ez2foome (< 20)

Shopping for Bargains

January 28, 2008 – Comments (0) | RELATED TICKERS: LNDC , CRYP , USHS

I got into the habit of not following my CAPS score when the market gets ugly.  It just got to be so depressing, when I'd see my score go down, down, and then down some more.  Particularly since there was little or no upward movement, even on "good" market days.  It got so bad that if the market would go up a hundred points, my heading always read, "The market beat ez2foome today".  And eventually, as I posted last time, my score bottomed out in the low 20's.

After I wrote about it and how I was more or less resigned to watching my score go "probably a lot lower", I got a really nice comment from BreakerDave, urging me to stick to my guns, which I have done by 1.) keeping my present positions as long as they are fundamentally sound, and 2.)  looking for stocks now, at bargain prices, or as Tim Hanson recently said in PD, stocks which are "apocalypse cheap."  This was not an easy thing to do. 

Old habits told me to sell and sell now.   I had the urge to get out of the market before it damaged my portfolio any more. But then what?  Wait until it goes up and buy back in again?  That just didn't make any sense.  I'd lose money on top of paying a lot of unnecessary commissions.  So, I gritted my teeth and looked at companies I already own but whose shares have fallen steeply (and where no fundamental changes in the stock have occurred), and dug into the latest issue of Pay Dirt for good measure.  It turns out that I had good luck.

Let me show you my shopping bag, See that CRYP down there in the corner? I was fortunate enough to get it at 15.85 (if you liked it at 17-18 a year and a half ago, you're gonna LOVE it at this price); And look over there against the others--ALY at 11.50; and that LNDC? Got it at 9.00; and wow--USHS at 5.20  purchased twice--the week before last and last week at that phenomenally low price! 

I was able to get all these bargains by placing limit orders; and I highly recommend doing this if you're just too busy to monitor the market closely. If the stock in question hits your limit price, you'll most likely get it--sometimes at an even better (read, lower) price than what you stated. 

I also remembered that Dave had written, "I can just tell you that comebacks are entirely possible, based on one-part active decisionmaking, and two-parts patience. Time is the friend of the patient Fool...."  So, in keeping with that advice, I ended a couple of old calls on my score card and put in all the aforementioned new picks, resulting in my score getting goosed about 35 points to the upside. Thanks, Dave!

EZ  >^..^<