The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG)

* I don't want there to be any ambiguity about the size of my positions or about my buy and short levels as I strive for as much transparency as possible "When the time comes to buy, you won't want to." - Walter Deemer I promised to update my "Level...

Hartford Financial has hit a fresh 52-week high this Thursday. Here's what I wrote last week about the name: Hartford Financial has had a terrific run from the December low at $40 a share to over $53 this morning. The shares are now back to their Au...

Hartford Financial has had a terrific run from the December low at $40/share to over $53 this morning. The shares are now back to their August 2018 highs and at a 2019 peak. Despite the run-up, I am not selling any of my position.

My long book is down to small positions in , , and . Mediums sized in . And large positions in (actually very large as I have been adding), , , , , L and . My short book includes small to medium sized positions in , , , , and large positions in and ...

Long time long investment Hartford Financial reported a +13% beat to expectations ($1.39/share). The group benefits division was especially strong. I have been steadily adding over the last few months. More later.

* It will be interesting to see whether good earnings reports (expected tonite) have been discounted "I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down and still somehow It's cloud's illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all" -- ...

Hartford Financial is quietly making a move outside of its recent trading range.

Here are some of my individual buy levels of stocks that I want to add to or reestablish on weakness: * $157.50 * $1625 * $1150 * $42 * $55 * $46 * $46.50 * $182.50 * $31 * $40 * $23 * $65 * $16.75 * $35 * $27.75 * $60 * $95 * $48 * $87.50 Note: Lon...

* In the last week I have reduced gross longs, added to gross shorts * And I have increased my overall net short exposure I have recently reduced my from large- to medium-sized. Additionally, with the recent liquidation of (CBS) , (JPM) , (KHC) and ...

* Further reducing gross longs * And increasing my overall net short exposure I have also moved my position from large-sized to medium-sized. (And I plan to stay there.) With the recent liquidation of ,  , and longs, profit taking in a substantial a...

Hartford Financial Services Group had a good beat to expected and consensus fourth-quarter earnings last week. I am, however, beginning to see some modest price competition in some commercial lines. Not enough to be concerned about yet, but certainl...

Hartford Financial   jiggy today after the earnings beat. Still going through the release and the conference call. Back with my analysis by Thursday.

I really like the pin action in a number of my core longs: , , , , (as expected off of the strength), , , , and . and , not so much! Note: Long GS (large), BAC (large), C (large), WFC (large), JPM (large), DWDP (large), HIG (large), CBS, M (small), ...

* I have sized up a number of individual longs during the market's recent weakness I have moved from medium-sized to large-sized in the following longs: , , , and . I have moved from small-sized to medium-sized in the following longs: and . I curren...

My two January bounce candidates, Hartford Financial Services Group and DowDuPont , are up 8% from the recent lows.

Two recent adds - and - are making very nice moves for the second day in a row (albeit from low levels). Two good candidates for a January or late December bounce, me thinkst.  

My two favorite tax loss selling (for a January rebound) stocks remain and . HIG is +2.5% (from low levels) on the day in a sea of market red. KHC is flat.

Two tax loss rebound candidates for January might be and . I am adding small to both. I will have more analysis next week.

Added to and on morning weakness.

I just entered the following bids: * at $15.60 * at $57.25 * at $43.75 * at $138 * at $53.65 * at $47 * at $50.90

In response to emails, I am a buyer of Square at $64, Twitter at $32, DowDuPont at $56, banks (down 2-3% from current levels), Facebook at $133, 3M MMM at $198-$199, VanEck Vectors Vietnam ETF (at current levels), Hartford Financial Services Group $...

Following the precipitous drop in the indices on Monday and Tuesday (and the ensuing "adjustment" in my calculation of reward v. risk), recent adds and new positions late yesterday and this morning (all longs, no shorts) include: , , , , , , , and .

As the market broke down late last month I penned a column, "A Contrarian's Thoughts" (while I unemotionally took on a number of trading long rentals based on the expectation of a possible rally in the S&P Index towards 2800-2850):  "The pessimism i...

I am not making a long purchase today.  But if you don't share my ursine market view I would consider the following at current prices: , , all banks ( , , and ), retail ( and ), and .

Today I covered a lot of ground in my Diary. I hope it was value added. I had several action recommendations including a new short recommendation (Square ) and a thought piece on banks (and why I plan to be a buyer on the lackluster quarterly report...

I have been emphasizing as a potential buy based on higher interest rates (and low share price relative to my calculus of a much higher intrinsic value) over the last 1-2 weeks. The shares of this conservative insurer look like they might have begun...

I added to longs: (at $28.17), (at $63.53) and (at $49.76). No shorts were put on.

Hartford Financial has lagged other financials that also benefit from higher interest rates. The stock has recently been upgraded by a brokerage and, in my mind, is a conservative way to 'play' rising interest rates. I added to this name this mornin...