Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

I ‘wear’ a lot of hats on this website.

Well maybe not that many hats :).  But seriously, by wearing different hats I mean I am trying to accomplish many different things simultaneously.  My success with doing that certainly varies from time to time and week to week.

I try to write about how to select stocks, what stocks I believe are worth selecting, how to build a portfolio, when to sell a stock and when to buy a stock, when to move from cash into equities

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Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

My blog and my investment strategy continues to be an experiment for me.  I think it makes sense.  And the only way to figure it out is to employ my idiosyncratic strategy in real life.  Much like when I was younger and played with my Gilbert Chemistry Set!

As part of my promise to all of you to be as transparent as possible, I have been regularly sharing with you my actual trading portfolio.  You can also monitor my trades and my current performance on

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Fellow Stockmasters, just came across this great article on the Motley Fool about Analyst estimates. Good read: It is a pervasive myth that has left the savings of countless small investors in ruins. More likely than not, it is a piece of information you've relied on while making ...

Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

I wanted to try to briefly review a stock today and looking through the list of top % gainers on the NYSE, I came across Ensco (ESV) which as I write is trading at $78.65, up $4.21 or 5.66% on the day.  I do not own any shares nor do I have any options on this stock.  However, I would like to share with you briefly why

ENSCO (ESV) IS RATED A BUY

First of all, what do they …

Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

A few moments ago I sold my 140 shares of IHS (IHS) that I had puchased 10/1/07 with a cost basis of $58.53.   These shares were sold at $59.29 for a gain of $.76 or 1.3% since purchase.

This sale doesn’t really fit into my usual ‘trading rules’.  But I always retain the right to arbitrarily ‘pull the plug’ on any of my holdings.  Perhaps it is because my portfolio is so small at 6 positions now–or I am just anxious to keep up with my Covestor …

Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice! As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

Earlier this morning, my Copart (CPRT) stock hit an appreciation target of a 30% gain triggering a partial sale of 1/7th of my position or 30 shares which were sold at $43.80/share.  This represented a gain of $10.08/share or 29.9% since purchase.  The shares were initially acquired 9/27/07 at a cost basis of $33.72/share.

As you may know, I use sales like today’s sale as a ’signal’ to buy an additional position if I am under my maximum of 20 positions.  Since, after yesterday’s sale of ResMed (RMD), I …

Summary:

In the words of Tony Soprano: “Fogetaboutit”.

Expanded Summary:

In the words of the IRS: “Section 1091“, “Section 267” and “Rev Ruling 2008-5”

Purpose:

All investors and their investment advisors, should have an understanding of the Wash Sale Rule and related rules before making investment decisions, instead of learning about them painfully from their accountants at tax filing time.

This article is about where we stand as investment advisors on the important Wash Sale Rule with respect to schemes to circumvent the 30-day exclusionary period with alternate investment accounts such as:

IRA accounts 401-k accounts other self directed tax qualified accounts sole owner limited liability companies sole owner S or C corporations revocable living trusts marital joint taxable accounts spouse’s individual taxable accounts children’s accounts

Disclaimer:

This article is for discussion purposes only and is not personal or specific “tax advice”. We are investment advisors, not tax accountants, tax lawyers or tax advisors, but we are able to read, and the

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Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob’s Advice!  As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

One of my favorite activities as author of this blog is to receive, read, and respond to email and comments regarding investing.  I hope through these discussions that I have helped others understand investing concepts as much as I learn from these questions as well.

Earlier today I received a nice letter from Randy S. who commented:
“hi,
what a great blog. I just found it last week. I’m trying to learning more about stock analysis and had a question about BLUD

“Going back to Yahoo for a few …

Credit market turmoils spread all over. I list major 4 major banking cases occurred in Europe due to subprime meltdown.The largest Swiss bank UBS (UBS) writedowns almost 33 bln CHF in last 2 quarters. Shareholders approved capital increase by 15 bln CHF. Already second capital hike after 13 bln CHF from two foreign sovereign wealth funds. Shares price YTD down by 33%.Credit Suisse (CS) faced first quarter losses in last 5 years (1Q 2008 with loss 2,15 bln CHF). For the same quarter in 2007 company made profit 2,7 bln CHF. From the beginning of year shares price fell down by 11% and market capitalization is now 62,6 bln CHF.Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) lost 5,9 bln GBP. In addition to subprime losses bank admits another bad investment decisions. Mainly acquisition of ABN Ambro ...

At "A Dash" we let the big guys do the marketing research for us. Television ads for online brokers indicate that "leading investors" are thinking for themselves instead of relying upon help from their former investment advisors. Not wanting to be completely alone, however, investors want some help and comfort. The online firms have "licensed representatives" available to offer help 24/7. How is this working out? We are interested in learning more about the experiences of individual investors who have decided to direct their own investments. We are also interested in investment advisors whose clients direct all or a portion of their own accounts. The information is for our book research, would be quoted only with permission, and names withheld in any references. The names or email addresses will not be used for any commercial purpose beyond our research. Please submit via our email address, at the ...