It was another strong day for our stock picks. The Dow was up 0.6%, and Toronto was up 0.7%. We had Bank of America up 3.3%, Wells Fargo up 1.5% .. almost everything seemed to be up today.
I should probably be looking to trim a bit more to raise my cash and be a bit more defensive. But it is hard to think about selling when things are rising. What I may do right now is stick in a few “stink offers”, that is offers to sell but only if the the stock rises another 5% or whatever. We certainly can’t be sure that stocks will continue to rise or even that we won’t get a “correction”. I have some hope of analyzing which stocks appear to be good value. But I have never claimed to be able to predict short-term market direction. As far as I am concerned the overall market is fairly random in the short term. I don’t follow any seasonal indicators, presidential cycle indicators, or anything of the kind. I am always at least partly invested in equities. I doubt I have ever been less than 50 or 60% invested and even that low was only briefly. I am often closer to 95% invested in equities. I try to pick stocks that look like good value. When markets fall I try to find some cash to buy at the lower prices. So far it has worked out okay, but certainly with some major bumps along the way.
I have just placed some orders to trim Wells Fargo (at $37.95), Melcor (at $16.95 – correction that should have read, $16.75) and Bank of America (at $10.95). These are a good bit higher than the current market and there is a good chance none of these will sell. But at least if the market happens to sort of rocket higher I will automatically trim a little here. And if markets go the other way, I have some cash ready to Buy.