repurchasing Orchids Paper Products (TIS) on a move above it's 50-day moving average on 575% average volume.
  

• 2009-08-17: Exited TIS and LFT for a loss of -12% and -14% on this brutal down day. Holding on to CKSW for another day to see if it recovers Tuesday (close near the highs for the day).

• 2009-08-16: Going to keep a close eye Monday on some of our positions that are close to violating their -7% to -10% stop-losses, e.g., TIS and CKSW. We normally want to hold through the trading day, and take action at the close.
  

• 2009-08-11: Top Stock Picks candidate Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd (LFT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Orchids Paper Products Co (TIS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd (CKSW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-08-10: Repurchasing recently profitable past Top Pick CKSW on a high-volume bounce off it's 20-day moving average.
  

• 2009-08-10: TIS provides a good entry point +7% off it's 50-day moving average. TIS is quite a bit extended from a base, but an entry close to this moving average may provide the necessary downside support (stop).
  

• 2009-08-10: Strong breakout to new highs on LFT from a flat 10-week base on 450% average volume.
  

• 2009-08-05: Stopped out of JST for a loss of -10%.
  

• 2009-08-03: Top Stock Picks candidate Jinpan International Ltd (JST) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-08-03: Adding (pyramiding) to our position in last week's Top Pick Syntroleum Corp (SYNM), being up about +6%.
  

• 2009-08-02: Cup and handle breakout on JST 1-year weekly chart.
  

• 2009-07-30: High volume (269%) breakout from an 8-week flat 8% basing pattern on PEGA.
  

• 2009-07-30: Top Stock Picks candidate Pegasystems Inc (PEGA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-07-28: Top Stock Picks candidate Syntroleum Corp (SYNM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-07-27: Top Stock Picks candidate Baidu Inc (BIDU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate China Green Agriculture Inc (CGA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Advanced Battery Technologies Inc (ABAT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-07-27: SYNM breakout to new highs on 400% average volume, off a flat 16% 8-week basing pattern.
  

• 2009-07-25: Repurchasing Past Top Pick CGA on a 600% volume breakout from a flat 10-week basing pattern.
  

• 2009-07-25: Cup-and-handle breakout on 240% avg volume observed on BIDU weekly chart.
  

• 2009-07-25: Repurchasing ABAT on 50-day moving average support.
  

• 2009-07-21: UTA finding support at its 50-day moving average.
  

• 2009-07-21: Top Stock Picks candidate Universal Travel Group (UTA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-07-20: Repurchased long-term Top Pick Perferct World (PWRD) on a move to new highs.
  

• 2009-07-10: An article yesterday about The Chartist Newsletter (which also uses relative strength trading techniques) moving 100% to cash caught our eye - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/top-performing-newsletter-now-completely-in-cash. This seems to confirm the price action we saw this past week on the majority of our positions moving against us, causing us to sell. Maybe the 4-month bull-rally has run it's course.

  Futures this morning are also negative. We may sell out our remaining 10% holdings today, and look for shorting opportunities, using our Active Trading and Swing Trading signals.
  

• 2009-07-10: Sold out STAR and CRTX for +22% and +6% respectively. GSA Portfolio is now 100% in cash.
  

• 2009-07-08: Exited ABAT for about +11%, ONTY for about -4% on 50-day moving average violations, and OXGN for about -13%.
  

• 2009-07-07: Exited positions in GOOG and ARST for +4% and +11% respectively. For ARST this was our second profitable trade, after a +20% move in the Q2 2009 period. We normally don't like to hold stocks trading below their 50-day moving averages, and so we sold these two names.
  

• 2009-07-07: Closed out the SONE trade for a -7% loss. Tight stops in place in the current market environment.
  

• 2009-07-06: Stopped out of Top Pick CYTX for about -10%. Continue to maintain tight stops at this point.
  

• 2009-07-06: Keep an eye out on Top Picks ARST and GOOG - both violated their 50-day averages Monday. We will look to take our small profits in these two names on further weakness Tuesday.

  Market not acting too strong - breakouts have disappeared, and leading stocks seem to be rolling over. Be cautious out there.
  

• 2009-07-02: Top Pick CGA triggered our stop - sold out for -11%.
  

• 2009-07-01: Past Top Pick ASIA did not work out, and we exited for a loss of -15%.
  

• 2009-06-30: We exited past Top Picks candidate PWRD for a profit of +61%, and the short-term trade BCON for a loss of -22%.
  

• 2009-06-29: Top Stock Picks candidate China Green Agriculture Inc (CGA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-06-29: We'll go ahead and set a stop to sell PWRD on weakness below $30, to book our +60% profits. PWRD closed down on heavy volume, and it may be a time to lock-in these gains. Remember, we can always buy it back if it continues it's run to new highs.
  

  The short term TRADE in BCON has not worked out. BCON will be sold, barring any positive news.
  

• 2009-06-26: Top Stock Picks candidate Oncothyreon Inc (ONTY) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-06-26: As planned, we got a few more points out of NVEC and we exited as it hit our profit target of +25% to +30%. Overall the GSA portfolio had a good day in a ho-hum market - will make for a happy weekend.
  

• 2009-06-25: Past Top Stock Pick SOHU has hit it's profit objective of +25% to +30%. We exited SOHU Thursday morning.
  

• 2009-06-25: Exited First Solar (FSLR) at about -14%.
  

• 2009-06-25: Exited the short-term TRADES in MDVN and CMED which did not pan out. Both around -10%.
  

• 2009-06-25: For Friday, keep an eye on NVEC, which has entered it's profit objective range. We'll be looking to take our profits in NVEC on additional strength of a few points, if we get it.

  Will be posting Oncothyreon Inc (ONTY) as a Top Pick for Friday later this evening, showing an 8-week breakout from a flat 16% base. ONTY is trading at $3.09, so consider it a bit more speculative, given it's Biotechnology industry group.
  

• 2009-06-25: Weekly chart of CGA doesn't look right - look at daily.
  

• 2009-06-24: Top Stock Pick ASIA will be sold tomorrow (Thursday) on further weakness, barring any positive news announcement.
  

• 2009-06-23: Exited APWR for about a -20% loss.
  

• 2009-06-23: Nailed down +26% profits in CKSW, after it hit our profit objective.
  

• 2009-06-23: Covered the short-term trade in ACXM (Short position) for a profit of +6%.
  

• 2009-06-22: Top Stock Picks candidate Oxigene Inc (OXGN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-06-18: Past Top Pick ClickSoftware Technologies (CKSW) has reached our profit target of +25% to +30%. Today, CKSW also retraced all of yesterday's move to new highs, not very positive. We now have a stop order to sell CKSW on weakness below $5.25 Friday.
  

• 2009-06-16: Closed out two short-term trades today - TQNT for +25% and INSM for +13%.
  

• 2009-06-15: Entered BCON as a speculative play. We'll see how it plays out.

  It is to be noted that today's sell-off came on below-average trading volume, at least as far as the GSA portfolio goes, while the few names that closed up (APWR, TQNT, and CRTX) did so on robust volume. Always a good sign.
  

• 2009-06-14: Beacon Power Corp (BCON) for a SPECULATIVE TRADE Monday on strength above $1.02. Purely a technical play only - flat breakout on its daily, plus the weekly chart looks like BCON has completed a rounded bottoming process.
  

• 2009-06-11: Looking to enter a few short-term TRADES Friday: LONG the cup-and-handle breakout in OTEX on strength above its Thursday close of $36.90, and SHORT the bearish Doji in ACXM on weakness below its close of $12.27.
  

  Also, current Top Picks portfolio holding ArcSight (ARST) announced earnings that were better than expectations, but guided lower for the next quarter. Was down after-hours - it will probably behave bad Friday, so may decide to pull the trigger on ARST.
  

• 2009-06-10: CTRN trade did not work out - closed down hard today by about -12%, and we so we exited.
  

• 2009-06-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc (CRTX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-06-05: Exited our trade in CSC for a +7% gain.
  

• 2009-06-05: Took a speculative position in Insmed Inc (INSM) on a breakout in an uptrending stair-step chart pattern. Definitely a speculative play here with this low priced stock.
  

• 2009-06-04: Entered the breakout in S1 (SONE) for a TRADE.
  

• 2009-06-03: Traded out of SXCI for some CMED, which broke out of a flat basing pattern and broke through it's 200-day.
  

• 2009-06-02: We'll go ahead and close out our TRADE in SXCI Wednesday. SXCI has given us about +8%, right in the middle of our +5% to +10% objective for Active Trades. Also seeing a move to new highs on low volume, prompting closing out the trade, barring any positive news announcements.
  

• 2009-06-01: Top Stock Picks candidate Cytori Therapeutics Inc (CYTX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-05-27: Entered TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) for a trade only - nice breakout on a 3-month daily chart, plus Semiconductors group action within Top 40.
  

  Current holding MELI broke support at it's 50-day moving average - warning sign. Will see if it recovers a bit by the end of the day. Maybe a shake out of weak hands is in play.
  

• 2009-05-27: Exited MELI on a high-volume break through it's 50-day, a -9% hit.
  

• 2009-05-26: Top Stock Picks candidate AsiaInfo Holdings Inc (ASIA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-05-26: Exited our short-term trade in BMC for a small loss. Took trading positions in MDVN, CSC, CTRN and SXCI - all breakouts within our Active Trading page featuring minute-by-minute refreshes of breakouts, moving average crossovers, price gaps, and reversals.
  

• 2009-05-22: Exited the Goldcorp Inc (GG) trade for about +4%.
  

• 2009-05-22: Shorted salesforce.com inc (CRM) on a break thru both it's 50-day and 200-day moving average, as well as gapping down today on high volume. CRM is over-owned by institutions and also over-valued, showing up on our Daily Report (Short Candidates).
  

• 2009-05-21: Exited JRJC this morning on declining accumulation/distribution rank.
  

• 2009-05-20: Gold acting strong today. Goldcorp Inc (GG) for a trade.
  

• 2009-05-19: Took a trading position in BMC Software Inc (BMC), which looks like it wants to break out from a tight 8-week base. Remember (note to self), this is a trade (target +5% to +10% gains), and not a core position.
  

• 2009-05-16: On Friday, we were stopped out of our positions in CMED and SDTH for small -7% to -8% losses, while we re-entered positions in recent Top Picks ARST and APWR. ARST found support at it's 50-day, while APWR did the same off it's 200-day.

  Nasdaq failed to break through resistance at it's 200-day, so we're back to taking a cautious approach, with tight stops and nailing down profits around +20% on our holdings when we have them.
  

  Also, try to complement your core position trades with short-term opportunities generated by our Active Trading feature - charts of breakouts, moving averages support, that are refreshed for you automatically all through the trading day. Goal here is to take quick +7% to +10% profits, while cutting losses at -5%.
  

• 2009-05-13: Today we exited positions in APWR, ARST and FEED, all for around +20% gains, while we sold out of CTCT for a loss of around -12%.
  

• 2009-05-05: Top Stock Picks candidate Ebix Inc (EBIX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Advanced Battery Technologies Inc (ABAT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-05-04: Top Stock Picks candidate Perfect World Co Ltd (PWRD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-05-01: Top Stock Picks candidate First Solar Inc (FSLR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-04-27: Top Stock Picks candidate Starent Networks Corp (STAR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Sohu.com Inc (SOHU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-04-20: Top Stock Picks candidate Mercadolibre Inc (MELI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate AgFeed Industries Inc (FEED) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate A Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd (APWR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate DG FastChannel Inc (DGIT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate ShengdaTech Inc (SDTH) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate China Medical Technologies Inc (CMED) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Google Inc (GOOG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Constant Contact Inc (CTCT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-04-17: Top Stock Picks candidate China Finance Online Co Ltd (JRJC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-04-13: Top Stock Picks candidate NVE Corp (NVEC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-04-13: We exited our position in BEAT on a break below both the 50-day and 200-day averages.
  

• 2009-04-13: Brief update on a new feature we've launched for active traders. Now members can click on the "Active Trading" link to view continuously refreshed daily charts of stocks exhibiting breakouts, moving average crossovers, price gaps and reversals. Without much effort, you can now see actionable and timely stock activity all in one place.

  It is our belief that this market has become extremely short-term focused, and it would benefit us to complement our investment portfolio with a few well selected (i.e., good chart patterns) short term trading ideas. We will mainly look for breakouts from tight chart patterns, and aim for smaller profit objectives than our customary 25% to 30%, perhaps around 10% or so.

  Also, please bear with us, as we work out any kinks on this new feature, and we welcome your suggestions and feedback.
  

• 2009-04-06: Top Stock Picks candidate ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd (CKSW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-03-26: We plan to re-purchase recently stopped out Top Pick TeleCommunication Systems (TSYS) on it's breakout to a new high today. ARST also looked good today, up nearly +13% for the day. Time will tell if this nascent rally has legs.
  

• 2009-03-17: We will be taking a SHORT swing trade (1 to 10 day) position in Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (SWHC) Tuesday, on a bearish doji pattern, and will cover if SWHC makes a new high.
  

• 2009-03-16: Top Stock Picks candidate CardioNet Inc (BEAT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate ArcSight Inc (ARST) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-03-11: In the middle of this recession, and given the state of today's stock market, we have decided to roll-back our subscription rates by 50%. Recently, we've received quite a few e-mails suggesting that are rates are too high for what this market has to offer, and that people would find our service valuable but just couldn't afford the price. Of course, we have also doubled the period remaining on all existing member subscriptions to align with our new rates.

  On yesterday's market action, remember one day does not a rally make. We are sticking by our short positions for now. We need more confirmation (follow-thru days, improved market breadth, increased breakouts, etc) before we can fully invest on the long side. Best regards!
  

• 2009-03-09: We exited our long positions in STAR for a +10% gain, TNDM (+0%), TSYS (-12%). Only short positions are now held in the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2009-03-08: Market continues to show no signs of life on the long-side. On Friday, we exited our trading position in RGR for a quick +12% gain. Also, barring any positive stock-specific news before the market opens Monday, we will be exiting our remaining longs in STAR (short-term reversal Friday), TNDM (reversal on it's weekly), and TSYS (continues to trade below both it's 50-day moving average and our trailing stop-loss line).

  On the short side, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX) seems to have made a double-top on a weekly chart. We will be selling VRTX short, since it broke below it's 200-day moving average last week, shows poor accumulation, and is just over 20% off it's 52-week high. Another short for Monday is Cbeyond, Inc (CBEY), grossly over-valued, with 97% of shares owned by institutions, and showing declining sales growth.

• 2009-03-04: Taking a trading position in RGR long, and shorting NKTR today.
  

