Today's Trades

Did a couple of day trades today, both on the same stock, SINA. This stock is a China stock that moves nicely intraday.

Trade #1: This trade was entered in the morning, after the opening action. The stock made a nice push on a large green frame to start the move, then pulled back and reset. I entered on the first yellow arrow, and the two blue arrows are my exit. The second exit was based on the expectation that once it passed the $86 area, it would test the gap at $87.60 or so. So I put a limit order just below the gap at $87.50 and moved my stop up to $86.00, my previous exit point. Worst case I make $1.60 a share, best case I average out to $2.40 a share profit, which is what happened. Probably one of the more satisfying trades I have had lately. But then I put a small ding in it with trade #2.

Trade #2: This trade, quite frankly, should have been entered on the frame before I entered. There's a little green candle, almost a doji, a couple of frames prior to the large green frame. The frame after entry was a flag pole and red frame closing on lows with a flat ema, so I cut it loose for a loss of 7 cents. Probably should have accepted the fact that I missed the optimal entry, but it feels good to be in cash and have a good day.

I'll have my weekly review of the market over the weekend. Till then, be merry.

Comparing Recent Bull and Bear Markets

Dow weekly charts for 2003-2007 bull, 2007-2009 bear, 2009-2011 bull, and 2011 top are below. See the similarities. Current situation looks a lot like early stage of last bear market. And all the news that comes with it too. Look out below, could still get bumpy over larget time frame; today's move down has been setting up for weeks now.

2003-2007 (see the top at right edge)



2007-2009 bear and 2009-2011 bull:



Zoom in on 2009-2011 bull...looks similar to last top in 2007:

Wheelhouse View of the Market

I was just taking a look at the indices tonight, and it really doesn't look that good. We have essentially consolidated in a range up to the 50-day sma's on each index. The $RUT couldn't even make it that far. A down leg from here is certainly possible. Today's action was not great either, and with a FOMC meeting tomorrow the volatility will be up there.

Still only day trading when schedule allows. It allows tomorrow :)))

Happy Trading

Wheelhouse View of the Market

If you take a look at the Dow 30, Nasdaq Composite, and the Vix, they all look to be forming a range or channel working towards the 50 day sma. The bearish flag on the Dow/SP/Wilshire/NYSE are essentially ranges with today's rally off the bottom of the flag. Nasdaq looks less bearish but is still below the 50 sma. The market is looking more like it needs some range bound action...accumulation...before getting into bull market territory again.

Day trading remains the name of the game for now. RIMM was my only day trade today, went 113% on margin and took a quick 40 cents in a 30 minute trade. Made 1.4% on the account...took me more time than that to eat my lunch afterward. I'll take it...one more brick. Good luck rest of the week.

One for the Aces

A member from Tumblertrades.com emailed me asking how I have melded swing trading and "The T" ( Tumbler's day trading method). Hoping to explain that a little here...

The book Hedge Fund Edge explains a little how to use multiple time frames in your trading. HFE talks about taking a trade to the next time horizon. How is that done? For me, in a nutshell this means that I enter on an intraday chart for a day trade, but the daily helps me decide how long I can stay.

I am not saying the exit rules of the T are not applied to the trade, because they are. However, the daily chart (maybe hourly for some works better) can tell me many things about my day trade (list is not all inclusive):

1. Whether to take one good day trade setup over another, assuming all else equal (i.e. catalyst and reward/risk same and both good setup for T).

2. Whether to hold thru intraday pullbacks above the 4/15 or 8/15 or sell at first exit chance (i.e. red frame up the line).

3. Whether to hold a day trade overnight or exit by close. Especially in the current market, this usually means selling a strength frame the next morning. Guess who is buying those shares from us? Many folks that ran a scan the night before and see the stock had a breakout on their daily charts, they buy the morning, from us.

As you can see I did not invent anything I just used the T to compliment and improve my existing trading methods. I do not trade exactly like him, I trade a lot less frequently. And this is still new to my trading, so it is not perfected yet. Tumbler emailed my trades to the Aces last month DECK PEET and LNKD. You can see especially with DECK and PEET how the daily chart can tell me whether to see if there is more. Both were eps catalysts in hot sector also.

Look at examples today - AMZN, PANL, GMCR all good day trades avalable, daily chart bouncing off the 50 day on big green candles. Market bouncing from oversold intraday. Do you sell the close today or see if there is more tomorrow? Your call :)))

Good luck to all of you and study those chart chats...they are an underrated learning tool in my book.

