Stock Market Analysis–06-30-2011
A few strong days and the market is looking like a completely different beast now. Maybe it’s still not all that strong, but at least it’s back up to the original trend line from May. I’m still sporting the same cautious position though.
On a different note, I’m sure most people have heard about the Amazon tiff with California. Unfortunately, I live in California, so I got the wonderful notice telling me I can’t be an affiliate anymore:
Hello,
Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. Those California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned before today will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.
You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.
To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect your ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.
We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. As mentioned before, we are continuing to work on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.
Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team
At least they let me know that I can still purchase things there. Thanks! It’s not like I was making much money there, maybe $30-40/month that was enough to support my reading habit, but I do feel bad for a lot of the companies that are based on affiliate revenue. Anyway, you can still use my www.pricedaemon.com thing, but I’m no longer getting money from there so you don’t have to buy things through it if you aren’t using the price notifications. I’ll let you know if anything changes. Thanks to everyone that supported it!
Stock Market Analysis–06-27-2011
The market weakness has drawn out for almost 2 months now. Given the lingering softness in the overall economy though, the pullback is a welcome thing. I’ll be pretty busy this summer, so don’t expect too much activity here. Maybe I’ll trail a few stops in to oversold stocks, but for the most part won’t be actively trading as much. The good thing about big corrections is that you don’t have to go beyond your list of usual suspects to find stocks that are at good buy points.
Level 3 Communications (LVLT)–06-03-2011
Not a great stock fundamentally yet, I really like LVLT as a company right now. They’ve been winning things like the Netflix deal, and CDNs are still a huge growth area with the explosion of mobile usage and streaming media. It’s not really at a buy point, but something to keep an eye on for the future.
Aruba Networks (ARUN)–06-03-2011
It’s interesting that ARUN is still on the IBD list given the current chart. This is a nice point for swing trades though since there’s a bit of support/resistance playing here.
Stock Market Analysis–06-03-2011
Fortunately, the only investment I’ve made recently has been taking euros out of the ATM, and those have made a few percent. Maybe I should have brought a few more back to the US. The disappointing employment data scared the market on Friday and now we’re approaching the April low. There might be some stocks that are in a good position to play a potential bounce here, but I wouldn’t get too aggressive given the general state of the economy. $1250 offers a bit more support going back to 2010 if we make it that far down. Either way, it looks like it’s time to update the watch list this weekend.
Stock Market Analysis–05-17-2011
With the summer nearly here, the short term trend looks down while the medium term trend is still up. Summer is never a great time to play short term trends though since liquidity usually drops. That leaves us at a point where we’re close to our long term stops again, but not really looking to jump in to anything new if the stops actually hit. In other words, boring…