• 2009-03-04: Take a look at Capella Education (CPLA). We are looking to short CPLA Thursday, as it has broken below its 200 day, is over-owned by institutions, and shows poor accumulation/distribution. Its group Education and Training Services also took a big hit today as well.
  

• 2009-02-28: As you know, we've been experimenting with swing trades (1-10 days hold) using candlesticks and overbought-oversold conditions. We are going to swing long THRX, CHTT and AVD. Also, taking some short positions in RMD, EW and ISIS. Finally, take a look at the huge breakout in RGR - maybe too late to jump in now.

• 2009-02-18: Today, we pyramided into both STAR and TSYS, to take each up to approximately 10% of the GSA Long Portfolio.
  

• 2009-02-17: Top Stock Picks candidate TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (TSYS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-02-11: Based on some of your feedback, and the nature of how short-term focused this market has really become, we have introduced a new feature for Swing Trading. It is built on trying to profit from near term (1 to 10 days) long- or short swing trading positions. Entry points are triggered by a handful of the popular Japanese Candlestick reversal patterns, in combination with a stock's overbought/oversold condition. Feel free to check it out using the Swing Trading link after logging into our site. As always, your comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.
  

• 2009-02-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Neutral Tandem Inc (TNDM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-02-02: Top Stock Picks candidate Starent Networks Corp (STAR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2009-01-12: Following our sell rules, today we were stopped out of LPHI for a small -8% loss.
  

• 2008-12-31: We purchased Top Stock Picks candidate LPHI today at $43.40 on a breakout to new highs from a basing pattern.
  

• 2008-12-30: We've spent some time and effort building a SHORTING strategy that would have hedged our portfolio against the market declines over the last several months. We've back-tested this strategy, going back to April 2004, and have provided the results on the graph shown on our home page. The SHORT portfolio holdings can also be viewed on our Top Picks Portfolio page.

  Of course hindsight is 20/20, but you can see that this SHORT strategy worked well in the recent past (no surprise here). Time will tell if it provides an adequate hedge going forward. In a nutshell, the strategy is to short poor accumulation/distribution stocks that have recently broken below their 200-day moving averages, while both the 200 day and 50-day averages are trending lower. These stocks also have too much institutional ownership, and may be primed for more selling. The ticker SPY must also be trading below it's 200-day MA for the SHORT strategy to be in effect. We plan to short any new names from this strategy in the live GSA Portfolio.

  Hope you all have a wonderful new year!
  

• 2008-10-22: We exited our position in QCOR for a +19% gain.
  

• 2008-10-02: We exited all our losing positions (MASI, BKE, DXPE) this afternoon. Only holding in the GSA Portfolio is now QCOR, which remarkably is showing a profit.
  

• 2008-09-30: We exited positions in IIVI and IGTE, both being off more than 20% off their 52-week highs.
  

• 2008-09-22: Top Stock Picks candidate Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc (QCOR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-09-21: Last week's Top Pick Questcor Pharmaceuticals (QCOR) has held up well. We'll go ahead and take our 5% position in QCOR Monday morning, barring any negative announcements between now and then.
  

• 2008-09-17: Thursday, we will exit positions in FUQI and GXDX, both of which are trading more than 20% off their highs. These stocks are down the most in the GSA Portfolio (-22% and -18% respectively). Further portfolio weakness in this brutal market environment will lead to more selling of our remaining holdings. May better times soon prevail!
  

• 2008-09-15: In light of significant market turmoil due to Lehman's potential bankruptcy filing, we are going to hold off purchasing Top Pick QCOR this morning.
  

• 2008-09-09: MR and CMED were both sold from the GSA Portfolio on poor price action and trading more than 20% off their highs.
  

• 2008-09-03: Top Stock Picks candidate Fuqi International Inc (FUQI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Top Stock Picks candidate Buckle Inc (BKE) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-08-29: Being up 3% to 6% from our original purchase price of DXP Enterprises Inc (DXPE), we added (pyramided) to this position.

• 2008-08-25: Top Stock Picks candidate Digital Ally Inc (DGLY) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-08-15: Top Stock Picks candidate DXP Enterprises Inc (DXPE) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  Being up 3% to 6% from our original purchase price of Masimo Corp (MASI), we added (pyramided) to this position.

• 2008-08-11: Top Stock Picks candidate Genoptix Inc (GXDX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Masimo Corp (MASI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate II VI Inc (IIVI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-08-07: Top Stock Picks candidate China Medical Technologies Inc (CMED) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Mindray Medical International Ltd (MR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-08-04: Top Stock Picks candidate iGate Corp (IGTE) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-08-04: This morning, we exited our position in POT for a -12.5% loss.
  

• 2008-07-30: Our only portfolio holding Potash Corp (POT) is barely holding up. Fundamentally sales and earnings looked steller in its recent reporting quarter. However, technically, along with other Agricultural Chemical stocks, POT does not look strong. Down -8% in this position, we will give it a few more days to see if it improves technically - if not, then we cut our losses and move on.

  Market has been rallying strongly last few days. We are seeing an increase in the number of stocks making our database, as well as the number of industry groups with 2 or more stocks close to new highs. However, we still want to give this rally a bit more time to prove itself (we've been shaken out by fake attempts before!). All three major indexes are still below their respective 50-day moving averages, showing poor A/D ranks, so we should wait a bit. Let's remain cautious, patient, observant and let the market come to us, instead of the other way around.
  

• 2008-06-26: Today we exited our position in TTES for a +24% gain (met its profit target in 9+ weeks), RIMM for a 2% gain (negative price action on earnings), and NVEC for a -14% loss (violation of trailing stop-loss line).
  

• 2008-06-21: Friday, we sold our SOHU holdings for a gain of +28%. SOHU broke through it's 50-day moving average on strong volume on negative comments by the company regarding post-Olympics ad spending.

  We continue to be defensive in this very tough market environment. 

• 2008-06-10: Today we were stopped out of our positions in ATW, GNK and DRYS, for a loss of approximately -10% each.
  

• 2008-06-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc (POT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-06-04: Following our Top Picks model portfolio signals, we are going to pyramid into our holding in NVEC, being up +4.8% to date. SOHU has been acting right as well, making new highs on strong volume - it is key to watch this action closely, because reversals off a new high often show up clearly on a daily chart. SOHU has been a good performer for the GSA Portfolio, being up +58% since purchase, plus we are leveraged in it. ATW is clinging to it's 50-day moving average, stayin barely above it, and along with the shippers GNK and DRYS, look like our weaker performers. They need a close watch as well.
  

• 2008-05-28: We need to keep a close watch on Atwood Oceanics (ATW), which is trying to find support at it's 50-day moving average. Being down nearly -10% in ATW, we will exit on any weakness today (Wednesday).

  Last week the market showed how extremely volatile it can become. The Dow lost more than 500 points, and was turned back hard from it's 200 day moving average. Most, if not all, of the GSA Portfolio gains since the March lows disappeared. So now, once again we find ourselves playing defense - tight stops, daily vigilance and adherence to our sell rules (poor accumulation / distribution, reversals off new highs, violation of support levels, too far below 52-week highs, etc.)
  

• 2008-05-27: Today we exited out of positions that had double-digit losses - CF, TNH, GFA, ISRG and PWRD. The market doesn't want to recover after last week's dismal performance.
  

• 2008-05-23: We sold out our position in FEED for a loss of -18%.
  

• 2008-05-19: Top Stock Picks candidate Perfect World Co Ltd (PWRD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-05-17: Quick comment on Monday's Top Pick - Perfect World (PWRD) is set to announce earnings before the market opens Monday. Barring a negative announcement, or weak pre-market action in PWRD, we will purchase it at the open.

  Market's been kind to the GSA Portfolio of late. The Dow and S&P 500 indices are both up against their 40-week moving averages, and are looking to break through, while the Nasdaq has shown it's leadership and has already broken through last week. Let's see whether this is the start of a bull run that is sustainable.
  

• 2008-05-13: Good strong day for the GSA Portfolio Monday, with the portfolio up +3.8% vs +1.02% for the Dow. Portfolio was aided by concentrated positions in GNK, DRYS, SOHU and RIMM, each of which makes up approximately 10% of our portfolio. We also pyramided into TTES, being up +3% in this holding. For the benefit of new members, it bears repeating - always buy more shares of your stock holdings that move up, never add to those that you are showing a loss in. With our trade for the morning in NVEC, the portfolio is getting dangerously close to being fully invested. Like in the past, it took only a few weeks to go from 0% to 100% in our investment position. Playing the market is an exercise of constant vigilance. You won't know when things change, if you are not looking.
  

• 2008-05-13: Top Stock Picks candidate NVE Corp (NVEC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-05-05: Top Stock Picks candidate Gafisa ADR (GFA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate DryShips Inc (DRYS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-04-21: Top Stock Picks candidate Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd (GNK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate T 3 Energy Services Inc (TTES) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Sohu.com Inc (SOHU) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate AgFeed Industries Inc (FEED) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Terra Nitrogen Co LP (TNH) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Atwood Oceanics Inc (ATW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-04-21: We will go ahead and pyramid the GSA Portfolio into Research in Motion (RIMM) and Sohu.com Inc (SOHU), both being up +3% from our original purchase point. Also, we saw decent moves in our Top Picks today, with all but one (GNK -0.03), finishing higher on the day. The key is if these moves are sustainable so as to net us meaningful profits.
  

• 2008-04-20: Based on the action of leading stocks, we are going to get more aggressive in the GSA Portfolio Monday, and are going to stake 5% portfolio positions in the following six top ranked breakout stocks: GNK, TTES, SOHU, FEED, TNH and ATW. Also, we need to watch ISRG closely, since it sold off sharply despite earnings that beat expectations.
  

• 2008-04-20: Please note - we still own CF in our portfolio, along with RIMM and ISRG.
  

• 2008-04-15: Following our rules to pyramid into positions that have moved up +3% to +6%, we are going to add to our purchase yesterday of CF Industries Holdings (CF).
  

• 2008-04-14: Top Stock Picks candidate CF Industries Holdings Inc (CF) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-04-04: Top Stock Picks candidate Research in Motion Ltd (RIMM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-04-02: Top Stock Picks candidate Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-04-01: We are going to nibble a bit at this market, with a 5% portfolio position in Top Pick Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG). ISRG has shown a decent chart pattern, with a breakout from a 19% base of 15 weeks duration. Our stance needs to be extremely defensive with a tight 7% to 8% stop-loss, given the fact that this rally could either be a short-lived rally within the confines of a bear market, or the start of something new. No one can say for sure, but let's act on the price action of our leading stocks.
  

• 2008-03-22: Just a brief update - based on the composition of stocks making our database this week (and in recent past weeks), as well as the chart patterns observed in leading stocks, we continue to maintain our 100% cash position in the market. Like in the past, we will be able to increase our portfolio position from 0% to 100% invested within a matter of days or weeks. Although last week's market action as demonstrated by the averages was much more encouraging than prior weeks, this leadership doesn't seem to have translated into individual stock names. The market needs to show us the way, and right now, that direction is not clear to us.

• 2008-02-16: The US Stock Market continues to exhibit weakness, as last week's lackluster economic reports offered little encouragement. The week began strong but closed with disappointing weakness. The market's (DJIA, S&P and Nasdaq) 50-day moving averages are now in an established downtrends, while their 200-day have also turned down.

  Also, one look at our Industry Map feature shows you how poor market breadth really is - now there are only 22 industries with 2 or more stocks that made recent 52-week highs. In bull markets, we usually see 100+ industry groups exhibiting this behavior. Our Auto Portfolio also refuses to spit out any strong names, and so we continue to maintain our 95% cash position.

• 2008-02-04: Top Stock Picks candidate ShengdaTech Inc (SDTH) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2008-01-18: Our single portfolio holding Terra Nitrogen Co (TNH) is sitting right at it's 50-day moving average - need to see if this level will hold Friday. Being down on TNH more than our customary -7 to -8% is a reason for concern, although this morning's futures point to a higher initial open. Also Friday, President Bush is planning to unveil some details (sketchy) about his fiscal stimulus plan to boost our economy. With options expiration today, markets are going to be no less volatile than the rest of the week.

• 2008-01-18: We took advantage of the small bounce and sold out our only holding in TNH. The GSA Portfolio is now 100% in cash, awaiting future market opportunities.

• 2008-01-09: Today STP violated our trailing stop-loss line, and we traded out of it for a +58% gain. The sole position now held in the GSA Portfolio is TNH.

• 2008-01-07: Today we were stopped out of past Top Pick JASO for a gain of +44%, when our trailing stop-loss was triggered intra-day. We also exited our position in TRAD for a loss of -13%, sticking to our sell rules discipline. JASO announced a 3:1 stock split, which we know does nothing to a stock's underlying value.

  We also have a stop order in place on our other solar play STP at it's trailing support level and judging by recent market action, it seems that it will be triggered tomorrow as well. The market right now is forcing us to exit positions - not heeding this advice would be counter-productive to our portfolio.

• 2008-01-02: First of all, we wish all our subscribers a Very Happy New Year! Without your support, kind words and your much valued suggestions, our efforts would have no meaning.

  Today, the market got off to it's worst start ever (in terms of Dow points), driven mainly by weak manufacturing data and an oil spike above $100/barrel. Let us see what Thursday has to offer. At some point, the market will wake up to it's undervalued state. Inspite of a big down day today, the GSA Portfolio actually closed up, helped, as usual, by JASO and STP - don't know how far or how long their run will last. We will need to stick by our trailing stop-losses on these plays to maximize our gains. IBD also had a positive note out on the energy sector late Wednesday. On the negative side, recent Top Stock Pick MTW closed lower and we are down -8.7% on this position. Our trading rules tell us to bail out of this one, and so we shall, barring any positive pre-market news announcements.

  We cannot stress the following point enough - you will almost always have more losers than winners over a given time period, but the key is to keep your losses small, and let your winners rides. Easier said than done, but hopefully the tools that we now have in place, make that task a bit more manageable.

• 2007-12-31: Top Stock Picks candidate Terra Nitrogen Co LP (TNH) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-12-26: Top Stock Picks candidate Manitowoc Co Inc (MTW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-12-24: Top Stock Picks candidate TradeStation Group Inc (TRAD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-12-17: We reduced our exposure to the market today by selling half our position in JASO and STP for gains of +46% and +74% respectively. JASO reversed off a new 52-wk high, and looks like it will close in the red today, amidst general market weakness. We also closed out our position in MICC for a small loss of -3%. After today's action, the GSA Portfolio is roughly 10% invested, with 90% sitting in cash.