Bearish Flaggishness Part Deux continued...

Pure luck would have it that the Dow reversed right at resistance and the top line on the bear flag. I thought it would at least make an attempt at 11,900 first but the jobs numbers may have been too much for the bulls. For now at least. Would not be surprised to see a test of the lows again. As has been the case recently, day trading is best option right now. I am getting close to a month without doing a trade though. Perfect storm of vacation and backlog at work has given me a good time to take a little break, involuntarily in part. But that is winding down a bit and should allow more time for some intraday trades if conditions persist.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Bearish Flaggishness Part Deux

Let's revisit the bearish flag potential after two days of action this week. We have rallied near the bottom of the 11,600-11,900 resistance area at a pretty good angle. And then we got some profit taking today late day. Saw some resistance today, will see how the next few days shape up. Labor day coming up too...hard to imagine a breadth thrust over Labor day holiday weeks.

Nasdaq chart doesn't look as flaggish, which may be a sign that this pattern will not hold. We shall see.




I am not swing trading in this environment, would like to see clearer market direction. So, I will finally have a little time to do some day trading tomorrow if the oppurtunity presents itself. Not much news flow, but enough stocks moving with catalysts and at least recent news to move with.

Two earnings reporters from this evening that I am watching tomorrow intraday (not at the open) are VRA and PVH. Both up after hours and both beat eps/revs and raised guidance. Will likely gap up tomorrow but will look for a pullback after the first hour.

Good luck tomorrow.

Bearish Flaggishness

Take a zoomed in look at this chart of the Dow 30. I have extended the chart and connected the recent upward sloping lows. I created a parallel line to that to project out the possible pattern, and it could be forming a bearish flag over a period of weeks. It is tough to know when the market will make its decisive move rather than simple a move within a range...but you can see the patterns start to develop as they happen. This of course does not mean it will materialize.

The Dow 30 looks like it wants to try to test the 50 ma from below sometime soon, between 11,600 and 11,900 is the resistance zone. This also around 50% retracement of the recent decline, so beware of rallies into this area. We could very well get another leg down from there, so I am keeping my powder dry aside from day trading potentials. Patience is an absolute necessity right now for swing trading, and abstinence may be the best policy. But a little day trading here and there is in the cards with a volatile market.

Good luck this week all, and hope everyone got through the hurricane safely.

Methods I Use

Just to give you a framework of how I trade, I really use only three methods. One of them is a day trading method that I have married into my swing trading. All three methods I learned from other traders that have their own subscription blogs, for that reason I will not get into the specific criteria of their methods. However, the methods below are what I have in my tackle box:

1. Stockbee Trend Intensity - this method was created by Stockbee (stockbee.biz) and is essentially a momentum based swing trading method. I use both breakout and pullback entry techniques when using this method, although the method is breakout-based. It is only used in bullish market conditions as determined by Market Monitor, a breadth based market timing model developed by Stockbee. This method works great in bull markets, including the recent bull market.

2. Earnings EP Pullbacks - This is a PEAD (Post Earnings Announcement Drift) and earnings/catalyst based method...it is based on the Episodic Pivots method from Stockbee. This is really a subset of that method in that it looks for stocks with large up days on their earnings day and a positive surprise, but trades the initial pullback after that price reaction. This method does not enter on the day of the episode but takes the next train. The watchlists I use are from Bluefin (patientfisherman.blogspot.com) that track stocks making big moves on earnings day and stocks with good earnings surprises. I prefer to use this going into and during earnings season periods.

3. The T - This is a day trading method I learned from a guy named "Tumbler" that I met on the Stockbee site. He's the most consistent day trader I know, and has a really straight forward way of doing it. See his site for the best description (www.followtumblertrades.com). I also use this as a method of entering swing trades in the right conditions. I like to take the trade to the next time frame when possible and get bang for the buck. I prefer to use this in volatile times and when other methods are not in play. If I had to pick one method to trade and I had the intraday availability, this is the one I would trade. Otherwise it would be the earnings pullbacks.

So that is the general description of the methods I use. The details are spawn from my experience, my schedule, and my style. The foundations I learned from the sites I mentioned. This site is a way to document my own journey through this market ocean, and to learn some things along the way.

Wheelhouse View of the Market

This is the start of what I hope to be a weekly feature just looking at the weekly state of the market. This week I will look just at the SP500, COMPQ, and the VIX daily charts. Nothing highly technical...

