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.

If you have been following my ongoing ’saga’ with Meridian (VIVO), you will know that last week, after the 17% decline in the stock price from about $29 to $24, I chose to put on my ‘contrarian hat’ and bought 2000 shares of Meridian (on margin!). The stock didn’t decline further, actually had an upgrade to “long-term buy” and managed to rebound to its current level. (VIVO is trading at $26.00, down $(.37) or (1.4)% on the day as I write (last quote as of 12:27 pm EST).

This kind of “trading” is not my forte. I work my portfolio …

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.

After so many days of downside action in the market, it was nice to see at least the Dow move higher today, trading at 11,288.54, up 73.03 on the day as I write. The Nasdaq, however, didn’t participate in this rally and is currently at 2,245.38, down 6.08 on the day.

With the market moving a bit higher, this gave me an opportunity to identify a new name for this blog. Scanning the list of top % gainers on the NYSE today, I …

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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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.

I wrote Friday about my decision to make what I call a “lateral” move, selling my IHS stock (IHS) and buying 105 shares of Graham Corp. (GHM).   Graham is actually an ‘old friend’ of mine having first written about Graham October 27, 2007, at a split-adjusted price of $46.60, on the suggestion of Doug S., a great and loyal reader of this blog.

I have also owned shares of Graham (GHM) for short periods of time (literally) having purchased 400 shares 11/23/07 at a split-adjusted cost …

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 days ago I discussed how I was looking into an iBond.  So I visited my local Wells Fargo Bank and purchased a $5,000 bond for a long-term investment.  And the more I thought about, the more I became perplexed about this new limit on individual savings bond purchases each year.

As reported by Chris Farrell on American Public Media “Marketplace”:
“I think it’s a terrible move. Here’s the breakdown: Savers can now buy a total of $20,000 in U.S. savings bonds. That’s $5,000 each of Series EE (the traditional …

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 today I sold a portion of my Copart (CPRT) stock after it hit my first assigned appreciation target–that is it had increased in price to a 30% appreciation over my purchase cost.  With that event, I sold 1/7th of my holding (and wrote about it on my blog as well).  My own portfolio management strategy depends on the performance of my own stocks to give me the ’signals’ to be either buying (on good news events like sales on appreciation) or ’sitting on my hands’ which …

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 …