Crud

Well the good news is that my stocks actually held up well in a dreary day. I am the closest I have been to the benchmark in over a month. JTX was up over 7% and UNTD and CHCG were up over 4%. Not sure why the tax preparer was up 7%.

I say "Crud" because I am not exactly starting earnings season with a big bang, TGIS announced their earnings after the bell (Thomas Group Announces Third Quarter 2007 Results). I had high hopes that they would have strong earnings and get back towards their $12 from early this summer. Sadly it wasn't to be, I thought the report was dreadful. No longer are they talking about the 2nd half of 2007 having stronger revenues than 2nd half of 2006. Instead the 3rd quarter was about 15% shy of 3q 2006 and the CEO was talking about delayed contracts and increased competition. Not eaxctly positive buzz-words. Could easily be a 10 to 15% drop tomorrow. Surprisingly it only traded off marginally AH, but I gotta believe the broader market tomorrow will not treat TGIS gently. Ay-yi-yi.

I am tracking the other stocks I considered buying when I recently bought HSII. HSII has been solid, up 4.4%. The stocks I considered on average are up 4.6% led by the surprisng HLYS (up a snappy 24.6%). It does show how (if you have courage) you can buy some stocks that are greatly out of favor and do okay. Another example is MTEX, which had been hammered by lowered guidance and AG suits. It was on my watch list in mid September and is up since then by 36%. Is KG the next greatly out-of-favor stock to pop? It is a lowly $10.63, about 50% off the 52 week high.

Stay tuned.