Essentially we have broken down and gotten into a tightening volatile range after the decline. The market truly could go either way here, but without significant evidence to the contrary I have to assume the range will result in continuation of either the range or the decline. It looks like it wants to try the bottoms again before making its move, but expectations don't always materialize.

As far as methods, day trading is the best way right now, but I have been so busy with other work that I have not been able to do much of that since early August. Until breadth improves, this is the way it is.

Waiting for twilight...

Went on vacation last week. We fished a lot all day but mainly had success very early and very late in the day. By the third day, we realized we were better off just wading in the river and enjoying just observing the surroundings in the middle of the day because the fish just weren't biting. Honestly, I am so much better at trading than fishing. But they are very similar skills in many ways.



Market corrections come and go like feeding times and breeding cycles. When using swing trading methods on daily/weekly/monthly time frames, you have to worry about this stuff more than say, a day trader.

The stocks I researched all had corrections of weeks before their best moves. They were all low float, low priced, and some had earnings while others did not. We have beaten that horse maybe not here but every where else. It's established. But market timing...knowing when to put your bait in the water...is required to be a more efficient swing trader. It keeps you in when odds are in your favor, and keeps you wading and watching when odds are not in your favor.

So the question also remains for all of us: what is your style? Are you a day trader? Are you a swing trader? Are you both? I have had to search for this answer myself, as recently as a few minutes ago.

I recommend reading page 346+ of The Hedge Fund Edge, where it talks about taking a trade to the next time horizon. I always thought of it as taking the trade to the next bigger chart. I have been looking at this a lot lately as I have experimented with adding day trading to my skill set. Not frequent trading, but day trading. We are talking 0-5 trades a week. A day trade may become a 2-5 day trade in the right conditions.

So my answer for myself...is I am both. I may use day trading entry methods on a 15-minute chart and swing trading exit methods on an hourly or daily chart. All this means is that I look at the bigger chart as a guide for my 15-minute trade.

As a trader I have undergone some reconstruction this year and have gotten back to even from being down a little less than 10% ytd. So I feel like I have a chance to start the year over. The thing about it is that I am using methods created and taught by two great traders and teachers. I will not re post their methods here, although I probably could. The reason is because it will do you no good without going through what other successful traders have gone through. There are no shortcuts.

See the links on this page to Stockbee.biz and TumberTrades.com. Stockbee is a blog and learning site focused on swing trading. I learned about market timing and market breadth with the site, and I use his market timing indicator, Market Monitor, for my swing trading. There is infinite value on the site.

TumblerTrades is run by a trader I met on Stockbee who evolved into a day trading artist. He has been called a machine, but I see after talking with him that he is an artist. He is by far the best day trader I know and the most consistent.

The other important link I use is the Patient Fisherman, also run by a trader I met on Stockbee. I use this site for all of my momentum and PEAD based watch lists. It is also good for getting Market Monitor data over the web without need for Telechart.

Happy Trading

Weekly Charts File - Bases

Good Evening,
Below are the weekly charts for the eight stocks I studied, each with the primary bases during the 500% move circled on the chart.

Note that these stocks typically have two or more bases on the weekly chart during the move. If you are looking for a method to make 50% and pyramid into a stock, these are likely good places to pyramid into a position.

Look at several things in the bases:

- How far does the stock pull back from recent highs in its base. Prefer that stock stay near recent highs in its consolidation.
- How long is the base?
- Is there volume dry up in the base?
- What is the typical price action within the base (i.e. tight ranges or choppy action, or typical patterns)?

Weekly Charts File

Here are the weekly charts for a little over a year on the eight stocks I studied. Study these for similarities and patterns. What things repeat themselves chart after chart?

Next Steps

Next step is going to be to try to summarize what has been found so far. This will include sorting through and ranking the various factors or characteristics that accompany these stocks. That will be ongoing behind the scenes and I will post as time allows. My trading comes first and when not active I will be updating this.

Once I have the stuff summarized I will attempt to figure out a method to find such stocks. It is very likely there is already a method right in front of me. If so, fine. What better way to understand fire than to create it all over again.

After the "method" to find these stocks is determined, I will move the theme of this blog to more of a watchlist oriented blog. I won't be doing intraday stuff here - I'm on Stockbee during the day. I'll use this site to post trade ideas long and short, but the trades will fit my process of trading as someone with a full time job.

In the meantime, I will be posting stocks that I am watching long and short on Stocktwits at http://chart.ly/users/swingtrader4. I'll also be over on Stockbee for those of you that are members.