• 2007-12-09: Although the market averages are approaching new highs (S&P 500 less than 5% off its 52-week high), we have not observed robust participation by a broad group of stocks. Take a quick look at a daily chart of the S&P 500, and see how volume has contracted all through this recent 10-day rally. Further, our industry group analysis indicates a gradually shrinking count of groups with stocks that have made recent new highs. There are currently less than 50 groups with this characteristic. What happened to the other 50?

  We were tempted to post TradeStation Group (TRAD) as a Top Pick, but TRAD doesn't yet show double-digit quarterly EPS numbers, so we stayed put. Maybe it will rally for a few points, but remember our miniumum goal is a +25% move. Right now, if we want to enter a trade, the stock should jump up at us, with absolutely no red flags. Our few holdings in solar plays continue to act well, and so we hold these, until our trading rules dictate otherwise.

• 2007-11-27: We were stopped out of our positions in EZA, WFR and BIDZ for a loss of -7%, -10%, and -29% respectively. BIDZ gapped down this morning, based on the fallout from the negative write-up by a short seller. The real story around BIDZ has not unfolded completely, but in all cases when there is significant doubt about a holding, we let the market tell us what to do. We followed our trading rules, and exited our positions.

• 2007-11-26: The Nasdaq composite joined the other market averages to trade firmly below their 200-day moving averages. Sticking to our sell rules of exiting positions that are down -7% to -10%, we are going to trade out of EZA, WFR and BIDZ, barring any breaking positive developments before the market opens Tuesday. BIDZ was particularly hit hard after negative comments on a blog site, and showed a high volume reversal off a new 52-week high set earlier in the day today. Given the market environment, we also plan to lock in partial profits in our winners STP and JASO by selling half our position. STP is up nearly +50% for us, while JASO is up +14%.

• 2007-11-23: Market has bounced back well on this shortened, post-Thanksgiving trading day, and volume will remain relatively light today. Our market direction indicators continue to remain in the bearish camp. All three market indicator proxies (DIA, SPY and ONEQ) have shown worsening accumulation/distribution ranks, and are trading below their respective 200-day moving averages.

  We continue to be defensive in our GSA Portfolio, making selective purchases only if an outstanding stock chart/name jumps out in our screens. Also, the one to watch more closely next week is MEMEC Electronic Materials (WFR), since we are down -7% in this position. WFR seems to have found support at it's 50-day moving average, which is encouraging for now. Overall, the GSA Portfolio is up +2.5% today with approximately 2 trading hours remaining.

  Remember this old wall street saying - bull markets have no resistance, and bear markets have no support. It explains, in general terms, why sometimes support levels hold and other times they don't.

• 2007-11-19: Top Stock Picks candidate Bidz.com Inc (BIDZ) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-11-15: We traded out of our losing positions in AOB, NE, and SSRX for a loss of -8%, -11% and -23%. All good stocks, stopped out as a result of poor market action.

• 2007-11-13: Pre-market is looking extremely strong today. We are going to wait and see if the GSA Portfolio recovers a bit, before trading out of some of our losers.

• 2007-11-12: Gosh, it's been a depressing last few days in the market. Haven't seen a market drop so fast in a long time. Usually, these fast down moves portend of things to come, if there is no bounce attempt of support areas. The GSA Portfolio took it on the chin Friday, down -6% and again today, down -5%, giving back all the prior month's gains and then some. So, we are going to stick to our rules and trade out of our losing positions - MICC, NE, AOB, SSRX , anything that is down -7 to -8% or more, will all be sold at the market Tuesday, barring any SIGNIFICANT company-specific positive news announcements.

• 2007-11-09: Market may have found support at it's 200-day moving average after several recent volatile days, although the futures this Friday morning point to further weakness. The GSA Portfolio also experienced +2% up and down moves for 3 days in a row, but strength in solar stocks has really helped our core solar holdings (STP, JASO), both up +45% or more. We also need to watch SSRX (-13%), to see if we should exit this one.

• 2007-11-07: Top Stock Picks candidate Noble Corp (NE) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-11-01: Top Stock Picks candidate Silicon Motion Technology Corp (SIMO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-10-29: Top Stock Picks candidate MEMC Electronic Materials Inc (WFR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Millicom International Cellular (MICC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-10-29: We're going to scale into our position in WFR tomorrow, following the signals generated by our Top Picks Portfolio Model. Overall, the market is telling us to be aggressively positioned - hopefully we should continue to see a favorable interest rate stance by the Fed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

  Past Top Stock Pick from a week ago, Suntech Power Holdings (STP) has way exceeded our expectations, being up +38% from our purchase price. Let's see if we have the fortitude to hold this one through for a longer-term play.

• 2007-10-23: Tuesday morning, we are going to pyramid into our position in Monday's Top Stock Pick Suntech Power Holdings (STP), since we are up +4% in STP.

• 2007-10-22: Top Stock Picks candidate Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd (STP) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-10-11: We pyramided today into recent Top Stock Pick JASO on a brokerage upgrade and a move up on very strong volume.

• 2007-10-10: On Wednesday, barring any negative news, we will pyramid into recent Top Stock Picks AOB and SSRX, both being up +3% from our purchase point. Channel your portfolio into those stocks that have moved in the right direction for you. We normally double our position, if a stock has moved up +3% to +6% from our original buy point.

• 2007-10-08: Top Stock Picks candidate 3SBio Inc (SSRX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate American Oriental Bioengineering Inc (AOB) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate IShares MSCI South Africa (EZA) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-09-29: The wildly neutral market continues it's action this week as well. Once again, we see a contraction in the number of stocks to chose from. We observed a few more breakouts this past week, but most of the price structures looked loose and wide (e.g., HOLX, HURC, ANST). We're not willing to commit additional funds to any names based on our observances at this point. It will be interesting to see if the market averages can break through their old summer highs or if double-top patterns will instead take place. Although it could be frustrating for new investors (and for some of our newer subscribers), it is prudent to sit tight right now.

• 2007-09-24: Top Stock Picks candidate JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd (JASO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-09-17: The market has already priced in a cut in the Fed Funds rate on September 18. The only issue remaining is how much the fed will cut this week - 25 or 50 basis points. Futures this Monday morning point to a weaker opening.

  On the GSA Portfolio front, nothing has changed - we still remain 100% in cash. We observed another contraction this week in the number of stocks making our database. Also, take a look at our Industry Map - in a broad, healthy market, we normally observe at least 100 industry names that have 2 or more stocks approaching new highs. This week only 35-odd industries meet this criteria, indicating bad market breadth. We continue to sit tight.

• 2007-09-09: As over the last few weeks, we continue to maintain zero exposure to equities at this point. Last week, both the S&P 500 and the Dow failed to reclaim support of their 50-day moving averages. Using ETF proxies for the market, the current accumulation/distribution rankings of SPY and DIA are at 0.99 and 1.22 respectively. A reading below 1 indicates distribution. Also, less and less stocks are making our database every week, so that too indicates a smaller participation by leading stocks. Our market indicators have been stuck firmly in the bearish-neutral state.

  On Friday, we had the first monthly loss in payrolls growth in almost four years. The week after next, the Fed meets on September 18 to announce whether a rate cut in the Fed Funds rate is warranted - the market is expecting some sort of cut from the current 5.25% level. Next week is marked by a few market moving events - the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, initial jobless claims, retail sales, and the University of Michigan's consumer confidence numbers. Expect more volatility, and so we continue to watch from the sidelines for now.

• 2007-09-03: We continue to remain on the sidelines in this market, until we see a greater participation from individual names and more breakouts to chose from. Tried hard this weekend to find some names worth buying into, but didn't find much. Some of our past winners looked interesting like RIMM, DRYS and LIFC, but there isn't any point chasing extended stocks. In a healthy market, stocks should be flashing buy signals all around - let the market come to you.

  Technically, both the Dow and the S&P 500 are trading between their declining 50-day and still rising 200-day moving average. It will be interesting to watch which psychological area gets violated again. Historically, we are also in the month most disliked by the market. Since 1951, the Dow has risen in September only 36% of the time, with an average monthly return for September of -1.06%. Maybe it's prudent to continue to enjoy the summer trade-free for a few more weeks.

• 2007-08-25: We continue to maintain a 100% cash position in the GSA Portfolio, since no stock names seem to jump out of our database for purchase. Although valuations on the overall market seem appealing, from a technical perspective we need to see if the major stock indexes can reclaim the support of their 50-day averages. More importantly, we need to see upside participation from individual growth stocks, but we are observing very few breakouts this week. The credit problem in the market probably won't correct itself instantly, although it was encouraging to see July new home sales reverse their prior two months of decline.

  On another note, we've added a new feature to the site - we now show thumbnail trend charts of key indicators like accumulation/distribution, relative strength, GSA rank, quarterly EPS%, etc., to quickly see a 3-month snapshot of these indicators in one place. Hopefully you will find it useful.

• 2007-08-17: We sold our position in Top Stock Pick DryShips (DRYS) Thursday for a gain of +21%. The market rallied a bit into the close yesterday, but it needs to be seen if a bottom has been formed or the worst is yet to come. We are now sitting on a 100% cash position.

• 2007-08-15: Today we were stopped out of Top Stock Picks Research in Motion (RIMM) for a gain of +29%, and Google (GOOG) for a loss of -3.5%. The only remaining position in the GSA Portfolio is DryShips (DRYS), currently up +24.5% from our purchase point. We may as well go ahead and sell DRYS at the market tomorrow, given the state of this market.

• 2007-08-06: Today we were stopped out of Apple Inc (AAPL) for a +30% gain, and Guess? Inc (GES) for a +8% gain. We continue to remain cautious inspite of today's 286 point rally in the Dow, since leading stocks still need to prove themselves - and that didn't happen today.

• 2007-08-05: We continue to take a very cautious view in this market and have placed hard stops on most positions in the GSA Portfolio. In addition to the stops placed last week on GOOG and RIMM, we have new stops in place on AAPL (just below it's 10-wk average at $129.95) and GES (just below last weeks low at $45.95). The stops if triggered should protect profits of +30% on AAPL and +8% on GES.

• 2007-08-01: Market continues to act very weak, with the S&P 500 close to testing support at it's 200-day moving average around 1450. The market gave back positive gains from early in the day to close at it's lows, again not a healthy sign.

  Looking at our portfolio holdings, we have placed stop-sell orders on stocks that are close to violating their trailing stops - RIMM and GOOG are two names that exhibit this situation. On RIMM, a stop around $199 would protect profits of +30%, and on GOOG, a stop around $499 would limit our losses to -4%. It does not matter how high profile the name of the stock you are holding - we need to show trading rules discipline at all times, specially when our market indicators go bearish. Keep the faith!

• 2007-08-01: We were stopped out of NCTY for a loss of -12%.

• 2007-07-27: We were stopped out of Top Pick HAYN today for a loss of -12%.

• 2007-07-27: We exited our position in Top Pick LifeCell (LIFC) for a +20% gain. LIFC had a reversal off a new high two trading sessions ago, and continued to act a bit weak in this poor market environment, and so we nailed down meaningful profits.

  Market seems to look vulnerable here again down triple digits, even in the face of excellent GDP numbers released today - not a very reassuring sign. We will continue to follow our trading rules and sell positions that show losses of -7% to -10%.

• 2007-07-25: Top Stock Pick SIMO was sold from the GSA Portfolio for a loss of -7%. After the bell Wednesday, Apple (AAPL) announced quarterly results ($0.92) significantly above expectations ($0.72), and was up big after-hours. We should see a strong move in AAPL in Thursday's trading. We also need to watch HAYN carefully, since we are down almost -7% in this position.

• 2007-07-24: Top Stock Pick Google (GOOG) seems to have found support at it's 50-day moving average line. We need to observe closely if this level holds.

  Also, Silicon Motion Technology (SIMO) is trading below it's GSA trailing stop-loss line. We will be placing stops just below SIMO's 50-day moving average of $24 to keep our losses small.

  DryShips (DRYS) has been on a tear, but we are going to continue to ride this one, unless we see a reversal occur - DRYS is a bit extended in price.
  

• 2007-07-21: Top Stock Pick NVE Corporation (NVEC) was sold from the GSA Portfolio for a loss of -14% on across the board market weakness. One exception in the portfolio was Apple (AAPL) which closed up +3.75. We will continue to use our trading rules to make portfolio decisions in the coming week - expect more market volatility, hopefully this time to the upside.
  

• 2007-07-19: Following our trading rules, we will be a seller of NVEC at the market Friday. NVEC broke support (both 10-wk and our trailing stop-loss line), inspite of reporting a +78% increase in quaterly EPS. We are down -13.9% in NVEC.

  After hours, Google (GOOG) was down more than -7% and so it deserves close watching as well.
  

• 2007-07-16: Top Stock Picks candidate Haynes International Inc (HAYN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate The9 Limited (NCTY) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-07-14: We will be initiating a position in this week's Top Stock Pick Haynes International Inc (HAYN) Monday morning. HAYN has shown good basing action for several weeks and also broke out of this consolidation period on active volume.

  Also, following the signals generated by our Top Picks Portfolio, we will repurchase a position in past pick The9 Ltd (NCTY). Our repurchase rules allow us to re-initiate a position in recently closed longer-term plays which have again made new highs on robust trade.

  With the markets all around the world in a buoyant mood, it seems prudent to increase our exposure to quality growth stocks, while following our strict buy/sell rules.
  

• 2007-07-07: Don't see lots of new opportunities in this week's market, except that we will pyramid into our position in Top Stock Pick NVE Corp (NVEC), following our established buy rules. NVEC is up +3% from where we purchased last week, and is showing  good follow-thru action from it's cup-and-handle breakout.

  Also, on Friday, we sold our position in NCTY for a +23% gain.
  

• 2007-07-05: All but one stock in the GSA Portfolio finished in the green today, despite a ho-hum market day marked by light post-holiday trade. We've seen some big moves in the portfolio that began with RIMM's announcement last Friday. We also see that The9 Ltd (NCTY)  has made repeated new highs on lower than average volume, and so we are going to exit our position in NCTY for a +23% gain tomorrow - barring, as usual, any positive breaking news before the market opens. This has been our second profitable trade in NCTY this year.

  Also, we have spent the last few weeks analyzing the historical performance of our Top Picks going back to April 2004, and applying our buy/sell trading rules to a portfolio built out of these picks. The results, although not stellar (given the market performance since then), seem to be pretty encouraging as shown on our home page. One of the characteristics of the model was to sell quickly (at a -7% loss), with the intention of buying back again on new highs. Also, note that there are more losing trades than winning trades, but the concept of pyramiding into winners and letting them ride longer kept the portfolio out of trouble. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts or questions.
  

