Saturday, November 9, 2013

Investment Idea Sharing Nov. 9, 2013

This Week's Activity – November 9, 2013: 
Remember Investment Idea Sharing monthly meeting is 7:30PM next Tuesday Nov. 12, 2013 at my house.















This week, the Dow Jones 30 hit a new all time high of 15,797.  World wide indexes finished the week mixed.  

I still think the markets are overpriced.  But, I am always looking for good values, and this week I found EXC (Exelon, electric utility, 4.3% dividend) and EZPW (EZ Corp, pay day loans and pawn).  Instead of buying them, I sold PUT’s with strike prices below the 52 week lows for each stock, see below in “Stock Buys for this Week”

EXC is at a 10 year low because EXC is the largest nuclear power utility in America (17 reactors  which generate 20% of the US Nuclear industry’s power capacity) but the stock market is concerned about nuclear costs being uncompetitive when compared to the extremely low prices right now for natural gas.  I believe that EXC will come back and it pays a 4.3% dividend while we wait.
Here is a Forbes article describing this current situation for EXC:

Here is the 10 year chart for EXC:

EZPW has been on the Stock Evaluator “Short List” for the past 3 weeks, and this week reported for year end 2013 with only a small increase in annual revenues and a decrease in profits, though still profitable.  These numbers dropped EZPW stock price from $15.71 on Monday to $11.34 on Friday, which is a 5 year low.  I believe the market has overreacted. 
Here is an article summarizing EZPW fiscal year end report for Sept. 30, 2013:


StockEvaluator “Short List”
No ‘Short List’ this week due to continued Yahoo Finance data feed problems.  Please use FinViz.com link.
This week’s FinViz screen returned 8 companies:  CIG, LF, MDC, MIL, RCII, SENEA, SGM, ZA.

Stock Evaluator “Volatility Sort”
No ‘Volatility Sort’ this week due to Yahoo Finance data feed problems.  Please use FinViz.com link.  http://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&f=fa_netmargin_pos,fa_payoutratio_u70,fa_pb_u3,fa_ps_u2,fa_salesqoq_pos,ta_highlow52w_a0to10h,ta_volatility_wo6&ft=4
This week, 2 companies are on the FinViz list.  They are: IRG , RTK 
   
MutualFundEvaluator “Short List” shows funds that are within 3% of their 52 week low AND have less than 3 Red cells.  This week’s list has 38 funds.  All except 1 are Bond funds, which are all still 3 to 5% above their lows from 2006 to 2008 before The FED dropped interest rates to bring the U.S. out of the recession.  Remember, when interest rates go down, bond prices go up, and when interest rates go up, bond prices go down.  These bond funds only pay about a 3 to 4% annual dividend and I think they will go down another 3 to 4% when The FED finally lets interest rates go back to historic levels.  So we lose a whole year’s worth of interest if we buy back in too soon.  For example, PRGMX closed the week at $9.52, down from 2011 high of $10.22, but still above 2007 low of $9.14.  My target buy price for PRGMX is $9.35.
Here is the 10 year chart for PRGMX that shows these price ranges:

Watching the interest rate on 10 year treasury notes gives another hint of when these bond fund prices will get back to normal.  As this interest rate comes back up, the prices of these bond mutual funds will go down.  The interest rate on 10 year treasury notes closed this week at 2.75%, up from 2012 low of 1.50%, but way below 2006 - 2007 highs of 5.2%.  My minimum target for 10 year interest rates is 3.5% before I will be ready to buy back into bond mutual funds.
Here is a chart showing interest rates over the past 13 years for 10 year treasury notes:

Next Monthly Meeting 2nd Tuesday of every Month:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 , 7:30 PM at my house. 

Here are my Stock BUYs for This Week:
Buy   Company   Buy
Date  Bought     Price    Target Sell
----- ---------   -----  ------------
none

Here are my Stock SELLs for This Week:
Sell   Company   Sell     Buy       Buy
Date    Sold        Price   Price     Date
-----  ---------   -------  -------  ------------
none

Here are my Option (CALL or PUT) Sells for Last Week:
I only do Covered CALLs or Cash Secured PUTs
Option  Sell    Stock    Strike   Expiration   Option  
Type    Date   Symbol  Price      Date         Price    
------  ------  --------  ------  ----------  --------
PUT    11/8    EXC       $28      Apr 2014   $1.80
PUT    11/8    EZPW    $12.50  Mar 2014   $1.30

StockEvaluator and Mutual FundEvaluator spreadsheets are available for download at www.ultimatestockfinder.com

Please remember to send me any other investing ideas, information or questions that you want to share with the group.

