Stock Ratings Q&A   View Select Entries from Our Mailbag. Also See Our Q&A Page.

Q: I've only been a member for a week and am still getting used to your stock ratings. I purchased Bennett Environmental last week as I knew it was a CDN company, it's stock ratings were high and already held some in my retirement plan. I note it now seems to have the highest GSA stock ratings going into a new week which I assume is very positive. I noticed some stocks have a high GSA rating but some measurements are red, which I believe is a warning sign - how do you interpret this situation, i.e., when one of the stock ratings criteria is red.

A second question is regarding Bennett Environmental. You presently don't have a preset profit target assigned to it - what is your rule of thumb for selling? Thanks for your assistance - my experience so far has been most impressive.

A: Yes, the higher the GSA rank or stock ratings, the more positive we would be on the company. We ideally like all the important stock ratings criteria to be met, before we purchase, but that may not be the case in all situations. If one or two of the stock ratings criteria are not met (shown in red), we would still consider the stock, but it would depend on the criteria, and its ratings. Also, a perfect stock chart pattern would help alleviate the risk of one or two of the stock rating criteria not being met.

We only assign a preset profit target to our Top Stock Picks, because those are the ones we closely monitor and trade for our stock portfolio. Our rule of thumb for selling is to sell at 25% to 30%, but not within the first 8 weeks. This rule stands only if we aren't stopped out at -10% to -12%, and the stock doesn't flash any volume alerts, or new high alerts as indicated on our Portfolio Alerts page.

Best Regards,

GSA