It was only two weeks ago we were feeling a little sick about our long position in Briggs & Stratton Corp. (BGG). Now we’re glad we were able to distinguish between market weakness and company weakness. BGG shares are back to where they were in early February. More importantly, they’re back in the black for us; we picked Briggs and Stratton at $15.55, and they’re currently at $15.65. That’s a heckuva run from March’s low of $11.13.

I still have doubts about the stock continuing at this blistering pace, so don’t “chase” this one if you’re interested. Remember, this is a long-term idea for us and we should see several pullbacks along the way to use as entry points. And as overbought as we are now, I suspect we’ll see one of those dips in the very near future. As long as the 50 day moving average line (purple) holds up as support at $14.36 though, the overall uptrend should be ok. That may be a good entry area, in fact.

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We are assessing all of our open trades pretty intensely today. This particular blog entry is only one of three you’ll want to check out… the list of trades we want to keep holding, as they offer the most potential. (The other two commentaries focus on trades we know we don’t want, and trades we’re not sure about.) Take a look.

Hansen Natural Resources (HANS) - We blogged about Hansen in great detail Monday, so we’re not going to go into it again here. Just click here to revisit those thoughts. For now, we’ll just sum it up by saying this has been one of our more productive trades, and the one we’re absolutely most optimistic about.

Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW) - This is definitely one we want to keep, as we think the recent recovery effort really will take hold. The sharp dip in late February never fostered any follow-through, and we’re starting to see some bullishness brewing.

Briggs and Stratton (BGG) - We liked Briggs and Stratton for fundamental reasons, and we still do. So, despite the recent decline, we want to hang onto BGG. Besides, the decline appears to have leveled off over the last six days. We may be on the verge of moving hgiher again for this longer-term position. Sit tight.

One thing we want to reiterate…. as tough as it can be to remain net long in a crappy environment like this one, it’s not necessarily a good idea to be completely out of the market. That’s why we want to be invested at all right now, and the quality of these three stocks makes them the “best of breed” in our view.

We’ve referenced a similar stat before, but I heard a slight variation on it yesterday…. 30% of what was lost in a bear market is recovered in the first 40 days of the next bull market.

It wasn’t clear if that was 40 trading days or 40 calendar days, but it doesn’t matter…you get the idea. As much of a mess as things are right now, we still contend we’re closer to a bottom than not. You don’t want to not be in some stocks for the point in time when things start to improve (even if it may take a while to get going).

Do you want to be informed if our opinion changes on Briggs & Stratton, Edwards Lifesciences, Hansen Natural Resources? The best way to do so is to subscribe to our newsletter. It’s free, and you’ll soon find it’s an invaluable resource when it comes to turning trends and ideas into real money.