Thanks,
John D.

Disclosure: The author has no positions in any of the stocks or mutual funds mentioned in this article unless clearly stated above. We certify that except as cited herein, this is our work product. We received no compensation or other inducement from any party to produce this article.  Please see our full legal disclaimer at:  http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/stockevaluator_disclaimer.html
______________________________________________

Visit Our Website UltimateStockFinder.com for More Investing Ideas:
At "Stock Evaluator", you can download various pre-sorted views of this week's StockEvaluator spreadsheet.  All the financial data is refreshed on Friday night into StockEvaluator which contains over 2,900 company stocks.  We will add any company you would like to the list. Download "StockEvaluator spreadsheet" at: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/ 
Also, you can sign in and view the Ultimate Stock Finder watchlist on Yahoo Finance

At “Mutual Fund Evaluator” download this weeks MutualFundEvaluator spreadsheet.
MutualFundEvaluator is also updated weekly and currently contains over 900 mutual funds.

Run the various Ctrl-_ sort commands in StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator to bring the best companies to the top based on their key financial values. 

Also, View our YouTube training videos to learn how to use StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator.

At "Training" read more information on how we do our investments.
   “Training Module 1 - Why Use StockEvaluator.xls  And How to Use It”
   "How We Use PUTs and CALLs to Minimize Risk and Increase Profit on Each Buy & Sell"
   "S&P 500 Total Return Comparison" spreadsheet for 25 year comparisons of many funds
   "Compare Annuity Returns, Expenses and Death Benefit v.s. Managing it Yourself"

At "Links" you can find our favorite links for good investing information including:
   Screener for New 52 week lows
   Screener for Good Fundamental Values
   Screener for Stocks with High Volatility
   Links that show current P/E values for the major worldwide indexes. 
   Current Prices and 52 week ranges for major commodities

Visit Our Blog and Facebook pages:



To Remove Your Name from this email distribution list, reply to me and I will delete your name.  You will still be able to check the Ultimate Stock Finder Blog and Facebook pages to read this same eMail update.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Investment Idea Sharing Nov. 3, 2013

This Week's Activity – November 2, 2013: 

















This week, the world wide indexes finished the week mixed.  I can not find a good reason for why the Hang Seng (HSI, Hong Kong) was up so much (2.4%).  Also notice that Asian and South American markets: HSI (Hong Kong), SSE (China), KOSPI (South Korea), BOVESPA (Brazil) have ALL NOT participated in the huge 2013 rally of about 20% that the U.S., Japanese and the European indices have done.  

I still think the markets are overpriced.  One value I check to confirm if stock is overpriced is the P/E ratio.  I prefer to buy stocks with a P/E under 15, so when the overall stock markets are above P/E of 15, I view them as being too high.  On the Ultimate Stock Finder “Links” page, I have put links the P/E Ratios for many of the worldwide market indices.

Index         Current P/E
Dow 30         17.0
S&P 500        20.3
NASDAQ        24.3
FTSE 100       27.5
DAX              22.7

This week I was not able to get the data from Yahoo Finance to populate my Stock Evaluator spreadsheet.  Yahoo was too busy and refused to answer my data queries.  For the past few months, Trey and I have been testing out the FinViz.com customizable stock screener because it provides almost the same screening criteria that we use in Stock Evaluator.  Here is the link to FinViz.com that approximates the “Short List” that I have been running every week: 

Today, this FinViz screen returned 5 companies:  EZPW, MIL, RCII, SENEA, TWI.  I checked these against Last Week’s “Short List” and 2 of them (EZPW , TWI) were on last week’s list.  So, there is some commonality between FinViz and my Short List.  Until I can get Stock Evaluator working, I am going to use FinViz.com.

StockEvaluator “Short List”
No ‘Short List’ this week due to Yahoo Finance data feed problems.  Please use FinViz.com link.
This week, 5 companies are on the FinViz list.  They are: EZPW, MIL, RCII, SENEA, TWI.    

