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Performance

There’s nothing we hate more than people who tell you what you would have made if you had done some perfect entry and perfect exit on a trade they vaguely recommended out of dozens that didn’t work out.

It’s never going to happen here!

Here’s a site that promises you that, using options, you "could have turned $5,000 into $1M in just over 5 years."  That’s just not our style, too flashy!

Not only do we publish weekly reviews or our trades (see Phil’s Weekly Wrap-Ups), but you can review every single word we’ve said since November of 2005 in our archives (and the historical comments are available even to report members) and see for yourself what you think of our picks!

Do we need your credit card so you can look? No, why should we – the picks should stand on their own. If you think they would have helped you in the past than you may decide on your own whether you want to sign up for our daily live site.

Our picks and articles usually appear daily, but delayed, under the "Financial Blogs" section of Yahoo Finance and often in the "Blog Posts" section of Google Finance. I am often posted on Seeking Alpha and have maintained a daily blog on Blogger for most of 2006 before switching to the site you see here.

This is not your run-of-the-mill dry, financial reporting! According to Google, there are 11,500,000 stock picking sites on the web and they all think they’re smarter than us… We don’t try to out shout the masses – we just try to have some fun and make some money!

We’ve been told by marketing experts that we need to put in giant letters that say we make more trades, more often than most newsletters, that we try to pick real, well-known companies that are fairly liquid so you can get your money in and (more importantly) out and we’re supposed to make a big deal about beating the markets.

We’re not going to do that. When we look for a good financial newsletter, we just read that stuff and go "blah blah blah" in our heads until we found some kind of sample of the actual numbers.

Well, we give you those numbers. We let you see everything we did, winners and losers, no samples. There’s a weekly update and you can take a look most weekends you can check out Phil, Optrader and Oxen’s styles for yourself and decide if it would annoy or please you to read them every day.

All right, so we’re not good at marketing – but that’s not why you’re here is it?

We are "amateur" investors, like you, who just got sick of all the BS we were getting from all the "professional" services and we decided to start our own. We are not brokers or pro traders and you would be nuts to make any trade you read about here without consulting a professional financial advisor as to its suitability for your virtual portfolio… But, if you like to talk about stocks and pick up some tips that might work without all the hype and nonsense – come join us!

So why listen to us?  We do have sort of a knack for spotting trends and picking winners and we’re happy to share what we know with you.  No other reason.  Nothing bad will happen to you if you don’t sign up with us – there is no pressure and this is not a limited offer. Come back any time we are accepting new members – the door will always be open.

Here’s a short list of past accomplishments (and please, check out the Seeking Alpha list, this is all of our major macro articles, not just the ones that worked):

6/21 – Gold Rises on N. Korean Nuke Threat (GLD, GOLD)
Gold goes from $580 to $676 following recommendation.

6/29 – Why The EU’s Fines Against Microsoft Aren’t So Significant (MSFT)
Recommends Oct $25s for .50, stock was at $23.25

7/4 – Trump Should Suffer From New Jersey Shutdown (TRMP)
Trump peaked July 6th at $20.25, closed at $16.98 on August 10th

7/7 – Google’s Private Jet: A (Part-time) Shareholder’s Concern
Google peaks at $427.89 that day, fell to $363.36 on August 3rd

7/21 – Google, Time to Find a New Revenue Stream
Follow up on a week of commentary warning readers to get out of Google

7/24 – Misreading American Express Earnings
American Express drops to $49.73 on earnings, recovers to $53.72 on August 17th (I was so irate with the reaction to the earnings, which were mid-day that I published this one on the afternoon and we made a killing on the current month options).

7/31 – Did the Fed Overdo the Rate Hikes?
Predicted Fed pause and negative reaction the markets would have to it.

8/5 – Berkshire Hathaway Reports Blowout Quarter; Good Entry Point For New Investors
August 7th (Monday) BRK.A opens at $92,200, $96,700 on August 24th

8/8 – Options Trader: How I’m Playing Today’s Fed Decision
Notably calls the top on oil at $77 despite Lebanon war and BP Spill, Oil peaked at $77.70 on August 10th

8/17 – SOX Found: Is a Major Upswing In the Works?
Predicts the late-August rally based on technical indicators

8/18 – Sears: Too Cheap to Resist
Sears drops to $139.72 on earnings, rises to $152.45 on September 5th

8/20 – Gold: Heading for a Trainwreck Due to Oversupply?
Predicted coming drop in gold prices while it was going up.

8/21 – Nike’s New Sneaks Should Give Some Lift
NKE drops to $76.45, closes at $82.05 on September 8th

8/22 – Gold Bugs, Don’t Dig In Too Deep
Warns of a false rally with gold climbing towards $640

8/23 – Oil’s Slippery Slope: Why Crude and Oil Stocks May Be Headed Down, Fast
Oil was at $72, was at $60 within 30 days!

8/25 – The Market’s Just Waiting for an Excuse to Rally
Dow 11,300, need I say more?

