Get Rid of Your Christmas Merchandize 

I was working at JC Pennys as the Merchandizing Manager during my younger years and was very successful at selecting the right merchandize for the store.  Florida has tropical weather and swim wear is in great demand starting out in the month of March when tourists and college kids come for the spring break.  My initial shipment of swimwear has to land at the stores by middle of February.  Merchandize orders for swim wear have to be placed by early December.  Stores are packed full of christmas merchandize in mid December and my money is all tied up with toys and all the holiday trimmings, lights and christmas trees.  As a Merchandize Manager, I have to make sure there is enough $$$ available for new inventory purchase.  Unfortunately I had the store packed full of winter clothing as well as holiday merchandize.  I presented my dilema to my store manager.  I did not want to miss the opportunity of profiting from selling high mark up items of swim wear.  Without missing a beat, the store manager told me:

Mark down your christmas merchandize and get rid of it

I have adhered to this wisdom with my trading of Growth Stocks.  Getting rid of laggards from your portfolio is always a good decision.  Laggards tie up your capital that could possibly be used for a stock that is trending higher.  We had a  'Follow Thru'  day on March 11th but the market has not made much progress since that time.  If your recent buys in stocks are experiencing a loss of -6%,  it is a wise decision to dispose of it and look for something else instead.  Also if the stock has attained gains of +20% to +25%, harvest some of those profits and use that capital to invest in stocks that are making a progress during market correction.

Stocks  that  are  acting  well

Currently on a weekly chart, the  $SPY  has been staying above the 10 day sma(simple moving average) but the  $QQQ  is the weaker index and staying around the 21 day sma on a weekly chart.  It is sandwiched between the 10 day and the 21 day sma.  Market is definately rotating away from the technology stocks under current environment.  Looking over my stock watch list, I noticed that the semi conductor group, home furnishing group and some of the retail segments are doing very well.  Have a look at some of these stocks.  Most of them are extended but they could provide an opportunity if they retrace to their 10 week moving average or consolidate their gains in the next couple of weeks.  I have indicated the price in parenthesis from where the stock has made the recent progress.  Some of these stocks were mentioned as being on my stock watch list in Feb as well as this month in my blogs :

Stocks:

1. $AMAT   ... $117.82
2. $ASML   ... $608.71
3. $ENTG   ... $103.37
4. $ICHR    ... $ 47.85
5. $INTT     ... $ 10.35
6. $KLAC   ... $301.60
7. $LRCX   ... $560.70
8. $UCTT   ... $ 51.95
9. $AZO     ... $1297.82
10. $BBBY   ... $ 29.39 (Building position since follow thru)
11. $BBY     ... $116.02
12. $GNRC  ... $308.04 (Building position since follow thru)
13. $HOME   ... $28.44
14. $ORLY    ... $496.61
15. $RH        ... $524.22 (My largest position)
16. $SNBR   ... $133.61
17. $TGT      ... $194.22
18. $W          ... $342.99
19. $WSM     ... $151.16 (Gapped up with 8 week hold rule)

Good luck trading this week.  We are heading into our strongest month of the year on Thursday.  Have the capital available to trade new opportunities if the market continues to make the progress like it did on Thursday and Friday.

Happy Trading!

Amin