Stock Evaluator “Volatility Sort”
No ‘Volatility Sort’ this week due to Yahoo Finance data feed problems.  Please use FinViz.com link.  http://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&f=fa_netmargin_pos,fa_payoutratio_u70,fa_pb_u3,fa_ps_u2,fa_salesqoq_pos,ta_highlow52w_a0to10h,ta_volatility_wo6&ft=4
This week, 2 companies are on the FinViz list.  They are: ACCO , RTK 
   
MutualFundEvaluator “Short List” shows funds that are within 3% of their 52 week low AND have less than 3 Red cells.  This week’s list has 26 funds.  All are Bond funds, which are still 5 to 10% above their lows of 2007 to 2009, so I am going to wait on making any bond fund buys until they go even lower.  I expect that we will now have to wait until 2014 when the new FED chairperson is sworn in before the FED will agree to any interest rate increases.

You can download all these specially sorted spreadsheets at www.UltimateStockFinder.com

Next Monthly Meeting 2nd Tuesday of every Month:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 , 7:30 PM at my house. 

Here are my Stock BUYs for This Week:
Buy   Company   Buy
Date  Bought     Price    Target Sell
----- ---------   -----  ------------
none

Here are my Stock SELLs for This Week:
Sell   Company   Sell     Buy       Buy
Date    Sold        Price   Price     Date
-----  ---------   -------  -------  ------------
none

Here are my Option (CALL or PUT) Sells for Last Week:
I only do Covered CALLs or Cash Secured PUTs
Option  Sell    Stock    Strike   Expiration   Option  
Type    Date   Symbol  Price      Date         Price    
------  ------  --------  ------  ----------  --------
none

StockEvaluator and Mutual FundEvaluator spreadsheets are available for download at www.ultimatestockfinder.com

Please remember to send me any other investing ideas, information or questions that you want to share with the group.

Thanks,
John D.

Disclosure: The author has no positions in any of the stocks or mutual funds mentioned in this article unless clearly stated above. We certify that except as cited herein, this is our work product. We received no compensation or other inducement from any party to produce this article.  Please see our full legal disclaimer at:  http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/stockevaluator_disclaimer.html
______________________________________________

Visit Our Website UltimateStockFinder.com for More Investing Ideas:
At "Stock Evaluator", you can download various pre-sorted views of this week's StockEvaluator spreadsheet.  All the financial data is refreshed on Friday night into StockEvaluator which contains over 2,900 company stocks.  We will add any company you would like to the list. Download "StockEvaluator spreadsheet" at: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/ 
Also, you can sign in and view the Ultimate Stock Finder watchlist on Yahoo Finance

At “Mutual Fund Evaluator” download this weeks MutualFundEvaluator spreadsheet.
MutualFundEvaluator is also updated weekly and currently contains over 900 mutual funds.

Run the various Ctrl-_ sort commands in StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator to bring the best companies to the top based on their key financial values. 

Also, View our YouTube training videos to learn how to use StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator.

At "Training" read more information on how we do our investments.
   “Training Module 1 - Why Use StockEvaluator.xls  And How to Use It”
   "How We Use PUTs and CALLs to Minimize Risk and Increase Profit on Each Buy & Sell"
   "S&P 500 Total Return Comparison" spreadsheet for 25 year comparisons of many funds
   "Compare Annuity Returns, Expenses and Death Benefit v.s. Managing it Yourself"

At "Links" you can find our favorite links for good investing information including:
   Screener for New 52 week lows
   Screener for Good Fundamental Values
   Screener for Stocks with High Volatility
   Links that show current P/E values for the major worldwide indexes. 
   Current Prices and 52 week ranges for major commodities

Visit Our Blog and Facebook pages:



To Remove Your Name from this email distribution list, reply to me and I will delete your name.  You will still be able to check the Ultimate Stock Finder Blog and Facebook pages to read this same eMail update.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Investment Idea Sharing for Oct. 26, 2013

This Week's Activity – October 26, 2013:


This week, all of the world wide indexes finished the week mixed, US and Europe were up and Orient indexes were down.  I can not find a good reason for why the The Japanese Nikkei and the Hong Kong Hang Seng were both down. 

My friend Bobb, sent me this “World Clock” link http://www.poodwaddle.com/Stats/ .
It shows real time running totals for all kinds of worldwide statistics including:  population, mortality, illness, environment, energy, food economy and crime.  Many of these values were higher (or lower) than I would have ever guessed.  But all are very interesting.  As an investor, I am trying to figure out how to use this statistical knowledge to my benefit.  I welcome your comments on what these figures are trying to tell us.