• 2007-07-03: Top Stock Picks candidate NVE Corporation (NVEC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-07-02: Top Stock Picks candidate DryShips Inc (DRYS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-06-28: Watch out for some positive price action Friday on current Top Stock Picks holding Research in Motion (RIMM), which beat analysts' earnings expecatations, provided strong sales guidance and set a 3-for-1 stock split. RIMM was up as much as +16% in after-hours trading Thursday - don't know if the regular session will beat that amount. We'll watch and hopefully enjoy the session Friday.
  

• 2007-06-25: Top Stock Picks candidate Silicon Motion Technology Corp (ADR) (SIMO) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-06-20: We traded out of our position in Atwood Oceanics (ATW) for a +15% gain. ATW reversed off its high today, as well as made recent new highs on lower than average volume over the past few weeks.

  We still maintain our cautious, under-invested position in the market. 

• 2007-06-12: Current Top Stock Pick holding TTES was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +6.7%.
  

• 2007-06-11: Weak technical action observed on past Top Stock Pick T-3 Energy Services (TTES) - a break to a new 52-week high on anemic volume. Also, notice how volume has shrunk all through it's recent advance - not exactly what you want to see. We will follow our sell rules and exit our position in TTES Tuesday (barring any positive morning breaking news), with an approximately +7% profit. With this market offering up very few fresh breakouts, we simply need a reason to sell. Remember, of course that one can always buy back your stocks, if they redeem themselves in the future.
  

• 2007-06-06: Top Stock Picks candidate Google Inc (GOOG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-06-04: With the overnight selloff in Chinese stocks last night (Shanghai down -8.3%) it seemed that Wall Street would have a similar hiccup to what happened earlier in the year. However, the market showed good resilience with the three major averages closing in the green for the day.

  The GSA Portfolio also had a really strong day today (up +1.33% in spite of being only 50% invested), with every holding closing up. GES in fact gapped up right from the opening bell on positive brokerage comments. We continue to see an absence of any other quality stocks breaking out of correct chart patterns, and so we continue to maintain our cautious, under-exposed position in this market. As always, the only time to buy is when the right stocks come to you. Right now, there's not much knocking at our door.
  

• 2007-05-31: We pyramided into our current Top Stock Pick holding Guess? Inc (GES) today. GES is showing a follow-thru breakout to new high on strong volume this morning. We were up +5.6% on our initial GES position - our rules for pyramiding are to add more shares if the price rises anywhere between +3% and +6% from our initial purchase price.
  

• 2007-05-29: Two aspects seem worrying in today's market:

  1. Lack of significant leadership in our breakouts list. There is simply not much to risk new money into.

  2. Take a look at the daily chart of Diamonds Trust (DIA) in our database which serves as an effective proxy of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Notice the high volume reversal off a new high last Thrusday, which indicates a pretty strong distribution day.

  We are therefore going to follow our loss-limiting rules and cut exposure to any stocks not acting right, e.g., Titanium Metals (TIE), which is showing declining relative strength, and is failing to stay above support levels. We will exit TIE at the market tomorrow.
  

• 2007-05-24: We exited our positions in GIGM and GLBL for gains of +26% and +39% respectively. GIGM seems unable to find support at it's 50-day moving average, and GLBL has made a few repeated new highs on low volume.
  

• 2007-05-22: We pyramided into our current Top Stock Picks holding Research In Motion (RIMM) today. RIMM broke out again into new high ground on good volume, and we purchased more RIMM at approximately 3.5% above our original purchase price.
  

• 2007-05-21: Good strong day for the GSA Portfolio, which increased 1.34% vs 0.8% for the Nasdaq. All 10 Top Stock Pick holdings closed in the green today. The market continues to be buoyed by takeover activity, which for a change affected one of our holdings. Electronic Arts (EA) announced that it was taking a 15% stake in current Top Stock Picks holding The9 Ltd (NCTY) which rose 4 points during the day. Company held a conference call late into the evening, so we'll keep a close eye on how NCTY trades tomorrow.
  

  TTES made a new high on lower than average volume, so it may consolidate here a bit, unless volume increases to the upside - also warrants a closer look over the next few trading sessions.

  GLBL and GIGM continue their upward movement on strong confirming volume. Both have been great performers for the GSA Portfolio to-date.

  Still not finding anything else to commit new money into. Need to continue to maintain our cautious position, with a fair degree of patience.
  

• 2007-05-16: Top Stock Pick holding BSD Medical Corporation (BSM) tripped up its stop-loss and was sold from the GSA Portfolio for a -24% loss. Although the market averages closed strongly (Dow up +0.8%), and the GSA Portfolio rose as well (+0.6%), upside volume on our holdings was somewhat anemic. With no stocks matching our standard search criteria, we continue to be cautious with our growth stock holdings.
  

• 2007-05-15: Current Top Stock Picks holding Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (OMRI) announced positive news this morning on FDA approval of a product - we will see how it trades on this news today before deciding on an exit.
  

• 2007-05-15: We were stopped out of Top Stock Pick holdings OMRI and HWCC today for a -9% loss each. OMRI could not close up despite positive developments, a classic sign of a market not behaving well. Keep in mind May and June round out the bottom four months of the market on a historical basis (since 1951), with August and September being the worst performing months.

  Need to continue to be watchful and take profits or limit losses using our sell rules - new highs on low volume, high volume reversals, breakdowns below support. earnings miises, etc.
  

• 2007-05-14: We will exit our position in Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (OMRI) tomorrow, barring any positive morning company specific news announcement. OMRI is showing weaking technicals, including  a failure to hold above support levels. We are currently down about -8% in OMRI. Early in January 2007, we had closed out a +35% gain in OMRI, so we guess we have to give some of it back this second time around.

  GLBL and TTES acting well, making new highs on good volume, on a lackluster market day, with investors awaiting Tuesday's CPI inflation numbers.
  

• 2007-05-13: We are going to pyramid into Past Top Stock Pick Titanium Metals Corporation (TIE) Monday morning. TIE broke out of a cup and handle pattern on Friday (as observed on a weekly chart) on more than 2X average volume. We are already up +8% in TIE, but with nothing new catching our fancy this weekend, it may be prudent to concentrate our cash into plays that are moving in the correct direction.
  

• 2007-05-11: Past Top Stock Pick ZUMZ tripped up our trailing support resistance stop loss, and we exited our position in ZUMZ for a -9% loss.

  Yesterday's sell-off in the market also hit the GSA Portfolio for a -1.6% loss. This mornings S&P500 and Nasdaq futures however both indicate a higher opening for the market Friday. We will be watching our position in OMRI closely to see if it recovers or continues to trade below it's support levels.
  

• 2007-05-10: Top Stock Picks candidate Research in Motion Ltd (RIMM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Guess? Inc (GES) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-05-09: We were stopped out of past Top Pick PRXI for a +39% gain, and out of ROCM for a -10% loss.
  

• 2007-05-07: Top Stock Picks candidate T-3 Energy Services Inc (TTES) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-05-07: We have protective stops in place on the worst performing stocks in our portfolio - BSM, TIE, HWCC and ROCM. PRXI's chart has also given us great hooks on which to hang our profit-protecting stops, which if triggered would net us a +40% return.

  After a stellar April, will the old Wall Street adage hold true - "Sell in May and go away"? All we need to do is observe the action of leading stocks for the answer to this question, and more importantly to follow our trading rules diligently.
  

• 2007-05-07: We pyramided into our existing position in prior Top Stock pick Apple Inc (AAPL). AAPL has moved up nearly +4% from our initial purchase, and warrants a slightly higher concentration in the GSA portfolio.
  

• 2007-05-04: We exited our position in past Top Pick Silicom Ltd (SILC) at a +46% profit. SILC announced a private placement of additional shares and also reversed hard off a new high last week. We can always revisit this strong performer when (if) it retests new highs.
  

• 2007-04-30: Top Stock Picks candidate Apple Inc (AAPL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-04-30: We exited our position in WEL, for a -23% loss. WEL has shown a breakdown in relative strength below 80, failed to reclaim its 50-day moving average line, and has poor other technical indicators including accumulation/distribution. We've never had much luck with lower-priced issues.
  

• 2007-04-26: Several strong moves in our holdings yesterday in sympathy with the broader averages. ROCM, GLBL and ATW all rose to new highs on brisk trade. Most recent Top Pick LIFC also gapped up on big volume, beating earnings estimates by $0.02.

  SILC reversed hard off it's new high, after reporting a 100% increase in Q1 EPS. No analysts cover this stock yet. Maybe SILC will correct a bit here, but since we have a "Longer Term Play" marked against it, we are tempted to hold on a bit, given the relatively strong market backdrop. Let's see how SILC reacts over the next few trading days.

  The two positions we are down on most is WEL and BSM. BSM is the manufacturer and service provider for innovative cancer treatment systems utilizing hyperthermia, and just announced a summit meeting in Germany for Apr 26-27 to share results. Expect big moves, one way or the other.
  

• 2007-04-25: Just a quick update - past Top Stock Pick Silicom, Ltd (SILC) is scheduled to announce Q1 earnings before the bell Wednesday. Except some volatility - SILC has been a powerful stock for our portfolio, up +65% in under 3 months. Key will be how it reacts to earnings today.

  Not finding much else to buy recently. 

• 2007-04-19: Tomorrow, we will close out our position in past Top Stock Pick SunPower Corporation (SPWR). SPWR has hit it's profit objective of +25% after 13 weeks of holding, and also reversed off a new high on strong volume, giving us a reason to lock-in profits.
  

• 2007-04-16: Top Stock Picks candidate LifeCell Corporation (LIFC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-04-16: Good strong day for the overall market, with the Nasdaq and S&P500 notching +1% gains for the day, on renewed investor optimism about the economy. Earnings season is upon us and so we should expect some volatility going forward.

  Notable stocks in the GSA Portfolio making new highs on strong volume were PRXI, ROCM, SPWR, and GLBL. BSM is sitting at its 10-week moving average, so we will observe how that support level will behave. The one negative for the day was our exit in MIND for a -14.5% loss. Keeping losses moderate is the key, as they will always exist.

  Also, we never commit more than 5% of the portfolio into any single holding, unless we have pyramided into the position, as so we minimize the negative performance implications resulting from a losing trade. Remember, losing is part of the game. It's how much you lose that matters.
  

• 2007-04-15: We will be exiting our position in Mitcham Industries (MIND) at a -12% loss on Monday. MIND had an earnings miss last week and we need to follow our rules to cut our losses short.

  We will also initiate a new position in LifeCell Corporation (LIFC), Monday's Top Stock Pick. Overall, we have seen some real good moves in the GSA Portfolio recently. At this point, the key will be to exit these positions correctly.
  

• 2007-04-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Mitcham Industries Inc (MIND) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-04-09: We took a very small position in Past Top Stock Picks candidate The9 Limited (NCTY) on takeover speculation by Electronic Arts.
  

• 2007-04-04: Past Top Stock Picks candidate Allegheny Technologies Inc (ATI) hit it's upside target after 18 weeks of holding, and was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +26%. ATI also made new 52-week highs on below average volume two days in a row, giving us a reason to lock in gains. New highs on low volume often indicate less demand for a stock at these levels.
  

• 2007-04-02: Top Stock Picks candidate Houston Wire & Cable Company (HWCC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio. Top Stock Picks candidate Boots & Coots Intl Well Inc (WEL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-03-30: Top Stock Picks candidate Atwood Oceanics Inc (ATW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-03-26: Top Stock Picks candidate Titanium Metals Corp (TIE) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2007-03-25: We will be raising our protective stop-loss to just under $11.00 on past Top Stock Picks candidate PRXI. PRXI broke into new high ground last week, and has also set itself up for a longer-term play. A stop-loss just under $11.00 will net us a +25% profit on PRXI if triggered. The hope is that it will continue to run.
  

• 2007-03-22: Today we purchased our Top Stock Pick Zumiez Inc (ZUMZ) - apparently after talking to a few subscribers today, it seems like some did not receive our Top Picks e-mail sent out last night. Although this doesn't happen often, we are at the mercy of the limitations of technology, and at times these technologies do fail.

  In any case, another strong day for the GSA Portfolio (+1.6%) vs. a lackluster market session. Wondering how long this profitable streak will last? We will also be watching the action on PRXI closely as it approaches its highs, since we are up +25% on PRXI in approximately 10 weeks.
  

• 2007-03-21: We will exit our position in past Top Stock Picks candidate NCTY on it's inability to hold up technically (downside gap, low internal momemtum, failure to reclaim it's 50-day moving average, and an accumulation distribution rank below 1.0).
  

• 2007-03-21: We sold out of past Top Stock Picks candidate NCTY for a +9% profit. Earlier in the month we were sitting on a nice +20% move in NCTY, but were caught up in that nasty China correction and NCTY being a player based in China, corrected in sympathy. A failure to recover technically is reason enough to sell.
  

  Overall, another good portfolio day again, although the averages (+1.98% for the Nasdaq) beat out the GSA Portfolio (+1.22%). Notable holdings acting well, were GIGM and SILC, both up on robust volume. GIGM has turned out to be the kind of play that is up nearly +25% in exactly 8 weeks, so we will have to scratch our heads to see what should be done - hold or fold. Our gut wants to hold out and be a little more piggish.

  We're also going to put some fresh money (5% of the portfolio) into tomorrow's Top Stock Pick Zumiez Inc (ZUMZ). ZUMZ has a good looking breakout on high volume, is in a Top 20 ranked industry group, gapped up last week, although valuation may be a bit steep. But this market is telling us it wants to be bought, and so we'll buy some quality names.
  

• 2007-03-19: Good strong day for the market (+1%) as well as for the GSA Portfolio (+2%). Several Top Stock Picks holdings moved up well - ATI is up +19% from it's purchase point, and is close to hitting it's price target. GIGM also moved up on 1.5 times average volume. Top Pick from last week ROCM has moved up +14% to a new 52-week high on 4 times average volume  and is setting itself up for a longer-term play. Notice how ROCM's support/resistance based trailing stop-loss line moved up to just beneath it's previous high. If ROCM continues to act well, it should have no trouble holding above this line.

  Didn't find much else to put new money into, so we just need to continue to be patient here, and enjoy these portfolio moves.

• 2007-03-13: Top Stock Pick Rochester Medical (ROCM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. ROCM finished up on strong volume, on a really down market day. We also pyramided into GLBL, as a follow-up to yesterday's purchase.

  Portfolio holding GigaMedia (GIGM) blew away their earnings estimate, but finished lower for the day. The one bit of encouraging news was that most stocks in the portfolio fell on below-average volume. All we need now is for the market to cooperate a bit here.
  

