The Week That Was

The Market finished up about .5%-.8% depending upon what index you believe.  We suggested a drop of 1.5% so we suck at guessing the market.  

This week got me thinking?  Does the market, or should the market be a measure of unemployment or durable goods or The Empire State index or the Euro Jitters as we know them.]\

The market, S&P 500 is pegging the overall market at 13.6 times earnings, after weighing in all the scary stuff in our economy and other economies.  That 13.6% is historically average.  Even if we see a slight growth in durable goods, GDP, employment, we could see a 16% Earnings number in 2013.  That would give us an S&P of 2000. 

One of our readers recently asked me should they sell all their stock and settle into something else?  Ok what would it be?  Commodites?  Are you crazy?  Bonds?  Yeah that could be safe and responsible for a while?  Growth stocks?  Yeah if you are really willing to invest the time and energy to really study each and every stock that has had 25% earnings growth Q over Q and 25% sales frowth Q over Q, and understand the industry they are in and hope their CEO gives sound guidance.  Or just look for some blue chip stocks with decent dividned returns knowing that they may not really appreciate till Q2 2013.  You could sell Put options against those positions during the flat line period we are currently experiencing.  I enjoyed a 3.2% gain in the last three weeks doing that, a 55% gain on an annual basis.

My point is either be willing to do the homework in a market like this to discover the real bargains out there (HAIN, TFM, ACOM, JWN, LSI, TARO, BOFI-one of our core holdings up 31% since we suggested it here-, WDC, OLBK, and HCII to name a few.  (Most of those are Auer Screens that I have shared before.)

Tomorrow I will read Barron's and see how this week MIGHT Be.   So you got me to publish in the we hours of the night, Are You Happy?