See ya soon...

Stock #8 IDT - I D T Corp - 1-year gain 629% (12 months ended 12/13/2010)

Stock #8 – IDT – I D T Corporation – 1 year gain = 629% (as of 12/13/2010)

Of the stocks I have studied so far, this one probably made the largest move from its original bottom in early 2009…this stock went from $1 to $30 in less than 2 years. Not bad.

1. Sector: Telecommunication Services – IDT provides prepaid/rechargeable calling cards and VOIP services. The company also has an energy business segment.

2. If you pulled a weekly chart and zoom out, you would see what is close to a “V” bottom on this stock in March 2009. This stock fell from $71 in 2004 to a low under $1 in late 2008. It formed a bottom and broke out in July 2009 after around a 6-month bottom. Technical neglect has been consistent pattern on each of these stocks making 500% moves, particularly in the beginning stages of the trend. But this stock did not have extremely long bases as some other stocks did.

3. The stock had no analyst coverage or earnings estimates available (neglect). This is another common trait noted so far on these stocks.

4. The Group RS rating was 66. Other stocks in the group that did well included GNCMA and SURW. Keep in mind IDT has energy segment also, and have you seen energy prices? Oil and oil shale is a pretty good business to be in lately.

5. Earnings Growth: The Company had triple digit earnings growth with acceleration for 4 straight quarters, coinciding with the stock’s movement from $5 to $30 between February 2010 and December 2010. EPS growth was 117%, 147%, 294%, and 512% for Jan/Apr/July/Oct respectively. The January quarter was also a swing to profitability. Sales growth showed up the last two quarters and showed up in the big jump to 512% earnings growth. Sales growth was 4% and 9% the last 2 quarters (ending with Oct 2010 quarter). Several, but not all, of these stocks have had triple digit earnings growth. It’s hard to say earnings did not matter for this stock though.

6. IBD ratings are 91 Comp, 80 EPS, and 99 RS. A/D rating was A+…which is a good segway to the fund ownership issue.

7. Fund ownership was as follows from March 2010 to December 2010: 64, 116, 132, and 137. Note the large jump from March to June of 81%. The stock doubled in that quarter, particularly the last days of the quarter showed record volume. Fund ownership is over 40%.

8. The float was 12.7 million. The company had a 1:3 reverse split in early 2009. Consistently these stocks have been low float (<100 million).

9. Fundamentals were not great going into 2010 – the Company was losing money every year until July 2010 year end. ROE is pretty good now at 11% and its P/E is 15.
I won’t be posting charts on this one – there were around 9 breakouts during its run so take a gander in your charting software and pick them out…whatever your strategy…pullbacks, exhaustion, or breakouts, this stock offered some good opportunities.

So why did IDT go up 500% in a year?

Neglect + explosive earnings growth. IDT sported some impressive eps growth numbers, although its sales weren’t that explosive. But the kinlin for that fire was laid by the big decline that occurred from 2004 to 2009. The stock fell from $71 to under $1 in that time and the stock bottomed with the market and rose to $5 before earnings growth showed up. Once the earnings growth exploded, the funds came in. Funds were nearly doubled from March to June 2010, and the stock went from about $7 to $11 during that time.

Stock #7 HNH - Handy & Harman Ltd. - 1-year gain = 545% (2/11/2011)

Stock #7 – HNH – Handy & Harman Ltd. (fka WHX Corp) – 1 year gain = 545% (as of 2/11/2011)

Metal Processing and Fabrication

The company changed its name and symbol recently and some sites don’t recognize the old symbol or don’t have any old news linked to the new symbol. So if anyone knows more news detail than I could find, please feel free to comment.

1. HNH (formerly WXCO) is a supplier of metals and tubing to the auto and home-building industry, among others. Needless to say, those were two of the hardest hit groups in the “great recession” and the stock price reflected it. The stock declined from about $120 in 2005 to a low of $1.10 by the second half of 2009. Technical neglect has been consistent pattern on each of these stocks making 500% moves.

2. The stock had no analyst coverage or earnings estimates available (neglect).

3. The Group RS rating was 93. Other stocks in the group that did well included NNBR, LDSH, and TKR.

4. The company had 300% or so eps growth for 2 straight quarters (6/2010, 9/2010) after stock had already bottomed earlier in the year. Sales growth during the move was between 14% and 32%.