• 2007-03-12: Top Stock Picks candidate Global Industries (GLBL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. GLBL finished up $0.47 on brisk trade - always a good sign when your purchase shows a profit right from day one. Approximately 5% of the GSA Portfolio was invested into GLBL. Let's wait and see if there is an opportunity to pyramid into it some more.
  

  Current holding Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (OMRI) also followed through on it's breakout from last Friday, and is behaving well in this market. The only red flag we see on OMRI is it's valuation - will have to keep an eye on that.

  Overall, we're seeing some pleasant days recently for the portfolio following that nasty correction a week or so ago.
  

• 2007-03-07: We plan on using the weak bounce in the market to lighten up on under-performing names in the GSA Portfolio, specially China plays like NCTY and FMCN. Stocks showing poor accumulation / distribution or stocks unable to reclaim their 50-day moving averages will be sold out.
  

• 2007-03-07: Top Stock Pick FMCN was sold from the portfolio at a profit of +7%.
  

• 2007-02-27: Today was an ugly market day, in case you hadn't noticed. We really don't want to pretend to understand what went on in the market today - there's plenty of opinions all around on this topic (China, Cheney, NYSE trading system glitch, talk of a recession, etc). In any case, we didn't execute a single trade today, just found the market very difficult to watch, so for the most part, we didn't.

  Also keep in perspective that the market always moves to extremes, and that may be what is happening right now. Don't know for sure what tomorrow will bring, although the pundits expect a bit more downside. Using our measures, this market is NOT overvalued by any measure. Let's see what the next day brings.
  

• 2007-02-26: Top Stock Picks candidate BSD Medical Corp (BSM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

  After the bell, Focus Media (FMCN) announced Q4 EPS that beat estimates by a penny. Although down $0.70 for the day, FMCN rose $3.20 in after-hours trading. Keep a close eye on how it trades Tuesday. NCTY has also hit it's price target and is looking strong - let's see how it behaves as it approaches it's 52-week high.
  

• 2007-02-20: Top Stock Picks holding Iconix Brand Group (ICON) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +27%, after 19 weeks of holding. It is preferable to sell winning stocks (barring exceptional high-flyers) on the way up, once profit targets have been met.

  Also, note the strong price-volume action of Top Stock Pick GIGM, which made a new 52-week high on 288% average daily volume. GIGM is acting right in this market at this stage of it's move.
  

• 2007-02-18: Top Stock Picks holding PRXI has shot up +26% in 5 weeks, and is setting itself up for a longer term play. ICON is also close to hitting it's +25% profit target after 18 weeks of holding - we will exit our position in ICON this week, barring any positive news announcements. We were also stopped out of our position in ALNY for a mere 1% gain.

  Market indicators all look very positive, but surprisingly we couldn't find anything compelling to pull the trigger on. We will continue to look some more today.

  Note: Securities markets are closed on Monday, due to the Presidents Day holiday.

• 2007-02-14: We were stopped out of LNUX and ININ for a loss of -12% and -13% respectively.
  

• 2007-02-05: Top Stock Picks candidate Silicon Ltd (SILC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2007-02-01: We were stopped out of Under Armour Inc (UA) for a loss of -3%. UA reported an EPS of $0.24 for 2006 Q4 vs $0.08 in 2005 Q5, but missed analysts' expectations of $0.25. Stock gapped through it's 50-day MA, and triggered our stop.

  We also doubled up on our position in GigaMedia Ltd (GIGM) to roughly 10% of the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2007-01-29: We re-entered a position in past winner Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc (OMRI) today - it's tight chart pattern has been a positive sign, plus our feel is that we sold too soon last time around.

  Not a bad day for the rest of the GSA Portfolio today, with several holdings (NCTY,  FMCN, ATI, SPWR) all hitting new 52-wk highs on good volume. Only two stocks (GIGM, LNUX) declined. Notice how important it is for a stock to break into uncharted territory on strong volume - it provides a "hold" signal on existing positions. The reverse is also often true - news highs on anemic volume are a warning sign that there is no demand for the stock at these levels. It is always about supply and demand.

  Let's see how January closes out, since "As January Goes, So Goes The Year".

• 2007-01-27: Monday we will re-enter a position in past Top Stock Picks candidate Omrix Biophamaceuticals Inc (OMRI). OMRI has bounced off it's 10-wk moving average and the GSA support/resistance line. Other positive things going for OMRI are it's strong group action (Biotechnology-1), accumulation/distribution rating (2.03), trading at a discount in  valuation (-17%), low institutional ownership (10%), and a whopping ROE (86%). Current entry price also allows for stops just below support/resistance levels.
  

• 2007-01-25: Top Stock Pick GigaMedia Ltd (GIGM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. After having a great Wednesday (+1.70%), the portfolio gave back a good portion of it's gains today (-1.22%). All the market averages closed lower today, the worst hit being the Nasdaq, giving up -1.30%.

  We will be quick to pull the trigger on any stocks not acting right, or exceeding our stop-loss rules, e.g., LNUX (-11.5%).
  

• 2007-01-22: OMRI tripped it's trailing stop-loss line, and was sold out from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +35%.
  

• 2007-01-20: We pyramided a bit into PRXI Friday to follow-up on our purchase from earlier in the week. Also, our position in Omrix Pharmaceuticals Inc (OMRI) has returned +36% in a little over 2 months. OMRI broke out into new high ground this week and then seems to have fallen back into it's 7-week base. We will protect our profits in OMRI by placing a stop order at $32.92 as dictated by our trailing support/resistance based stop line.

  Don't see much else to buy next week, and so we continue to maintain our under-exposed portfolio position in this market.

• 2007-01-18: Our stops on RealNetworks Inc (RNWK) were triggered today at a -7% loss. Overall the GSA Portfolio dropped -0.6% vs. -1.46% for the NASDAQ, with most of the portfolio holdings down on below average volume. However, we continue to maintain tight stops on all existing positions, given the length of this bull market (4+ years), and our market indicators.

  On the brighter side, past Top Pick from two days ago Premier Exhibitions Inc (PRXI) showed good strength, moving up +0.56 on brisk trade. We are going to pyramid a bit into PRXI tomorrow, to increase it's position in the portfolio.

  Remember, tight stops on all positions. 

• 2007-01-17: Top Stock Picks PRXI, SPWR, and LNUX were purchased for the GSA Portfolio on Tuesday.
  

• 2007-01-07: We have stops in place 3% below their respective 50-day moving averages on the following GSA Portfolio holdings: ALNY, ATI, ICON and UA (e.g., if the moving average is at 10, our stop would be placed at 97% of 10, or 9.70). On RNWK we have a stop at $10.5, just below last week's support level.

  This market is simply not serving up anything worthwhile and so we are simply implementing our defensive strategy.
  

• 2007-01-04: We were stopped out of Dril-Quip Inc (DRQ) for a loss of -14%, on further weakness in the Oil & Gas Equipment & Services group.

  Not convinced about the strength of this market anymore - our market indicator remains stuck in the bearish-neutral camp. This is being further borne out by the action of our individual portfolio holdings. Lack of fresh quality breakouts leads us to continue to maintain a defensive position in this market.
  

• 2006-12-28: Top Stock Pick Ansoft Corporation (ANST) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at +21% after 17 weeks of holding. ANST has made repeated new highs on below average volume, and was also close to our profit target.
  

• 2006-12-21: Past Top Stock Pick International Securities Exchange Holdings (ISE) was sold from the GSA Portfolio on a violation of it´s support / resistance based GSA Stop-Loss line at a negligible profit of +0.5%..
  

• 2006-12-20: Top Stock Pick CROX was sold from the GSA Portfolio for a gain of +31%, while MIKR was sold at a loss of -15%. CROX should have bounced off its 50-day moving average by now, and we suspect this support line will be violated (the 10-week average has already been broken). MIKR was sold following a negative revenue projection by the company.

  Market averages at all time highs, yet 12 out of the last 15 trading sessions, have our market indicators at a bearish signal. We continue to maintain our defensive stance, until individual stocks prove themselves. 

• 2006-12-19: GOOG, AXR, SIMO and TWGP were sold from the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-12-16: Portfolio actions that are in place for next week:

  AXR - Stop loss set at $119 to net us a +70% gain if triggered.
  CROX - Stop loss set at $39.97, 3% below its 50-day moving average to net us a +24% gain.
  GOOG - Stop loss set at $470, just shy of its 50-day moving average, to net us a +9% gain.
  TWGP and SIMO - Will exit at the market Monday, on their accumulation/distribution ranks falling below 1.0, as well as failing to reclaim their 50-day moving averages.

  No new set-ups in the market look appealing this week. So, we'll just continue to be patient, and maybe even a bit defensive.
  

• 2006-12-15: Past Top Stock Picks Fuel-Tech Inc (FTEK) and Guess Inc (GES) were sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +29% and +27% respectively. FTEK was sold on a reversal off new highs yesterday, while GES hit it's profit target after 19 weeks of holding. Also getting a bit anxious about AXR at +80%. We may set up some trailing stops for next week, if AXR goes any higher. Our traling stops strategy kicks in on stocks trading very high above their 200-day moving averages.
  

  Although, we're in a bit of a profit-taking mood today, we are still sticking to our stock trading rules of when to sell. Like everything else in life, you must have a plan. Without a plan, you may as well not even try to invest in the stock market.
  

• 2006-12-14: Top Stock Picks candidate Interactive Intelligence Inc (ININ) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.
  

• 2006-12-14: It would only be prudent to take some money off the table at this point in the market, given the recent portfolio gains. So, we look to see if any of our holdings triggered sell signals we follow. One that did today, was Fuel-Tech Inc (FTEK) which reversed off a new high on heavy volume. No telling if FTEK will simply consolidate here for another base building period or decline in price, or even continue it's push upwards. But, at a +29% gain, it gives us a reason to book profits.

  Another chart pattern that is worth watching is Allegheny Technologies (ATI) which shows the negative "railroad tracks" pattern on it's weekly chart - a move to new high last week, and then a reversal of the entire move this week. If the pattern doesn't look like it will change Friday, we will probably bail out of ATI.

  Still maintaining our piggish position on AMREP Corp (AXR) at an almost +70% gain, until we see something that we don't like. Who would think that a company engaged in residential construction would perform in this manner. However, ours is not to reason why, but to simply act upon what we see.
  

• 2006-12-12: We were stopped out of Metretek Technologies (MEK) today for a loss of -19%.
  

• 2006-11-30: Today will be swapping out our position in TradStation Group (TRAD) with our Top Picks in Dril-Quip Inc (DRQ) and Allegheny Technologies Inc (ATI). It sometimes pays to trade out of positions that haven't moved much in 7-8 weeks, and into newer names that may have the potential of faster appreciation. One downside, is that this action will increase our margin position a bit, so we will also look to getting back into a no-margin situation soon.
  

• 2006-11-30: Top Stock Picks Allegheny Technologies Inc (ATI) and Dril-Quip Inc (DRQ) were purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

  TradStation (TRAD) was sold out for a loss of -9.4%.
  

• 2006-11-27: Top Stock Pick Focus Media Holding Ltd (FMCN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

  All, but three, stocks in the portfolio fell in sympathy with the broader market, which had it's worst day in more than four months, on the heels of news from Wal-Mart, which reported a 0.1 percent drop in same-sales stores. Main concern today was the strength of our retail-driven economy. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. Our market indicators remain still firmly in the green.
  

  Also, looking at the price-volume action of our individual holdings, it was good to see that most of the declines came on less than +150% average daily volume. We plan to hold, unless we see more declines that trigger our stops.
  

• 2006-11-15: Top Stock Pick Metretek Technologies Inc. (MEK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio, which has seen some pretty healthy moves over the last several days. CROX seemed to have had a reversal day today, closing lower after moving into new high ground. CROX will likely consolidate here in the short term, since it has had a nearly +50% run over the last 7 weeks. Stocks like these have the potential to go on for much bigger moves, and so we plan on holding onto CROX a bit longer. Unless of course it shows other signs that it's run may be over.

  With the market going into it's seasonaly strong year-end periods of November and December, it  pays to be fully invested at this point.
  

• 2006-11-13: Top Stock Pick Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc (OMRI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning. GSA Portfolio is now nearly fully invested with 16 holdings.
  

• 2006-10-30: Top Stock Picks candidate Mikron Infrared Inc (MIKR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-10-24: Top Stock Picks candidate Fuel-Tech Inc (FTEK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-10-20: Top Stock Pick AMREP Corp (AXR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-10-16: Top Stock Pick Under Armour Inc (UARM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. Also, take a close look at the 1-year weekly chart of True Religion Apparel (TRLG) - a perfect cup and handle pattern breakout, if you ever saw one. Normally, we would have jumped on TRLG at the open in the morning, but with today's purchase of UARM, we now hold approximately 25% of the GSA Portfolio in the Textile group (ICON, CROX, GES). Adding any more to this industry may not be in our best interests of diversification.

  Looking to find more names to add, because this market is telling us to be aggressively invested at this point in the game. 

• 2006-10-10: Past Top Stock Pick Google (GOOG) broke out yesterday from a 10% base, on improving accumulation / distribution and relative strength. We will be purchaser of GOOG today at the open. Although not inexpensive (from an overall valuation perspective), GOOG is cheaper today than what it was at the same price back in December 2005. Last year, we had a couple of very profitable trades in GOOG, and hope that streak continues.
  

• 2006-10-10: Top Stock Pick GOOG was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-10-04: We sold out of our losing positions today, while the rest of the GSA Portfolio had a pretty strong day, just like the rest of the market. Maybe we have finally shaken off the summer doldrums, and will finish strong into the last quarter of the year. tomorrow, we will pyramid (add more shares) into some of the portfolion names that are working for us - ISE, SIMO, CROX and GES.

  On the website front, we have added a few new features that you may have noticed - we now show historical relative strength and accumulation/distribution lines for the stocks in our database. We will probably add a few more indicators over time. 

• 2006-10-03: We will exit our losing energy positions at the market tomorrow: GLBL, BTJ and ARD. GROW also has shown poor accumulation in recent weeks and will also be sold.
  

• 2006-09-27: Top Stock Pick Crocs Inc (CROX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-09-18: Top Stock Picks International Securities Exchange Holdings, Inc. (ISE) and Silicon Motion Technology Corp (SIMO) were purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

  After a horrid summer, the portfolio is beginning to show some life, but it may be too early to tell. Accumulation/distribution ranks of all the major indices has firmed up considerably over the last several weeks, which bodes well going forward. Would like to see a bit less volatility in some of the names we follow, since we are finding that it's easy to get tripped up quickly on down market days.

  We continue to maintain our under-invested portfolio position, until more names flash their buy signals.
  

