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Sell in May and Go Away? No Way!

I've been fighting the panic selling trend through the pandemic, and check out these successes.
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I get so tired of hearing CNBC personalities tell people they shouldn't have been buying stocks post-Covid-19.

"Don't you know the economy stinks?" "Rising stock prices are simply not reflecting the real situation on Main Street." "How can you expect shares to go higher when Q2 earnings are going to be dreadful?"

Even Warren Buffett was a net seller of stocks in March, claiming he just couldn't find anything worth buying. What craziness that was. Perhaps his now advanced age has taken away his appetite for risk. See my article on that topic here.

What they don't get is that the late March sell-off was so horrendous that many names were pummeled by 50%, 70% and even 90% from their old highs. They were being priced for potential bankruptcy.

While some companies have already succumbed, and others may join them, the majority of publicly traded firms will muddle through and rebound dramatically.

As typically happens, market action discounted the worst case scenario in advance when it panic-bottomed on March 23.

Readers of my Real Money Pro columns, clearly knew my view on the situation. Every single recommendation since March 23 highlighted a stock, or stocks, which appeared to hold great potential for major gains.

You can see what I wrote about from that market bottom right through April 29, 2020 by clicking on this link.

Through April 29, a total of 26 out of 28 (92.8%) of my late March through April 29 picks were winners.

Now I put together a compilation of every article from May 1 through May 27, and how those selections have fared so far.

All 15 out of 15 (100%) of the featured stocks have been winners. Despite covering only up to 23-days the average gain was a stellar 20.23%.

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Additionally, my April 13 article on Mr. Buffett included my latest Dirty Dozen picks as of May 12. Eight of those 12 stocks (Apogee Enterprises (APOG) , Caleres (CAL) , Designer Brands (DBI) , Ebix (EBIX) , Greif (GEF) , Interface (TILE) , Tapestry (TPR) and VSE Corp. (VSEC) ) were different from the ones featured in Real Money Pro columns during May.

Include those names in the total count and 23 out of 23 of my recommendations rose this month. The entire Dirty Dozen list, detailed below, averaged a 29.19% gain in just over two weeks.

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Does the economy still stink? Absolutely. Did that keep traders from making huge short-term gains? Absolutely not.

Seeing nothing but gains is much easier when you're buying stocks that have already been beaten up badly.

Ironically, you have the least risk and the best upside only when every fiber of your being is telling you, you never want to see a stock recommendation ever again.

I can tell from my readers' feedback that many benefited from seeing my somewhat contrary point of view everyday.

It definitely paid to subscribe to Real Money Pro during these extremely trying times.

I welcome suggestions from all of you, if you have individual stocks you like me to analyze. Send me a private e-mail through the site or simply leave your ideas in the comments section. I promise to cover as many as possible of your suggestions.

At the time of publication, Price was long shares of every stock mentioned in this article except for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, BRK.B) and SABR.