A bit of snow, but about to melt. Glory to the bonus payday, and blessings upon our trip to AC. In other news, I actually made dinner last night! It's been a while. It was even good!

If you read Thai or just enjoy some Artemis photos in an unreadable context, try out the Artemis Chronicle.

I'm not so sure the plan I am working on is going to work out, so I did some TA/FA mixed analysis last night and decided to buy a couple new companies. My account was 80% Apple, but I've cut that back to my original Apple position, which is about 50%. So, I am still loaded on AAPL. But now I have 5 smaller positions in some super performing small companies.

I would explain what each one does, but I know barely anything about them - I am buying them largely on the charts and basic balance sheet. My stops are a comfortable 5% on each.

Positions:

Apple Computer (AAPL), Price: $73.95, Stop: $69
Yahoo! (YHOO), Price: $40.11, Stop: $38
HANS, Price: $83.46, Stop: 5%
PMTI, Price: $35.80, Stop: 5%
CEDC, Price: $41.41, Stop: 5%
HOC, Price: $63.40, Stop: 5%
TIE, Price: $74.53, Stop: 5%

Year-to-date Performance: +44.5%
Artemis YTD Performance: +52.2%

Good news on all fronts:

My shed and fence have been approved. This means we can now go ahead with other home projects that were waiting for those long-standing issues to be resolved. It wasn't pretty but at least it's over.

My fantasy sports teams are doing great. I earned the BYE in one league, finishing 2nd for the regular season. Two more wins there earns me about $800. In my other league I won the total points award (over $100) and look ready to win the championship if I can get by my friend Jeremy's tough team this week. My basketball team is 3-2 even without Shaq thanks to a soft schedule, so I am poised to make a nice run if Shaq Daddy comes back strong. Hell, in real sports even the Redskins won, keeping a glimmer of playoff hope alive.

Friday we're planning a quick trip to AC to try some 1-2 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Poker with the weekend donkeys. Hopefully I can relieve some drunk numbskull Eagles' fans of their union salaries. More likely I'll come out even, but here's to enjoying a portion of my bonus money. Yippee!

Artemis has a little cold, but is cuter than ever (check the recent photos). We're trying to sell some shoes over at Chabah.com, but nothing much yet. Winter just isn't the time, plus we don't have the budget to advertise to a large audience. We'll see how it goes...we have some new styles to photograph and prepare for next spring and summer. Should be a big year, especially if we can unload some of this massive inventory. Basically, everything we sell will be at free cash since we don't need to replenish anything, that is we already absorbed the costs of stocking up.

Nothing special in the market the last couple days. I just inched up my Apple stop since the stock moved again, nothing significant. I'm closely watching Starbucks - it is really having a time getting through 32. If it breaks on big volume, super, I'll be buying in a flash. It hit 32 intra-day, but could not hold the gain. This congestion is very good, as the longer it stays, the better the break out should be. If it's down, there is nothing I can do but if it is up it should lead to a nice long stock for 2006.

I've been working on my short-term trading strategy for next year. The idea is to start with an amount, say something like $5k or $10k, and use that for short-term trades with a rigid rule for securing gains and stopping losses. I'll try to make a certain average percent per trade, and do that a bunch of times throughout the year. My target is 2% per trade, 50 times. That would yield about 120% returns for the year, but of course that will vary depending on when I get my wins and when I get my losses. The ratio of wins to losses will also vary - I am shooting for 65% but picking stocks ain't that easy.

What I am trying is basically a variety of the "GBS Classic", where I use technical analysis (TA) rather than fundamental analysis (FA) to choose which stocks to trade. Ususally, one would have say ten or twenty chunks to invest, and have multiple trades going at a time. Since I only have one chunk, I'll have to choose my favorite trade when there are more than one to choose from. Also, I may need to cut short some trades if better ones come along before the position is closed.

Of course I'll post all trades here for public scrutiny. Dinner time, more next time.

Positions:

Apple Computer (AAPL), Price: $73.95, Stop: $69
Yahoo! (YHOO), Price: $40.11, Stop: $38

Year-to-date Performance: +45.6%
Artemis YTD Performance: +52.3%

I spent Saturday measuring my "out of plumb" shed and formulating a plan to fix it. My cooperative, GHI, sent a letter telling me a contractor had evaluated the job and they planned to have him do the work for $793, practically rebuilding the entire shed. After about 15 minues I deduced that one corner of the shed base was sinking into the ground - no big surprise since the ground is quite soft. Indeed, one reason I originally built the shed in the other part of the yard was that it was a better location, largely because of the ground support. But the GHI Board, in their dismally finite wisdom, dictated that I relocate it.

Anyway, I used a little geometry to compute that the corner had sunk about 4.33 inches. I used a car jack to raise the low corner, then lifted the 4x4" posts and put some big bricks under them. I checked the measurements around the shed, then removed the jack. Voila! Shed fixed in about an hour for $0. Just a little bit better than the solution proferred by the professionals.

I do a lot of things myself, and this is precisely why. You hire someone, and you think you are hiring a professional. But often, they are professional only in the sense that they get paid to do something others don't want to do. Their solutions aren't always efficient or wise - often, they are half-assed or just plain stupid. Imagine a handy man bureaucrat, and you get the idea. So, while my workmanship may not be perfect, at least I don't spend 2 days and $800 fixing something that really requires a car jack and a couple bricks.

Last week was super, and the portfolio is at an all time high. On Friday I did some analysis, and determined that the time is right to buy Yahoo. You may recall that I had it this time last week and got stopped out - that worked out well, since I put the money in Apple, which was up 7% or so. I still love Apple, but I went ahead and sold some in order to repurchase Yahoo.

In looking at YHOO, I noticed that it has been a very reliable 50/200 moving average (MA) crossover stock. It's been in congestion since about April, with four crossovers in that time. The buy signal came in mid November when it went long again. I got stopped out when it dipped below 40, but looking at the averages it looks like we're solidly into "long" territory.

In Yahoo's history, the 50 and 200 have only crossed a few times, notably before the 1997 run to late 1999, before the huge run at the end of 1999, before the crushing descent in late 2000 to 2002, and, after some months of congestion, before the very nice run from late 2002 to April 2005. In other words, this is a very trend friendly stock. And the trend is up.

With such reliable MA signals, I think it's a clear long. So, I'm going to keep mine until the 50 hits the 100 or 200, at which time I'll reevaluate. I'll put in a stop but a bit looser than last time.

Positions:

Apple Computer (AAPL), Price: $72.63, Stop: $66
Yahoo! (YHOO), Price: $41.21, Stop: $38

Year-to-date Performance: +44%
Artemis YTD Performance: +50%