• 2006-09-11: Top Stock Pick U.S. Global Investors, Inc. (GROW) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-09-05: Top Stock Picks candidate Global Industries Ltd (GLBL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-08-30: Top Pick Bolt Technology Corp (BTJ) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-08-28: Top Stock Pick Ansoft Corporation (ANST) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. ANST closed up +$1.04 on nearly 5 times average daily volume, a positive sign.
  

• 2006-08-14: The breakout in Arena Resources (ARD) seems to be failing. ARD broke its trailing stop-loss line on high volume today. We will be watching ARD closely tomorrow for  signs of further weakness, since we are down -7% on this position.
  

• 2006-08-12: We were stopped out of Metretek Technologies (MEK) for a 20% loss. MEK reported better than expected quarterly results, lifted its 2006 sales guidance, reiterated a sustainable forward growth rate of 30% in EPS, but cut the top end of its 2006 earnings guidance, and hence the stock got hammered. Such is the current market environment.
  

• 2006-08-08: Top Stock Picks candidate Arena Resources, Inc (ARD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-08-04: Top Stock Pick candidate Guess? Inc (GES) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today on a breakout to new high ground on yesterday's close. The last time GES made our Top Picks list was last year - June 17, 2005 at $17.55. Within 6 months, GES went on to a high of $37.00. But that was then, and this is now.
  

• 2006-07-30: The market rallied a bit last week, showing at least some conviction that earnings will continue to be better than expected. The averages had their best weekly point gains going back a few years, with the S&P 500 reclaiming both it's 50-day and 200-day moving averages. How sustainable is this rally remains to be seen in the coming weeks.

  Continuing the trend, once again fewer stocks (518) make our system for next week as compared to last week, not a big confidence booster to some of us, who build portfolios from the bottom-up, one stock at a time. Zero stocks meet our GSA Recommended Search Criteria filter on the main HI-EPSRS Database page, very different from from the last significant move up back in late 2005. Further, August has not been a stellar month in the history of the stock market, and so we will soon be up against seasonal headwinds.

  All this aside, we simply need to find stocks meeting our established principles of investing in fundamentally strong growth stocks at just the right time. We are just not there yet. 

• 2006-07-25: Top Stock Pick holding MEK has recovered a bit over the last few days, probably on anticipation of yesterday's news announcement of $5M in new projects to it's PowerSecure subsidiary. Still below where we purchased MEK for the GSA Portfolio.

  The overall market reversed intraday today to close up after spending the early session in negative territory. Both the Dow and the S&P reclaimed their 50-day moving averages. We will soon find out if this brief rally has sustainable legs. We ran a quick scan of all stocks in our database that closed up on +150% average volume, and came up with only 9% (50 out of 538) of stocks.  That's not the kind of breadth we should see in a healthy market. Staying with our single holding for now, until more stocks present themselves.
  

• 2006-07-23: Our single Top Stock Picks candidate Metretek Technologies (MEK) reclaimed it's 50-day moving average and closed the week above it, a positive sign. We are still in negative territory on this trade, and have stops in place below key support levels.
  

  The market rallied sharply last Wednesday on positive comments by Fed chief Bernanke, but gave back almost all these gains over the next two days, indicating a lack of any significant follow through buying action. Once again, we see a decline in the number of stocks (538) making our database this week. Nothing else to do but continue to remain watchful from the sidelines.
  

• 2006-07-15: The market ended the week on a three-day losing streak, with the major averages not having lost this much in any three-day period during the last several months. Declining issues outpaced advancers on the NYSE by more than a 2-to-1 margin. The only solace (if any) we see, is that historically, July has not been a terrible month for the markets. Since 1951, the Dow has risen 60% of the time in the month of July, for an average monthly return of 1.1% (see our Market Direction page). So far, the Dow has returned -3.7% in July, so there is an opportunity to make up some ground here. Again, not making any predictions, simply observing what we have seen.

  On our database side, 576 stocks make the cut for next week, almost 100 less than last week. Clearly there has been deterioration in the number of stocks near their 52-week highs, an integral part of our filter, since we only focus on leading stocks. Our only holding MEK is down along with everything else, and we may bail out next week on further weakness.
  

• 2006-07-11: HITT was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a loss of -13%. Our only other position, MEK faired better, up almost +5% today. We will look to pyramid up some more into MEK on Wednesday, following the signals generated by our Auto Portfolio algorithm.
  

• 2006-07-10: Top stock pick HITT has violated our stop-loss limit and will be sold at the market on Tuesday.
  

• 2006-07-05: Top Stock Picks candidate Hittite Microwave Corporation (HITT) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. Approximately 5% of the portfolio was invested into HITT. In this market environment, it pays to gradually scale into a position, while maintaining tight stops.
  

• 2006-07-03: Top Stock Pick Metretek Technologies (MEK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. We are looking closely at Hittite Microwave Corporation (HITT) as another purchase to add to our portfolio on Wednesday. HITT made our Auto Portfolio filter and we may post HITT as a Top Stock Pick tomorrow if the additional research to be performed pans out. Happy 4th to all of you!
  

• 2006-06-25: Charts of a few stocks look interesting here: The First Marblehead Corporation (FMD) and Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), but with our market indicators still very much in the bearish camp, we are reluctant to initiate any new purchases.

  There hasn't been a follow-though day on the Dow or the S&P 500 since their brief rally on June 14-15, 2006. The market will be marking time this week until the Fed announces it's anticipated 25 basis point hike for the seventeenth time on Thursday. Again, we don't need to speculate on what the Fed will do, but simply observe what the market does in response to the Fed. An expansion in the number of stocks breaking out to new highs is what we need. In reality, what we've seen is just the opposite - fewer stocks have made our database compared to a few months ago, which means that more stocks are off more than 20% from their highs or have lost relative strength. Sticking to 100% cash in the meantime.
  

• 2006-06-21: We exited our position in Home Solutions of America (HOM) at a loss of about -40%. Way too many questions surround HOM regarding misrepresentation of facts as indicated by lawsuit(s) filed today. Our two trades in HOM this year netted +71% and -40% respectively for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-06-20: The Dow Jones Industrial Average currently is the only major index that is keeping it's head above the 200 day moving average at 10888. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite have both breached this key support level in recent weeks. Current market characteristics show the absence of any quality breakouts to put cash to work. We also observe a decline in the accumulation distribution rank (currently 1.14) of all the stocks in our database this week.

  We continue to maintain our +90% cash position in light of present conditions, knowing fully well that this situation could change at any time. When opportunities abound, it usually takes only a few days to build a new portfolio of 10-20 quality names.
  

• 2006-06-13: Well, we have been watching the market action quietly from the sidelines (except for our secong trading position in HOM, which hasn't worked out well). Overall, very happy to have sat out this recent correction with a +90% cash position. All three market indices now trade below their 200-day moving averages, with the Naz down the most. This morning at 8:30a, economic data for retail sales and PPI were announced. The stock futures pared some of their earlier losses, because PPI rose less than expected, while core PPI rose more than expected. So the market MAY rally a bit here, which brings us to our next point.

  You can analyze and predict the market all you want, with projections that the Dow will bottom sometime in the fall, or that this is only a correction, and not the start of a bear market, or whatever. But all you really need to know is what the market is doing at this point, shown by the action of leading stocks. When the time is right, as always, there will be more quality names breaking out into new high ground. When the time is wrong, the reverse usually holds true. We will never pick the exact top or bottom of any move, but there are enough opportunities to profit from in the middle of the move. However, any serious self-directed investor needs to watch this action on a daily basis, because changes often happen quickly. Hopefully, we now have these monitoring tools in place for your use.
  

  On the website front, we have included a couple of new features - our ETF Zone now lets you see charts of ETFs across the globe. You may want to watch some of these global markets, if more diversification to your portfolio is needed. ETFs trade just like stocks, and so fit in well with our overall philosophy of buying a select group of 10-20 stocks. Secondly, on our Market Direction page, we have included three ETFs that mirror the three indices (S&P500, DJIA, Nasdaq Composite). You can clearly see the poor accumulation-distribution ranks of the market using these charts. Until this situation changes, we continue to enjoy our time-off from trading.
  

• 2006-06-02: We are going to selectively move back into the market today, based on weaker than expected May payrolls data that could allay inflation fears on the Street. We have an order to purchase shares of our recent favorite Top Pick Home Solutions of America (HOM) at the open today. HOM had a nice high-volume move yesterday as well as bounced off its 50-day moving average.
  

• 2006-05-17: Past Top Stock Picks HOM, GRP and ARD were sold from the GSA Portfolio today at +71%, -17% and -12% respectively.
  

• 2006-05-16: As predicted, current Top Stock Pick HOM had a great day today, gapping up +11% on extremely heavy volume. In fact, volume was so heavy, in excess of 5.37 million shares traded, that today marked the heaviest volume day in HOM's history. The gap up was good, but the fact that HOM actually had a lower close than it's open, marked it as a reversal day on high volume. So we need to watch it closely over the next 1-2 days. A continuation into new high ground on good volume will put to rest any technical concerns with HOM. But if she stutters here, closing today's gap or simply taking out today's low of $11.7 might be reason to book our profits. A nearly +80% gain in 10+ weeks is not too shabby, specially with what the market has to offer lately.

  Both GRP and ARD again didn't act very well today. GRP at -12% will likely be removed from the GSA Portfolio soon. Overall, the GSA Portfolio rose +1.79% for the day.
  

• 2006-05-15: Past Top Picks GRMN, BOOM and BTUI were sold from the GSA Portfolio at +24%, -25% and -18% respectively. GRMN was sold as it met it's upside profit target. BOOM and BTUI were sold on violations of key support areas, as well as being more than 20% below their 52 week highs. As always, our strategy is to buy stocks that are close to or at new highs, after breaking out from a sideways consolidation period. When the reverse holds true, we sell, sometimes a bit late, but sell we do. Following a plan and sticking to our strategy is the key element here.

  On a more positive note, HOM reported adjusted Q1 earnings of $0.06/sh vs. $0.04/sh a year ago, in-line with expectations. HOM also raised 2006 revenue and earnings forecast and rose +14% after the bell. Should be a good day for HOM tomorrow (no guarantees).
  

• 2006-05-14: The GSA Portfolio took a hit Friday, down -3.6% vs -1.27 for the NASDAQ. The averages actually masked the magnitude of deciines in individual stocks and sectors, as shown by the abundance of RED on our Industry Map page. For the week, the Dow fell 1.7%, while the Nasdaq dropped 4.2% and the S&P 500 slipped 2.6%. The main concern for the market is now inflation, and usually small cap stocks are most susceptible in such an environment. Next weeks release of consumer and producer price data will likely dictate the tone of the market.
  

  Our holdings BOOM and BTUI are now more than 20% off their highs, and will be watched carefully for further weakness.
  

• 2006-05-10: We were stopped out of past Top Stock Pick American Science & Engineering Inc (ASEI) for a flat +0.5% gain. As mentioned in our portfolio comments two days ago, the price action on ASEI is simply not right, and so we sold. One of the first rules of investing is capital preservation. You have to be able to come back to fight another day. ASEI had quickly risen +26% within a few weeks from our original buy point back on Feb 2, 2006, but then began to falter. Some trades will just work out this way.
  

• 2006-05-08: Top Stock Pick Helix Energy Solutions Group (HELX) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. HELX closed up +1.16 - always a good sign when your position shows a profit right from day 1.

  Notable winners in the portfolio today included HOM, up +0.78 on 248% average volume. GRMN also rose +1.09 on a  average volume. All other positions closed in the red, specially our oil sector plays. Overall the GSA Portolio closed the day flat, just like the indices. Fed meeting on Wednesday will likely provide more direction to the market.
  

  The one holding we are concerned about most is ASEI, which closed down another -3.56, continuing it's three-day slide. ASEI now sits 19% below it's 52-week high, it's accumulation rank has fallen below 1.0, and ASEI has violated both the 10-week moving average and the GSA stop-loss line. We are going to hold here for another day or so, to see if ASEI bounces back from these levels. Can't explain the price action on ASEI, given it's fundamentals and the market it's in. With earnings due out May 19, 2006, maybe the market knows better. Still want to hold ASEI though, since our position is still in the green.
  

• 2006-04-28: We sold our positions in past Top Stock Picks KNDL at +27%, CYBS at +4.75% and NTES at +0.5%. KNDL was sold because it hit our upside profit target. CYBS and NTES were both sold on failure to hold above their 50-day moving averages.
  

• 2006-04-26: Past Top Stock Pick Kendle International, Inc (KNDL) today made a new high on only 44% average daily volume. As you know by now, we hate to hold on to stocks that show this kind of action. We will be a seller of KNDL Thursday barring any breaking positive news before the bell. We are up +33% in KNDL after 9+ weeks of holding.
  

• 2006-04-20: Top Stock Pick Candidate Grant Prideco Inc (GRP) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today on a breakout from a base pattern. GRP is in the 3rd highest ranked group in our database this week - Oil and Gas Equipment & Services.

  After two back-to-back days of solid +2% or more gains, the GSA Portfolio gave back some profits today, down -1.28% for the day. Of note, HOM expanded it's relationship with The Home Depot, and closed up +7.2%. Also, after the bell, BTUI beat Q1 estimates by $0.03, and was up +5% in after-hours trading. Our oil sector holdings both finished lower for the day: ARD down -6.6% and GRP down -2.4%.
  

• 2006-04-18: Good, strong broad-based market rally today as minutes from the last Fed meeting indicates that the rate hikes may end. Almost every industry tracked by us landed in the green today, indicating the breadth of the rally. Advances led declines by almost a 4:1 ratio on the NYSE. The biggest winner among the indices was the Nasdaq, up +1.95%.

  The GSA Portfolio also had it's day in the sun, up +2.21%. Glad that our individual stock picks led us to an almost fully invested position as of yesterday. Not much else to do at this point, but to enjoy these positive market days. Still would like to see a few more breakouts soon.
  

• 2006-04-17: Top Stock Picks candidate BTU International Inc (BTUI) was purchased for the GSA portfolio this morning.
  

• 2006-04-11: Stocks tumbled today on fears over rising inflation and higher gas prices over the coming summer months. The Nasdaq finished down nearly 1% at the close, and has lost approximately 2% since last Thursday.

  The GSA Portfolio actually eked out a small +0.2% gain, helped by Home Solutions of America (HOM), which announced $40M in new orders, and by Arena Resources (ARD), our rising gas prices play. HOM was up +10.5% while ARD was up +5.5% today. To see the elusive cup-and-handle chart pattern breakout, check out ARD's daily or weekly chart on our site. On the downside, American Science and Engineering (ASEI) lost -4% today, continuing it's 7-day slide. It is amazing to see a stock like ASEI being marked down like this. Still holding but waiting for a bounce back from these levels.
  

