I've been a bull on the oil services patch since fund inception and will remain so. The 3 stocks I have been involved in have been National Oilwell Varco (NOV), Core Laboratories (CLB), and FMC Technologies (FTI).
Much like Frontier Oil (FTO) which I sold Friday, I have held these since day 1 of the fund. Today I am letting go of what remains of FMC Technologies (FTI) with a smallish gain, about 6% since August 6th - I am selling just north of $57. The stock has been listless of late, in a very narrow range. I am open to adding it back in the future but for now will look for greener pastures. A move back above $60 would indicate FMC Technologies is ready to move, so I will wait for that move.
This was down to a sub 1% position, and I am going to turn my attention in the near term to either Smith International (SII) or Cameron International (CAM) [which signed a nice contract this morning], to get some more oil service exposure. I like this area and I like the deep sea oil drillers - simply waiting for some of those names to pull back a bit more. I am a bit underweight in this whole arena as I have been focusing on solar and coal of late, but want to increase exposure if the right price hits. I like the price behavior of the two stocks above much more at this time, so will look for an entry point to replace FTI's spot in the portfolio.
Long National Oilwell Varco, Core Laboratories in fund; no personal position
