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.

It seemed appropriate to at least comment on the stock market's extreme volatility this week and how it has affected my own approach to investing and portfolio management.  As you all know, and as I write over and over, I am an amateur investor.  That means that like many of you who read this blog, I am not trained nor am I licensed to manage anyone's investments, receive compensation from anybody to select investments and time purchases and sales, nor am I as knowledgeable on market information as someone who has passed appropriate licensing boards to reach those levels.

But I can share with you my own amateur take of the tremendous stresses being put on us each day and the wild swings of multi-hundred point dimension we are observing.  Like a person with a bipolar disorder, the mood swings in the market have been going from severe depression to unbelievable euphoria, and everything in between.

If you read my blog entries regularly, you will know that I have taken advantage of the bull market in financials with a trade in Citigroup that netted me some profits on Thursday.  I did this outside my regular trading strategy.  

With somewhat less success, I have been shifting some of my holdings to get out of sectors that appeared to be dragging down my particular holdings.  Moves like the correction in the oil market pulled down Lufkin which I sold out of my account.

But my overall investment strategy remains intact.  I continue to look for companies with what I call quality characteristics--things like steady revenue growth, earnings growth, possibly dividends and dividend growth, stable outstanding shares, positive free cash flow and a solid balance sheet.  I like to see companies report results that beat expectations and hopefully find them raising guidance as well.  I enjoy finding a stock with reasonable Price/Sales and Return on Equity %'s.  And I hope to invest in companies with a stock chart that appears to be continuing to appreciate in price.

While that is a lot to ask of an investment, there are so many different potential investments anyhow, and so little of my own money to invest!  So why not?

In addition I continue to respond to the sales within my own portfolio that determine whether I shall be adding a position (if I am under 20 positions and generate a sale on 'good news'), or backing off a position (if I am over 5 positions and I generate a sale on 'bad news' which for means either selling a stock on a decline to a 'sale point' or the announcement of fundamentally 'bad news'.)

I am currently at 5 positions in my own Trading Account (which you can review if you like on my Covestor Page).

So while I don't have the foggiest idea about what shall be happening as soon as tomorrow (will the Administration and the Democrats get together in some sort of $700 billion bail-out or will they be symied at this attempt?)  I do know that I shall have the directions develop from my own portfolio. 

I just need to listen and observe closely and I shall know my own next step.

Thanks again for visiting and bearing with me!  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