GOOG and CNTF

Well, I am pleased to say that the last few days have been going well for me in the contest. I am up to over 9% total gains after starting the week barely over 6%. My few latest trades have been with shorting stocks.

The stock that I have been watching for a while now, and finally got a chance to make some money with is GOOG. This stock never ceases to amaze me. It is highly popular, and therefore has potential for some interesting movements. This is just an assumption, but if I was a new investor, I bet I would consider buying GOOG right now. Reason being that it is very popular right now, and I think that this is making a lot of people jump into this stock and push it up. Remember, this stock was at about $300 a little more than a month ago; right now it is trading at over $400. I am not saying that these types of gains are impossible to hold, I am just saying that the are something that I take notice of. Anyhow, I noticed that this stock was beginning to fall slightly yesterday, and decided to jump in on the action. I shorted 250 at $411.82 and then got out this morning at $407.09. The reason being is I had a sell stop set at $407, and the stock triggered this before falling. I am still watching this one though.

Another stock that I am keeping my eye on right now is CNTF. This stock has made some impressive gains as of late, and I am expecting it to fall sometime here. As always, time will tell. If I do begin to see a reversal, look for a short from me on this one.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

The Falkin Investing Organization

I am sad to say that I have not even opened my APEX account this week or late last week. I have been so busy working on the FIO site that I put my other passion aside (8 hours yesterday alone)! So, I don’t have any great picks or plays to share today, but I do want to comment on something you may want to take interest in! The FIO, or Falkin Investing Organization, is a non-profit organization that was created to connect traders of all experience levels together. We have members all across the world, and finally our site is taking on new registrations. The Organization hosts free competitions through investopedia.com, exclusive to only members, and some are even cash prize based. As of now there are three different competitions offered: a solo competition, a team competition (now registering), and a never ending competition. The best part is that experience does not matter, and the site is catered to all experience levels. The FIO team is finishing up a brand new 5 step program to teach new people how to trade. Exclusive to only members, part of the program includes having your own personal mentor to guide you along; it is a wonderful opportunity. And, for those who have been involved for quite some time, the forums offer unique discussion rooms specifically designed to discuss picks, plays, and more. As a non-member you are welcome to explore our community, which you can do here. For those who want to jump in and get involved, you can register here. Once you register all of our member sections open up, you are free to utilize our 5 step program, join any contests, and more. Coming soon is a brand new blog for the organization, and we now have a newsletter which you can sign up for by emailing us. Just say, “sign me up!” and I will add you to our list.

Ending here though, I will be getting back into the stock market and will have some good picks or plays to post up later this week. The FIO team competition allows teams to reserve picks and such, so I will definitely be doing some research later! I hope everyone has a great week, back to the forums for me!!

Closing Thought – “A man listens to those who have walked the walk. When you create a new path, a new walk, then all men great and small not only listen, but become inspired.”

Finally, a day with gains

If you have been paying attention to my progress in the contest, you may have noticed that I have been slumping as of late. Well, I always try to stress the importance of learning in these contests, but learning the hard way is not always fun. Today I turned around and posted a $1,500 gain in my account.

My first trade that I made was with BOT. This stock may sound familiar, since Blain had shorted this one a few weeks ago. Due to the fact that it was a recent IPO, I have been watching this stock closely. I shorted 1,000 shares of this at market open which was $97.55. This stock later hit my sell limit, and I got out with a little over $1000 profit. The other trade I made was shorting 2000 shares of KKD at $5.32. This stock has been having unexplained gains for the last month, I am have been waiting for a reversal. Was today it? We will see; it dropped 5.5% today. I am still holding this one, but will be watching it closely.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

Always have something to Sell

In my experiences with business and business people, I have come to notice a characteristic that is very common in the business world. I hope that passing it along will help some of you in business either now, or later on in you life.

What I am talking about is the idea of "always having something to sell" This is really an off-shoot of "knowing what you want" but it also has its own special characteristics. The following true story helped me see the advantage...

There was a man who sold life insurance. He decided that although he felt becoming wealthy was important, it was not everything. He decided that he would help other people with their problems by acting as a "connector" between them. So, his marketing strategy eventually developed into this. Every day, he would meet with two other people over lunch who were in need of each others services. He would proceed to introduce them, and then sit quietly while they became acquainted and networked. Naturally, since these people had been helped by the life insurance seller, they wanted to repay him. So, if they ever ended up needing life insurance (for themselves or employees) during the lunch conversation, they would turn to him. Over time, he became very well known, very well liked, and very wealthy.

