Stock Online TraderBulls & Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered…Let Us Not Be That Pig…

Teradyne, Inc. (TER) is a supplier of automatic test equipment. The Company’s automatic test equipment products and services include semiconductor test  systems and military/aerospace test (Mil/Aero) instrumentation and systems, circuit-board test and inspection systems and automotive diagnostic and test (Diagnostic Solutions) systems, collectively these products represent Systems Test Group.

I went long TER @5.06 once the $5.00 resistance was broken.  Missed the top price, but made quick 1.80% return.

Trade Lesson: Buy breakouts when critical resistance is taken out.

Burger King Holdings, Inc. (BKC) is a fast food hamburger restaurant. As of June 30, 2008, the Company owned or franchised a total of 11,565 restaurants in 71 countries and United States territories, of which 1,360 restaurants were Company restaurants and 10,205 were owned by its franchisees. The Company’s restaurants feature flame-broiled hamburgers, chicken and other specialty sandwiches, french fries, soft drinks and other food items.

I went long BKC @17.95 once the $17.90 high of the day was taken out. This only meant the bulls were in control of this position and shorts would have their stop losses triggered. Took out $18.00 resistance easily on the second attempt and stayed above it after that. I sold off @18.15 once the buying volume seem to have faded. Made quick 1.11% return.

Trade Lesson: Buy breakouts on high of the day taken out.

MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) hosts an online platform in Latin America, called MercadoLibre and located at www.mercadolibre.com. The Company has e-commerce operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. In addition, it also operates online trading platforms in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama. MercadoLibre has two principal services: The MercadoLibre marketplace and The MercadoPago online payments solution. The MercadoLibre marketplace is a fully automated, topically arranged online trading service. The MercadoPago online payments solution is an integrated online payments solution.

I went short MELI @24.70 once the $25.00 high of the day was not taken out. This only meant the early buyers were going to exist the long position, not wanting to risk their profit. This lead to small selloff in the end.  I covered my short in the last 5 mins of trade @24.53 making a 0.70% return.

Trade Lesson: Breakout stocks can keep running up. However most of the time in the afternoon early longs start profit taking leading to selloff and quick shorting opportunity.

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. (BBEP) is an independent oil and gas partnership focused on the acquisition, exploitation and development of oil and gas properties in the United States. The Company’s assets consist primarily of producing and non-producing crude oil and natural gas reserves located in the Antrim Shale in Michigan, the Los Angeles Basin in California, the Wind River and Big Horn Basins in central Wyoming, the Sunniland Trend in Florida, the New Albany Shale in Indiana and Kentucky, and the Permian Basin in West Texas.

I went long BBEP @6.02 once the $6.00 resistance was broken.  Missed the top price, but made good 4.50% return.

Trade Lesson: Buy breakouts.

Walter Industries, Inc. (WLT) through its operating segments offers a line of products and services, including coal and natural gas, metallurgical coke, mortgage financing and home construction.

I went long WLT @23.02 once the $23.00 resistance was broken.  Missed the top price, but made good 3.95% return.
Trade Lesson: Buy breakouts.

Ashland Inc.(ASH) is a global specialty chemicals company, operating through five commercial units. Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredients provides specialty additives and functional ingredients, largely derived from renewable and natural raw materials, that manage the physical properties of aqueous and nonaqueous systems. Ashland Hercules Water Technologies provides process, functional and water management chemistries for the pulp and paper, industrial and institutional, mining, municipal and marine industries. Ashland Performance Materials provides unsaturated polyester resins, vinyl ester resins, gelcoats, pressure-sensitive and structural adhesives, and metal casting consumables and design services for the construction, transportation, packaging and converting, and marine markets.

I went short ASH @15.99 once the $16.00 support was broken.  Stopped out @16.31 with loss of -2.00%
Trade Lesson: Short breakdowns. However quickly stop loss out once previous high is broken.

After surging unexpectedly in February, new home construction tumbled last month, according to government data released this morning.

Housing starts fell 10.8 percent in March compared with the previous month, to an annualized rate of 510,000. They are down 48.4 percent from the same period in March 2008. Home construction for single-family homes was unchanged, but it tumbled 42.6 percent for multi-family units such as condos and apartment buildings, according to the Commerce Department data.

The drop was bigger than expected by analysts hoping for early signs of a recovery in the housing market. Home construction had jumped more than 20 percent in February. “We expect activity to remain close to current levels for some time now,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics. “A real recovery is still some way off but stabilization would represent progress.”

In the Northeast and Midwest, home construction increased 6 percent and 16 percent, respectively, in March. But it fell 17 percent in the South, which includes the Washington region, and 26 percent in the West.

Most important for analysts was the 9 percent drop in building permits, which can help forecast future demand. Permit levels are now at an all-time low, Mike Larson, a housing analyst at Weiss Research, said in a research note.

There continue to be too many homes on the market, dampening demand, said Larson. “Nothing in the latest data — especially the weak permitting figures — suggests an imminent rebound,” he said.

Source: Washington Post