Introducing Red White and Blue (RWB) Stocks–The Pattern of Rockets

GMI6/6
GMI-R10/10
T210882%

I identified the beginning of the new QQQQ short term up-trend on September 7th.   The GMI on that day registered   5 (of 6).   One of the lessons I learned from the great Nicolas Darvas is to use one’s own judgment and to insulate oneself from the news, media pundits and other traders.   He learned this lesson when he returned to NYC after making a lot of money trading while he danced around the world, only to find that he lost his objectivity and his ability to trade profitably   when he was in NYC around other traders.   By definition, when a new up-trend is beginning, most people will be expecting a continuation of the current down-trend or flat pattern.   In early September, when the GMI was flashing a buy signal, most people were talking about a double dip or head and shoulders top.   The key to being on the right side of the market is to observe closely what the market is doing.   I therefore fly on instrument and tune out everything else. Remember, Darvas used to get Barron’s in the mail and proceed to rip out all of the pages except the stock quotations.

And so the GMI remains at 6 (of 6) and the GMI-R at 10 (of 10).   The SPY and QQQQ have closed above their critical 10 week averages for four weeks.   The QQQQ completed the 14th day of its current short term up-trend on Friday. The Worden T2108 remains over 80%, which is near overbought levels, but it reached 89% in August, 2009. A high reading of the T2108 is not as predictive as an extremely low reading, below 10%.   82% of the Nasdaq 100 stocks had their MACD above its signal line, down from 94% last Friday. This indicator bears watching, because it is very sensitive to the short term trend. Note that buying stocks at new highs has been a promising strategy lately, with 71% of the stocks in my universe that hit a new high 10 days ago, closing higher on Friday than they did 10 days earlier (see the Wishing Wealth   Successful New High Index in this table). Most of the stocks listed on the lower right of my site have been powering ahead to new all-time highs.   I never can understand why most people who want to own a rocket, refuse to buy stocks trading at highs.   A rocket on the way to the moon has to hit many daily new highs along the way……

Speaking of rockets, I have coined the term Red White and Blue as a simple way of characterizing the weekly chart pattern of promising rocket stocks.   I derived this term from one of my students from last year (Marcus) who labeled three moving averages with these colors and wanted the red average to be above the white average, followed by the blue average.   I am applying these colors to   weekly GMMA charts a little differently, where the red lines are the shorter term averages and the blue lines are the longer term averages.   The key to a rocket stock is the presence of a white space between the rising short and long term averages.   It is this white space that shows me that the stock is likely to be a rocket. This pattern is universally applicable to rocket stocks. Below are two examples. (Click on charts to enlarge.)   In the future I will be discussing Red White and Blue (RWB) stocks.   Note that a submarine stock   is the opposite (BWR), with the shorter term averages below the longer term averages. In fact, CMI is a great example of a submarine stock that has transformed itself into a rocket.

Another RWB stock that came up in my Darvas scan is LOGM, which has been on fire since March. While I never know how long a trend will last and must always manage the risk of a change in trend, if I am going to own a stock, I want it to be RWB on a weekly chart.

Finally, IGTE shows that a stock can remain RWB for a long time. The key is to get on board and to sit tight, much as the great Jesse Livermore advised. If one has the patience to   ride a RWB stock for a year, one can calmly let his/her account grow, without excessive day trading and the accompanying stress that frequent trading creates.

I urge my students to paste copies of these stocks to their computer monitors and to compare all potential purchases to them. Accept no less!

My Trading Philosophy and Why I Use Technical Analysis

As a tribute to the Thanksgiving Holiday, I thought I would share with my readers the trading philosophy I have developed over the years.   It is based on my 40+ years of experience in the market and the insights achieved from my voracious reading about the market during that period. My philosophy is based on my interpretation of   such great market seers as Darvas, Weinstein, O’Neil, The Turtles, and of course, the greatest trader, Jesse Livermore. (The books written by or about these persons appear in the lower section of my blog).   Anyway, I hope you find these propositions useful and would value your additions and comments. A version of these remarks was published under the pseudonym Sir Silent Knight, as part of the Worden TC2007 daily journal.