The key to this mans success is that he was not only helping people, but when they wanted to help him, he already had a plan for them to do it. When I think of this story, I look back on all the times that someone has wanted to repay me, but I didn't know what I wanted. It is important to not push the sale on the person, for this will make them feel defensive. But there is nothing wrong with knowing exactly what you want when someone asks, "What can I do to repay you?" Rather than the common response of, "Gee, I don't know?" Say something like, "Well, I just started a lawn care business, know anyone who might be interested?" It never hurts to try, and it never hurts to make a sale when the person is accepting.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

Lesson with Orders

Just as I have talked about in the past, I always try not to make the same mistake twice. I never let it wear on me too heavily when I do, but I also don’t take pride in it. The only thing that I consider worse for myself, is making mistakes that I already know the answer to, and just making a plain dumb move.

My latest example of a “dumb” move is with the 7500 shares or SIRI that I hold in my investopedia account. I had bought this stock as it was climbing; and I usually will do, decided to put a stop in place the next day so I was guaranteed profits on the trade. The next day, like I had expected, the stock rose around 5%, not a huge jump, but a jump nonetheless. I decided to put the stop in place, and move it up if the stock continued to rise. The next day, it reversed and began to fall back down. I was not worried though, since I was guaranteed profits, right? Wrong.

The mistake that I made was this: I accidentally put in a sell limit, rather than a sell stop. What happened here was that my stock would have had to continue to rise in order to make the sale, it didn’t happen though. The stock fell, and since I unintentionally made the simulator only sell at a higher price than the stock was at, I lost. The moral of the story is very obvious, “Pay Attention.” Had I done this in real life, I would have kicked myself. So I ended up loosing $2,000, rather than making about $1,500. Just a “friendly” reminder.

Good Luck With Everything!
Mark Zimmer

UARM, MRVL Closure

UARM As I stated I would with UARM, I woke up to get on my computer at 9:30 AM to hopefully a higher open. To cover my costs on whole cycle I needed to get out anywhere above $26. The stock opened right around $26, and I decided to hold, after about 15 minutes a high of $26.44 was seen, but the spread was so big and it happened so fast I held again. Eventually, the stock resided in the same trading range from friday, and I got out in a limit order at $25.99. Overall loss - $3 . I am not upset with the overall play, I just missed pulling the trigger in vote of a higher sell price. I wanted to be out before 10AM, and I didn't get out till 10:30ish. Afterwards I went back to sleep to woke up around now when I am writing this, and the stock is at $26.50. Sadly holding until the afternoon was not part of my gameplan.

MRVL I stated I was considering a short on this, and short I did in a client's account late friday. This morning the stock was bouncing around, and in a climax run I sadly covered my short for about a $.11 per share profit. The stock is now down $.75 which would have given me about a $1 per share profit. It is important to note though that my strategy was again to get out before 10 because I was banking on a quick sell off spread. So, overall the trade was not a failure, and my discipline proved strong.

Thought of the trades - You can always look back and see with 20/20 vision, but there is no use dwelling in that site because you cannot change what you have already done. All you can do with the past is learn from it. Simple right? Very wrong, especially with day trading, emotions are your worst enemy. Any day trader regardless of how long in the game will tell you it still becomes hard to make a play when you aren't in the black. "I'll just squeeze a few more pennies out of this one", "I dont need to sell, it is going to come back", etc. My opinion - walk in with a sell point, a buy point, and a overall strategy, walk out looking back knowing you went along with it. If it could have gone better, adjust for next time. Don't dwell, just keep it simple, stupid.

My Simulator Account I did also buy puts on MRVL which I still now hold, I shorted 1,500 shares last friday and along with my 1,000 shares of NVDA these are my only current simulator positions; NVDA is up about $.50 so far today.

Thought of the day –
“To see the opportunity,
Is to realize the opportunity,
And to realize the opportunity,
Is the first step in making the change.”

Regards,

Peer Pressure

For some reason, peer pressure has always been given a bad rap whenever it was explained to me. A parent, teacher, or some other person of authority would use the example of how kids would start doing drugs because, "everyone else was doing it." They would also use the saying of, "Just because Joey jumps off a cliff, that doesn't mean you should" Peer pressure was always explained as making me wanting to do something bad. They never said, "Since Joey is starting a business, I think you should too."

Since I believe that everyone of us is going to be in position of authority someday, I thought I would pass along a lesson that I learned a while back.

Peer pressure is a MUCH more powerful concept than a boss.

