Momentum Book Update
The momentum book under performed a little bit this week as I am heavily loaded in tech and not exposed enough to the materials sector. Large cap tech is taking a rest here after its amazing run. Are we topping out or consolidating for the next push? I feel its the latter and not the former. Traders have rotated into materials and financials in a large way as gold has stopped going down, crude saw a great run, and the dollar back off the 200 day moving average. Agriculture is on fire, and I’m hitting myself a little for not having a piece of $MOS or $AGU, I even wrote about the run that way going to take place for god sake. I feel that the intermediate term trend in tech is strong though, and I would rather sit out this period in those stocks and wait for it to resume than go chasing stuff that will be in and out, hell it’s not like I’m losing money here in the tech names. I did add $LZ this week as it is currently giving an excellent entry to what is an amazing trend, this gives me a little more exposure to materials.
I’ve stayed away from the steel sector as I don’t believe we are going to see continued strength from them beyond this push. I focus the portfolio on stocks that I believe will trend positively for the intermediate term, not just a week or two. The real money is made by sitting, not trading. I have not had exposure to coal, and I’m dissapointed about that. I had a good opportunity to take a position in $MEE at the end of last week but balked, which was obviously a mistake.
My entry on $ARUN this week was perfect, already in the green by almost 5%. I took off some exposure to $GS as it has traded straight up for a week now. It was a heavy position, it is now a bit lighter. $VRX finally woke up this week, patience really paid off there, I continue to like it going forward. $TSL and $CREE continue to just move up, there’s no other way to describe it, these two stocks are unstoppable. I have greater than a 55% gain in $TSL and have been peeling off bits along the way, which I guess has been a mistake because I haven’t found a place to reload the boat. My two retail positions $JCG and $DECK are performing well. I’m stalking $URBN which is giving a decent entry right here right now.
I will ruminate on the tech exposure this weekend, it may simply be too high.
Leigh Drogen is the founder of Surfview Capital located in New York. Leigh runs a long / short momentum strategy which takes positions across several different asset classes.