Sold Ingles Markets (IMKTA) Today.

I've grown to hate earnings season. Especially when I'm holding a stock that is moving up fast. I feel that IMKTA, which reports tomorrow, will have good earnings but not good enough to warrant the recent climb. I would hate to give back all my gains on a "sell-the-news" reaction.

I'll look to get back in when the 50 day moving average catches up to the price, or vice versa.

UPDATE: Ok, so I missed some big time upside by selling yesterday. The ABC structure will be done at 39 and then IMKTA should pullback to the breakout point. I won't kick myself too much for a profitable trade, but I hate earnings season!

The Spectacular Collapse of Amrep (AXR)

I wrote about AXR, #1 on the IBD 100 list, a short time ago and compared it to Empire Resources (ERS), a former #1 on the list. I predicted a collapse and that is exactly what we got today, with Amrep dropping by 22%.

The volume on the Nasdaq was lower than on Friday so we didn't pick up another distribution day. Nevertheless, the price destruction of AXR was the final piece of my market top puzzle, with US Global Investors (GROW) having already tanked. I therefore sold out another long position, AllianceBernstein (AB), with a nice 23% gain. (I got out of my IMKTA and HRZ position last Friday.)

So what do I have left? I'm still holding those QID shares I bought at last Thursday's open and a small core position in FTK. This makes 90% short right now. I plan on adding to that QID position after the first short covering rally.

I'm also thinking about shorting AMK at the first short covering rally, which should be huge since the short interest increased this last month to 84%.

Damn, this stock market stuff is sure fascinating!

Bearish but still long. IMKTA, AB, FTK

I learned my lesson some time ago when I sold out a position for no good reason only to watch it rise 20% in a matter of weeks.


Sure, I've been bearish about the market but that hasn't stopped me from holding my long positions. In fact, I even started a new long position at the height of my conviction that the market would turn lower. I found that buying one of these ultrashort ETFs was the key to my mental well being. For instance, I purchased some shares of the QID and put in a very tight stop. If the market went up I would be stopped out, but still have my long positions. If the market went down I would make 2% for every 1% the QQQQs went down. That gave me some peace of mind and a feeling that I would have time to exit my long trades.

As of now I don't have any QID shares and I'm currently enjoying the rise of my recent long position. Check out IMKTA.




I'm sure a pullback is in the cards but IMKTA has moved up almost 10% since I bought the flat base breakout.








AllianceBernstein is a model of strength. This one has been easy to stay long.














Like I posted earlier, the massive decline in crude prices has hurt everything connected to oil. I have been looking for an oil pullback and was ready to cut my FTK shares down on such a price break. Considering the beating that many of the other oil stocks have taken, FTK has held up pretty well. However, I think the bad weather in the Rockies will hurt Flotek's 4th quarter and expect them to report an EPS towards the lower end of their estimates. Who cares, the shares I still own are all profit. When oil turns around I'll add some more. Here is the chart. Notice the the recent distribution days and wild price swings (today especially). I'm looking for it to get down to the 21.50 area.

Buys, Sells, and Naked Shorts!!!

The excitement continues today. I put in another buy order for the QID again and this time my order was filled. It was pretty scary watching it sink another 2% after I bought it. The good news is that the Nasdaq closed under yesterday's highs, which suggests that we will probably head down again tomorrow. We shall see.

I took my principle off the table for Flotek Industries. I'm going to let the profit ride. There is strong support at around 22.5 and it will be interesting to see how it reacts when it reaches this level. The bottom line is that these last couple of days have been the first days of strong distribution since FTK took off in October. I'm going to be very cautious right now.

I found a very interesting stock today that I think I'll buy tomorrow. Ingles Markets, Inc (IMKTA) is a supermarket chain in the southeast. It popped up on my CANSLIM screen recently. Today, she broke out of a flat base on the second day of big volume. Very nice strength considering the volatility we've seen.

Finally, I tried to short US Global Investors (GROW) today but couldn't because there were no shares available to borrow. Too bad because it dropped a whopping 13% today. Bummer. I did short Ford (F) today as it bounced off of confluence again.