Though the overall market has been volatile the last several days, the net gain has basically been nil. And, there’s a good chance things could stay choppy-yet-stale for a while longer. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been any stocks that are making nice moves though.

Here’s a list of the bulletin board stocks that have managed to overcome general market weakness and continue their march upward. If you’re looking for a small cap trading idea, you may want to start with these:

Biotime (BTIM) - Trading as low as 26¢ early in the year, Biotime’s move to the current price of 94¢ is impressive. Yet, the rally hasn’t sped out of control. We think the stock could continue to keep gaining momentum in the near future.

United Fuel & Energy (UFEN) - This stock really hasn’t been all that impressive over the last 12 months or so. But, things have changed quite a bit since July when it managed to stave off further losses. During that time, we started to see pretty strong buying volume as well. The stock hasn’t yet broken out, but it looks like it may be gearing up to do so.

Micromem Tech (MMTIF) - Micromem has had a pretty tough 2008, peaking at $2.50 and then sliding all the way back down to under $1.00. The last couple of weeks, however, have been different - the stock is perking up at least a little. There’s still an intermediate-term resistance line to contend with; right now it’s somewhere around $1.60. Micromem is still worth keeping an eye on though.

XO Holdings (XOHO) - This is strictly a long-term idea, born from the fact that the stock is coming out of a long-term downtrend. For the first time in nearly a year we’re starting to see more bullish volume than bearish volume, and we’re starting to see higher highs and higher lows rather than lower highs in lower lows.

Deep Down Incorporated (DPDW) - Deep Down Incorporated shares have been range bound between 44¢ and $1.22 since December of last year. The only bullish attraction at this point is the recent push off of that support at 44¢. Strictly a trade, but a good one.

MSGI Security (MSGI) - MSGI spent the latter portion of last year and the early portion of this year sinking from a high above $1.75 to a low below 50¢. Since May, however, we’ve seen the stock consolidate. And even more recently, we’ve seen the stock surge on pretty good volume. This may be the early signs of recovery effort.

Global Green Solutions (GGRN) - For one reason or another this stock has come to life in the last month, with some significant volume to boot.

That’s it for now. And, bear in mind these stocks are only on our hot list because of their charts. Odds are that there’s a deeper, underlying reason for the move, but some due diligence from your end is absolutely in order if you want to act on any of these bulletin board ideas.

That being said, if you have something to add - or know of something the rest of us should know regarding any of these stocks - please chime in using the comment form below.

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Thanks for all the feedback regarding our Las Vegas Sands (LVS) suggestion. So far, pretty much everyone has agreed with the optimistic assessment. However, in an effort to be fair and balanced, we want to put the dissenting opinions on the table too; all intelligent discussions bear fruit of some sort.

One of our readers wrote back…

Thank you for your email, but I must say I disagree with your call for LVS.

With the latest round of US immigration restrictions, it increasingly becomes more difficult for foreigners (Asians in particular) to travel to the US.  This, in addition to the opening of Casinos in Macao, will, unfortunately, further empty the beautiful Sin City.  While I understand that LVS has substantial exposure to Macao (China), one can’t ignore that LAS is its home turf.  The recent recession in the US has further demonstrated that LAS is feeling the recession, and will continue to do so for the next 2 years, if it is to depend solely on the national consumer …checkmate.

While I will still be checking into LAS for the next 2 yrs for leisure purposes, I am checking out of any invesments in the Sin city for a while…

Thanks for the response; many good points there.

Basically, we think everything you said was true except the big one you closed with…”The recent recession in the US has further demonstrated that LAS is feeling the recession, and will continue to do so for the next 2 years”.

That’s the ultimate argument behind our bullishness on LVS…the recession won’t last two more years.

Yes, Vegas has felt a lull…in revenue and earnings. The June numbers (foot traffic and house take) were both down. However, that history in no way reflects what’s likely to be in store for the next two years. We think the recession will be over within two years, one way or another, if it’s not over already. So, we aren’t willing to make the same assumption you are about two more years of weakness for casino stocks.