Last week I discussed the possibility of selling my holdings in FBGRX (Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund).  I bought it in Feb. 1995 at $26/share and now it is at $61.13, but is still not back to its all time high of $65.65 of March 23, 2000.  Over the past 13 years, the 4 years it had huge drops are:
Year       % Down
2000       -10.5%
2001       -16.5%
2002       -25.3%
2008       -38.6%
Even with these big drop years, FBGRX still has a 20 year Total Average Return of 8%, which matches the S&P 500 return.  I hate those market drops, and my goal is to BEAT the S&P 500 with my investments, but after further discussions with my wife, we have agreed NOT to sell FBGRX because our entire portfolio is already 50% in cash and by holding on to FBGRX we  continue to participate in the current tremendous market rally.  We have no idea when this rally will end, and now even if we have a 15% drop, since FBGRX is already up 24.7% for 2013  we will still be ahead for the year.

StockEvaluator “Short List” shows only companies that are within 5% of their 52 week low AND have less than 5 Red cells. 
This week 6 companies are on the short list.  They are: EZPW, GMAN, TWGP, BNA, WD, TWI. TWGP is also on this week’s Volatility Sort.    

Stock Evaluator “Volatility Sort” shows only companies that have: Average Daily Price Volatility >3% ; Within 5% of their 52 week low ; Less than 6 Red cells and Profit >0%. 
This week there are 2 companies on the Volatility list: DMD, TWGP.
TWGP is Tower Group International, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, underwrites insurance and reinsurance products in Bermuda, the United States, and London markets. The company provides commercial, personal, and specialty insurance and reinsurance products. It offers personal insurance products to individuals; and commercial insurance products to small to medium-sized businesses through a network of retail and wholesale agents.  TWGP is at $3.82, a new all time low which is down from a 52 week high of $22.30 on July 29, 2013.  See this article for a description of the $365 million capital reserve charge along with the $215 million goodwill writedown that caused this huge drop: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/10/23/3-stocks-to-get-on-your-watchlist.aspx
This is a perfect example of why we follow the Goodwill-to-Equity ratio in Stock Evaluator because a company with high Goodwill-to-Equity can at any moment decide to write down this goodwill which will then drop the company’s book value and also drop their stock price. 
   
MutualFundEvaluator “Short List” shows funds that are within 3% of their 52 week low AND have less than 3 Red cells.  This week’s list has 19 funds.  All are Bond funds, which are still 5 to 10% above their lows of 2007 to 2009, so I am going to wait on making any bond fund buys until they go even lower.  I expect that we will now have to wait until 2014 when the new FED chairperson is sworn in before the FED will agree to any interest rate increases.

You can download all these specially sorted spreadsheets at www.UltimateStockFinder.com

Next Monthly Meeting 2nd Tuesday of every Month:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 , 7:30 PM at my house. 

Here are my Stock BUYs for This Week:
Buy   Company   Buy
Date  Bought     Price    Target Sell
----- ---------   -----  ------------
none

Here are my Stock SELLs for This Week:
Sell   Company   Sell     Buy       Buy
Date    Sold        Price   Price     Date
-----  ---------   -------  -------  ------------
none

Here are my Option (CALL or PUT) Sells for Last Week:
I only do Covered CALLs or Cash Secured PUTs
Option  Sell    Stock    Strike   Expiration   Option  
Type    Date   Symbol  Price      Date         Price    
------  ------  --------  ------  ----------  --------
none

StockEvaluator and Mutual FundEvaluator spreadsheets are available for download at www.ultimatestockfinder.com

Please remember to send me any other investing ideas, information or questions that you want to share with the group.

Thanks,
John D.

Disclosure: The author has no positions in any of the stocks or mutual funds mentioned in this article unless clearly stated above. We certify that except as cited herein, this is our work product. We received no compensation or other inducement from any party to produce this article.  Please see our full legal disclaimer at:  http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/stockevaluator_disclaimer.html
______________________________________________

Visit Our Website UltimateStockFinder.com for More Investing Ideas:
At "Stock Evaluator", you can download various pre-sorted views of this week's StockEvaluator spreadsheet.  All the financial data is refreshed on Friday night into StockEvaluator which contains over 2,900 company stocks.  We will add any company you would like to the list. Download "StockEvaluator spreadsheet" at: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/ 
Also, you can sign in and view the Ultimate Stock Finder watchlist on Yahoo Finance

At “Mutual Fund Evaluator” download this weeks MutualFundEvaluator spreadsheet.
MutualFundEvaluator is also updated weekly and currently contains over 1,150 mutual funds.