• 2006-04-07: We will be taking a position in past Top Stock Pick Dynamic Materials Corporation (BOOM) this Friday morning. BOOM broke out of a 10-wk basing pattern on brisk volume, after correcting about 17% within this base. BOOM was also first featured as a Top Stock Pick back in December 2005.
  

• 2006-04-07: Top Stock Picks candidate BOOM was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.
  

• 2006-04-03: Top Stock Pick Arena Resources Inc (ARD) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-03-29: Past Top Stock Pick True Religion Apparel (TRLG) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +8%. American Science & Engineering (ASEI) could become a candidate for a longer-term play, up +26% in a little over 7 weeks. Time will tell.
  

  Today's market action was encouraging. The GSA Portfolio rose +1.3% vs +1.45% for the NASDAQ and +0.55% for the Dow. Waiting to see if this uptick can sustain itself over the next few days. More importantly, waiting for fresh breakouts to show themselves.
  

• 2006-03-28: We do not like the price and volume action of past Top Stock Pick True Religion Apparel (TRLG) at this point. TRLG now trades with an accumulation distribution of 0.79, is below its 50-day moving average line, is more than 20% below its 52-week high, is losing momentum, and hence must be sold. We are up about +9% in TRLG, but with the market serving up very few opportunities, it will not hurt to raise more cash in the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-03-26: Thought we would find a few Top Stock Picks to put money into Monday, specially when our market indicator signal turned bullish, and we saw an expansion in the number of base breakouts. The charts of NCTY (we are already exposed to internet gaming),  HOM (currently in GSA portfolio), NGPS (not enough bottom-line growth), DRQ (small base breakout) and NFLX (too much institutional ownership) looked interesting, but couldn't pull the trigger on them due to the reasons outlined. Please remain patient - the market is quite frustrating at times.

  We also exited our losing position in ADAM Friday for a -26% loss, on failing to hold above its 200 day moving average. We should have exited on the initial gap down.
  

• 2006-03-21: We are still unable to find too many opportunities to add to the GSA Portfolio. Past Top Stock Pick ASEI has acted well - up +24% in 5 weeks, and may be a candidate for a longer-term position. NTES rose +6.18 on 176% average daily volume, on a 4 for 1 stock split announcement. Although we know that stock splits do nothing to the underlying value of a stock, with NTES, the market thinks otherwise.
  

  On the flip side, ADAM gapped down last week on less than steller quarterly earnings and is trying to find support at its 200-day MA line. We are down a lousy -23% in ADAM as a result of the gap action. We will likely exit ADAM on a break below its 200-day line.
  

• 2006-03-13: Top Stock Picks candidate Home Solutions of America (HOM) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. The lack of substantial new breakouts continues to serve as a cautionary note in this market, although the GSA Portfolio rose +1.17% vs +0.22% for the NASDAQ. The portfolio was helped mainly by a +8.88% move in ADAM and +4.42% in TRLG. We are close to hitting our profit target of +25% on TRLG. Let us see if the market cooperates a bit here.
  

• 2006-03-09: We were stopped out of previous Top Picks LifeCell Corp (LIFC) and Parlux Fragrances (PARL) for a loss of -11% and -17% respectively. About the only thing going right with the GSA Portfolio right now is the fact that we are sticking to our sell rules, cutting our losses and raising cash in this market environment. Good thing we had a stellar January, and are still ahead substantially for the year. Waiting for the good old days to return!
  

• 2006-03-07: Top Stock Pick LifeCell Corp (LIFC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today. Has been a tough environment out there over the last few weeks. The pickings are slim as fresh new breakouts are far and few between. Remember to maintain tight stops on any long positions.
  

• 2006-03-06: Top Stock Picks candidate Garmin Ltd (GRMN) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning. GRMN closed up +1.21 on brisk trade on a down market day.

  Tomorrow's Top Stock Pick LifeCell Corp (LIFC) is breaking out of a sideways price  consolidation period, and is testing it's old 52-week highs. We will pull the trigger on purchasing LIFC tomorrow, unless preceded by a negative earnings news report - LIFC scheduled to announce 4Q earnings at 8:00 am, so expect some volatility.
  

• 2006-02-28: We were stopped out of past Top Stock Pick Berry Petroleum (BRY) at a loss of -9%. Recent Top Pick American Science and Engineering (ASEI) rose +1.53 on 257% average volume - a positive sign on such a down market day. Overall the GSA Portfolio lost -0.5% compared with a loss of -1.12% for the Nasdaq.
  

  Remember Lefevre in Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, "It was never my thinking that made big money. It was always my sitting." It is time to sit tight, watch the price action of leading stocks daily and move only when there is money lying in the corner waiting to be picked up.
  

• 2006-02-27: Top Stock Picks candidate Netease.com (NTES) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-02-27: Past Top Stock Picks candidate Berry Petroleum (BRY) has violated both the 50-day MA line at $68, and the GSA Stop Loss line at $67.77 on further weakness in the Oil sector. We have stops in place to exit our investment in BRY at a -10% loss.

  Today's Top Stock Pick Netease.com (NTES) rose +2.57 on 177% average daily volume. A confirmation of a purchase at the correct buy point is when your position shows a profit right from the very first day.
  

• 2006-02-15: Past Top Stock Picks candidate Pioneer Drilling Co (PDC) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a loss of -13% on a breakdown below its 50-day Moving Average, violation of the GSA stop-loss line, and drop in its accumulation distribution rank.

  New Top Stock Pick Kendle International (KNDL) had a great breakout yesterday on positive guidance by the company. We will be a buyer of KNDL this morning.

• 2006-02-15: Top Stock Picks candidate Kendle International Inc (KNDL) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

  We also launched a new feature recently - "My Auto Portfolio" which allows you to maintain your own version of the GSA Auto Portfolio. We found that the GSA Auto Portfolio was often fully invested, and no new buy signals got  shown, even though there existed stocks that met the buy rules. Now, you can better utilize new buy signals generated in your own version of the Auto Portfolio, as well as control your initial portfolio size.

• 2006-02-13: Absolute horrible market action over the last few sessions. Pioneer Drilling Company (PDC) is down -11.9% in the GSA Portfolio, and will be sold at the market tomorrow, based on our stop-loss rules. ASEI is also close to violating our target sell level. Overall the GSA Portfolio was down -1.32% vs -0.98% for the Nasdaq. The only good news is that we are sitting on a 50% cash position in this market environment.

  Ours is not to predict what happens next, but to wait and watch and act upon what has been presented to us.
  

• 2006-02-08: Top Stock Picks candidate American Science & Engineering Inc (ASEI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-02-01: We were stopped out of Google, Inc. (GOOG) for a -13% loss.
  

• 2006-01-30: Top Stock Picks candidate CyberSource Corp (CYBS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.
  

• 2006-01-27: We have entered stops on our position in Google (GOOG) at a price of $414, which is -3% below it's 50-day moving average of $427, and -7% below our last purchase price of $446. We plan on adjusting this -3% below 50-day MA target daily. Hope the stop doesn't trigger, and GOOG resumes/continues it's move northwards.

• 2006-01-26: Past Top Stock Picks BBC, HANS and LUFK were sold out of the GSA Portfolio for profits of +81%, +54% and +16%, respectively. If only the remainder of 2006 can be as profitable as January...
  

• 2006-01-25: Don't like this market tape one bit - too many one-day reversals all around. Tomorrow, we will book our significant profits in BBC (one-day reversal off a new-high), HANS (no follow-through action after the high volume day last week), LUFK (another one-day reversal off a new high). Keep in mind that these one-day reversal patterns often turn out to be short-term signals only. If that happens to be the case, we can always jump right back in. However, they also often signal the end of a clearly defined trend. Just sticking by our rules - right or wrong.
  

• 2006-01-24: AnSoft Corporation (ANST) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a loss of -11%. It bounced back today, but there's no point in second guessing our decision. We followed our sell rules and sold when our maximum stop-loss limit was reached.

  Bodisen Biotech (BBC) has been on a tear the last few weeks, up another +$2.71 today. We are sitting on a nice +85% gain, in a little over 8 weeks. It's time to be a pig - let's see how well we can milk this one.
  

• 2006-01-23: We will exit our position in AnSoft Corporation (ANST) at the market tomorrow, since ANST broke down below it's 50-day MA last week and hasn't recovered, as well as we being down -11% in this position.

  Google (GOOG) bounced back very well today to barely reclaim it's 50-day MA. Let's see if it manages a hold above this support level. Time to be patient once again, and keep any losses to a minimum.
  

• 2006-01-20: OptionsExpress Holdings Inc (OXPS) was sold at +26% from the GSA Portfolio. OXPS reversed off a new high today, as well as made multiple new highs on low volume this week.

• 2006-01-17: Top Stock Picks candidate Berry Petroleum Co (BRY) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-01-12: Past Top Stock Pick The Lamson & Sessions Co (LMS) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +76% after 18 weeks of holding. Great start to the New Year first with HURC and now LMS!
  

• 2006-01-11: Past Top Stock Pick The Lamson & Seesions Co. (LMS) today reversed off a new high on heavy volume, as well as violated its GSA Stop-Loss line. We will be exiting our position in LMS tomorrow morning. Currently, we are up +72.9% in this position.

• 2006-01-10: Past Top Stock Picks HURC and EXP were sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +43% and +7% respectively.
  

• 2006-01-09: Top Stock Picks candidate Pioneer Drilling Co (PDC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.
  

• 2006-01-09: We will be taking profits in the following previous Top Stock Picks: Hurco Companies Inc (HURC) and Eagle Materials Inc (EXP), both for similar reasons. Last week HURC made at least two new highs on anemic volume. Today, the stock reversed on much higher volume. Similarly, EXP today made a new high on very low volume, and also has a poor GSA Rank. There is no better indicator that spots the top or the end of an uptrend better than new highs on low volume. Of course, no indicator is fool-proof, which is why we reserve the right to jump back into the stock if rights itself again. However, it is better to protect your profits now and act upon your sell rules. We are sitting on proifts of +44% on HURC, and +8.9% on EXP.
  

• 2006-01-06: Top Stock Picks ADAM Inc. (ADAM) and Ansoft Corp (ANST) were purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-01-05: Top Stock Picks candidate True Religion Apparel (TRLG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.
  

• 2006-01-04: We jumped back into Google (GOOG) on a breakout to new highs this morning.
  

• 2006-01-03: On a day like this, was hoping to find at least a few solid new breakouts to put fresh money into, but no such luck. Still far too few breakouts making the cut. FFIV looks like an interesting chart pattern setup, but with more than 95% of the stock controlled by institutions, ownership is way too high. GOOG acted well today - we'll wait to see if she breaks out.
  

  Overall, happy to hold our existing positions - the GSA Portolio with a 46% cash position rose +2.7% for the day, easily outpointing the averages. However, the lack of new ideas continues to lean us towards selling and profit taking rather than buying. Let the market show it's hand.
  

• 2005-12-29: IRIS International Inc (IRIS) refuses to recover from under its 50-day MA and GSA Stop Loss line. You normally want to give a stock a few days to correct itself after a technical breakdown. We will exit our position in IRIS today for a small profit.
  

• 2005-12-29: Iris International Inc (IRIS) was sold from the GSA Portfolio for a small +2% gain.

• 2005-12-28: Somanetics Corporation (SMTS) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +36%. Earlier in the year we had a +27% trade in SMTS. Don't want to push our luck to try and get much more out of it.
  

• 2005-12-27: Neutraceutical International Corp (NUTR) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +45%, while Charles & Colvard Ltd (CTHR) was sold out at a loss of -23%.
  

• 2005-12-21: Past Top Stock Pick Akamai Technologies (AKAM) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +27% after 11 weeks of holding.
  

• 2005-12-20: We sold our position in past Top Pick Google (GOOG) today for a +27% gain. We don't like to see stocks reversing off new highs and so we sold. As always, remember that you can always buy back a stock you sold, if your decision to sell was wrong, and the price action of the stock remained right.

  IRIS seems to have bottomed out short-term. We are still up +4.5% on this position, and so we'll give it a few more sessions. AKAM is close to hitting our profit target of +25%, and we'll sell it soon given this market tape. Nothing else exciting going on right now.
  

• 2005-12-19: Google (GOOG) reversed off a new 52-week high on heavy volume - not a healthy sign. Since we are sitting on approximately a +25% profit on GOOG for a second time this year, we will be exiting our position at the market tomorrow. Iris International, Inc (IRIS) also violated both it's 50-day MA and the GSA Stop-Loss line. We will exit IRIS on further weakness.

  No other high quality breakouts in the market recently, so no new funds to be invested at this point.

• 2005-12-12: Top Stock Pick Lufkin Industries Inc. (LUFK) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.
  

• 2005-11-29: American Oriental Bioengineering Inc. (AOB) was sold from the GSA Portfolio today at a loss of -21%.

• 2005-11-28: Top Stock Picks candidate Bodisen Biotech Inc. (BBC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

• 2005-11-28: Past Top Stock Pick AOB will be sold from the GSA Portfolio on it violating both the 50-day MA and GSA Stop Loss lines. SMTS is also sitting right at its 50-day MA and will be closely monitored for support at this level. Today's purchase, BBC actually held up well and rose +$0.4 on heavy volume. Overall a brutal day in the market, with the GSA Portfolio down -2.4% vs -1.04% for the NASDAQ.

• 2005-11-23: Top Stock Pick Charles & Colvard Ltd. (CTHR) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

• 2005-11-21: Past Top Stock Pick American Oriental Bioengineering Inc. (AOB) closed lower today on a strong up-day in the market - not a great sign. We will exit our position in AOB on a break 3% below its 50-day MA of $5.33. Overall, the GSA Portfolio rose 0.97% vs. 0.66% for the NASDAQ.

  On another note, we will not post a new Top Stock Pick simply because more than a few days have passed since our last Pick. We really, really need to be comfortable with a stock's fundamentals, technicals and chart pattern before investing into it. So, your patience is greatly appreciated.

• 2005-11-16: UBET was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a loss of -15%. Waited enough time for this one to recover.

• 2005-11-14: Top Stock Picks candidate Hurco Companies Inc. (HURC) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

• 2005-11-10: Top Stock Picks optionsXpress Holdings Inc (OXPS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

• 2005-11-07: Top Stock Picks candidate American Oriental Bioengineering Inc (AOB) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

• 2005-11-03: Top Stock Picks candidate Hansen Natural Corp (HANS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio today.

