Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob's Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

Clearly my investment approach shows the greatest weakness on severe contractions and large degrees of volatility in the market.  While trying to step aside and then re-enter equities, I feel like I have been getting my face slammed in a revolving door over and over again.

I may have gotten smacked once more :(.

As I discussed previously, I have adjusted my own trading system to reduce the number of trades in a very down market by increasing my loss tolerance to (16)% losses on my last five positions.

Even this apparently is not enough.

Earlier today I sold two of my five remaining positions.  I sold my 102 shares of Covance (CVD), which has been behaving particularly weak this past week, at $48.23/share.  These shares had been acquired 4/9/07 at a cost basis per share of $62.61.  Thus, I had managed to incur a loss of $(14.38)/share or (23)% since purchase.  Out they went.

I also unloaded my recently acquired shares of Imperial Oil (IMO) at $29.31.  These shares were just acquired 10/20/08 at a cost basis per share of $35.17.  Thus, I had quickly incurred a loss of $(5.86)/share or (16.7)% since purchase.

Yikes.

So I am now down to three positions:  Graham (GHM), National Oilwell Varco (NOV), and Rollins (ROL).  I shall try to hang onto those unless they too incur a (16)% loss.

At least for the time being.

And on any new positions, I shall try to limit their size to 1/2 of the average size of the remaining positions.  In this way, my committments to the market should diminish if I tend to be 'whip-sawed' frequently into buying and then selling positions as the market gyrates.

Will this work?

I frankly don't know.  My brilliance is rapidly losing its shine.  My performance is moving right to the mean and I am ready for this bear market to be over.  (Even though that may take months or years!)

Thanks again for visiting!  If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them on the blog or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com.

Yours in investing,

Bob