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 advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

One of the hardest things about being a blogger, and now a Seeking Alpha contributor, is the necessity of doing everything so publicly! I just got around to posting about my 'brilliant' decision to switch my Graham (GHM) holdings into Johnson Controls (JCI) and now my entire plan is hitting headwinds.  Perhaps a bit of turbulence from Gustav?

It is my strategy to sell a holding should it hit an 8% loss.  I don't really care whether that holding has been held for a year or 15 minutes.  After an initial purchase, if that stock drops the required 8% out it goes.

And Johnson Controls (JCI) hit that (8)% loss for me this morning.  And I sold my shares.

In fact,  I sold my 210 shares of JCI at $29.5223.  These shares were just purchased two days ago (yikes!) at a price of $32.0477.  Thus, they had declined by $(2.5254) or (7.88)%.   JCI as I write is trading at $29.47, down $(1.05) or (3.44)% on the day.

While Johnson Controls has indeed been talking about steps it will take to deal with the slowdown in the auto industry and the slowdown in construction---including taking a $450 to $500 million charge to account for the cutting of jobs and closing of plants---probably the biggest thing driving this stock down today is the overall market, which as I write, the Dow is down (281.30) points at 11,251.58, and the Nasdaq is down (58.91) points at 2,274.82.  The market is down even with oil showing continued weakness, trading at $107.20 down $(2.15) on the day.

I still am long-term a fan of Johnson Controls (JCI), so even though my trading system requires me to be a seller of shares, my rating is being reduced:

JOHNSON CONTROLS (JCI) IS RATED A HOLD

And with my sale on 'bad news', I shall be 'sitting on my hands' with the proceeds, waiting for one of my other holdings to hit a sale on an appreciation target, what I call 'good news' prior to looking for a new position in which to place the proceeds.

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

Yous in investing,

Bob