Run the various Ctrl-_ sort commands in StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator to bring the best companies to the top based on their key financial values. 

Also, View our YouTube training videos to learn how to use StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator.

At "Training" read more information on how we do our investments.
   “Training Module 1 - Why Use StockEvaluator.xls  And How to Use It”
   "How We Use PUTs and CALLs to Minimize Risk and Increase Profit on Each Buy & Sell"
   "S&P 500 Total Return Comparison" spreadsheet for 25 year comparisons of many funds
   "Compare Annuity Returns, Expenses and Death Benefit v.s. Managing it Yourself"

At "Links" you can find our favorite links for good investing information including:
   Screener for New 52 week lows
   Screener for Good Fundamental Values
   Screener for Stocks with High Volatility
   Links that show current P/E values for the major worldwide indexes. 
   Current Prices and 52 week ranges for major commodities

Visit Our Blog and Facebook pages:



To Remove Your Name from this email distribution list, reply to me and I will delete your name.  You will still be able to check the Ultimate Stock Finder Blog and Facebook pages to read this same eMail update.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Investment Idea Sharing for Oct. 20, 2013

This Week's Activity – October 19, 2013:



This week, all of the world wide indexes finished the week up due to the US government finally agreeing to raise the debt limit at the last hour.  The Dow 30 Industrials index did NOT make a new 52 week high, but the S&P 500, NASDAQ , German DAX and Euronext 100 all DID hit new 52 week highs on Friday Oct. 18.  The whole world was relieved and happy that our government was able to keep the USA functioning.  Me Too!

I am continuing to evaluate my holdings to see which ones may go down the most at the next market drop.  Number one on my holdings “Hit List” is FBGRX (Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund).  I bought it in Feb. 1995 at $26/share and today it is at $60.70, but $60.70 is still not back to its all time high of $65.65 from March 23, 2000.  This means that for the past 13 years, the 2 times I made any progress with this fund (2000, 2007), it gave it all back in the next market drops.  I do NOT want to ride this mutual fund back down a third time!

I looked up the annual total returns for FBGRX from the Yahoo Finance “Performance” page, and entered them into a simple Excel spreadsheet that computes average return over any span of years.  FBGRX has a 20 year Total Average Return of 8%.  This is not too bad, but includes two huge give back years (2002, -25% and 2008, -38%).  I want to miss the next huge give back year for FBGRX.
Here is the link to an Excel spreadsheet that you can use to compute total annual return for your mutual funds: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/total_return_comp_single_fund.xls

I plan to enter a sell order for FBGRX next week.  There are lots of other common stock mutual funds with much better long term performance (see this article for my lists: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/excellent_long_term_mutual_funds_article.html ) I will hold the money for the drop I believe is still coming, then re-deploy the money to one of the funds from these lists.  Here are the common stock mutual funds from the list that I like the best:
Mutual         Average           Fund
Fund           20 Yr. Return   Company  
FSCSX          13.5%           Fidelity
BRUFX          13.2%           Bruce
FSCHX          12.1%           Fidelity
ACRNX          12.0%           Columbia
VPMCX          11.5%           Vanguard
PRNHX          10.5%           T.Rowe Price
OTCFX          10.5%           T.Rowe Price
MERDX          10.5%           Matthews
FDFAX          10.0%           Fidelity

StockEvaluator “Short List” shows only companies that are within 5% of their 52 week low AND have less than 5 Red cells. 
This week 6 companies are on the short list.  They are:  WD, EZPW, GMAN, BNA, DSU, MASC. None of them look good to me this week. 

Stock Evaluator “Volatility Sort” shows only companies that have: Average Daily Price Volatility >3% ; Within 5% of their 52 week low ; Less than 6 Red cells and Profit >0%. 
This week there are no companies are on the Volatility list.

MutualFundEvaluator “Short List” shows funds that are within 3% of their 52 week low AND have less than 3 Red cells.  This week’s list has 32 funds.  All are Bond funds, which are continuing to go down in anticipation of The FED raising interest rates.  All of these bond funds are still 5 to 10% above their lows of 2007 to 2009, so I am going to wait on making any bond fund buys until they go even lower.

