Two Tips and One Pick for FY12 - Mackey

Former CNBC commentator, and now Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) Finance contributor, Jeff "Mack Attack' Mackey, gave two trends he sees in 2012, as well as his favorite pick heading into the year in his "Breakout" segment Thursday.

First, the trends:

• Smugly, Mackey says Buy-and-Hold won't work for the 13th straight year (cough, Apple!). He says many have been holding stocks or shorting markets, where there's money to be made in shorter time frames;
  
  
• Consumers might be scrimping, but they are finding money to buy staples and then splurge once in a while. Lousy retailers are likely to take a hit, but shorting a basket of them is just asking for trouble (and lost some traders money).

For his "best idea" into the new year, Mackey selects:

*drum roll*

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F). Mackey makes the argument that the average auto on the road is 10 years old, which is at its highest point ever. Further, the run-rate on sales in moving higher.

With newer autos being much more efficient than they were 10 years ago, it starts to become an appealing idea to most, and in some cases makes fiscal sense. Even the F150 gets an average of 1 to 2 miles per gallon more than a 2001 model, not to mention the safety and convenience features.

But Mackey puts it best, per usual: "Ford specifically has inept competition, good products, an improving balance sheet, and an incredibly volatile stock. In other words, it should work at least temporarily with the tailwinds of the first two trends."

So there you go. Trade Ford regularly, buy Retail HOLDRS (NYSE: RTH) or SPDR S&P Retail (NYSE: XRT), and short Best Buy (NYSE: BBY).

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• FOMC minutes from July 28-29th meeting
• Reddit to join S&P 500 index on Aug. 18, shares leap
• Okta, Inc (OKTA) PT Raised to $170 at Cantor Fitzgerald Ahead of Q2 Results