With my own sale of shares, and the overall weak tone of the market, I cannot in good faith rate this stock a 'hold' even though there is nothing wrong that I am aware of, rather the stock is sinking along with the rest of the market.  Thus,

COPART (CPRT) IS RATED A SELL

If the market tone should improve, as long as there is no adverse news from this company, I would in my own amateur way be upgrading this stock.  One has to wonder if there are any stocks truly worth rating 'hold' today!  As I write, the Dow is at 9,802.01, down (523.36) on the day, and the Nasdaq is at 1,829.34, down (118.05).

This sale today was not based on any particular belief of mine about the company, the stock, or the stock market tone or decline.  Instead, the sale was triggered by my own trading rules governing sales of holdings.

Let me explain.

After an initial purchase of stock within my portfolio, I set a limit of (8)% prior to selling my holding completely.  I also sell portions of shares as they appreciate--currently selling 1/7th of my holding if the stock should appreciate 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240%, etc., at each of those levels. 

The tricky part comes in about selling a holding after an partial sale or two of a stock.  This is what happened with Copart (CPRT).  After my initial purchase of Copart back a year ago on 9/27/07, at approximately $33.72 (the 210 shares were purchased in two lots pennies apart in cost), the stock went ahead and appreciated enough to trigger my first sale at a 30% gain on 5/29/08. 

Since I had a sale at a gain, my tolerance for a loss was raised with my sale point moved to 'break-even' instead of an (8)% loss level.  And that was exactly what happened this morning.

So I am now down to 3 positions, 2 under my minimum of 5.  Thus, I technically have a 'buy signal', actually two 'buy signals' but instead of buying anything, I am sitting tight, licking my wounds, and watching as my ResMed stock (RMD) approaches that (8)% loss level for me and gets unloaded.

Ouch.

We have a very ugly stock market to deal with.  I shall continue to share with you my thoughts, actions, and observations.  (I feel a little like the radio-man on the deck of the Titanic announcing the progress of the iceberg.)

Where does this lead?  I don't really know.  I do know that my own crazy system is doing what it is supposed to do.  It is leading me out of equities into cash, perhaps keeping my capital a little bit intact as the great bear of this correction ravages the account values of little investors like me across this nation.