SubscribeFree Course on Hedge Strategies with Andrew
October 21, 2008
Andrew will be teaching three free introductory online courses via CyberTrading University starting tomorrow, October 22nd with a focus on Hedging and Portfolio Protection Strategies.
If you want to learn how to make smart investment decisions, this is the class for you. Here are a few of the topics that will be covered:
1.) QuantaFundaTechna - The three step process for stock selection
2.) Looking Beneath the Surface - Underneath the corporate release and behind the obvious
3.) Portfolio Tools for performance
4.) Investment Analysis
5.) Long Term Investing and Short Term Trading Strategies
6.) Hedging
7.) Profiting in any market condition
Additional dates and more reservations are HERE
Strategy Lab: Buying Yahoo!
October 21, 2008
I have looked closely at our performance since August and made some definite conclusions. Even as I am still in 1st place, the portfolio is down 5%. Looking to buy Yahoo! (YHOO) as well…
From my latest MSN Strategy Lab journal:
What a mess. Markets are in disarray, investors are anxious and nervous about their financial future and we seem to be playing a giant game of hot potato.
Remember that game, right? Five or six of your friends would stand around in a circle with you passing around a hot baked potato (or some other passable object) until the music stopped. It was a game similar to musical chairs that had people circling around a group of chairs waiting for the music to stop and then sit down. The last one with the slowest reaction time didn’t get a chair and was out of the game.
Does it seem to you that Lehman Brothers was the slowest to grab the potato? Merrill Lynch and Washington Mutual didn’t have the staying power or the best reaction time and therefore didn’t get a chair. As an investor, I’m constantly wondering when and if the music will stop or if I am going to get stuck with the potato. That is why I have been deliberately cautious when structuring each and every investment within the portfolio.
Yet, that same degree of caution has caused the portfolio to recently move down by over 3% as protective sell-stops were hit on the ProShares Ultra Oil and Gas Index (DIG) as well as my investment in the Proshares Ultra NASDAQ (QLD). The good news is that our “real” client portfolios still hold overweighted positions in (DIG), the Oil and Gas ETF and we actually were able to add positions and hold a 10% allocation when it hit an intraday low last Thursday.
Much of the rationale for the buy of a position in the Oil and Gas sector was once again the prompted by the ridiculous level of chatter that oil was going to $30 a barrel. These were the same well-dressed fellows and well-heeled gals that called for oil at $200 a barrel by the year’s end. By researching and studying the overbought indications from a technical standpoint (See: Oversold Charts – Lots of ‘em) we were able to comfortably add this position. The mistake we made was simple: Utilizing a sell-stop in this volatile environment took us out of the position, just as it was bottoming.
Read the entire article with all my stock additions and deletions HERE
Sunday Fun: Ticker Rain
October 19, 2008
StocksCharts has some amazing services to allow you to SEE the market and individual securities. This is an important part of the QuantaTechnaFunda portfolio process that we use with the Disciplined Investor Managed Growth Strategy.
Last week we looked at the Chart Voyeur and this week I was looking at the Ticker Rain. It provides a graphical representation of the tickers that are being requested on the StockCharts site.
Better seen than explained… Bookmark this: http://stockcharts.com/charts/tickerrain.html
I explain how we beat the S&P by 21% - in D.C. (free drinks!)
October 16, 2008
(Did I get your attention? Don’t worry, I am good to my word. Read through this post and then join me in D.C.)
But, in all seriousness, it has been an awful week, month and year. Since this start of this round of the MSN Strategy Lab, my portfolio is down 4.58%. Yet during the same period, the DJIA is down a whopping 21% and the S&P 500 is down 25%. All the same, most of the portfolios for the StratLab players are doing we considering the market meltdown.
The good news is that I am back in FIRST PLACE (for now) as the “Amateur” allowed his well designed portfolio, full of shorts, to run up and run down during the recent roller coaster ride for the markets. I have been wondering why he did not place any protective stops on positions that racked up such amazing gains over the past few days. I’ll have to ask him and get
back to you on that.
The main strategy I am using for the StratLab is similar, but not identical to our TDI Managed Growth Strategy. That portfolio has also outpaced the market by a wide margin. In fact, a recent review of portfolios show that it is trouncing the S&P 500 by over 30% since the inception on July 1, 2008.
If you are interested, check out my latest Strategy Lab Journal entry to pick up a few stock tips. If you are interested in the process we are using in our portfolios, be sure to check out the virtual tour for the TDI Managed Growth Strategy HERE.
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Also, if you would like to meet up in Washington D.C., we’ll be gathering a panel of the Strategy Lab players for The Money Show Washington D.C., on Nov. 6-8, and we hope you can join us for the debate. The players will be among the more than 50 investing experts on hand to help you gear up for changes in the political landscape as we move toward a new market year.
Admission is free for MSN Money readers. To register, call 1-800-970-4355 and mention priority code 010333, to register for free today!
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We are planning a little gathering/cocktail party for all Disciplined Investors. There will be a book signing and a strategy update along with a Q/A.
If you are interested in attending on Thursday November 6th, contact us by emailing: laurar@horowitzco.com or call the office @ 954-349-0800.
Media: What to do now if …
October 15, 2008
Here is a timely article written by Cindy Goodman of the Miami Herald. It explores different stages of life and how the market and economic failure of 2008 is creating decision points for each:
From the Miami Herald:
Experts say boomers with kids near college age have deep-seated beliefs about their kids getting Ivy League degrees and how they will bear the cost. But now, they may have to consider public universities, having their kids take out loans, work their way through school or even dip into their own retirement funds.
Andrew Horowitz, a Weston money manager, cautions Taylor and Stewart to be careful about making long-term decisions based on short-term events. ”In an environment where it’s more competitive to get a job, a person will need as much education as possible,” he says, urging Taylor to go to graduate school. “Beg, borrow or steal to continue in that direction unless it’s 100 percent impossible.”
Read the entire Article HERE
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