This Week's Rocket Stocks Portfolio Update
James Altucher
12/19/07 - 09:15 AM EST
At the start of each week, I write a
Rocket Stocks column featuring a
list of stocks that I believe have the potential to surge higher in the coming days.
I select these Rocket Stocks not necessarily because they are great stocks to hold for the long term but rather because they have the potential to either snapback due to an irrational selloff the week before or because they have some other possible catalysts that could create explosive price moves during the coming week.
When I wrote
Trade Like a Hedge Fund, I focused on 20 different uncorrelated strategies that work when trading within the system. The key when trading within a system is to stay within it even through hard times. The same is true when trying to pick stocks that have weekly catalysts ahead of them.
This week I highlighted
Adobe Systems(ADBE) as a good risk-reward play ahead of earnings. Adobe is an indirect play off the
Apple(AAPL) iPhone as it is a main supplier of flash video used in the iPhone.
On Monday night Adobe reported
great fourth-quarter results, posting a 21% boost in profit. Net income was $222.2 million, or 38 cents a share, compared to $183.2 million, or 30 cents a share, in the same period last year. Shares were up as much as 5% for the week on Tuesday, but settled to close with only a 0.5% increase since Monday. I believe we'll see a few more points on this stock before it's all said and done.
Another name I highlighted this week was
Timberland(TBL). This is a cold weather play as people should buy more boots as the weather gets worse. Timberland, however, does not have the best of fundamentals going for it. Up as much as 5.8% for the week and currently up 1.5%, I would look to lock in some profits.
This week I've also added two additional names to the portfolio.
First up is
Genesis Lease(GLS). Most of its planes are leased to airlines overseas; this means that its dividend is covered by solid cash flows from international currency. With the average age of its planes about 5.6 years, most of them are locked up into longer-term contracts. As oil starts to come down, the airline-related names should prove good trading stocks.
In
Monday's "Mad Money" Lightning Round, Jim Cramer said the following about GLS: "This one is beyond me. ... This is an aircraft leasing company. It's got a great yield. ... It is just a play on global air. It is a play on U.S. air. ... I cannot back away when the fundamentals remain good." The stock offers a yield of about 10%.
Another stock that I like for the rest of the week and even into the end of the holiday session is
Best Buy(BBY). Despite what the bears say, Best Buy posted an
amazing quarterly beat yesterday and appears to be taking market share from other electronic retailers. After raising its full-year profit forecast, Best Buy is likely to climb higher.