– Stock Market Companion – Current Holdings –

Nr.	Co.	Ticker	Action	Entry Date	Current Gain (Loss)
1	Boeing, Co.	BA	Holding	12/22/2011	+0%
3	Alcoa, Inc.	AA	Holding	1/3/2012	+6%
4	Dendreon, Inc.	DNDN	Holding	1/11/2012	-2%
5	Mitek, Inc.	MITK	Holding	1/12/2012	+6%
6	Cirrus Logic	CRUS	Holding	1/17/2012	+1%
7	Cree, Inc.	CREE	Holding	1/18/2012	+5%
8	Apple, Inc.	AAPL	Holding	1/30/2012	+/- 0%

– Markets “At a Glance” –

(Please scroll down to the end of the report to see your favorite benchmarks – Dollar, Oil, Gold … closing prices and daily direction.)

 

Market	Price (Today’s Close)	Unit of Measure	Today’s Direction
SP-500	1,313.01	Index	Flat = -3.32 points
DOW-30	12,653.72	Index	Flat  = -6.74 points
NASDAQ	2,811.94	Index	Flat  = -4.61 points

 

– Market Trends –

 

Trend	SP-500	DJ-30	NASDAQ
Short Term	Flat / UP	Flat / UP	Flat / UP
Intermediate	Flat	Flat	Flat
Long Term	Lateral	Lateral	Lateral

 

*Summary of terms from Trader Vic II-Principles of Professional Speculation (pg. 140-141)
*_________* Represents a change in trend rating.

 

– Market Perspectives –

 

For your added perspective, we’ve included this chart of the broader market (Successful stock investors develop and start with a minds-eye view of the broader market and keep it clear) –

 

SMC SP-500 ETF Daily Chart (Please click on the chart to see a bigger, easy to read chart on a separate browser tab window).

 

– Today’s Highlights –

Today, the broader market “pulled-back” in price to re-test its break-out from two weeks ago, when the market pushed higher above its October 2011 highs.  This is a very natural activity to be taking place for the markets.

In parallel, there was more noise coming from Europe about Greece and uncertainty there relative to resolution of their immediate sovereign debt trouble.  Remember, bond-holders there are being “asked” to “voluntarily” take a -60% or more reduction in their bond values.  That’s not going down without serious negotiation.

Please click here for a short SMC Successful Investing Video reviewing the S&P 500 ETF (SPY), today! Please don’t forget to right click to the video for controls that allow you to rewind or stop the video.

 

– S.I.M.P.L.E.  Stock Investingtm –

– (Where each investment begins with a Story and ends with Earnings) –

S.I.M.P.L.E. Stock Investing is built upon these core concepts –

S = Story (What is / are the key catalyst(s) behind the company of interest?)

I = Investor Interest (Is the stock chart showing investor interest = buying or share accumulation?)

M = Market (Is the background market favorable for investing at this time?  Don’t Fight the Market! We know the vast majority of stocks move in the direction of the overall market).

P = Person or Product (Is there a particular person or product that makes the story work for this investment?)

L = Leader (Is the company a leader in its industry group or is its product a leader in its market?)

E = Earnings (Are current quarterly earnings and annual earnings growing?)

 

Today we sent out this Stock Market Companion Intra-Day Alert highlighting our SMC purchase of Apple, Inc. (AAPL $452) shares –

Dear Subscriber-Friend,
For many, it takes more than just a little mental adjustment to go ahead and purchase shares in a company whose shares are priced at $452/share.  Once an investor believes that the investment may make complete sense from a risk / reward and a value / growth standpoint, the investor must still come to an understanding that it is all about percentage term gains and not worry about the the fact that the price of each share costs $452.  In other words, it is not about the share count that matters. It’s about the return on investment that drive the decisions for successful investors.

At first glance it appears a lot simpler to buy 2,000 shares of a $4.50/share stock, investing $9,000 – with expectations that the stock will increase over time to $6.50/share, and place a stop at $3.90/share.  Many new investors think that it is somehow easier for a $4.50/share stock to increase to $6.50/share = +44% gain, than a $452/share stock to increase to $651/share, but it is not.  Both must increase based on expectations for earnings/share or value of the enterprise/share to increase over time.

If an investor was going to take the same $9,000 and purchase shares in Apple, Inc., the investor would purchase approx. 20 shares (rounding higher and not including commissions).  If Apple shares increase to $651/share over time, that same approx. $9,000 would increase to approx. $13,020 in value = +44% increase.

There is a law of large numbers however that does come into play with a company like Apple, Inc. That involves Apple’s ability to continue to grow significantly, when it is already so large already. It does not involve the relative price of the shares.  We believe that the Apple, Inc. market share of PC’s and smart phones and tablets can still increase significantly and drive earnings / share higher.

We purchased shares in Apple, Inc. at $452.47 and we have placed our stop at approx. $419/share.

Each investor is on their own.  Please see our disclaimer below.

Your – Stock Market Companion

We made this short SMC Successful Investing Video to provide you with a close-up view of what we are seeing with the Apple, Inc. shares at this time.  Please click here for the video. (Please don’t forget to right click on the video screen for controls that allow you to rewind or stop the video.)

– Benchmarks “At a Glance” –

 

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