General Market Index (GMI) table

All of my market indicators are positive. Barring an unforeseen event, I see only clear skies for the current market. So many great stocks are surging higher. And now that I have changed my technical focus from daily charts to weekly charts, I am able to ride my winners longer without getting whipsawed. A bull market makes us all look like geniuses. But true genius is evident when one can minimize his losses when the market turns down. But for now, I am enjoying the party….

Those of you who have been following this blog know I have a stock buddy with an extraordinary ability to identify great stocks early. Judy is a concept trader. She reads voraciously and has the ability to pick out the few gems among all of the noise. She educated me about the cloud and exciting biotech innovations long before they became well known. Some of you have asked me what Judy has been focusing on these days. You can now follow her yourself on twitter:  @judyfr262 She expects a big week coming up for biotechs with the ASCO meetings……

I ran a scan this weekend for stocks with weekly technicals I like. I came up with 194. Here are the top stocks according to last quarter’s earnings. Note that not all of them are above their last green lines. This is only food for thought and these stocks must be researched further. I am monitoring OLED this week for a possible break-out.

Meanwhile the GMI is at 6 (of 6).

A trend follower discerns the likely current trend of the market or stocks and rides it until it ends. S/he enters after a bottom and exits after a top is formed. Jesse Livermore said the big money is made by staying with one’s winning position until there is evidence of a change in the stock’s behavior. In spite of the many people who subscribe to this approach, it amazes me that so many of us seem unable to resist the temptation to proclaim tops and bottoms before they occur! Is it just ego and attempts to appear smart? For me, part of the answer is that the day that I will depend on my pension accounts for survival grows ever near and I become more of a chicken with my trading. So I exit too soon.

But the major market indexes remain in Weinstein Stage II up-trends, and I have been resisting it by holding back and looking to take profits before the expected dreaded decline begins.  However, my GMI indicators did alert me to get out of the market in 2000 and 2008 before most of the carnage. So why should I disregard what they are telling me now? Therefore, with the GMI at 6 (of 6, see table below) I am continuing to hold stocks and keep my university pensions fully invested.

But I repeatedly took profits in my trading accounts and sold out of many stocks that have continued to climb to the sky. I am therefore working on correcting that weakness in my trading by focusing more on weekly charts than daily charts. One would go crazy checking his blood pressure or cholesterol levels multiple times each day. I believe that focusing on daily charts has worked against me as a part-time trader also managing a full-time job. I have reviewed many of the stocks I exited on their daily chart because of weakening technical signals, only to see that there were no danger signals showing up on their weekly charts. You might want to try this type of review exercise for yourselves. I recall that William O’Neil  relied primarily on weekly charts. What did he know about this that I do not? I think I am on the right track and will discuss these ideas in my future posts as I figure it out….