Retirement Strategies

IRA Investing: Safer to Buy Stocks Now

03/24/08 - 01:22 PM EDT

Richard  Moore

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 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 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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Richard Moore has 40 years of experience in various facets of the investment business. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Moore appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

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