LOW HANGING FRUIT?

After years or posting on bullboards and blogs and reading other posters comments its hard not to look at some of the commentary and smile.

Recently some posters have dusted off some old tools of the trade in hopes of resuscitating their all but dead stocks. If it still has a pulse then maybe it can stand up and run at any time. Well its kind of like saying your 90 year old grandpa on his death bed might do an Ironman next month as well. The odds do not look good at some point no matter how you try to spin it.

The problem is most investors find it hard to let go of a dead stock. They fell in love and have watched it slowly slide while others made money off their back. They resisted the urge to sell and make some profit because the pump was on that this was just the start and it could be the tip of the iceberg. At any time you can move on and take a different path. You have to make some cold hard choices you can live with but the key is survival. That's why every win doesn't have to be a 10 bagger. A win is a win and you move on to catch a ride on another and another.

I like when posters are touting a stock as "low hanging fruit" that should be grabbed quick. I tend to see this another way. I went to pick berries with my son the other day and the old guy at the farm said to me "watch out for the low hanging fruit". I found this odd so I asked him to explain. He then said "sometimes the berries hang too low and soak up mud and mold then you get stuck with a bucket of rotten fruit". Wow that summed up a lot of low hanging fruit stories I have watched in the markets lately. When RIM was at $15 a share guys were emailing me about low hanging fruit and then it quickly dropped in half.

The more I see spam and constant board chatter that this is a deal or that people should rush in now, the more I think someone really wants out of their position so they can move on from this rotten fruit.
I don't have to name companies or post symbols to get my point across. Its easy to see if you check the board stats. When the most posted boards are the stocks sinking fast this should be a red flag not a green one.

I personally think the rest of the summer is a wash and September the markets will come back with a fury. But I don't think every sector will feel the surge of buying. Watch for Graphite, Tungsten, Potash and Gold to take up more market attention.

As well medical stocks in Canada & the USA will be strong again as the American appetite for bio-tech is always strong. I am slowly moving away from tech with a couple of exceptions. A medical stock with a tech element could be a real runner in the next 6-18 months. Watch for innovation from a small cap. Registered followers of my blog will get a year in review as well as picks for 2013 later this year. Try not to follow the herd. Be there before the herd arrives and always move on before they do.