Stock Picks Bob's Advice

Wednesday, 7 September 2005

"Trading Transparency" Mentor (MNT)
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 consult with your professional investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

Stocks have rallied the last couple of days and this has put another of my stocks in the sale range on a gain. Mentor (MNT), as I write, is trading at $55.19, up $1.49 or 2.77% on the day. Earlier today, I sold 37 shares of Mentor at $55.24. This represented 1/4 of my 150 share position.

These Mentor shares were acquired on 2/3/05 at $34.37/share. Thus, these shares were sold with a gain of $20.87/share or a 60.7% gain over the initial purchase. This was my second sale of shares of Mentor, having sold 50 shares of my 200 share initial position on 7/28/05, a little over a month ago, at a price of $44.98, which represented a gain of $10.20 or 29.7%.

If you follow my blog, you know that I like to sell stocks quickly at a loss, using 8% as my limit, and also sell shares slowly at targeted gains, with 1/4 positions (of remaining shares) sold at 30%, 60%, 90%, 120%; (then by 60% intervals): 180%, 240%, 300%, 360%; (then by 90% intervals etc.). Thus, with Mentor, I shall try to sell another 1/4 position at 90% gain level, or unload all of my remaining shares if the stock retraces to a 45% gain point. (After selling more than once, I use a 50% retracement of the highest gain % as my sale point.)

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

Bob

Posted by bobsadviceforstocks at 1:57 PM CDT | Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink
Updated: Wednesday, 7 September 2005 2:33 PM CDT

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Thursday, 8 September 2005 - 9:18 PM CDT

Name: Ron Devriendt

Hi Bob,
Do you use your % gains on mutual funds as well as stocks or do you use a different % on gains and how about losses
also.
Thanks,
Ron Devriendt

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Thursday, 8 September 2005 - 9:27 PM CDT

Name: Bob Freedland
Home Page: https://bobsadviceforstocks.tripod.com/bobsadviceforstoc

Ron,

I am not sure I fully understand your question, but let me try to answer what I think you are asking.

Currently, I have been using this % gain technique only on this particular trading account tied to the blog. I do not believe that selling mutual funds on loss points, etc., makes sense as they are a basket of individual investments. However, somebody else might look into that particular question.

As I have mentioned elsewhere in the blog, I sell my stocks on "good news" that is good performance in the stock price at pre-determined price goals. I use 30%, 60%, 90%, 120%, points to sell 1/4 of my holdings remaining. In that fashion, I really don't ever run out of stock to sell :). Thereafter, I go by 60% intervals: 180%, 240%, 300%, and 360%. Currently, my top performing stock is closing in on a 360% gain (QSII).

I haven't had any stocks move higher yet, but my goal thereafter would be at 90% intervals (x4), 120% intervals (x4), etc. This latter strategy would slowly allow the stocks to grow and for the selling on my part to decrease.

On the downside, I sell at an 8% loss if I have not sold at a gain. If I have sold once (30% level), then, much after William O'Neill, I believe in selling at break-even instead of waiting for an 8% loss. If I have sold two or more times (60%, or 90% or higher), I try to sell when the stock has retraced the price move such that it has reached 50% of the greatest gain. That is, sell at 30% gain if I have sold on the upside 1/4 of my position at the 60% level. Or sell at a 45% gain (all shares when sold on the downside) if the stock has been sold piecemeal three times, with the last sale at the 90% level.

I hope you follow my thinking.

As I always remind my readers, I am an amateur investor so please consult with your professional investment advisors prior to implementing any ideas in your own portfolio management!

Thanks for visiting!

Bob

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