It's been a little quite on my blog on the topic of investing/trading. The posts (or lack thereof) reflect my activity in the stock market which has been very transitioning out of riskier ventures and into longer term more stable ones.
There are certainly lots of opportunities out there, but I am wary of the broader market and prefer to be in specific stocks that I think have the ability to buck the trends. So here is what I have my eyes on for the roller coaster ride of stock markets 2008.Mutual FundsCGM Focus (CGMFX)
I've liked this one for some time so you can always read the older articles for my historical take on it. Moving forward, what I like about this fund is that they turn on a dime and move the money where the action is vs. staying with their picks. If they are wrong, they take the short term hit and move on. This can be a bad thing if the manager keeps making the wrong decision, but in this case, they have a fantastic track record so I'm sticking with them. I don't always get time to actively manage my portfolio and this fund does it for me.T. Rowe Price Emerging Europe & Mediterranean Fund (TREMX)
This fund has done very well for me as well and I continue to believe that the emerging markets in Europe are the place to be in the region. Concerns here of course are around the ever weakening dollar. Good news with the emerging markets at least is that they are going to be mostly doing business in the region to start up so should not be impacted as much as Old Europe.Julius Baer International Equity II A (JETAX)
I am on an international rotation plan here so this is another one of the my choices to participate in a variety of markets while limiting risk.
ETFsiShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ)
One the markets that I do want to increase my exposure to is that of Brazil. With that goal in mind, I like this ETF and plan on building up a position during the course of the next couple of months.iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index (ILF)
I like more than just Brazil in Latin America and although this is won't be a huge position, I do want to have some stake in markets in the larger area.
BLDRS Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index (ADRE)
Continuing on with the theme, I like this particular ETF for it's exposure to a wide array of emerging markets. I believe that even if the broader markets are correcting, the companies represented in this ETF can continue to grow and their financial results will allow them to fend off or entirely buck downward trends in the market.
Stocks
Google (GOOG)
Even if none of the other ventures makes a huge impact to earnings this year, I still believe that the money making factory that is the search engine will continue to defy earnings estimates and I want to continue to take part in the resulting stock price increases. With the spanking that that this stock (and others took on 1/4/2008), I plan on establishing new positions at the current price and definitely if it drops any lower.GameStop (GME)
A great way to play the increasing money to be had in the video game market. Risk here is reduced consumer spending so I plan on maintaining tight stops for this one no matter how muchICICI Bank (IBN)
As India grows and prospers, so does IBN. Of the various financial institutions, I think that these folks are best positioned to benefit from the India Story.Altria (MO)
When times are tough, I like the nice stable cash flow machine that is Altria. And if they finally break up the company, even better prospects here for this year.Apple (AAPL)
If it wasn't for growing concerns about consumer spending, I would say that this is an absolute buy at the current <$185 levels. I am cautious about Apple for the first half of 2008 but I do think that there is a trade to be had between the current levels and $200 because of the potential for new product announcements and related buildup in the stock's price this month. If it drops further than where it is right now, I will definitely be in accumulation mode.
That's it for this edition. Key trigger for this month is of course The Fed. I don't really pull for bailouts very much, but I do like to profit from them so a 50 basis point is what I'm hoping for, but even with recent bad news I don't really expect more than 25.Good Trading.AHA.
