IRA Investing: Safer to Buy Stocks Now
Last week that scenario seemed to play out as commodities were very weak and financials recovered strongly. In fact, the limited number of commodity-related companies held in my portfolio caused me to suffer a decline in value even as the major averages were up.
Looking at future leadership, though, it would be highly unusual for financials to assume a market leadership position. It will probably take an extended period of time for investors to begin to focus on the long-term positives as opposed to the ongoing problems. I am continuing to use S&P Depository Receipts (SPY Quote) in order to keep my cash position near targeted levels (I again added to my position last week) and I fully expect that new ideas will begin to present themselves as the stock market bottoming process continues. Hopefully, I will soon begin to see stocks appear on my one-month screen so I can begin to use those ideas as well. My biggest winner last week was Integral Systems (ISYS Quote) which was up 11.3%. In spite of that increase, I continue to like this company and feel that it has good future potential. It sells at a 20% discount to the scientific and technical industry when measured by enterprise value/EBITDA and earnings prospects are very good. The table that follows shows all of the current holdings in my IRA as of the end of last week:| Symbol | Name | Purchase Date | Cost | Price | Gain |
| Regular Holdings | |||||
| CALM | Cal-Maine Foods | 4/16/2007 | $13.30 | $34.59 | 160.08% |
| EXAC | Exactech | 11/5/2007 | $21.00 | $27.53 | 31.10% |
| GIB | CGI Group | 3/9/2007 | $8.52 | $10.12 | 18.78% |
| HP | Helmerich & Payne | 12/27/2007 | $39.88 | $43.20 | 8.32% |
| ICFI | ICF International | 9/14/2007 | $25.28 | $20.02 | -20.81% |
| ISYS | Integral Systems | 3/5/2008 | $25.90 | $28.13 | 8.61% |
| KCI | Kinetic Concepts | 2/6/2007 | $49.75 | $48.75 | -2.01% |
| LSR | Life Sciences Research | 3/11/2008 | $24.22 | $25.12 | 3.72% |
| OTEX | Open Text | 9/14/2007 | $25.68 | $28.96 | 12.77% |
| RSTI | Rofin Sinar Technologies | 9/21/2007 | $35.06 | $39.94 | 13.92% |
| SCL | Stepan Co. | 2/27/2008 | $34.94 | $37.06 | 6.07% |
| SCX | L. S. Starrett | 12/10/2007 | $18.88 | $18.54 | -1.80% |
| SGY | Stone Energy | 11/1/2007 | $43.74 | $49.20 | 12.48% |
| SPY | S & P Dep. Receipts | 1/14/2008+ | $131.96 | $132.08 | 0.09% |
| SY | Sybase | 11/13/2007 | $25.79 | $26.49 | 2.71% |
| USPH | US Physical Therapy | 1/17/2008 | $13.98 | $14.14 | 1.14% |
| WDC | Western Digital | 8/31/2007 | $23.33 | $29.12 | 24.82% |
| One Month Screen | |||||
| No Current Holdings | |||||
| Performance Results As Of 3/21/2008 | IRA | S&P 500 | |||
| Full Year 2007 | 33.0% | 5.5% | |||
| First Quarter To Date | -4.8% | -9.5% | |||
| Total Return For IRA S & P 500 Does Not Include Income For Latest Quarter | |||||
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