OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you don't routinely hear of the market as being obstreperous. That is, noisy and stubbornly defiant. But, that's what's going on, right? We have credit crisis panic one day and rate cut euphoria the next. During the past couple days, the market has taken a beating and volatility (fear) has set in as indicated in the ^VIX Volatility Index.



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While I've been hammered in the Chinese holdings BIDU, CHL, etc., I've also made some nice gains in less sexy "old-industrial" type stocks. General Cable BGC and K-Tron KTII have been defying the market downturns following great earnings earlier in the month. Investors are starting to realize the value in stocks like this. General Cable earnings of $1.11 per share vs. a 90 cent analysts' estimate on revenue of $1.13 billion vs. an estimate of $1.10 billion. K-Tron's share price surged 9% on Nov. 6 when it reported blockbuster earnings as well on a 38% rise in revenue year over year. There was no retreat with the rest of the market today. General Cable actually rose during the misery. As the attached chart shows, when the tide goes out, not everyone has lost their bathing suits (homage to Warren Buffett).

For a straight play on overall down market movements, buying puts on the VIX and VXN can be prosperous (as is evident from the 25% price runup just this week) or puts on the QQQQs. I've been mildly successful with each. I like to cash in these positions on down days and buy back into the market. Buying on a dip, I'd be looking at Garmin (GRMN) which has been overly punished for this Tele Atlas bidding deal. When the bidding's done, regardless of who wins, GRMN's shares will benefit from the removal of this uncertainty.

Full research/background and buy recommendations from earlier in the year can be found at the following links:

http://everydayfinance.blogspot.com/2007/07/k-tron-diamond-in-rough-youve-never.html

http://everydayfinance.blogspot.com/2007/07/general-cable-its-performance-has-been.html


Disclosure: The author has long positions in BGC, KTII and GRMN.