A Few More Trades

I know I’ve been trading a bit more than I like. I’m just trying to find a good balance with my portfolio. I’m still heavily weighted in the biotech sector. I sold Celgene (Ticker: CELG) at $59.57 generating a net gain of 2% in a month. Celgene has been good to me, but I just needed to reduce my biotech holdings just a tad. I picked up Apple (Ticker: AAPL) once again at $131.06. Apple’s strategy is simply amazing; they’re able to generate recurring revenues from their iPhone subscriptions. Having the cell phone companies cough up 10% of their iPhone subscription revenues to Apple is unheard of. This will become a giant cash cow for Apple.

I picked up more Berkshire Hathaway Class B (Ticker: BRKB) at $3950.11. I can see Warren Buffet unleashing some of his $40 billion cash holdings into this market. When there’s fear in the market, you can bet he’s buying. The chart continues to look great for Berkshire Hathaway. The stock will probably pause a bit here before going higher.

I’m still looking to get back into MasterCard (Ticker: MA) again, but I have to be patient with this one. Anyways, I’m starting to like this market more and more. There are too many doom and gloomers out there.

Warren Buffet Here I Come

I picked up Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares (Ticker: BRKB) on Friday at $3880.01 per share. This stock held up extremely well in the recent market turmoil and broke into an all time high on Friday. The fundamentals and charts look great. The trend is definitely up and up for this stock. Take a look at the chart... Nice, huh?

Backed It Up In Genzyme

"Genzyme Corp. , the world's third-biggest biotechnology company, can't seem to do anything right." This was the quote from a Reuter's article published on August 9th. I used the proceeds from the Shire PLC (Ticker: SHPGY) sale and backed up the truck in Genzyme (Ticker: GENZ) at $62.48 (in my Roth IRA account). Did I jump in too soon? Maybe a bit early…, but I have no regrets. As I've said before, these shares are cheap and we're pretty much close to the bottom at these levels. The stock is trading at 16 times 2008 earnings with a long term growth rate of ~ 20%. You rarely get a chance to pick up bargains like this. The company has been aggressively buying back stock. In June, the company purchased ~ 1 million shares at an average price of $65.48 and from July 1st to August 7th, the company purchased ~ 1.8 million shares at an average price of $63.98. The companies got your back with a big buyback ($1.5 billion over a 3 year period). Analysts have been cautious because they see potential competition from a small upstart company, Amicus Therapeutics (Ticker: FOLD). We'll just have to see if Amicus can pull it off… But I'm placing my bet with Genzyme.

Bad, Bad Trade...

How not to trade? Oh, let me show you! I’m very good at it! On Monday, I got back into MasterCard (Ticker: MA) at $130.07 and promptly sold at $130.66 a few minutes later. And of course, the stock rockets up and up! Why did I execute such a dumb trade? I keep asking myself that same question… I didn’t have a clear exit strategy. I didn’t know if this was a short-term or long-term trade. Trading without an exit strategy and / or conviction will wipe you out.

Ok, I made a few trades today… In my retirement account, I sold Shire PLC (Ticker: SHPGY) today at $78.32, generating a net return of 4% in one week. A good company, but it’s had a great run. I added to my J. Crew (Ticker: JCG) position at $53.80 and now have a full position in this stock. This one is a long-term investment and I’m going to let it ride.

Millionaires Barely Making It

I just happened to read this New York Times article about millionaires in Silicon Valley, who feel that they’re just barely making it. An interesting read… Click: here.

Smack Down Day

I got smacked down pretty hard today after MasterCard’s (Ticker: MA) less than blow out earnings. The company only beat estimates by $0.10 per share and that was not enough. You know what that means... Down it goes... Today, I blew out my position in this stock and generated a net gain of 37.53% in my regular account and 103.86% in my IRA account. In my IRA, I redeployed the cash into Shire PLC (Ticker: SHPGY) and in my regular account, I picked up a bit more of Celgene (Ticker: CELG). I’m gonna hang onto some cash until the market settles down.

On a side note, after the bell Invitrogen (Ticker: IVGN) reported blow out earnings. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share and analyst were only expecting $0.76 per share. The company also announced another $500 million share buy back. This stock is up 7% in after hours. What a pleasant surprise…