Erika's thoughts..

Well I stopped by Borders last night and leafed through Cramer's newest book - it's quite good! It made me want to reread 'Real Money', so that's what I've been doing.

My concerns were these:
- Where are we in the cycle (as described by Cramer)
- How well does my current portfolio show diversification, and
- How well does it reflect our positions in the cycle?

After spending some time reviewing where I'm at, I need to make some changes; I'll be doing that this week, starting with the following:

Selling all of McDonalds (450 of MCD)
- Thoughts on it - I've made money, but I'm too exposed and as Cramer points out in his latest book, it's just too hard to figure out where a restaurant same store sales are going to go. As witness, look at Panera. It's way too easy to get burned. I'm taking my profits and working on diversification of my portfolio, as mentioned above.

Holding Coldwater Creek
Perhaps I should sell it, but my position is so small I'm willing to ride this one for a while despite the huge burn I took. Live and learn, don't know if I'll get back to even but we'll see.

Selling all of Microsoft (300 of MSFT )
- Thoughts on this - I'm too levered to tech and I want to stick with eBay for a while. I doubt dollar cost averaging will make any difference because this stock is stapled to 29-30 and I'd rather get the money into play somewhere else. I was hoping for a pop with the release of the new Operating System and the outstanding performance of the XBox 360 this quarter, but honestly, it ain't gonna happen. Bye bye, Bill.

Instead I'm looking to get in to one oil services and perhaps one telecomm or housing, which I'm researching now. When I decide on my picks, I'll post them... stay tuned!