8/30 – Will Market History Repeat Itself?
Calling for a major rally based on chart patterns.

8/31 – Gold — Don’t Be Left Holding the Bag
Gold fell from $640 to $570 in the next 2 weeks.

9/1 – A Few Miner Adjustments: BHP Billiton & Phelps Dodge
A nice example of a complex spread played against news – I love these trades!

9/5 – Frontline’s Weakness May Portend a Spill in Tanker Stocks
Very nice call on the tanker sector

9/6 – Windows Upgrade Presents New Vista for Dell
Nice bottom call on Dell

9/8 – How Long Can the Exxon Bulls Last?
Longer than I thought!

9/11 – Google’s Low Volatility Presents Unique Options Opportunity
The call that made me famous!

9/11 – Why Broadcast TV Has No Need to Fear Video Sharing
Did I bring YouTube to Google’s attention?

9/15 – Oil Price Manipulation: Taking from the Poor to Give to the Rich
Led to a series of very productive oil puts in the daily column

9/18 – eBay: Runaway SG&A Expenses Dragging Down The Stock
It was the EXACT bottom for Ebay

9/20 – Investment Banks Have Too Much Money On Their Hands
I was way off here, apparently you cannot have too much money!

10/1 – Yahoo and eBay: Undervalued
Still waiting for Yahoo to read this one…

10/8 – Bread and Butter Trade: Buy the Leap, Sell the Call
Slightly more complex option strategies

10/8 – Phil Davis’ Google Play — Round Three Update
We’re not ashamed to make money over and over on the same thing!

10/20 – Getting Ready to Go Long SanDisk
We’re still waiting for my $40 target (see comments)

10/22 – Cell Phone Makers: Nokia May Run, But Qualcomm’s On An End Run
Scratch that, reverse it – thank you!

10/23 – The Rise and Fall of Oil: Roach Motel Theory
May be the call of the year – still waiting to see!

10/29 – Deflating Housing Bubble = Comfy Landing for Equities
That one was dead on!

11/4 – Prop 87: Follow the Money
We also love our politics!

11/9 – How to Short Homebuilders: Look for the Fastest Growers
This one is still unfolding…

11/16 – Zune Is DOA — Sansa Anyone?
We know how this turns out!

11/19 – Options Trader: Long Term Picks
A review of our long-term calls

12/2 – Options Trader: Friday Wrapup and November Rundown
Good to read to get caught up

12/5 – ExxonMobil: Black Magic
Did little old me cause Exxon to dip? I don’t think so but I’m getting blamed!

12/6 – Las Vegas Sands: Dicey Valuation
Still playing itself out but down $6 in 6 sessions since the post.

12/11 – Insurance Sector Looks Cheap
Huge winner in just one week!

12/14 – Can the U.S. Markets Break Loose?
Of course our subscribers get all this information first…

That’s it for now, we’ll update it when we get around to it but all the new stuff is right here on this site. You are welcome to use the ad-supported sites any time but the mailing list, intra-day alerts and daily comment section are for members only.

We hope you will join us!

Thanks,

- Phil, David and Optrader

 

 

Phil's Favorites

MF Global: Francine McKenna of re: The Auditors Gives a Plausible Explanation

Courtesy of Jesse's Cafe Americain

Francine McKenna is an ex-auditor from Price, Waterhouse Coopers. 

McKenna has a blog called re: The Auditors, and also writes for Forbes.

MF Global is a slowly boiling scandal. It is always the cover up that brings the most damage, rather than the initial criminal acts that are committed by a few.

She provides a very plausible description of what really happened at MF Global, and I find it to be entirely consistent with my own thoughts and extensive reading on the subject.

She does not address the actual cause of the MF Global bankruptcy but that is another matter. 

It is a dirty business. And Francine is a highly credible source.

This will start viewing at 13:...



more from Ilene

Chart School

World Markets Weekend Review: The Rally Slows

Courtesy of Doug Short.

The 2012 rally slowed last week as the average gain of our basket of eight markets dropped from 2.01% the previous week to a flat finish of 0.06%. Geographic rotation was the dominant pattern, with the world leadership moving from Europe to the Asia Pacific. Thus, the top performing Nikkei 225 had been the worst performer at the end of the previous week, while the three European indexes were demoted from stellar to cellar. The S&P 500 again finished near the middle of the pack, but in the spirit of the overall slowdown, a finish near the middle was a week-over-week close (fractionally) in the red.

The adjacent table shows the 2012 year-to-date performance of our gang of eight. Three markets have maintained their double-digit gains at the end of six weeks, with the BSE SENSEX overtaking the DAXK (i.e., the DAX ex dividends) for the lead with the Hang Seng in...



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Zero Hedge

Apple at $1000/share? Oh, at LEAST!

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tim Knight from Slope of Hope.