Dr. Wish’s (Sir Silent Knight’s) Trading Philosophy

Proposition 1. The stock market and stocks are unpredictable

No one can consistently predict changes in the market or stocks. Human behavior is largely unpredictable and no one can predict world and economic events or the reactions to them. Similarly, corporate events and news can be inaccurate or intentionally misleading.

Proposition 2. However, stocks and markets often continue in trends that can last weeks or months or longer.

Trends form identifiable patterns, probably because humans react to trend patterns in repeatable ways. For example, people often trade off of support or resistance levels or at new highs or lows. While trends can be discerned once started, their length and continuation are also unpredictable.

Proposition 3. Given Propositions 1 and 2, one’s success in the market depends on identifying trends once they have begun and staying with them until they end.

But if the length and size of trends are unpredictable, each trade may or may not work out; the likelihood that any given trade will be profitable is unknown. Some successful traders have asserted that only about 50% of their trades are profitable.

Proposition 4. If only 50% of trades will be profitable, then to prosper, the profits from winning trades must be considerably larger than the losses from losing trades.

One can accomplish this goal by limiting the losses on losing trades and by maximizing the profits on winning trades. One can limit losses by setting stop losses and by making small initial trades. One can increase profits by riding the trend as long as possible AND by systematically increasing one’s position as the trend continues.

Proposition 5. Given Propositions 1-4, trading success is mostly determined by one’s strategy for exiting the trade rather than the strategy for entry.

Since one does not know at entry whether a trade will be profitable, one could probably select stocks at random as long as losses are kept at a minimum and profits are maximized. However, systematic entry and exit rules based on technical analysis can improve the likelihood of a profitable trade. For example, most stocks follow the general market’s trend, and trading consistent with that trend can enhance one’s likelihood of success. Nevertheless, given the considerable uncertainty accompanying all trades, the highest priority must be given to the rules for exiting the trade. If one enters each trade assuming that it will fail, one will be better prepared to handle losses.

It is the trader’s job to use technical analysis to develop trading rules that function consistent with these propositions. My blog, wishingwealthblog.com, documents my pursuit of this goal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Why search for individual stocks when we can ride the ultra ETF’s?

GMI4/6
GMI-R8/10
T210886%

It is rare that I complete an analysis whose findings totally surprise me, but take a look at this one.   A lot of the pundits claim that the ultra ETF’s,   leveraged baskets of stocks that try to double or triple the performance of their underlying indexes or sectors, fail to achieve their goals.   So, just to satisfy my curiosity, I compared the performance of the primary index ETF’s, SPY (S&P500) , DIA (Dow 30)   and QQQQ (Nasdaq 100) with those of the leveraged ETF’s.   There were exact comparisons for these indexes for   the 2X ETF’s, but I had to choose other, more general   indexes for the 3X ETF’s. The results blew me away…

The 2X and 3X Ultra ETF’s absolutely outperformed the standard index ETF’s in the period since the March bottom.   For example, while the QQQQ (Nasdax 100) index ETF rose 42.9% in this period, the QLD (2x QQQQ ETF) rose 99.2% and the TYH (technology bull 3X ETF) rose 179.4%.   In comparison, the top five individual stock performers in the Nasdaq 100 stocks rose from 138.8% (JAVA) to 180.57% ( STX).   In fact, only 16 stocks (16%) in the Nasdaq100 (and 23% in the S&P500) rose 80% or more.   So, the choice before us is to   search for the needle in the ultraetfperohaystack individual stock that might do really well in a bull rise, or to buy one of these 2X or 3X ultra long ETF’s and ride a basket of stocks with a lot more diversification and probably less risk than owning individual stocks.   The key is to discern the trend accurately and to then ride the ultra ETF with the most potential for following that trend.   Some ultra ETF’s also trade options…..

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