5. IBD ratings are 97 Comp, 80 EPS, and 99 RS.

6. Fund ownership was up 24% from March to June (note the initial breakout was in April 2010). The stock only had 21 funds owning it. Fund ownership slipped back near March 2010 levels by December. 53% of the company is owned by management.

7. The float was 5.7 million. The company had a 1:10 reverse split in late 2008.

8. Fundamentals were not great – company was losing money most quarters and had no return on equity. But the last two quarters they were profitable and had good sales growth. PE was about 34, the high end of its 5 year range.

Weekly chart:


The Breakouts:

1. At the end of its descent from $120, the stock formed a double bottom in 2009 and then built an 8-month base along the pivot point before breaking out in April 2010. After a high-volume successful test of its 50-day average, the stock bounced and broke out of the 8-month base in early April (1st-2nd). The stock was up 9% on the day of the breakout and rallied for 11 days for a total move of 48% from the $2.61 breakout point. The Company updated its Q1 earnings guidance about a week after the breakout on April 12th, and the stock continued its rally after earnings.


2. After the April 2010 move, the stock formed a 17-week base and broke out in mid-August 2010. The volume dropped off drastically during the second half of the base before the breakout. The Company announced its June 2010 eps results which showed 296% and 14% growth in eps and sales, respectively. The stock was up 19% on the breakout day, and it continued its rally for another 7 days. The move carried the stock 94% past the $5 breakout price. After this strong move the stock consolidated for about 6-7 weeks.


3. After a 6-7 week base, the stock broke out on October 1st on high volume and $$ volume. The company released its earnings results, showing 325% eps and 22% sales growth. The stock was up 18% on the breakout day and ended up making a move of 21% from the $9.68 breakout price in 8-9 days. The stock then attempted another breakout in November 2010 that failed, and the stock got into a trading range that it is still in today.


So why did HNH go up 500% in a year?

Neglect + Turnaround earnings growth (300%+) + news catalyst + sector RS. This stock had turnaround earnings growth in triple digits that caused a large percentage gain from a low price area. Since there were two earnings related breakouts, it does appear that news catalyst was important to get the stock to get back into its uptrend. Most of these stocks that are up 500% started from $1 or less in 2009 and formed long bottoms and bases in preparing for its recovery move. HNH was no different.

The Inches We Need Are All Around Us

You'll come to realize after a while that I am a sports fanatic - I am particularly a big fan of coaches. Coaches have to be able to motivate - they have to be able to draw out the best in each player. But funny thing is that many times these same ideas can be applied to individuals. I always say sports and trading are very similar in many different ways.

This is one of my all-time favorite sports movie clips - from Any Given Sunday. I pay close attention to what he says - the inches in life make the difference, and they make the difference in trading as well.

Stock #6 SHZ – China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources Inc. – 1-year gain = 562% (as of 2/4/2011)

Stock #6 SHZ – China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources Inc. – 1-year gain = 562% (as of 2/4/2011)

Mining – Metal Ores

Although not listed in the States very long, this stock has made quite a move in a short period of time. The stock was around $8 in early 2008 before collapsing to a penny stock by the March 2009 bear market bottom. The stock would breakout in mid-2009 on high volume to get above a dollar a share, then formed a base for about 15 months going into the fall of 2010. From that point on, it was all about 3 words: China Rare Earth.



A stock bottoming under $1 and forming a long base after the initial break out of a bottoming pattern is similar to the other stocks studied thus far. The long 15-month base on SHZ yielded 4 tradable breakouts between October and December 2010 before the stock retreated to its 50-day line in January 2011.

The breakouts:

1. 10/8/2010 – The stock broke out of a month long base within the larger 15-month base on very high volume. The stock was up 12% on the day on $325k dollar volume. The stock rallied for 4 days for a total move of 50% from the breakout point. The stock was at $1.65 at the peak, then had a quick 3-day pullback that yielded the next breakout.



2. 10/19/10 – The stock spiked up on no news I could find…stock was up 65% on the day on big jump in dollar volume to $3.5M. The stock gapped up big the next day on even bigger volume for a total two-day move of 178% from the breakout point. This was too much too fast and the stock pulled back about 50% and formed a double-bottom base along its 50-day average into early December 2010. The company announced earnings during the pullback but it did not breakout.

3. 12/3/2010 – The company raised sales guidance for 2010 and 2011, showing 245% and 162% growth respectively. The stock was up 25% that day on $16.7M dollar volume. The stock drifted upward over the next 7 days for a total move of 87% from the breakout price. It then drifted downward for about 7-8 days on low volume, forming a handle-like pattern near the high of the double bottom base.



