Some of you may have noticed the new icon to the right, representing the 9rules network, that recently appeared on my site. Well today I am proud to announce the acceptance of 22Dollars into the 9Rules network. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the network, they would describe themselves as:

A community of the best weblogs in the world on a variety of topics. We started 9rules to give passionate writers more exposure and to help readers find great blogs on their favorite subjects. It’s difficult to find sites worth returning to, so 9rules brings together the very best of the independent web all under one roof.

Update: Check out my offical 9Rules introduction here.

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That markets have shown some wide ranges in volatility lately. This type of volatility suggests tremendous confusion amoung investors. Remember that one or two up days does not make a bottom, or a new trend, so be patient before you throw your money back into something. It is nice to the see the Dow closed up 105 point at 11,079 while the NASDAQ closed higher by 34 to finish the day at 2,141. Advancers beat out decliners by almost 3:1 on both the NYSE and NASDAQ. Again, this not something to get excited about and throw your money at.

Investing based on emotion is a huge mistake that many amateurs often times make. Before you get all excited and think that you are going to "miss" the bottom, take a moment to really look at the charts and see if this is indeed the bottom. If the market and other worldly fundamentals still are not in place, then be wary. A good friend of mine, David Gordon, once quoted "how low is low?". The point David was trying to make was to not let the markets sucker you in when the market leaders are really taking a hit. In this case oil, metals and cyclicals have really been hammered lately. Patience my friends - don't get sucker punched trying to guess "how low is low".

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I have recently taken a position in Google (Goog) because of the leader's recent pullback, followed by the firming of the stock price demonstrated by the pattern of higher lows over the last couple weeks. This potential triangle pattern could resolve into a bullish signal should the stock price break out to the upside in coming weeks. There has been plenty of talk about the next big service/product the company will release. Two recent Google service/product announcements included the testing of their Web buying system that they claim to be unlike PayPal's and the new government search site. Anyone who follows Google knows that they announce new and exciting services/products on a regular basis making it very tough for Microsoft and Yahoo to keep up and grow at such an astounding rate.

On top of this, the Technology/Computer Services sector is starting to see a steady flow of institutional money begin to pour back into it. Despite already having taken a position in Google, I would suggest waiting to see how the triangle pattern resolves before pulling the trigger.

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As I am sure you have all heard by now, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed today in an air strike. Al-Zarqawi woke up this morning to a plethora of U.S. warplanes dropping 500-pound bombs on his isolated "safehouse". Upon the news of Zarqawi death, oil dropped a little bit as terror worries dimmed, but not by much. The markets have been in a free fall as of late and many are viewing this time as a good opportunity to get back in. I will continue to stay on the sidelines with much of my money until the markets gain a better footing. There are just too many bearish patterns still out there and I can't seem to find any good news for the markets on the horizon yet. My current favorite stock remains Sunoco (SUN), at least until the hurricane season ends.

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The last I posted, I talked about my new favorite pick - Sunoco (SUN). Since then the company has started to bounce nicely and I still believe it has another 5 - 10 points left to go. I wanted to mention some other reasons why I like this position right now. First is that gasoline inventories were just announced yesterday. Estimates were looking for an increase of 1.4 million barrels but fell short of that number receiving only 800,000 barrels.

On top of this, hurricane season started yesterday. Most of the production lines in the gulf are very vulnerable still and still trying to make a recovery from the Katrina & Rita tag-team devastations. What is also interesting is that for a hurricane to disrupt supply, it does not need to be a category 3, 4 or 5. The government mandates all employees and personal working on the gulf oil rigs evacuate from the gulf until the storm passes. This is usually enough to disrupt supply for 3 days assuming no damage is actually done to the rig by the hurricane itself. The hurricane center's forecast is for 13-16 named storms this season, June 1 through Nov. 30. Eight to 10 are expected to become hurricanes, with winds of 74 mph or more. Of those, four to six could be major — Category 3 or higher, with winds of 111 mph or more. Hurricane Katrina, which caused $80 billion in damage and more than 1,570 deaths, was a Category 3 storm.

Oh and did I mention that our problems with Iran are not getting any better and I will be surprised to see this issue solved diplomatically. A strong EPS, PE Ratio and Price Pattern are three more reasons I like Sunoco here. The MAC and Full Stoch. have also turned north nicely and suggest the stock will continue to move higher.

Shares of pipelines (WMB, EP, KMI), services (HAL, BHI), refiners (VLO, SUN), ethanol producers (ADM, PEIX, MGPI, ANDE), E&P (APC, APA, CHK, DVN) have all traded higher lately and I believe this run will continue as institutional money starts making its way back into these sectors for a play on the hurricane season and other reasons mentioned above. As much as I hate to say it - I think gas is going to record highs this year. Hopefully the money I make off Sunoco will be enough to offset these costs.

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