What this means is that even though most of us have either witnessed or performed to screaming boss act, it is really not that effective. Now I imagine that most of us realize this, but I personally never really understood what else to do. This changed when I heard this saying. It goes to show that all I really have to do to get someone to do something, is make them feel out of place by not doing it. Most people want to conform, rather than be rebels. A system that encourages positive peer pressure is like any business; it time and effort to set up, but after that, it almost runs itself.

So the next time you feel like yelling and "showing someone who is boss" remember this little statement. Try to make them feel self-conscious for doing the wrong thing, and you will be on your way to a very effective system.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

Great day, gotta love the color green

Well, a lot to jump about today!

• NASDAQ closes up over 32 points – a huge accumulation day, so much for resistance… Next stop is 52 week highs, are you ready?


• NVDA up almost 5% to $36.33 – big accumulation day


• MRVL up over 2%


• AMD up over 1%

What about SIRF (my 4th holding in the contest simulator)? Well I sold out of my position in this one two days ago because of the current volume trends. The loss didn’t affect my portfolio much more than a .05% so nothing too big as I got out before the big distribution day yesterday. Overall, my strategy is working and I am getting closer to $160,000 in portfolio worth every day. I closed the day with over $159,000 in the simulator account, which is equivalent to just over 59% growth in less than two months time.

I also concluded my cycle with GV in my Ameritrade Apex account. I sold out my last 1,500 today yielding about $80 in profits. Any time I walk out with money I am content, but I could have maxed out at over a few hundred in profits. The “mistake” as it could be called came in from sleeping in too late on earnings day. The stock opened up at $1.08 on the release (which was the purpose of the trade), and was quickly sold off for profits. O well, first come first serve; too bad I signed up for the later dinner!

Closing Thought – “The race does not go to the strong or to the swift, but to the one that endures till the end.”

To the future,

Portfolio Updates

My actions as of late in regards to the market have been pretty sound and conservative. I haven’t done very risky trades, and I have leveraged myself to open for growth but in moderate amounts. With the market playing out as it has been, bullish, I have gained some more ground on my simulator portfolio. My positions of AMD, MRVL, NVDA, and SIRF are either up or about even for me which has taken my portfolio up about another $5,000 to almost $159,000 in total portfolio value. With almost 59% growth, I am still in 1st place overall, leading by a somewhat comfortable spread. I will continue to hold these positions for a good period of time, and any further action will be of course reported right here with my thoughts behind it.

Moving forward to my live portfolio over at Ameritrade Apex, I am pleased to see my newest position, GV, up after reporting strong earnings. The company is in a great performing sector and with penny stocks being so volatile, I took advantage of its spreads to get in at a competitive price ($.87 a share). The stock hit a high of $1.08 yesterday, but it is under some share exchange today bouncing around the mid $.90s. I am unsure of where it will end up here down the road with its odd behavior, but I am confident overall that I will be exiting with some profits.

Regards,

Don't want to do it Again

One of the the more important things that I try to do in stock trading is really simple. Don't make the same mistake twice. This simple lesson can really save you a lot of time and energy, the only trick is that you have to learn to apply it.

The lesson that I have had the pleasure of learning the hard way is, don't assume that a huge jump up means that the stock will come back down. I made this mistake a while back ( in the falkin II contest) with a stock that jumped up from a 50 moving average of approximatly $12.00, to $21.00 in one day. My assumption was, "this stock is going to fall, no way this can last." I wish I could give you the ticker symbol, but it escapes me. Anyhow, I didn't do much research, shorted 2000 shares and waited for the fall. It didn't happen though. At least not when I needed it to in the contest, and I ended up loosing about 4 k on that trade. I might have been right in the long run, but since I was more speculating for the short term, rather than investing for the long term, I lost.

The stock that caught my eye today is GP, which jumped well past its 50 day moving average. It is up over 35% percent today. My competive spirit tells me to jump on this, but I have decided to wait and see what happens over the next few days. If it show support, I will stay away, but if I start to see a slow drop, then look for a short from me on this one. I will let you know my results come next Monday. I am hoping for a short, but I would rather not loose on this trade than take a gamble. I already learned this lesson.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

Referrals

Due to that fact that there has not been much activity as of late in my investopedia account, I am going to have to focus on the “random thoughts” part of the blog for this post.

The issue I wanted to talk about today has to do with a quote that I heard, and wanted to pass along to all of you. It goes as follows, “A referral is the key that unlocks the door of unfamiliarity.” I heard this quote while attending a BNI meeting on Wednesday here in Grand Rapids. In case some of you have never heard of BNI, it is a fairly exciting concept. Referrals are the backbone of BNI. The way that it works is each chapter allows only one member of each field of business; one plumber, one interior decorator, one dentist, one stock broker, one artist, and so on. Once a week, all of the members of the chapter get together and exchange referrals. For example, if I am a dentist and someone approaches me with a back problem, and asks me if I know anyone that might be able to help; I would refer him or her to my chapter’s chiropractor. The beauty of this is that each member has numerous sales people out there for him or her.