You can download all these specially sorted spreadsheets at www.UltimateStockFinder.com

Next Monthly Meeting 2nd Tuesday of every Month:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 , 7:30 PM at my house. 

Here are my Stock BUYs for This Week:
Buy   Company   Buy
Date  Bought     Price    Target Sell
----- ---------   -----  ------------
none

Here are my Stock SELLs for This Week:
Sell   Company   Sell     Buy       Buy
Date    Sold        Price   Price     Date
-----  ---------   -------  -------  ------------
none

Here are my Option (CALL or PUT) Sells for Last Week:
I only do Covered CALLs or Cash Secured PUTs
Option  Sell    Stock    Strike   Expiration   Option  
Type    Date   Symbol  Price      Date         Price    
------  ------  --------  ------  ----------  --------
none

StockEvaluator and Mutual FundEvaluator spreadsheets are available for download at www.ultimatestockfinder.com

Please remember to send me any other investing ideas, information or questions that you want to share with the group.

Thanks,
John D.

Disclosure: The author has no positions in any of the stocks or mutual funds mentioned in this article unless clearly stated above. We certify that except as cited herein, this is our work product. We received no compensation or other inducement from any party to produce this article.  Please see our full legal disclaimer at:  http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/stockevaluator_disclaimer.html
______________________________________________

Visit Our Website UltimateStockFinder.com for More Investing Ideas:
At "Stock Evaluator", you can download various pre-sorted views of this week's StockEvaluator spreadsheet.  All the financial data is refreshed on Friday night into StockEvaluator which contains over 2,900 company stocks.  We will add any company you would like to the list. Download "StockEvaluator spreadsheet" at: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/ 
Also, you can sign in and view the Ultimate Stock Finder watchlist on Yahoo Finance

At “Mutual Fund Evaluator” download this weeks MutualFundEvaluator spreadsheet.
MutualFundEvaluator is also updated weekly and currently contains over 900 mutual funds.

Run the various Ctrl-_ sort commands in StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator to bring the best companies to the top based on their key financial values. 

Also, View our YouTube training videos to learn how to use StockEvaluator and MutualFundEvaluator.

At "Training" read more information on how we do our investments.
   “Training Module 1 - Why Use StockEvaluator.xls  And How to Use It”
   "How We Use PUTs and CALLs to Minimize Risk and Increase Profit on Each Buy & Sell"
   "S&P 500 Total Return Comparison" spreadsheet for 25 year comparisons of many funds
   "Compare Annuity Returns, Expenses and Death Benefit v.s. Managing it Yourself"

At "Links" you can find our favorite links for good investing information including:
   Screener for New 52 week lows
   Screener for Good Fundamental Values
   Screener for Stocks with High Volatility
   Links that show current P/E values for the major worldwide indexes. 
   Current Prices and 52 week ranges for major commodities

Visit Our Blog and Facebook pages:



To Remove Your Name from this email distribution list, reply to me and I will delete your name.  You will still be able to check the Ultimate Stock Finder Blog and Facebook pages to read this same eMail update.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Investment Idea Sharing Oct. 12, 2013

This Week's Activity – October 12, 2013:


This week, the Dow 30 Industrials index ranged 3.5% from a low of 14,719 on Wednesday to a Friday close of 15,237.  Our government was responsible for most of this volatility.  But the fact is the Dow has been stuck in a range around 15,000 since May.  I am still waiting for something to cause a 15% drop.  Back in August 2011, when Congress and Mr. Obama had the last big fight about raising the debt ceiling, the markets dropped about 15% in the two weeks right before an agreement was reached.  See the table (below) with 2011 price drops for several worldwide indexes along with several of my favorite mutual funds.  Note that during the Debt Ceiling Standoff of 2011 between July 21 and August 10, the indexes dropped an average of 14%.  The debt ceiling agreement was finally signed by Mr. Obama on Aug. 2, 2011.  On Aug. 5, 2011 Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the US Govt from AAA to AA.  The stock markets continued to drop for almost 2 more months until Oct. 3 at which time they were down by an average of 19% from their July 2011 peak.  On Oct. 4, 2011 the markets all turned up and pretty much just kept going up for 2 years until Sept. 18, 2013.



