The Opportunistic and Adventurous portfolio is up 0.7% over the last 30 days through June 2. I avoided an even worse performance by using stop-loss orders for all my holdings, which prevented me from taking even bigger losses.
In my opinion, the market simply isn’t valuing companies like Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO) and Neuralstem Inc (CUR) . Despite the fact that neither company is making money, I believe they may have long-term potential.
There’s insider buying at CUR, which is sometimes a sign that executives, those in the know, are optimistic about the future prospects of the company.
Based on the behavior of these, other investors believe that the price of the shares in both companies is overpriced. I’m hanging tough with CUR, since it has such potential to appreciate, even though there’s no way of knowing if and when the price might improve.
Stop-loss orders allowed me to exit positions in the ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (BIB), Hollysys Automation Technologies (HOLI), Myriad Genetics (MYGN), Sanchez Energy Corp. (SN) and Gentherm Inc. (THRM).
More than once, not long after I’d sold them, they started to rise again. Since the crystal ball function on my computer has not yet been installed, I’m afraid this kind of thing is unavoidable.
Nonetheless, I bought back a position, Gentherm (THRM), since I believe that it’s on its way to increasing earnings. The company’s main product, heated and cooled automobile seats, is now being used by auto companies in mid-range cars, not just luxury ones.
We’ve had an unusually long-lasting bull market, and these things don’t go on forever. Price-earnings ratios are quite high from an historical perspective in my opinion.
I think that, in order to make money in a market that may be correcting, I’m going to need to shift gears and start following trends and momentum in my individual stock picks. One present holding, Emerge Energy Services LP (EMES), is a good example of my thinking.
DISCLAIMER: The investments discussed are held in client accounts as of May 31, 2013. These investments may or may not be currently held in client accounts. The reader should not assume that any investments identified were or will be profitable or that any investment recommendations or investment decisions we make in the future will be profitable. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
