Stock Watch: A Look Back

Before we delve into some new stocks, let's take a look at our track record from the stock we were watching a while back. We'll list the date we introduced a stock we were watching, what the price was and what it is now.

We will no longer be rolling out any cheesy "Free Stock Picks" to make the stock market seem more like sports, though make no mistake, the stock market is just legalized gambling. Here's a look back:

June 15, 2009
MGM: Then - $7.13... Now - $14.19... Profit = $7.06 (+99.02%)
LVS: Then - $9.10... Now - $42.08... Profit = $32.98 (+362.42%)
IGT: Then - $16.30... Now - $16.57... Profit = $0.27 (+1.66%)

Welcome to the wonderful world of casino stocks. Had you bought LVS near its bottom, you would be in good shape at the moment. As you can see IGT has not quite had the same boon, so if you debated between LVS and IGT after we recommended both of them, and went with IGT--whoops. MGM bounced back as we expected, a nice 100% profit there. But LVS is clearly the cream of this crop.

September 23, 2008
AIG: Then - $5.00... Now -$27.65... Profit = $22.65 (+453.00%)

Lot's of bad press was going around about AIG at this time, but that's the key to making money in the market--take a contrarian approach when the market is bottoming out. That's when you can find value in big companies like AIG. We might even still buy AIG and expect to make money once the U.S. economy finally gets out of this thing, but to get in at five bucks is gold. It's all about timing.

January 29, 2008
ETFC: Then - $4.14... Now $14.49... Profit = $10.35 (+250.00%)

Another value pick here... It's almost hard to believe E-trade was down to four bucks (actually got down to two), and we simply got in at the right time again. Trusting that the big companies will bounce back (most of them) in a recession is the best way to make money, although the downside is that it requires the economy to be in a recession. We did a nice job getting into some of these near their bottoms and striking while the iron was hot, but we also missed an opportunity with other stocks that had bottomed and then ballooned back up even more. Still, we're happy with the results of the ones we were in on.

January 21, 2008
STTK: Then - $0.035... Now $0.06 (as STTN)... Profit = N/A

This is your lessen kids: don't bet on penny stocks. While the appeal of getting rich quick is there, it's very rare. You may be asking, what are you talking about Stock Lemon, though STTK changed its symbol, it is up from three-and-a-half pennies to six pennies, almost 100% profit! Sure, kids, it looks that way. But the reality is, as far as we can tell (we haven't really been paying attention to this one), they had some sort of reverse split a couple years ago wherein a single share of STTK is not equal to a single share of STTN. Anytime a company changes its symbol, unless it was bought by someone, it's not a good sign. This is a borderline bankrupt company that by all appearances had nothing to do with Bird Flu as they claimed. Sketchy.

As you can see, aside from our dip into penny stocks (idiots), we have fared pretty well in the past. Here's hoping for continued future success. Take note: all of these stocks were as of market close on Friday, in what has been a bad week to start what is likely to be a bad month. These stocks all reached even higher levels than their current prices.

Taking Stock Again

Earlier, we posted an entry titled Taking Stock (Lemon), explaining what was a brief absence from our post here at the site.

Now, we're Taking Stock again, this time in relation to the Free Stock Picks which used to dominate our site.

In other words, we've been taking some time to get back in the stock market, now that things are finally starting to clear up.

We've had brief success in the past with STTK, ETFC, and AIG, all of which are in miserable shape at the moment, but those were obviously short term stocks anyway. In the future, we'll have more stock analysis in addition to our sports coverage on the site.

Good things are ahead here at Stock Lemon, so stay tuned.

ETFC Up 7.26%

It's been a while since we've checked up on ETFC, but it hasn't been for its lack of success. We've been a little busy with our winning Free NBA Picks and random stories about high school kids who fake their own recruitment (see Kevin Hart), but we're still keeping an eye on ETFC, which we recommended to you a short time ago.

ETFC has gone up in each of the last four days, including 7.26% today, and is now up to $5.17. Not bad, considering we recommended it at $4.14. It's up $1.03 since our January 29th suggestion to buy it and continues to be a good short term and excellent long term option.

Lemmy Award Winner Beanieville Likes ETFC

Fresh off of receiving one of five available Lemmy Awards, Beanieville is now thinking like Lemmy. Beanieville likes ETFC as a long term option, and expects it to trade at around $20 to $30 in a year's time. Here's how he put it:

I'd like to buy a few shares and hold it for a long term investment. Company insiders recently bought nearly 500,000 shares of stock, expressing confidence in the longer term viability of the company.

If this company survives this mortgage lending mess and gets back on its feet, in a few years it'll be trading back in the 20-30's.

ETFC went up 2.45% today.

ETFC Up Another 8.99%

ETFC continues to rise, gaining another 8.99% today on its way from $4.56to $4.97. The $0.41 gain today and the $0.42 gain yesterday exemplify the pattern we expect to continue seeing from ETFC, with steady and consistent increases each day.

Taking a look at the five day chart, with Stock Lemon mascot, Lemmy, marking the date our recommendation occured, you see nothing but postive gains from ETFC. We recommended this at $4.14 on January 29, and already this stock is paying dividends to anyone who followed our advice.

ETFC Up 10.1%

We recommended buying ETFC yesterday, and already this one is on its way up. ETFC rose 10.1% today, all the way up to $4.56 from $4.14, a change of $0.42.

Not bad for the first day and we expect nothing less in the future for ETFC. That's one healthy looking five day chart shown above.

Free Stock Pick: ETFC

We thought about buying into this one yesterday, and after another 6.15% increase today, we're finally pulling the trigger. ETFC, which is the symbol for the popular E*TRADE Financial Corporation, was at $25.79 at its peak last year, and is now at $4.14 following today's run.

It bottomed out at $2.08 and is now in prime position to regain its position in the $20 range by the end of the year. As the chart above shows, the last three weeks have been better for E*TRADE, although the stock is still way below the norm. ETFC has shown signs over the last few weeks that it will continue to rise steadily back up to prominence.

The five day chart shown above gives and even better idea of how the stock will likely progress over the course of the next few months. It's a rather unspectacular yet significant enough growth that over time will benefit its shareholders.

With an average volume of 41,909,540 over the last ten days, you can expect more movement out of this stock pick than STTK will show initially, but both should end up at or very near to their highs from last year.