Notice that now during our current debt confrontation, the markets have dropped less than 5%.  But if they do take a big drop like in 2011, I will use this table to track which funds drop the most so I can see if any go down by the 15% or more that I am waiting for.

Also, I have made individual tables containing more detailed performance numbers for the mutual funds from each of the four groups in the table above.  These four groups are:
  1. Conservative GNMA Bond Funds, with 25 year total returns greater than 5%
  2. Moderate Corporate Bond Funds, with 10 year total returns greater than 8%
  3. Municipal (Tax Free) Bond Funds, with 10 year total returns greater than 4%
  4. Large Cap Stock Funds, with 10 year total returns greater than 9%     
Here is the weblink to download these detailed tables: http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/excellent_long_term_mutual_funds_article.html

StockEvaluator “Short List” shows only companies that are within 5% of their 52 week low AND have less than 5 Red cells. 
This week 6 companies are on the short list.  They are:  WD, BLW, AOI, EZPW, OFIX, DSU. None of them look good to me this week. 

Stock Evaluator “Volatility Sort” shows only companies that have: Average Daily Price Volatility >3% ; Within 5% of their 52 week low ; Less than 6 Red cells and Profit >0%. 
This week 2 companies are on the Volatility list.  Both are small with revenues less than $350 million, they are WD and SYNC.  
WD is currently at $12.64, down from a 52 week high of $21.76 in Feb. 2013, but their Sept. 2011 low was $10.70.  WD is Walker & Dunlop, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides commercial real estate financial services for owners and developers of commercial real estate in the United States. The company originates, sells, and services a range of multifamily properties; and offers a range of commercial real estate finance products, including first mortgage loans, second trust loans, supplemental financings, construction loans, mezzanine loans, bridge/interim loans, and equity investments through the programs of the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, the Government National Mortgage Association, and the Federal Housing Administration.  Walker & Dunlop hit a new 52-week low Tuesday after it lowered its third-quarter loan origination outlook, citing increasing interest rates and a slowdown in lending by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so they can stay under lending caps.  The Bethesda, Md., company said late Monday that it now expects loan originations between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion for the third quarter. Its prior forecast was for $2 billion to $2.5 billion in loan originations.  WD has only been publicly traded since Dec. 2010 and is run by William Walker who is 46 years old.
Neither WD or SYNC look like a good buy to me.

MutualFundEvaluator “Short List” shows funds that are within 3% of their 52 week low AND have less than 3 Red cells.  This week’s list has 44 funds.  Just like the past few weeks, All but 1 are Bond funds, which are continuing to go down in anticipation of The FED raising interest rates.  All of these bond funds are still 5 to 10% above their lows of 2007 to 2009, so I am going to wait on making any bond fund buys until they go even lower.  The one non-Bond fund on the list is FRIFX a Fidelity Stock Real Estate REIT fund.   It is down almost 10% from its 52 week high, and back to its 52 week low but still 10% above the 2 year low.  I will wait for it to go lower before considering it as a buy.

You can download all these specially sorted spreadsheets at www.UltimateStockFinder.com

Next Monthly Meeting 2nd Tuesday of every Month:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 , 7:30 PM at my house. 

Here are my Stock BUYs for This Week:
Buy   Company   Buy
Date  Bought     Price    Target Sell
----- ---------   -----  ------------
none

Here are my Stock SELLs for This Week:
Sell   Company   Sell     Buy       Buy
Date    Sold        Price   Price     Date
-----  ---------   -------  -------  ------------
none

Here are my Option (CALL or PUT) Sells for Last Week:
I only do Covered CALLs or Cash Secured PUTs
Option  Sell    Stock    Strike   Expiration   Option  
Type    Date   Symbol  Price      Date         Price    
------  ------  --------  ------  ----------  --------
none

StockEvaluator and Mutual FundEvaluator spreadsheets are available for download at www.ultimatestockfinder.com

Please remember to send me any other investing ideas, information or questions that you want to share with the group.

Thanks,
John D.

Disclosure: The author has no positions in any of the stocks or mutual funds mentioned in this article unless clearly stated above. We certify that except as cited herein, this is our work product. We received no compensation or other inducement from any party to produce this article.  Please see our full legal disclaimer at:  http://www.ultimatestockfinder.com/stockevaluator_disclaimer.html
______________________________________________

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