Another rule of BNI is that each member must be there each week, and if they are not able to be, they must send a substitute to hand out their referrals and collect from other members. I personally am not a member, but I was subbing for my uncle. It’s a fun time, and I would encourage anyone interested to find out their local chapter, and see if there is someone who is in need of a sub in the future (most members will be) and go check it out. Helps with public speaking, and you meet a lot of people.

As for the quote, I have found that this is very true. As most of us know, it is not what you know, it is who you know. Referrals are a huge part of every business, but they are especially important to someone trying to get started. They make it much more likely for people to take a “chance” with you, no matter what business you may be in. With this in mind, always greet new people with enthusiasm, for you don’t know who they may know.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

A new era begins

Fun, excitement, and a lot of time and thought can really describe my actions as of late. No, I didn’t get Starbucks and double my money on a position in the same day, but I did set some stuff in motion that will surely take Falkin Trading contests to the next level. First off, we have a brand new forum for all of our forum dwellers from our old online discussion board. The Portal as we call it has a fresh new look, and you best be book marking its main page, http://forums.r3illc.com/index.php.

Secondly, I have been working very closely with our IT director for our company to put up a brand new website for not only our company, but our trading contests. The site will contain everything from online registration forms to official rules and even a hall of fame. The coolest and most exciting part about everything though I’d say is the automated registration system that I am working on getting completed. With the system, once the contestant fills out the registration form and submits it, he or she will automatically be emailed instructions on how to join the contest. This in turn saves me a ton of time and energy, and makes the contest look sweet as all get out. If that isn’t enough to get your blood pumping, the site will also have a testimonial page so you can go read up on what others have to say about the contest.

It is a complete package that I never thought nor dreamed I’d be creating. Our trading contests house contestants from all over the world, and it is always fun talking to someone online 12 AM your time when it is really 12PM there time. I am very grateful to a lot of close companions that have helped me make this a reality. Without them believing and seeing the same vision as me, none of this would be coming about. I thank God for all of his blessings, and I pray twice a day that I may continue to help people learn and educate themselves on investing. It is a passion that will last until the day I die, and if we can rally 80+ contestants worldwide around one contest now, just imagine what we will be housing a year from now…

Closing Thought –

“A moment cherished is a moment that has not perished,
     And every moment seen is a moment you are truly free.”
                  
Regards,

To Date: 7,389 Good Days in a Row

I wanted to start out this week by talking about something seems to be more closely related to psychology, than the stock market. Even though that from a glance, these two topics appear to be distant, most investors come to realize that they are very closely related. In fact, what I am going to talk about is meant to help everyone though hard times, not just with the market, or investing, but in every aspect of life.

What I want to address is summed up very well in the Tim Allen movie, “For richer, for poorer.” In this movie, Tim Allen is a New York big shot, who due to accounting fraud by his main guy, is hiding from the IRS with a family of Amish. Obviously, this leads to many humorous events. In the movie, while the Amish husband is getting ready for bed, his wife asks him something along the line of, “Was it a good day?” His reply is brilliant, he says, “The Lord only makes good days.” I couldn’t agree more. Let me explain why before you jump to any conclusions.

I understand that not everything goes right, I for one don’t think I have every had a day where everything went as planned. This is not the point though. Whether you choose to believe in God or not, this little statement can be of great help. As an uncle of mine always says, “Attitude is EVERYTHING.”

Always remember, no matter what the situation, you are not a victim. By believing the day was intended to be good no matter what, you instantly put yourself in a positive mindset. So the next time something doesn’t feel like its going right, (which will more than likely be tomorrow) just remember that, “The Lord (change if necessary) only makes good days.” This is not living in denial, it is living with a positive mindset, and that makes all the difference.

Good Luck With Everything
Mark Zimmer

A Play with PRM

The latest trade that I have made in my investopedia account is I bought 8000 shares of PRM. This trade is much different than past trades with this stock. In past contests, this was one stock that always seemed to "roll" for me. What I mean by "roll" is that when you look at the closing prices over time on a chart, it looks like a wave. This stock in the past always seemed to be a good buy at around $3.90, and a sell at around $4.20. This stock would "roll" between these two prices, and I would usually make profits of $500-$1000 each time. Not huge money in the contest, but a nice little amount for very little research. I would make this trade when I had very little time, but still wanted to do something.