• 2005-11-02: Today was the kind of market day that we've been looking for - an expansion in the number and quality of stocks breaking out, the S&P 500 reclaiming it's 200 day MA, and the GSA Portfolio outperforming the averages again.

  We will be a purchaser of new Top Stock Picks addition Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS) at the market tomorrow. HANS has triple digit quarterly %EPS numbers, a 58.54% ROE, an upside breakaway gap, coupled with a breakout from a flat 18% base pattern. Quite difficult to ignore.

• 2005-10-29: Good strong day for the market on Friday, as well as for the GSA Portfolio. However, the S&P 500 failed to break through its 200 day MA. The DJIA is also trading below this widely followed indicator. Although, we saw a marked increase in the number of breakouts in our database, and a bullish market signal, we did not find anything to like very much. Hopefully, this will change any day, and we will be there to jump on the right stock breakouts.

  Take for example the price and volume action on Google, Inc. (GOOG), a current Top Stock Pick holding in the GSA Portfolio. On Friday, it made a new 52-week high on lower than average daily volume - NOT a good sign. If this weren't GOOG, we'd be tempted to sell at the market Monday. We'll give it a day or so more, but we will definetely bail out (at a small profit) on any further signs of weakness.

  Patience at this point is warranted. More importantly, nail down profits on price targets being met.

• 2005-10-25: Past Top Stock FLSH was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +26%. We also pyramided into IRIS - buying follow-up shares if the stock rises 3%-6% from it's original purchase price. Both these actions were guided by the trading rules spit out by our Auto Portfolio algorithm.

• 2005-10-24: Follow-up purchases were made in Google, Inc. (GOOG) at the open this morning.

• 2005-10-24: Past Top Stock Pick M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. (FLSH) has increased +27% in a little over 12 weeks of holding, hitting our price target established at purchase time. FLSH looked very strong today and may run a point or two more this week. However, we will be a seller of FLSH tomorrow to lock-in profits.

  Despite today's strong day in the market, we still would like to see more breakout stocks to add to the GSA Portfolio. Until that point, we're perfectly content to nail down a few profits along the way.

• 2005-10-22: We will be adding to our position in past Top Stock Pick Google, Inc. (GOOG) Monday morning. We feel the huge breakout that occured Friday on blowout revenue and earnings numbers is significant. The hope is to play out GOOG as a longer-term core holding. Also, pyramiding up (never down) is key to channeling your money into stocks that are working.

  FLSH is nearing it's profit target of +25%. In this market, remember to grab meaningful profits when you have them.

• 2005-10-19: ASEI was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +21%.

• 2005-10-18: Past Top Stock Pick ASEI has hit it's profit target of +25% in a little over 9 weeks. ASEI had a great early run right after purchase, so we will hold a bit longer. Also, ASEI is finding support right at it's 50-day MA, a good sign. However, a break 3% below this level will create a sell signal as per our trading rules.

  The GSA Portfolio has recovered well after last week's sell-off. We are still not overly enthused by the lack of fresh breakouts in this market. No new money to be committed unless we see an expansion in this breakouts number.

• 2005-10-14: ENG, CLF, SGDE, SNHY, UNT were sold from the GSA Portfolio.

• 2005-10-13: GSA Portfolio was hammered down -3.27% today - worst day in a long time. Absolutely bearish market action (remember it is October) tells us it is time to get defensive. All stocks that have violated their GSA trailing stop loss lines will be sold at the market Friday - ENG, CLF, SGDE, SNHY, UNT. Let's raise some cash now, and come back later to fight another day.

• 2005-10-12: No doubt about it, this is a tough market environment. Both the Dow and S&P are now trading significantly below their 200-day moving averages. Our best performer at this point ASEIis up +25%, Our worst performer XWG is down -21%. We will be a seller of XWG on further weakness today. No need to commit new money in this environment, until the right stocks show their hand. Time to be cautious and patient.

• 2005-10-12: XWG was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a loss of -26%.

• 2005-10-05: Top Stock Pick IRIS was purchased for the GSA Portfolio.

• 2005-10-04: Medical Appliances, Scientific & Technical Instruments and Semiconductors seemed to be the few bright spots in the market today, showing strength in an otherwise down day. Our Top Stock Picks IRIS International Inc (IRIS) is a member of the Scientific & Technical Instruments and broke out of a 23% basing pattern on very brisk trading volume. Overall the GSA Porfolio lost -0.16% vs. -0.75% for the Nasdaq - just the kind of action we want to see, along with outperformance on the upside.

  Also, keep an eye on Monday's Top Stock Pick NTRI - it raised revenue guidance very, very significantly after the bell. NTRI was up +16% in After Hours trading.

• 2005-10-03: Top Stock Picks NTRI and AKAM were purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.

• 2005-10-02: Top Stock Picks NutriSystem Inc (NTRI) and Akamai Technologies (AKAM) will be purchased for the GSA Portfolio Monday. NTRI has had a bit of a run, but still broke out from a tight 15% base. AKAM is breaking out of a long multi-year base.

  Also on Friday, current holding Middleby Corp (MIDD) rose +$2.45 to a new 52-week high on anemic volume of 34% compared to its average volume - a new high on low turnover. We will be a seller of MIDD Monday, at approximately +18% profit.

• 2005-09-30: Cutera (CUTR) was sold from the GSA Portfolio at a profit of +38% after 9+ weeks.

• 2005-09-29: Cutera Inc (CUTR) made a new high on low volume today, not a good sign at all. The strongest stocks in it's group also rose a paltry +0.42%. With CUTR up +36% over 9-weeks in our portfolio, we will be nailing down profits at the open tomorrow. New highs on low volume usually indicate no demand for a stock at these levels. Sell without emotion.

• 2005-09-26: No new high-quality stock breakouts to position into. In this environment, we need to take our 25-30% profits when we have them. Going to hold ASEI (+31%) and CUTR (+28%) a bit longer. GSA Portfolio up a healthy +2.91% vs +0.22% for the NASDAQ today. Look for an expansion in the number of new breakouts before new money can be committed.

• 2005-09-19: Top Stock Pick Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc (CLF) was added to the GSA Portfolio this morning. LSCP was removed from the GSA Portfolio at a loss of -22%.

• 2005-09-17: Perfect cup and handle breakout on Top Stock Pick Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (CLF) yesterday. The only negative against CLF is the high level of institutional ownership, but with a chart pattern like it has, we need to jump on it. CLF also made our Auto Portfolio filter, along with SMTS which was purchased yesterday.

  We will be selling JUPM at a loss Monday to make room for CLF, since the GSA Portfolio is fully invested.

• 2005-09-16: We sold Jupitermedia Corp (JUPM) for a loss of -25%. Held on for a lot longer than we should have. This is the emotional side of trading that needs to be controlled.

  To address this, today we introduced a new feature - the Auto Portfolio, which puts all our buy and sell rules into practice on a $200,000 portfolio. Trading signals are automated and unemotional. See it in action for yourself - your feedback will be appreciated.

• 2005-09-16: We took a repeat position in past Top Stock Pick Somanetics Corp (SMTS), as previously stated that we would. SMTS has a great breakout today, and the Medical Appliance & Equipment group is also looking strong. Last time SMTS gave us a quick +27%. Hope she repeats.

• 2005-09-12: Top Stock Pick EnGlobal Corp (ENG) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.

• 2005-09-12: We took a small trading position in past Top Stock Pick Google (GOOG) on a breakout from a small 8-week base.

• 2005-09-08: Top Stock Pick Lamson & Sessions Co. (LMS) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.

• 2005-09-07: Past Top Stock Pick WebSide Story (WSSI) has gone up +25% from our purchase price 9 weeks ago. We will be a seller of WSSI today, following our established sell rules.

• 2005-09-07: Top Stock Pick WSSI was sold from the GSA Portfolio for a profit of +24%.

• 2005-09-01: Top Stock Pick Eagle Materials, Inc. (EXP) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.

• 2005-08-26: Foxhollow Technologies (FOXH) was sold today for a profit of +26% on its inability to hold its 50-day MA. Medical Instruments and Supplies industry also very weak today. Take meaningful profits in today's market - can't say this enough times.

• 2005-08-25: As has been the case for the last several days, the lack of fresh breakouts in the market has provided no new opportunities to invest in. Encouraging to see our last Top Stock Pick ASEI hit a new 52-wk high on a big down market day. It's already up +20% in less than 10 days.

  Overall the GSA Portfolio lost -0.52% compared with -0.81% for the Dow today, after being up for most of the day. The market is back to being held hostage by high oil prices. It is a time to sit tight or sell stocks on profit targets being met.

• 2005-08-20: In the absence of quality breakouts in the market this week, we are looking at our recent closed out Top Picks for other entry points. Somanetics Corporation (SMTS) looks like it wants to break back above it's 50 day MA level at $21.94. It's still part of a strong industry group, with a high GSA Rank, and also gave us a profit of +27% back in May. We will be a buyer of SMTS again if it breaks above $21.94 within the next few days. Remember, no problem if we have to pay a few cents more than the current market price - the stock must prove itself first!

• 2005-08-15: Top Stock Pick American Science & Engineering Inc (ASEI) was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.

• 2005-08-12: We locked in profits of +35% by selling OIS from the GSA Portfolio after about 10 weeks of holding. Today the entire market is down (Dow down more than 100 points) on oil prices surging to about $67 per barrel, yet the entire oil sector shows up in red on our Industry Map. Something doesn't seem right, and so we took our profits in OIS.

• 2005-08-09: GUESS INC (GES) was sold from the GSA Portfolio after 8 weeks of holding for a profit of +30%, following our established sell rules.

• 2005-08-08: CHCI was sold out of the GSA Portfolio for a loss of 16% due to continued weakness in the Residential Construction and REIT industry groups.

  Today, we launched a new feature, the Industry Map, showing, at a glance, a color-coded grid of the Top 100 Industry Groups and how they are performing throughout the trading day. Using this feature, you are quickly able to spot emerging trends in different industries. You can check it out using the Industry Map link in the top navigation menu on any of our database pages.

• 2005-08-06: The stock market hit a speed bump this past week as a result of strong jobs data, raising fears of inflation, with investors worried that interest rates would again by raised by the Fed next Tuesday. The last few days also saw the small-cap growth stocks GSA Portfolio give up recent gains. Hardest hit were CHCI, LSCP and JUPM. We will look to exit these positions if they don't reclaim their moving average support levels within the next 1-2 days. On the positive side, FOXH, SNHY, OIS and GES continue to hold up well, with FOXH and SNHY being tagged as longer-term plays, since they were up so much in a short amount of time.

• 2005-08-01: Another very strong day for the GSA Portfolio (up +3.08% vs. -0.17% for the Dow and +0.48% for the NASDAQ), with a number of our holdings announcing earnings after the bell Monday. CUTR beat expectatons by 9 cents and raised guidance. CHCI missed by 1 cent, but beat it's own guidance set a few months ago, as well as revised FY 2005 guidance upwards. OIS also beat expectations by 12 cents, while JUPM met expectations.

  Expect some volatility in these stocks tomorrow, specially during the morning hours. The earnings figures being released are very significant, specially the upward guidance revisions - no reason to sell unless confirmed by market action and our individual stock sell signals.

• 2005-07-28: Top Pick FLSH was purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning.

• 2005-07-28: Wow! A huge +3.82% gain for the GSA Portfolio today, with the DOW up +0.64%. A significant portion of the portfolio gain came from Foxhollow Technologies (FOXH) which was up +$10.11 to $53.70, on positive guidance by the company. Also, after the bell MIDD beat earnings estimates by 13%. Look for a good move up tomorrow in this recent Top Pick.

  We will also be buying our most recent Top Pick, UNT tomorrow morning. Finally, watching all these stocks take off over the last several weeks, reminds us of an old Wall Street adage: Don't confuse brains with a bull market.

• 2005-07-25: JUPM, MIDD, SGDE and XWG were purchased for the GSA Portfolio this morning. The last time MIDD was profiled back in 2004, it rose +144% to its high. The last time SGDE was profiled back in 2003 and 2004, it rose +28% and +23% respectively. It is often comforting to purchase stocks that made you money in the past.

• 2005-07-20: CUTR was purchased this morning for the GSA Portfolio. It is acting good right now, up $0.56. Ideally, you want to see a profit on your position right from day one. This indicates a purchase at the correct buy point.

  BBBB was also sold out at a profit of +23% over an 8 week period, since it met our profit target established at purchase time. Learn to take profits smartly and move on. Never fall in love with your stocks.

• 2005-07-19: We will be purchasing our Top Pick Cutera Inc (CUTR) tomorrow on a breakout from a cup and handle chart pattern. We also continue to hold onto Laserscope (LSCP) since we think there was climax selling today. However, LSCP will be carefully watched for any signs of further weakness, since we are down more than 15% on this position.

  Finally, Blackboard Inc (BBBB) has hit our profit target of 25 - 30% over a span of 8 weeks. We need to stick to our sell rules and take these profits. We will be a seller of BBBB Wednesday morning.

• 2005-07-14: We did not like the price action in the Homebuilders today - many stocks in the group reversed after making new 52-week highs, and appear to be closing the day lower. As a result of this action, we closed out our position in Hovnanian (HOV) at a +15% profit.

• 2005-07-12: Ctrip.com (CTRP) has hit it's profit target of +25%, occuring over a span of 8 weeks. We will be booking this profit by selling CTRP at the market tomorrow, barring any positive morning news. As we've stated many times before - take 25% - 30% profits on the majority of your portfolio. Try for long-term moves on only your most powerful holdings.

  The GSA Portfolio again outperformed the market rising +1.21% vs. +0.68% and +1.02% for the Dow and NASDAQ respectively. We thought we would find new breakouts to put fresh money into, but did not see anything we liked. I guess a bit more patience is warranted.

• 2005-07-12: CTRP was sold from the GSA Portfolio this morning at a profit of +24%.

• 2005-07-11: We purchased our most recent Top Pick CHCI for the GSA Portfolio this morning. This market has been acting very good for small growth stocks lately. Hope the trend continues!

• 2005-07-08: GEOI was sold at a profit of +26% for a second time. Several weeks ago, we had nailed down a profit of +29% on GEOI. Not sure if this stock has much more left in it, but we would be happy to get back into this potential winner on another breakout.

• 2005-07-05: Good strong day for the GSA Portfolio on the first day after the long weekend. The portfolio was up a healthy +3.3% versus +0.66% for the Dow and +1.04% for the NASDAQ. Every stock that we hold was in the green today. We need to let these winners run, but also nail down some 25-30% profits along the way. Deciding which ones to hold, and which ones to fold, is really the name of the game.