Much lower...

The market is going lower. Even before I read StockShah's Blog I was realizing the depth of this massive negative press that the market receives. For all us laymen know, we could all be fooled into thinking there is a recession and the government and corporations can all inform the American public and the intermingled global cash flow that our world's economy is growing healthy.

In reality, the world, Americans first, are realizing the depth of globalization and its effects on 1st and 3rd world countries and the rapid changes, politically and socially, it has on the global economy. StockShah pointed out to me that the Consumer Spending Report (officially, Consumer Expenditure Survey) will announce their data on January 15th. As per the job report:

"The unemployment rate rose to 5.0 percent in December, and
payroll employment was essentially unchanged (+18,000) at 138.5
million.  In 2007, payroll employment growth averaged 111,000 per
month, compared with 189,000 per month in 2006.  In December, job
gains continued in professional and technical services, health
care, and food services, but were mostly offset by losses
elsewhere, particularly in construction and manufacturing.
Average hourly earnings increased by 7 cents, which followed a
gain of the same amount in November."

There is not much data to analyze. Tobin Smith lost me a bunch of money on his ChangeWave Newsletter telling his subscribers to stay in the market and that while consumer spending has slowed down, it is not too low to change the economy. We will have to wait and see...

To reconcile the sorrows we investors share, I will share a stock that I will be learning more about in the "field." A friend of mine, at UCSB, alerted me (I believe after hours) about a company called ShotPak (Symbol: SHTP.PK). My friend alerted me to the stock at $0.08 and it went to $0.11 a day later.

He promotes SHTP's products, ShotPaks. Individual shot's conveniently packaged in recyclable containers. They sell online through ShotPak's online vendor for $0.99 which would sell like fire in liquor stores. SHTP is making a lot of distribution deals and they publicize all of their accomplishments which means much upside for this microcap speculative stock.

An important piece of information to note if you are considering investing money into ShotPak: The market is very unstable right now and this stock will be even more unstable trading in such small volume. More importantly, be very careful for fluctuations in this stock as the company has students at my university promoting this stock and their friends and other degrees of relationships will cause this stock to go up quickly but also drop down for profit taking.

Good luck

Solar? Hot!

So many to choose from!

I recommend SPWR and STP because these company's charts are healthy and the companies/stocks show further growth opportunities.

Hype?

Hype, not so much? Although these solar stocks are fairly valuated, if not a bit inflated, they still provide great growth opportunities as I, and I hope the rest of the world, would like to see a change from fossil fuels to "green" clean energy.

Random

Solar energy is not just a sustainable investment on your behalf, but also a good quasi-moral investment as well.

SYNL is going to make a great comeback once it hits a low however I continue to wait. Refer to the graph of Sandisk (SNDK) when it was hovering in January of '07 around 40-45 then dropped to 36-37 in March '07. By April, SNDK bounced back to 45 and is now at $50. With the type of volume of this large company, anybody had the chance of taking away a 10%-20% profit on that pullback!!!

First StockGaucho Pick

Company feature:

IMMR, Immersion Corp., is a technology company that specializes in Haptics, the science of touch-screen technologies. The company is getting recommendations by more and more successful and well-known investors and now is a great time to get in on the train.

Psychology:

The fucking iPhone just came out! Have you seen it? Take a second to reflect on that question. It is a premier technology, fancy, glamorous, and this is the beginning. If this stock gets more hype than I expect we could see an insane high but I am hoping to just get to $20 and then i can worry about getting higher after that ;)

Buy and Sell Advice:

I like to preach to people that when shorting, or I like to call it a long-term short, you must decide just how much profit you are willing to take. You can put a large amount of money in a company you have faith in and decide when to take a portion off the table at whatever profit you feel is appropriate.

Miscellaneous:

Others: SYNL, IDCC, and BBND may possibly make some big jumps in the near future.

A Risky long short is RIMM (Research In Motion) because they have huge market control but may or may not grow at fast rates. On the other hand, Apple is going to grow bigger and bigger.

Beginning of a new blog...

Introduction and About Me:

So here we go. Home for the summer from college, working full time, and starting a blog.

I study human behavior while at school and live in Los Angeles. I plan to put only my best picks on this website. I have read numerous times how helpful creating a diary of anything can be and I am now fully committed to keeping a detailed diary of my stock interactions through the publishing of this blog for my own gain and hopefully others.

My history in the market includes: a 40% gain on APPL, a monstrous 120% gain on ONT, and a modest 15% gain on GIGM. Lately I have been fumbling up and down but am keying up for some big summer runs.

Random:

I am a very frugal person and love good deals. Slickdeals.net and woot.com are great websites for people who love good deals.