Dykstra: My Favorite Trades

All wins are great, but some are simply better than others. Now, if a trade makes money, it's a winner. That's very straightforward and hard to argue with. But what separates a perfect trade in my mind is when the pick I make behaves exactly as it's supposed to, exactly as I envisioned it would.

I have been asked several times recently which of my 68 wins this season I am most proud of. There's been a lot to choose from, after all, I have 68 wins and zero losses on the books, with just six open positions. In all, I have achieved $184,000 in wins. As a reminder, my year began on March 25, when I penned my first column of 2008. It ran on TheStreet.com, even before I launched my newsletter, Nails on the Numbers.

The answer to that question is not likely an obvious one. You might think my best trade was the one where I rang the register the loudest, made the most money. Morgan Stanley(MS Quote - Cramer on MS - Stock Picks), my pick on May 14, made me a $13,800 profit after staying in play a little more than two months. It was a very profitable trade, but I needed to make several in-game adjustments to that play. This was a good one, but not my favorite.

I also scored major league victories with my McDermott (MDR Quote - Cramer on MDR - Stock Picks), General Electric(GE Quote - Cramer on GE - Stock Picks) and Garmin(GRMN Quote - Cramer on GRMN - Stock Picks) picks recently. I picked all three in August.

McDermott was an especially satisfying victory because the stock dropped quite a bit in the days following my pick, and the emails flooded in questioning the pick. Some people were not yet convinced by the power or reliability of my system. They thought it was a swing and miss. I knew I needed to stay calm and focused with this pick and continue to play by the rules. And 10 days after my original column published, I had $4,100 more than when I started and another mark in the win column. A good pick for sure, but my best? Nah.

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