(Note - I got an invitation from Tyler this morning to contribute to ZeroHedge, which completely made my day. I've got a little blog called the Slope of Hope, wrapping up its 7th year. I hope to become a regular here over at ZH; thanks, Tyler!)

Most of you have probably already seen the bullgasm happening over at Barron's. Here's their cover for the week:

...



more from Tyler

Sabrient

Sabrient Risers - 2/11/2012

Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysisICABUYThe projected value for Empresas ICA is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.XBUYThe projected value for US Steel is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.FEICBUYProjected value continues to rise for FEI while long term increases in earnings growth are also becoming more widely expected.ASBCBUYMany analysts are expecting higher than previously expected long term growth from Associated Bancorp, and its near-term earnings outlook is also improving....

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Insider Scoop

Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Friday February 10, 2012

Courtesy of Benzinga.

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday February 10, 2012:

Actuant Acquires Jeyco Pty

The Deal:
Actuant (NYSE: ATU) announced Friday that it has acquired Jeyco Pty Ltd (“Jeyco”). Headquartered near Perth, Australia, Jeyco designs and provides specialized mooring, rigging and towing systems and services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Australia and other international markets. Additionally, its highly engineered products are used in a variety of applications for other markets including cyclone mooring and marine, defense and mining tow systems. Jeyco generates annual revenues of approximately $20 million.

Actuant shares closed at $27.33 Friday, a loss of 0.18% on average volume.

...

http://www.insidercow.com/ more from Insider

Market Montage

And Still Not a Single 1% Down Day in 2012

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

A little flurry of buying in the closing 5 minutes tacked on 2 S&P points and took the major indexes off the lows.  Only the Russell 2000 finished with a greater than 1% loss (1.4%) as it has been relatively weak versus the senior indexes for the past few sessions.   While today was the "worst day of the year" – it was quite a low bar as the previous biggest loss on the S&P 500 was -0.57%.

The S&P 500 held well above the 10 day moving average (didn't even really touch it) and did not even attempt to fill the gap from last Friday's employment report.  The teflon market rolls on for now.  Specul...



more from Mark

ETF Selector

ETFs Skid On Greece (VGK, EWG, FXE, DIA, SPY)

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Greece was “saved” for less than 24 hours but now major ETFs around the world skid into the weekend on Greek fears

After wangling for a week or more, Greek took their new deal to the European Ministers meeting, only to have it promptly rejected and so as we go into the weekend, major global markets and ETFs have again hit the skids on Greece.

After two years of wangling, the European zone is demanding yet more and deeper cuts for Greece to qualify for the next round of bailout loans that will keep the country from going bankrupt on March 20th.

Major European and United States ETF responded negatively to the new developments:

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial ETF (NYSEARCA:...



more from John

All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Click here for the full report.




To learn more, sign up for David's free newsletter and receive the free report from All About Trends - "How To Outperform 90% Of Wall Street With Just $500 A Week." Tell David PSW sent you. - Ilene...

more from David

Option Review

True Religion Falls Apart At The Seams After Earnings

 

Today’s tickers: TRLG, KR & IGT

...



more from Caitlin

OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of February 6th, 2012

Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current  trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

...

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly: The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics

NEW: Elliott and Ilene are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.

Here's the latest Stock World Weekly, called "The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics."  

...

more from SWW

IRA Strategy/Income Trader

Weekend Virtual Portfolio Update 1/30/2012

Here is a quick update of past trades and our current position. AA Money No trade this week as we wait for AA to settle. Phil remarked last week that AA seemed overvalued. In the meantime, it looks like we might have to roll our Feb 9 calls. Good thing we sold only 5 of them against our position. Last week P&L - 310.00 We lost ground last week, but we still have 11 months to sell premium! FAS Money Very good week for FAS Money as we benefited from the large amount of premium sold the previous week. We covered most of the shorts in advance of the Fed speech, but sold another set of options on Wednesday after the speech - 2 FAS calls that expired worthless on Friday, 2 FAS put that we are still holding and 2 FAZ put that we bought back for a profit on Friday. A late stick comparable to last week's almost gave us problems at the end of the day though! Last week P&L - $4277.00 IWM Money A decent week in this virtual portfo...

more from Strategies

Pharmboy

Biotech Investing for 2012

Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Finding new and exciting Biotech companies that target novel mechanisms is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  Sure there are many companies working on cutting edge science, but investing in those companies to reap the rewards of their work is a very dangerous game.  More often than not, companies fail because the mechanism does not pan out, the compound(s) do not have pharmacokinetics (get into the body or last very long in the body), or an adverse event happens that knocks years off a development timeline.  In addition, the stock can be manipulated by market makers so investors don't know which way is up.  I approach investing in biotechs as a long term prospect.  I continue to like our current portfolio of biotech companies (join in chat for many of those plays), and we continually add/subtract shares and sell/buy options on ...



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About Phil:

Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...

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About Ilene:

Ilene is editor and affiliate program coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site (blogroll, archives, more). Contact Ilene to learn about our affiliate and content sharing programs.

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