The reason we don’t make that blind jump? History. If you take a look at the long-term chart of casino stocks, you’ll see they started to recover well before whatever the crisis was at the time came to a close. These stocks are four for four when it comes to rebounding right when things look the worst.

Logical? No, but when’s the market been logical? We’ve seen time and time again how stocks are priced at what people think they’re going to be worth six to twelve months from now. True valuations rarely play a role in ‘buying low and selling high’.

In other words, we’re not waiting for all the planets to line up perfectly…they just need to appear to be headed in that direction. It’s not a sure thing, but waiting for the perfect time to jump in will probably get you in too late.

Are we right? Who knows? Only time will tell; that’s the ‘risk’ side of the risk/reward ratio. In our view, the reward outweighs the risk here.

Another part of the issue has been difficulty getting into the United States (and therefore Vegas) because of immigration restrictions. The bigger part of it, however, we think has to do with expenses…the hotels are ‘cheaper’ to foreigners when the dollar is weak, but air travel costs more than offset that. With oil down big-time lately, getting to Vegas will be easier to justify…for those who can cross the border.

Any other thoughts on Las Vegas Sands, pro or con? Leave ‘em below.

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This horse race has become kind of fun. It all started back on July 3rd, in our mid-year wrap-up edition. In a nutshell, we were looking for value stocks to start outpacing growth stocks. We were also looking for mid-cap growth to be harshly dethroned as the leader, and anticipated large cap value would pull out of its slump. The other cap/style groups weren’t as easy to read, so we didn’t make a firm forecast for them until July 17th. At that time we started to favor small caps (value as well as growth, but mostly value).

Take a look at table below. The two-month total is actually all of last month’s results combined with the to-date results of this month…pretty much the timeframe in which we’ve been interested. The numbers tell the tale.

Sure enough, small caps are leading the pack, value is dominating, and mid cap growth is getting crushed. You can thank us later.

The lesson learned is simple enough…when rotation becomes evident, act on it. You won’t always be right (nor will we), but you should right often enough to offset the times when you’re not. After all, the difference between the top and bottom performers is 12.5 percentage points….and that’s just for a five week period! Imagine what a difference this exercise could mean if done a few times a year.

Is it too late to act now? Not entirely, though the bulk of the disparity is on the past. You may be just as well off waiting for the next style and market cap rotation hints. We’ll let you know when we see them.

By the way, the obvious vehicle to turn these theories into tangible trades is via style and market cap ETFs. However, we also encourage you to look for individual stocks within each of these groups. The correlation within each style/cap cluster is surprisingly strong. And, if you can find the hot sector at the time, you stand to do even better. A little more work? Yeah, but worth it.

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Continuing to work through a series of reader-submitted micro cap trading ideas, today we’ll submit Platinum Studios (PDOS) for consideration.

Platinum Studios is an entertainment company that specializes in developing and adapting comics and graphic novel content to feature films, television, animation, games, mobile wireless, gaming, merchandising, and other media. Their comic characters make up the largest library in the world, which contains more than 5,622 characters.

Some of their feature films will include: “Cowboys and Aliens”  & “Atlantis Rising” (by Dreamworks), “Dylan Dog”, “Witchblade”,  and “Unique” by Disney. Scott Rosenberg (who sold Men in Black to Sony) is the CEO.

Working with leading companies in the entertainment and new media sectors, Platinum Studios is emerging as one of the front-runners in the creation of new content across ALL media platforms. The comparison being made most often is to Marvel Entertainment (MVL), which started out as comic book company. In only a couple of decades though, Marvel has become an entertainment company…to say the least. By the way, Marvel’s stock is only worth about nine times what is was a decade ago. 

Platinum’s learning curve may not even be that long, since many of the special effects and movie technology advancements have only been made on the last six years or so. Toss in the fact that Platinum has an even larger library than Marvel, and it makes you wonder where it could all go.

The only pitfall the editorial staff of the Micro Cap Press sees is this…even though the library of comic characters is bigger than Marvel’s, there’s no real ’star power’. Marvel’s Hulk, Spider-Man, and X-Men were all established heroes known pretty much to everyone. Platinum will have to make their heroes a household name to get as much traction…..maybe.

