Looking For a Few Good Stocks

While the mechanical approach has been working reasonably well in my RL portfolio. As the chart below shows (not updated yet for my 2 purchases Monday), I have outperformed the benchmark on average by almost 10% as shown below:

		Values
Symbol	Date	Bought	Price	Pct Gain	IWV Gain	Pct Diff
AGX	10/22/09	$12.31	$15.59	26.6%	3.6%	23.0%
AMED	9/8/09	$35.86	$60.37	68.3%	10.2%	58.2%
BIOC	7/30/09	$3.70	$4.25	14.9%	15.5%	-0.6%
BKE	8/17/09	$26.66	$32.33	29.5%	15.5%	14.1%
BR	7/30/09	$16.53	$21.36	30.9%	15.5%	15.4%
CBI	7/30/09	$13.62	$21.70	59.3%	15.5%	43.9%
CBPO	12/4/09	$9.15	$9.70	6.0%	2.5%	3.5%
CEU	8/26/09	$5.40	$6.19	14.6%	10.0%	4.7%
CMFO	10/30/09	$4.30	$6.34	47.4%	9.8%	37.7%
CYTK	12/21/09	$2.59	$3.31	27.8%	1.2%	26.6%
ESI	11/3/09	$93.61	$109.80	17.3%	8.7%	8.6%
FRX	6/9/09	$23.10	$29.54	27.9%	21.2%	6.7%
GIGM	7/27/09	$5.02	$3.10	-38.2%	15.9%	-54.2%
GTLS	8/27/09	$19.50	$19.79	1.5%	9.9%	-8.4%
GXDX	1/29/2010	$31.69	$32.07	1.2%	3.5%	-2.3%
HCKT	5/7/09	$2.30	$2.86	24.4%	26.9%	-2.4%
IDCC	11/17/09	$23.62	$25.85	9.4%	2.2%	7.2%
JCOM	9/30/09	$23.00	$22.26	-3.2%	6.9%	-10.1%
JTX	6/29/09	$5.55	$2.38	-57.1%	23.4%	-80.5%
	6/30/09	$5.41	$2.38	-56.0%	24.1%	-80.1%
PFE	6/9/09	$14.13	$17.33	26.2%	21.2%	5.0%
PRIM	9/30/09	$7.30	$8.44	16.0%	6.9%	9.1%
PVSW	8/18/09	$4.96	$5.25	5.8%	14.4%	-8.5%
QKLS	11/20/09	$5.75	$6.25	8.7%	4.1%	4.6%
RAI	1/20/2010	$53.55	$54.15	1.1%	-1.5%	2.6%
RGR	10/30/09	$10.59	$12.10	15.2%	9.8%	5.4%
RTN	7/27/09	$45.61	$56.73	25.7%	15.9%	9.8%
SHE	1/5/10	$5.31	$9.10	71.4%	-0.4%	71.8%
TNDM	2/27/2010	$15.31	$17.03	11.3%	3.5%	7.8%
TRMS	1/14/2010	$2.46	$2.45	-0.4%	-1.5%	1.1%
UIS	2/5/2010	$34.07	$37.88	11.2%	7.1%	4.1%
UTA	5/29/09	$7.90	$10.30	30.4%	24.3%	6.1%
WTW	9/21/09	$26.00	$24.39	-4.8%	5.6%	-10.5%
Average Open				14.3%	10.6%	3.6%
Still Own	0
		Values
Symbol	Date	Bought	Sold	Pct Gain	IWV Gain	Pct Diff
AHCI	1/5/09	$1.11	$1.73	55.9%	0.2%	55.7%
CKSW	1/5/09	$1.99	$5.52	177.4%	26.7%	150.7%
DBTK	3/16/09	$6.70	$7.05	5.2%	14.7%	-9.5%
DELL	2/23/09	$8.55	$9.52	11.3%	6.5%	4.9%
	2/27/09	$8.66	$9.52	10.0%	7.4%	2.5%
FRX	6/9/09	$23.10	$29.08	25.9%	11.1%	14.8%
GME	6/22/09	$22.64	$25.76	13.8%	24.5%	-10.7%
	6/23/09	$20.63	$22.65	9.8%	16.5%	-6.7%
PFE	6/5/09	$14.46	$16.27	13.6%	11.2%	2.4%
RST	5/7/09	$29.72	$27.00	-9.2%	0.2%	-9.3%
	5/8/10	$28.78	$27.00	-6.2%	0.2%	-6.4%
SEPR	8/17/09	$17.86	$23.09	29.3%	1.4%	27.9%
SOLR	2/23/09	$4.70	$8.09	72.1%	6.5%	65.7%
UTA	6/23/09	$8.37	$10.90	30.2%	2.7%	27.5%
VM	6/5/09	$4.38	$5.18	18.3%	4.5%	13.8%
	6/23/09	$3.11	$4.33	39.2%	2.7%	36.5%
	6/6/09	$4.23	$5.18	22.5%	4.5%	18.0%
Average Closed				30.5%	8.3%	22.2%
Open and Closed				19.8%	9.8%	9.9%

And of course, the mechanical approach has done very well in total, outperforming the benchmarks by a whopping 18 to 19%.

Of course the "problem" with with implementing the mechanical approach (as many of you have noted) is I will not necessarily have the same number of stocks coming off as I have new opportunities. So do I invest more or less per stock? Do I "borrow" or run in cash? I don't know, but you can see from my list above that starting in May it is going to be a real issue.

And on top of that, I am still about 20% in cash, so I really need five to ten good stocks between now and May. Part of the problem is I get too picky or else am too slow. SNTS came on today, but they had a big single milestone payment and that makes me nervous, then EVOL was on for a single day and then dropped off, going up 13% rapidly.

In the news section, BKE had solid February sales (The Buckle, Inc. Reports February 2010 Net Sales and Announces Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call). The stock jumped 6.4% on the news... sweet.