Market ramblings

The S&P has been on a roll these past few months. I haven't spent too much time looking for new investments, although I should since some of my holdings are getting near my target levels. My portfolio is doing pretty well. It's up 8.8% for the year, and I like how things are going. There is definitely a sense of optimism out there.
UNTD finally had a good day finishing up 3.7%. LB had another good day, while FRX is still showing some weakness.

I think the big news of today is that the consolidation in the online brokerage industry got a bump. Ameritrade announced that it is going to buy TD Waterhouse. I think this is a good move and it will give them more strength against E-trade. AMTD finished the day up over 20%!

When I look for articles online about stocks, I usually hit two main sites: Business Week and MSN Money. From MSN I really like reading Jim Jubak's articles. I think he usually makes some strong points and explains things in a clear way. Today he wrote about 5 potential earnings surprises and it's worth checking out.
From Business Week, I've always enjoyed reading articles by Robert Barker. He does a great job of uncovering certain stocks or events and when I subscribed to Business Week this was the first article I read. On the site right now is his article on Auto Parts stocks. I think this is a very interesting sector with the problems Ford and GM are having. Many of the auto parts companies have a high yield and have been getting crushed lately. Barker thinks he has uncovered a few value plays in this sector.

Two more articles: Business Week came out with a list of five stocks that are growing, but not by issuing debt. NTE was mentioned, which is why I came across this article.
When you think of biotech, you think of Genentech (DNA). This article talks about their pipeline.

Other Things

• I was offered a second interview for the Assistant position (the one that was basically all admin). I turned it down because I think I can find a better position. This one involved way too much administrative duties and it would have been practically two years until I did some research.
• I'm going to fax in my resume for a trading job in NYC. Keeping my fingers crossed.
• I'll report how tomorrow's interview goes in tomorrow's post.
• I sent my resume in for a Portfolio Assistant job awhile ago, and I heard back. I emailed them to set up an interview time. The job does involve admin duties, but also more finance activities as well.
• On Friday I'm going to an interview for a Gaming Associate position. I think I mentioned this in yesterday's post. More on this later (this would be part-time on nights and weekends).
• Tomorrow I'll try to talk a little about why I look at graphs all day long.
• That econ part for the cfa is too long!