Don’t Rush The Shot, Call a Timeout

You’re down 2 with 10 seconds left on the clock in the 4th quarter… you just grabbed a rebound.  Two defenders are running at you in the backcourt.  Don’t be the hero just yet!

As the clock ticks off to the end of the 4th quarter of 2009 it may be tempting to make some moves in your portfolio.  I’m checking the peak hours of trading over the past few days and they are just flat.  A lot of traders are on vacation, or people are just too busy with the holidays.  What can I liken this to?   Well, it’s like trying to surf on a 1-foot wave.  You’ll be paddline too hard just to catch it.  So, in other words, while it’s flat out there, save your energy.  Anyway, as the Nasdaq continues to push forward, I would still be cautious here because a pullback is quite imminent.  If you’re an IBD guy, then what’s bothering you is that are the advance to decline numbers.  In other words, with volume relatively low these past few days (exception of Friday’s options expiration day) it seems like a few stocks with big moves have skewed the Nasdaq to the upside.  Then of course there’s the Santa theory with the market, which if it were true then it would work against the market this time with holiday sales down.  But, then again if you’re a contrarian trader like me, then it would work because you would bet against the obvious.  Haha, too confusing.

Anyway, for now continue to monitor stocks with nice price and volume action:  [[med]] (one of my “feel-good-stocks” picks), Fuqi International, Inc. [[fuqi]] (Sweet China stock), salesforce.com, inc. [[crm]] , [[tstc]] , J. Crew Group, Inc. [[jcg]] (our handsome stock), [[cacc]] (if you want to take advantage of trends), Almost Family, Inc. [[afam]] (… you again?!).

Don’t forget to start planning for your 2009 taxes.  You have only about one week to write-off a bunch of stuff.  Go buy yourself a business laptop, or pay your 4th quarter excise tax, or donate your earnings, or sell some losers.  This link is pretty good:  http://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/tax-planning-strategies/