Liverocket Performance Week 28 - Up 0.66%

Apologies if this is hard to read. Very soon I expect to reduce this grouping to fewer stocks.

The past month has been an excellent time to be in the market. We aren't up as much as we should be and here's why:

UCTT - I don't understand the drop. I thought we would see a pre-earnings run up, but not at all. It keeps bouncing around $13. And frankly - it is UCTT specific. AMAT/LAM are both up big. DRAM makers slowed purchases the 1st half of 07 but are ramping up. I would expect that to have been felt in UCTT's stock price and causing a move up.

UCTT continues to meet my investment criteria of undervalued growth, strong management and the potential of acquisition. It does not fit a core requirement of accelerating growth, but I felt that was a near term problem only. I hope that I am not wrong.

OCN - Every day I read about foreclosures surging. This is OCN's bread and butter: foreclosure. Could be tied to a general bailing on the financial sector, but we are playing contrarian here, so we should be gaining. This was risky but still....

ESV - 5% pullback as the recent price run up is being written about.

TIE - This is 12% of the portfolio and it's just sitting. It's doing better than RTI and worse, much worse than ATI. Why? Compared to its competitors, TIE has much higher margins, and comparable P/E.

It is sitting at its 200 day moving average, a sign of a bottom and a sign of limited investor interest. Why? With the dollar down it should be getting the benefit of higher worldwide prices. Analysts and others note the incredible demand for titanium. Takeover targets like Alcan are being compared favorably to TIE. With a limited float, one would expect these elements to drive up prices for 'scarce' shares.

I'm staying in for now because I see this at $40 easy, which would be a nice return.

TRID - 8% of our portfolio and we added to it this week. Again, the pain is very TRID specific - the sector is actually up nicely. It's the whole de-listing thing. A normal company would deal with the issue and get it behind them, and that's my investment thesis. That would also mean a massive run-up in price.

There is a very real possibility that management doesn't care. Yes, in my most frightened state of mind, I can and do see a nasty management play to take it private. Letting the stock collapse makes it a cheap buy with potentially higher upside than a few million in options and shares.

That would fit the real reason why management has been making the rounds of investment banks: to prove the value and line up the funds.

If management were to try doing this maneuver now, while publicly traded, a lot of companies would pounce and the price would return to a more reasonable level ($30)

But let it get delisted, and it's a different game. It's off the radar. And the former CEO can come back in and take charge.

The only reason I don't worry about this is that I would see the company sued into oblivion by US shareholders. Of course, if headquarters gets moved to China....

lets hope I'm right....