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