4. 12/27/2010 – The stock started to move on China supply concerns along with the other stocks in its sector. The stock was up 10% on $10M dollar volume that day and added a 21% day the following day on $53M dollar volume. After the third day the stock had made a 125% move in 3 days from the breakout price. It slowly rolled over the next few days and again retreated for a test of its 50-day average. As of today the stock has bounced weakly off the 50-day and it is yet to be seen if it can hold it.



Here’s some tidbits on the stock:

1. The stock had neglect going into the rally with no estimates and no analyst coverage.

2. The company had good earnings and sales growth in the September 2010 quarter announced in November, and then raised earnings guidance in early December. The company was not consistently profitable in prior years, but that appeared to be changing as sales were rising at a triple digit clip in June and September 2010.

3. Sector RS was 99, so SHZ’s sector was likely a factor – any company both in China and in rare earth group did well ending 2010. Other strong stocks in the group (with low eps ratings) were REE, MCP, NAK, MSB.

4. The stock’s float was 5 million. Average daily volume is 4.1M.

5. The stock has a P/E of 19 and no debt. ROE is 25% and p/b is 10.

6. IBD Ratings: EPS 66, RS 99, Composite 98.

7. Fund trend is flat – one single fund owning stock since at least March 2010.

8. The stock’s trend intensity was at 111, 151, 135, and 163 at the breakouts, respectively.

So why did SHZ go up 500% plus in a year?

SHZ had several factors – neglect, low price/float, sector catalyst, good earnings guidance. Other than the institutional and technical neglect preceding the move, the strongest factor appears to be a combination of positive earnings guidance and the strong sector, especially in late 2010. Its fundamentals were okay except the company was still losing money for the most part until September 2010 quarter. Sales were growing at a triple-digit rate and the company was just above break-even, so it appears that the sales numbers were driving some speculation in the stock in hopes of longer term profitability around the corner. This stock, as the others studied, really took off in price and volume once it got to the $4 range and broke out. The move from there was about 145% within 7-8 days. The breakouts were very good setups for the most part, moving in bursts of 2-3 days and pulling back in an orderly fashion to set up the next breakout.

Strategically Held Information Technology

I will be posting more this week, already have a stock ready just need to paste images and put it on the blog.

I have just upgraded my laptop to Windows 7 so I was without it all weekend...will post SHZ tonight and continue on with the study.

One other note on the study. Due to scheduling and simple practicality, I am going to focus the study on stocks up 500% in a year going forward. My plan is to update the list daily and research stocks as they get added. There are plenty of stocks that are in this category and should be enough sample size over a period of time.

Finally I am through the family sickness and IT issues so will be able to give more time to this. SHZ will be posted this evening.

Happy Trading :)

Stocks up 500% in a year

So the stocks studied so far make up the stocks that were up 500% + in a year as of 1/10/2011. I figure this is a good time to point out some of the common traits from a fundamental stand point and the basic characteristics of the stocks. Later this week I will look at the various chart characteristics but for now here's the non-technical points:

1. Each stock was an IPO in the 90's.

2. Each stock was below 100M float.

3. The average volume ranged from 21k to 3.7M. Two of the stocks averaged below 100k daily.

4. Three of the five stocks had a Sector RS of 84 or higher. Sector seemed to have some effect.

5. IBD Composite ratings were all 65+, mostly due to high RS ratings. EPS ratings were no higher than 80 and as low as 12.

6. Fund buying trend for four of the five stocks was up during the run. This appears to be important to the stock's momentum upward and occurs during the biggest moves.

7. The fundamental ratios didn't matter at all - they were all over the place.

8. Earnings and sales growth - two of the five stocks had explosive earnings and sales growth with acceleration, RDCM and LGL. CPWM was a retailer - driven by same store sales, and had good sales for three straight quarters and had 232 eps growth in the holiday quarter. Issue here is that RDCM and LGL were the two stocks with below 100k average volume. But overall earnings/sales growth appeared to matter to a degree.

9. That being said, two of the stocks had future prospect catalysts - one an energy resource company with no revenue and a biotech with its main hope on a drug trial. For those the current earnings/sales did not matter.

On that point, my next post will address the technicals and news catalysts, including looks at the breakouts and bases. Hopefully by Monday/Tuesday I will have that posted.

Let me know if you have any additional observations as always.