Labor Ready Inc (LRW)

Company. "Labor Ready is the nation's leading provider of temporary manual labor to the light industrial and small business markets." (company website)

Buy. Labor Ready had gained steadily for two weeks, rising about $1 during that time. I bought on the fourth consecutive up-day.

This was all wrong! After two weeks of gains, I should have known that the price would pull back again. But... there is always the chance that it won't and one may potentially miss out on a terrific opportunity.

True to form, LRW did pull back and then gained another $1.50. In mid-September, LRW got another boost by raising its guidance for the current quarter. The stock jumped $1 from the previous close on exceptionally heavy volume. This is good.

Sell. When LRW passed through the $10.50 level on 18-Sep, I toyed with the idea of selling then, netting a juicy $2 per share. But... greed won out — the signs looked strong and surely more gains were in store! There were additional opportunities to sell at that price on two of the following days. But the voices of greed kept whispering, "More! More!"

Today LRW opened down and continued going south. As it approached $10.25, it seemed to stabilize, and I held out hope that it would recover.

Alas, while my back was turned, LRW dropped further. I decided to draw my line in the sand at $10, a net of $1.50 per share.

The LRW signs still look strong, but the market is spooked, and I'm grabbing profits while they are still there to be grabbed.

The disadvantage of this tactic, however, is that all the best performing stocks are being eliminated from my portfolio, leaving the ones that have either lost money or are just sitting around the break-even point. With each sale, the remaining portfolio looks worse and worse! Yikes! Bring back the bulls!