I apologize for the abbreviated post, but I will be headed out of town shortly until Monday. I did however just want to post quick about my next pick, that being Sunoco Inc (SUN). Last Friday SUN dipped as low as $63.62 before finishing back up to $66.57. This then happened again and once more after that. A possible indication that SUN has found a bottom.

The price of oil appears to have stabilized and SUN looks ready to make a major bounce.

SUN was as high as $88 during the past month. I wouldn't be surprised to see it rebound to at least $78 during the next month. News came out recently forecasting between 13-16 named storms this year including 8-10 hurricanes and 4-6 major hurricanes. We could see oil prices reach record highs very soon.

Look for an updated post and more on Sunoco soon!

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Market jitters? Let me try and clear up some of the confusion in the market right now for you incase this past week is making you feel a little bit uncomfortable on the inside. This week has not been very pretty but don't despair my friends. Generally after a couple of larger point losses in the market, as we have seen this past week, you start to see the institutional buyers jumping back into some of the better stocks. It is a bit of a snap back approach but it gives investors a chance to profit when these stocks rejuvenate their previous trends. Unless a stocks trend was broken to the downside, buying back into a stock on a pullback is considered a tested approach for investors. I do not see this as a correction (10% decline, we are only at ~4% right now) but merely as a pullback that will continue its bullish run soon.

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Jack Welch is the former CEO of General Electric (GE). His book, titled "Winning" has been a very popular read amongst top corporate execs and other high level business people. I have only recently had a chance to browse through some of Jack’s book and wanted to share a piece that I was particularly fond of and couldn't agree more with. The piece deals with the characteristics of employees’ top employees and the vibe they give off. Jack says he always looked for individuals who could exude positive energy while pushing and probing with a curiosity that borders on skepticism. This type of attitude is what really helps propel a business forward in a positive way.

Getting into further details, Jack often would look for Integrity, Intelligence, and Maturity in individuals. One of the most important things to understand here is that Jack was NOT talking about age. Individuals can be mature at any age and immature at any age. Do not stereotype young or old people regarding their maturity because of their age. Look for the 4 Es in a person, which are:

(1) ENERGY
(2) Ability to ENERGIZE others
(3) EDGE (courage)
(4) EXECUTE (accomplish goals)

and also one P, which is PASSION.

These are going to be your best employees. Real life examples of this include individuals like Katherine Binsack from Text100 Corp, Mike Rundle from 9Rules Network, Adam Chojnacki from McNeil Pharmaceuticals, and Joe Dolan of Nalod Associates. All of these individuals embody the above characteristics with a special emphasis on Passion. They love what they do and are driven to not only do more, but get others around them excited about what they do. Their creative minds give them the edge and courage needed to continue to excel in their fields while their past experiences and higher education give them the knowledge and realization needed to execute and accomplish their goals.

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The newest stock in my portfolio is Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) aka ECD Ovonics. ENER describes itself as the leader in the synthesis of new materials and the development of advanced production technology and innovative products. It has invented, pioneered and developed its proprietary, enabling technologies in the fields of energy and information leading to new products and production processes based on amorphous, disordered and related materials.

"The new reality of higher oil prices continues to bring increased attention and a sense of urgency to the alternative energy sector where ECD Ovonics has been a major international player. This has translated into record sales at United Solar Ovonic and the award of a contract to Cobasys by General Motors' Saturn VUE for Cobasys' advanced Ovonic NiMH battery solutions." Stanford R. Ovshinsky; President, Chief Scientist and Technologist of ECD Ovonics.

The Company's portfolio of alternative energy solutions includes Ovonic thin-film amorphous solar cells, modules, panels and systems for generating solar electric power; Ovonic NiMH batteries; Ovonic hydride storage materials capable of storing hydrogen in the solid state for use as a feedstock for fuel cells or internal combustion engines or as an enhancement or replacement for any type of hydrocarbon fuel; and Ovonic fuel cell technology. ECD Ovonics' proprietary advanced information technologies include Ovonic phase-change electrical memory, Ovonic phase-change optical memory and the Ovonic Threshold Switch. ECD Ovonics designs and builds manufacturing machinery that incorporates its proprietary production processes, maintains ongoing research and development programs to continually improve its products and develops new applications for its technologies.

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If this were a stock, I would surely own a lot of it. I still cannot believe this is real. It seems like this is the ultimate solution to the gas crisis and I look forward to seeing how this technology progresses over the next 20 years. Do you think that in the future, filling up our tanks of gas will consist of merely turning on the faucet to get the 4 ounces of water needed to travel 100 miles? Again I ask, can this be real?

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The price channel pattern is one of the simplest, easy to recognize chart patterns I use. This continuation pattern slopes up (bullish) or down (bearish) while bouncing off the upper and lower trend lines. The upper trend line marks resistance and the lower trend line marks support. What I really like about this pattern is that it can be traded a variety of different ways. You could trade it short term, buying on the bottom trend line support and selling at resistance or you could also "buy and hold" the pattern. Regardless of which you choose, a key point you want to remember is to buy on specific injection points, or points where the price touches the bounding support and resistance levels. Price channels will not last forever, but the underlying trend remains in place until proved otherwise.

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Last week I wrote an article about recognizing the ascending triangle chart pattern. A good example of this pattern could be found in Florida Rock Industries (FRK). FRK is composed of three main business segments, all of which are doing well. These three segments include construction aggregates, concrete products and cement and calcium products. I had a chance to listen in on their most recent conference call and was very impressed as they posted record earnings and revenue in many different areas of the business and continue to hold a very bright future outlook.

On top of this the stock is in the Capital Goods/Construction - Raw Materials sector (.CRM) that has held and continues to hold strong institutional interest. If you didn't happen to catch the chart pattern (ascending triangle) before the run up to earnings day then you had another good chance to get in on the recent throwback that confirmed support between 59-60. FRK also shows great fundamentals and is an industry leader. A solid group, price and EPS rank make the stock that much more attractive to me and I look forward to watching this one continue its uptrend in the coming months.

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