Investing Guide

I sold Capital One (COF) for a 11% gain and Sunoco (SUN) for a 5% gain.

I sold COF and SUN because my trailing stop hit. It was set at 3% below and both stocks went down that much in 2 days. After that, Capital One (COF) went up 4% and SUN went up 2% from my sale price. Trailing stops have not worked out for me in the past because the stocks usually went down to the set price, and then went back up after I sold it. I think it is better to just pull the gun and sell the stock if I want to exit the position or just hold on to it if I still want to keep it. I’ve lost some gains because of trailing stops. I might even set trailing stops at 5% to see how that goes, but for now, I think just setting a target sell price and selling is a better idea.

Now that I sold those two stocks and JLG, I have some cash free. There have not been many good stocks that look cheap lately. A lot of stocks went up a lot in the past two months making it more difficult to find some bargains.

I’ve ran some my stock screen and these are my current buy candidates. I like Herseys (HSY), Linear Technology Corp (LLTC), Reliance Steel (RS) and W Holding Company (WHI). I will probably buy Herseys (HSY) if it drops 4% or more.

I am going to set a buy limit order ($30) for Linear Technology tomorrow. LLTC manufactures linear integrated circuits. It has a market cap of 9 billion. LLTC is currently yielding 1.96%. Its P/E ratio is at 21, which is historically on the low side for this company. LLTC’s shares have been beaten down (down 6%) on Wednesday due to lower 2nd quarter sales guidance. I think this is a good opportunity to buy a great company at good price.

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