The counter-argument is a good one - the people working on Platinum’s films right now have successfully launched ‘new’ character franchises before.

The name ’Gale Anne Hurd’ may or may not ring a bell with you, but the three ”Terminator” movies are recognized by pretty much everyone. Guess who turned those nothing ideas into the Terminator franchise? It was Gale Ann Hurd.

And Gale’s done more than that. It only started in 1984 with “Terminator”, which she also co-wrote with James Cameron. She did “Aliens” two years later. “The Abyss” followed in 1989, and then “Terminator 2″ and “Terminator 3″ (3 alone did $420 million) after that. She also did the first “The Hulk”.

So what? Well, Gale’s now teamed up with Platinum on some of the films-in-the-works we mentioned at the onset.

We don’t really know where that’ll go. Perhaps nowhere. Or, perhaps Platinum’s sitting on the next Terminator-like franchise. We just don’t know. With all the good company Platinum is keeping though, we have no problem directing your attention their way.

Any thoughts, feedback, or additional information is welcome; just fill in the form below.

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You know by now we’re always on the lookout for the next great bulletin board stock pick. That’s why we constantly scour the world of micro caps for names that are on the move. Though the chart and momentum aren’t everything, they’re an important piece of the puzzle. That’s why the stocks below got our attention….something is going on with ‘em, becuase the charts and/or volume have perked up in the last few days.

You’ll still need to do some fundamental due diligence, but we think these picks are a great place to start your search.

Skinny Nutritional (SKNY) - From 3 cents in March to 48 cents in May? Wow. The chart slid back to a low of 17 cents last month, but the move back up to 38 cents hints that the next batch of buyers is piling in.

Pure Biofuels (PBOF) - This chart looks a lot like Skinny’s….strong Q2 move, then a pullback, and now a recovery effort. Don’t get too excited yet though - we’ve seen multiple head-fakes from PBOF.

Microfield Group (MICG) - The big pullback during Q1 has set up an interesting opportunity for the rest of the year. This one looks particularly compelling because the chart made a slow, controlled turn into a bullish mode….without a lot of volatility, but with healthy volume. That’s common when the company is actually doing something specific to justify the price, so you’ll really want to dig in deep here to find out what’s going on.

Copytele Inc. (COPY) - The chart looks suspicious. There’s clear horizontal support at 66 cents, but falling resistance that extends back to November. It seems more like a ‘trade’ then anything else, and a risky one at that - the recent move appears unsustainable.

Ubid.com (UBHI) - This is the first time Micro Cap Pressers have seen this name and ticker. We pointed it out about a month ago for the same reason….the stock was on the move. Following our coverage UBHI did indeed rally. It cooled off a few days later, but once again is drawing some interest. Considering this is the second time we’ve seen UBHI pop up, maybe we should take it at face value.

If you have any thoughts or information to add about any of these companies - fundamentals in particular - just use the form below to leave a note.

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Ouch! Unemployment at a four-year high sure doesn’t feel good….and it’s not. But, it’s not a wholesale reason to bail out of stocks. OK, maybe it is, but as always that really depends on a host of other things.

From a directional perspective, it’s bad. Rising unemployment is correlated with a falling market. And, not only is unemployment on the rise, it’s not yet at previous ‘high’ levels.

From an absolute perspective, it actually could be good. The higher it goes, the closer to a bottom (for stocks) we get. You’ll also see the market tends to rebound a few months before unemployment rates start to fall back. So, we don’t necessarily want to wait until we’re absolutely sure unemployment is improving to take an investment plunge. Besides, there’s no particular watermark that unemployment has to reach to peak. It peaked at 6.3% in 2003, but at 7.8% in 1992.

The point is, don’t jump to conclusions. There’s always more to the story.

As for our take on the current data, if we had to take a side we’d side with the bears for now. The correlation is just to strong. On that note - mostly for future reference - notice how strong the historical correlation is between cyclical bear markets and rising unemployment.

We’ll continue to watch all the important economic indicators though. Just bear in mind the market has a tendency to improve before the economy does; there’s no one-stop tool.

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