IRA Investing: A Bullish Bull Trap

In any event, I am a long-term investor, and I believe that the market remains in a long-term uptrend. I want to maintain a fully invested position. Last week I made one sale and two purchases, so my current cash position is 1.6%.

My Current IRA Portfolio

As previously stated, the market continued its strength last week as the S&P 500 went up 0.9%. The Value Line Geometric Average, which is a broader measure of how all stocks performed, was up 0.6%, and my portfolio was up 0.7%.

AMX Corp. (AMXC - commentary - Cramer's Take) continued its strong performance last week, increasing in value by 12.1%. It is now up 62.9% since I purchased it in January. The fundamentals remain quite strong, but the valuation now is well above what I view as attractive. I already have sold a small part of this position and will continue to sell into the momentum of this run.

Stifel Financial (SF - commentary - Cramer's Take) announced a stock split and was rewarded by a 10.6% increase in stock price. And John B. Sanfilippo (JBSS - commentary - Cramer's Take) continued its bounce after reporting good earnings in the previous week. It was up 4.5%.

On the negative side, Cantel Medical (CMN - commentary - Cramer's Take) and FPIC Insurance (FPIC - commentary - Cramer's Take) were both a little weak, giving up 3.7% and 4.2%, respectively.

Last week I liquidated my position in Labor Ready (LRW - commentary - Cramer's Take) and took new positions in Briggs & Stratton (BGG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Michael Baker Corp. (BKR - commentary - Cramer's Take). I view both of these new holdings as very attractive and will write full reports on them soon.

Performance

IRA Performance Results These use closing prices from Aug. 27
	IRA	S&P 500
Month to date	-0.9%	0.5%
Quarter to date	0.1	-2.9
Year to date	31.2	0.4
Since March 31, 2001	93.4	0.6
Source: Richard Moore

These results are compounded quarterly and include income for all time periods except for the S&P 500 quarter to date and month to date.

Investment Ideas to Evaluate

The oil-service component of the energy industry and the steel and iron industry remain featured areas highlighted by my screening system. My screens use momentum as measured by relative strength and value as measured by the price-to-sales ratio as the main components in picking stocks for further research. I am happy with my current holdings in those areas and continue to look for other new ideas on a daily basis. I found a couple of good prospects last week, which I purchased as indicated above.

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At time of publication, Moore was long Atlantis Plastics, AMX Corp., Benchmark Electronics, Black & Decker, Bluegreen, Briggs & Stratton, Cantel Medical, Charming Shoppes, China Petroleum, FPIC Insurance, Gulf Island Fabrication, John B. Sanfilippo, Metal Management, Michael Baker Corp., Silgan Holdings, Steiner Leisure Limited, Stifel Financial, United Fire & Casualty and Wesco International, though positions may change at any time.

Richard Moore, CFA, is the owner of QB Accounting Service in Angel Fire, New Mexico. Prior to that, Moore was manager of Taos Financial Strategies, working with a varied client list doing investment management, accounting, financial planning and taxes. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. While Moore cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he welcomes your feedback and invites you to send your comments to [e-mail].