I am writing this post primarily to teach my students how I search for potential rocket stocks–stocks that have been launched and appear headed towards new peaks. As I said in class this week, it makes the most sense to buy stocks that have the best fundamentals and technicals. This strategy has been advocated both by Nicolas Darvas and William O’Neil in their extraordinary books (listed at lower right of this blog). Darvas, made a fortune trading in growth stocks in the late 19050’s and said that he liked to buy stocks that were trading at all-time highs and that had already doubled in the past year. So, I am going to show you how I use the great TC2007 stock charting and analysis program to find potential rocket stocks that I research further before buying.
Short term down-trend ending?
A rise in the QQQQ on Thursday and Friday will likely turn my trend indicator up. Wednesday was the 18th day of the short term down-trend. However, there were 167 new highs in my universe of 4,000 stocks on Wednesday, the most since January 21. And 53% of the Nasdaq 100 stocks closed above their 30 day averages. With the indexes up against their key moving averages, it remains to be seen whether they will break through this week. With many growth stocks getting stronger, I suspect this market is going higher. The key is to not jump the gun, however, but to wait for confirmation.
Federal Reserve raising short term interest rates? Stocks ready to rally?
While the short term down-trend is still in place, a lot of stocks I watch are gaining strength. And surprisingly, short term rates are starting to rise, perhaps in anticipation of a recovery in the economy. First, note that the GMI-R, which is more sensitive to short term changes, has risen from 1 to 5 (of 10), while the GMI is now back to 2. As the table below shows,