Now when I bought this stock, I bought it at 2.13, a large drop from last time. I am planning to hold on to this one a little longer this time. Today it closed at $2.15; once it hits $2.25, I will put in a sell limit, and move it up each day the stock makes gains. This is what I was doing at the start of the contest with shorting. I would try to have my cover limit right above where the price was, and slowly drop it down as the stock fell. The idea behind this is if the stock made sudden gains, I would not loose. The trick of course is to have your limit high enough to allow for market fluctuations, and this was not always the case. It is also important to have a stock with higher volume, so you can get out when you want. Anyhow, I am now going to try this with PRM, while holding it long. As always, time will tell if I was right.

Good Luck With Everything!

Mark Zimmer

New Positions, and a live trade

I made a few purchases this morning right when that market opened. The Market lately has been on a tear, showing accumulation days three out of the last four days, and is on pace to perhaps yet another one today. I decided to buy big names in some great performing sectors: Bldg-heavy Construction and Elec-Semiconductor Mfg. I picked a 1,000 shares of NVDA, MRVL, and SIRF, then picked up 2,500 AMD early on. These aren’t anything as big as my bet against BOT (which by the way has run up to over $120 a share in two days since I covered the rest of my shorts at $95.85), but still are worth noting.

I also made a speculative buy in my live APEX account, buying a few thousand shares of GV, which is also in the heavy construction industry group. I haven’t done much live trading as of late, and this small penny stock is very volatile which is very much to my liking. The bet really comes as earnings are going to be posted next week I believe. My limit order got filled at $.87, and the stock has potential to double that price in only a few trading days. Some of you might remember me speaking of a company called TGC, which I tried to get into around $.22 a share but failed over the summer. Anyway, the stock ran up to over $.90 a share last month, and it just added to my excitement for these kinds of plays.

Trading with real money is a different ball game from trading in the simulators, but there are some similarities. The biggest difference between the two is getting into the stock. as most of the time (depending on what you buy) you can’t just get in or out at the price listed. Market makers and specialists are hard to deal with sometimes, and especially with stocks that only trade a few hundred thousand shares a day, you are in for some fun. The biggest similarity is in placing specialty orders. Just like in the simulator when you place limit orders, stop limits, etc., you do so in a live account. It really is strikingly similar, and once you get the hang of it in your simulator, you will have no problems figuring it out in a live account.

Well, that is all I have for today. I am interested to see where the market closes today, and I am looking forward to watching my new positions. The market is showing its true colors, a truly unpredictable place where the bulls and bears duke it out for a place in the gains column.

Closing Quote – “Learners inherit the earth, while the learned, find themselves beautifully equipped, to deal with a world, that no longer exists.” – N/A

Keep it simple, stupid

My account now has over 50% growth from when the contest began almost a month ago. I am very pleased with my results over such a short period of time, and I credit my success to KISS; Keep it simple stupid!! I have seen quite a few investors try to tie in tons of different factors, lines, graphs, charts, formulas, etc. into finding a successful trade to make. After over three years of successful trading, I have come to find that as time goes on, my strategy is growing simpler and simpler, not more complex. Though this may be confusing to some people, the main factors I take into consideration when making a trade (in order of importance) are:

1. The overall Market (NASDAQ and S & P 500 only) – Based on Accumulation and Distribution, I can get a good read on its overall standing.


2. Where the stock is relative to the 50-day Moving Average – A horribly undervalued indicator in my mind, this line is the key to a lot of my great successes not only in my simulators but also in real life.


3. Accumulation/Distribution of the stock – If the market is bullish, find a stock under accumulation, if the market is bearish, look for a lot of distribution; simple as that.


4. News – What is going on within the stock? When will earnings be posted next? Is there anything big that may cause the stock to jump one way or another?

Now, though there are other factors I take into consideration when making a decision on a stock, these are the greatest in my mind. At the age of 15 when I started learning how to trade, I looked through literally tens of thousands of charts. I strived to get an overall feel for how the market works and why stocks would move in the patterns they did. One day I hope to write a book on all of this, but for now this is what I can share.

Putting a cap on this blabbing, strive to keep it simple!! Try new things, experiment with new strategies, but don’t overwhelm yourself with too much. The basic decision making skills you apply in every day living can be applied to the stock market to make huge gains. And, like anything you confront in every day living, there is no failure in trying.

I covered half my short position in BOT, and I will most likely cover the rest by the end of the day. This will put me at most likely just over $150,000 in account worth, and I will go looking for the next play. The market has had two accumulation days the past two days, and it is very much in a strong rally. I wonder if I will be buying or selling short next time around…

To the future,