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.

There is no doubt that Graham (GHM) a relatively thinly-traded AMEX stock has been one of the most volatile of my holdings.  It has performed for me on the upside, and I have burned my fingers on this stock more than once.  Add today to that list of burnt fingers!

Graham (GHM) was purchased in my Trading Account last month,  purchased 10/8/08 at a cost basis per share of $16.34.  I sold my first portion of Graham at a 30% gain only 5 days later on 10/13/08 at $22.37.  Today, after the 2nd quarter 2009 earnings report was released, the stock slumped, even though the rest of the market was enjoying an Election Day rally.  As I write, GHM is trading at $15.43, down $(5.52) or (26.35)% on the day.

I sold my 360 remaining shares of Graham (GHM) earlier this morning at $15.441.  This represented a loss of $(.90) or (5.50)% from my purchase.

This sale was not at a 16% loss limit as I have discussed in my previous posts that I have been implementing for my remaining 5 positions.  But this represents my still employed strategy of selling stocks if they break through my purchase cost if I have sold once at a gain.  And this is exacly what has happened.

Going down to 4 positions, this entitled me to add a new position, and I did purchase 45 shares of Expeditors Intl (EXPD) at $40.19/share.  I shall try to discuss this later today.

But what I wanted to discuss further was my partial sale of WMS Industries, sold almost immediately after my Graham sale, but this time on 'good news' due to an appreciation in that stock's price!

WMS Industries (WMS) is a recent purchase of mine, having acquired 96 shares at a cost basis of $20.12 on 10/28/08.  This morning I sold 1/7th of my WMS holding or 13 shares at $26.67.  This represented a gain of $6.55 or 32.6% since purchase.  My next targeted appreciation point for a sale of 1/7th of my remaining shares would be at a 60% gain or 1.6 x $20.12 = $32.19.  On the downside, just like my sale today of my Graham (GHM) shares, after a single partial sale at a 30% appreciation level, I sell my shares should they decline or pass through break-even.  Thus remaining shares would be sold if WMS should decline to $20.12.

These two sales demonstrate my philosophy of selling both on bad and good news.  Both of these sales have triggered buys in different fashions.  My Graham (GHM) sale brought me under my minimum of 5 positions and I did go ahead and purchase a small position of EXPD (1/2 of the average size of my remaining positions), and now have a 'permission slip' to be adding a 6th position which would be slightly larger, actually at the average size of my remaining holdings.

Thanks so much for stopping by and visting!  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