A Variety of Stocks and Short-Term Price Swings

Portfolio manager Michael Arold’s Techincal Swing portfolio is filled with equities from many different sectors. In order to choose positions for his portfolio, Arold watches the market and individual sectors and uses many technical indicators. Once he has identified some positions that interest him he looks at the company’s fundamentals and looks for over or undersold positions. He also attempts to use short-term price swings to his advantage.

In May of this year, one of Arold’s top holdings, Sherwin-Williams Co (NYSE:SHW) reached an all-time high of $78.07 per share and while it has dropped a bit in price, it is still trading at prices only seen this year. When compared to competitors, the company has a mid to high price to earnings ratio and price to sales ratio. It is possible that it is overbought, but with home renovations facing a challenging time with tightened credit and reduced home values, the simple coatings and paint produced by Sherwin-Williams is likely to remain a popular purchase for homeowners who need a quick pick-me-up for their homes. Their revenues have dropped since 2008, but their operating costs have been reduced as well.

Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) is another of Arold’s top holdings. Salesforce.com is a company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to clients. They have electronic systems that help businesses track their sales and opportunities, analyze sales and marketing data and manage accounts. As more and more small businesses emerge with the easy and broad access of an online customer base, CRM solutions become more and more popular. As a result, Salesforce.com stockholder equity has saw a significant increase in 2009 and their net income has as well. The stock is currently trading at an all-time high but the company’s price to earnings ratio is extremely high, indicating that the company may be oversold, especially when compared to competitors.