Partial Sell on FLIR

FLIR has gapped higher this morning after beating earnings estimates by six cents per share. I am selling 50 shares before the market close for a pre-tax gain of around $6.50/share, and holding the remaining 100 shares. Raise your stop on your remaining shares to 38.65.

Maybe a Coverdell Education Savings Account

It's another way to save for a niece or nephew, but as always there are negatives.

1) Maximum Contribution of $2k per year. So even with the best investment selections, and if you start within one year of the niece or nephew's birth, it probably won't be enough if they get accepted to an Ivy League university.

2) Because the account is in the beneficiary's name, this will affect how much financial aid is available because ideally, you want these type of savings accounts in the parent's name.

However the advantages are that you are not restricted to the limited investment selections of 529 plans. The few brokers who do offer these accounts generally have little to no annual fees.

Given the few alternatives, it's something for the radar screen.

Subconscious financial literacy - a Roth IRA for the working teenage niece/nephew

First, raise your stop by one point to 37.02 for FLIR.

In tonight's topic, one effective method of teaching the value of saving for a retirement account is when a teenage nephew or niece starts their first job. If the niece/nephew worked one full year, the aunt or uncle would open a savings or Roth IRA account in the child's name and contribute one year's gross income at the end of the year (subject to the annual maximum contributions). Each year, until the niece/nephew graduated college, the aunt or uncle would contribute to the account based on the amount of that year's earned income. Usually, most of the contributed money would be invested in money market interest accounts, but they would allow 20% of the contribution to go into an investment of the niece/nephew's choice.

Essentially, this was getting the niece/nephew practiced in what a 401k or 403b account does, which is matching contributions by a prospective employer. And understanding what the power of compounding can do to one's wealth. Something to think about, should I be lucky to be a "wealthy" uncle.

Doodads, Writing Contest, and increase FLIR stop

While sectors such as biotech (DNDN) and solar (FSLR, ASYS) are on everyone's daytrade lists, I've unfortunately been spending most of this week with doodads. Now the Kiyosaki bashers are usually right in exclaiming, "what the hell are you doing using one of his words?" But think about this statement before you throw a chair at the monitor: do NOT waste your time on others who wouldn't do the same for you. I won't bore everyone with the details; but in short, I'm bringing a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake from one of the best bakeries in the county to a potluck at work. When others say, "it's doesn't have to be perfect", it's a good bet you wouldn't want to go out of your way for certain people. But paraphrasing the words of Albus Dumbledore, "There comes a time when we must choose between doing what is easy, and what is right."

ING Direct is hosting a writing contest open to the public. Over at http://adventuresinsaving.com/home.html, they're depositing three $1,000 prizes into new Orange Savings Accounts for stories on financial literacy. Beware the deadline is June 30, 2007.

For traders asking, yes I still have a half position (150 shares) of FLIR, and yes raise your stop to 36.02 which is about seventeen cents below last Thursday's low. If you are stopped out, you should have at worst, a pretax gain of $.62/share on the remaining half position.

Stop update on FLIR

Raise your stop on the half position of FLIR to 35.80. This is about a nickel below the Wednesday low. If we get stopped out, we will have a gain of $.40/share.

We got stopped out at breakeven on EEP. I wanted to raise cash and in my case, usually the newer trades get sold first because they have the smallest impact to the bottom line.

The Game of Business

Van Tharp over at smarttraderblog.com wrote an article that will be required reading should I have a nephew or niece. When they reach a certain age, I will introduce them to what Tharp calls "The Game of Business".

In junior high and high school, most of my instructors erroneously taught me that businesses are: 1) devoted to making their shareholders happy. 2) reward loyal employees with the growth of the company. 3) loyal to the country or state in which they are formed. and 4) have the interests of humanity and ethics at its heart. If you are naive to believe these four assumptions, you are doomed to work for the rest of this and the next ten lifetimes.

Tharp comments that businesses are formed to make the CEO, a few insiders, and the largest stockholders wealthier. They could care less about the average stockholder or the rest of the business.

Think I'm Wrong? The best example of this is outgoing CEO Robert Nardelli of Home Depot. In his brief tenure, Nardelli was responsible for wiping out one-half of the company's market capitalization. His punishment, a severance package of $210 million. Some punishment. Also note all of the option awards granted in the last ten to fifteen years. Notice the only ones that were the most valuable were the ones offered to corporate insiders versus the ones offered to employees. And yes, I'm calling you out, United Healthcare and Bank of America on this one.

In the past decade, it seems one of the primary goals of corporate officers is to determine which of their competitors they can drive out of business. Whether through acquisition or through cannibalization of customers, it seems that most corporate officers' compensation bonuses are contingent on them creating a paper transaction that generates massive wealth for them at the expense of thousands of employees who find themselves on the unemployment line.

Now while some may argue this is survival of the fittest, my question to you is, if everybody believes this will be the norm for the future, who will be left after everyone else is devoured. Because the logical conclusion is after everyone else has been eaten, the only one left will have nothing left to eat except one's self.

FLIR update, sell half position

FLIR has hit our $1/share profit target. Half should be sold here. Move the stop to breakeven on the remaining shares.

Two more travel reward sites and trade updates

Sometimes before I log into my frequent flyer or rewards account for airlines or hotel programs, I check out what rewards are available on the following sites.

http://www.milemaven.com
http://www.pointmaven.com

Trade updates:

FLIR backed up to near the breakeven point today. Most traders would have sold and scratched the trade. But I'll give it another day and see what happens. Keeping the stop at 34.90.

Went long 150 shares of EEP just before the close.

One Alternative Energy Site and FLIR trade update

While there are more thorough sites which list the companies in the alternative energy subsectors, here's one you might add to your list.

http://www.fuelcellcarnews.com/fccn/Stock_List.asp

Last Friday, I mentioned FLIR and one of the traders asked where I would move the stop now. I would move the stop up 22 cents to 34.90. Sometimes a stock can retrace through a previous day's low in order to shake out the weaker players. Stops are subjective so in this case, I'm giving myself twenty-five cents of volatility before I'm shaken out (Friday's intraday low was 35.15). The first goal of this trade is to unload half of the position at the $1/share profit point.

EEP did not trigger so it goes back to the watchlist.