All-Time High Stocks

Poseidon Concepts (TSX: PSN) Innovation, Growth, Dividend

2012-01-08T23:50:00.001-05:00

Poseidon Concepts (TSX: PSN.TO) was the top stock on my Priority List stock scan this weekend. This company is a new idea and its stock is printing new highs. The company essentially provides massive above-ground pools to the drilling industry. While that might sound odd, the 8% dividend and recent breakout means it's worth a serious look. Here is a chart and more about the company. As you can

Performance of Asset Classes and Stocks in 2011

2012-01-02T16:08:00.001-05:00

The calendar flips to 2012 and we finally say good bye to 2011. There have been many year-end commentaries around the blogosphere highlighting that the S&P 500 was almost exactly unchanged on the year (dshort), and that there were a few stocks that performed exceptionally (stocktradingtogo). I want to look a little wider by presenting a snapshot of how various asset classes performed and delve a

HealthStream (HSTM) Earnings Leak?

2011-10-23T13:24:00.001-04:00

The weight of evidence for the US and Canadian markets has improved in the past two weeks, but I still see a bearish bias on the long term. Nevertheless, I continue to watch the markets and maintain my watchlist. This morning I searched the Priority List for stocks moving up on high volume. There were several, including TSCO, PZZI, and SO, but the one that caught my eye was Healthstream, Inc. (

Becoming a Mature Trader

2011-10-01T19:09:00.002-04:00

In essence my goals as a trader are to (i) make money in bull markets, (ii) preserve capital in bear markets, and (iii) live a well-balanced life in all markets. Being able to achieve these goals requires maturity as a trader, which is an ongoing process. I have certainly learned a lot from others in this regard. Therefore, in this post I want to highlight a few quotes and insights that address

Dollar Stores at new High, World Markets Fall

2011-09-18T13:27:00.003-04:00

The stock market continues to give mixed signals. The past month has been a mean-reversion environment, not a trending one. Using Weinstein's indicators I interpret the weight of evidence as bearish on the long-term (see table below). I remain cautious since I am looking for trends that last a few months or more. The most bearish development last week was the world-market index (ex-USA), VEU,

Analysts are wrong - Buy Bank of America in 2008

2011-09-11T21:26:00.002-04:00

Out of interest's sake I have been collecting Standard & Poor's "Stock Reports" on several securities over the past four years. This has really emphasized the point that you should never buy stocks based on stock reports! Always, always, always, listen to price action. Bank of America (BAC) illustrates my point. In the figures below I've taken snapshots of the "Buy", "Hold", or "Sell"

McDonalds (MCD) All-Time High, AAPL strong in Bear Market

2011-08-27T19:24:00.001-04:00

This will be a quick post taking stock of the week's events. First of all, looking at Stan Weinstein's indicators the weight of evidence as I see it still points to bearish on the long-term (see table below). Delving into individual sectors doesn't offer much encouragement as every sector in the US stock market has a downward sloping 50-day moving averages and recently made new 6-month lows. The

Does Market Timing Work?

2011-08-21T15:46:00.003-04:00

If you've ever met a mutual fund salesman representative you have probably been told that market timing does not work. The statements often sound like this: "The biggest potential pitfall in trying to time the market is missing the days it’s “up.” In fact, if you had missed the stock market’s 10 best days over the past decade, you would have lost nearly 5% of your original investment." -

Stan Weinstein on Bull & Bear Markets

2011-08-14T23:50:00.001-04:00

Stan Weinstein taught that successful traders pay close attention to what the market as a whole is doing. In his book Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, he outlines eight indicators that longer-term traders and investors should watch. The goal is to stay on the right side of the market as often as possible. I like Weinstein's advice for several reasons. Chief among them being

The end of a great trend

2011-08-10T23:34:00.000-04:00

My favourite aspect of trend-following is that forecasting is not required. The name of the game, literally, is to follow. Rather than predict and hope the goal is to watch and respond. During the last two years the market has offered up some great trends and I was fortunate to ride a few of them. But of course, even the best trends come to an end. Back in February I reviewed some of Jesse

Listen to Price Action: AAPL vs RIMM

2011-07-24T14:13:00.007-04:00

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) hit a new all-time high this week while Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) dipped to five-year lows. I happened to chat with an acquaintance who said they were still holding their RIM stocks purchased a few years ago at much higher prices. In the same conversation they remarked at how successful Apple has been. This reminded me of the importance of several keys to

Embrace Market Corrections to find Leading Stocks

2011-07-05T00:21:00.002-04:00

It is important it is to pay attention during market corrections. This is the time to watch stocks as their mettle is tested and investors get skittish. The past two months are a perfect example so I put together a chart of the S&P 500 index and several stocks that made new all-time highs on this weekend's Priority list. The charts illustrate two insightful quotes from Joe Fahmy on the

Alan Hull's Trading Advice

2011-06-05T10:32:00.002-04:00

Alan Hull shares his advice for successful trading in this short video clip. He very succinctly identifies the key attributes and habits that a trader must develop. Here is the video: Keys for success according to Alan Hull: Risk Management Organization Write it down! Trading is just another form of business activity (Benjamin Graham would agree) Learn by making small mistakes Start small

MEDH MedQuist Holdings All-Time High

2011-05-23T23:03:00.003-04:00

MedQuist Holdings (Nasdaq: MEDH) is a young stock that was in last week's all-time high list. As the chart illustrates, it has appreciated nicely in the past two months and volume has been increasing. Today the stock continued to show relative strength as it closed green while every group in the S&P 500 fell more than 1%. With all this in mind I thought I would delve into MEDH a little and learn

Larry Williams on Developing Your Own Trading Style

2011-04-30T16:51:00.003-04:00

I moved to a new city recently so the past few weeks have been hectic. In the process of removing myself from one place and adapting to a new one I have been thinking about the comfort of familiarity and the issue of stagnation. In my old surroundings everything felt familiar and I had my routines. Now everything is new and there are no routines. Every day I am forced to make decisions about my

Prioritizing the Best Trade Ideas

2011-03-20T22:00:00.003-04:00

It only takes a handful of good ideas to make money with a trend-following or position trading style. As I've discussed before, only a small minority of stocks are responsible for the market's gains. And yet since there are about 10,000 stocks on US and Canadian exchanges, that small percent adds up to over 500 potential stocks -- way more than the 10(ish) I need. So the challenge I've faced is

Looking for Relative Strength

2011-03-15T13:18:00.000-04:00

Today is a perfect opportunity to look for strong stocks that display strength relative to the market. This is part of the "stalking" process that I discussed yesterday. According to FINVIZ, less than 13% of all stocks are trading higher now than at yesterday's close (589/4594; limited to stocks above $2, no ETFs). While the Nasdaq gapped down and touched its lows for 2011... PAY (Verifone

Van K Tharp on Stalking Low-risk Trade Ideas

2011-03-14T23:35:00.001-04:00

Although there are still lots of all-time highs and the long-term trend for stocks remains up, the past week has definitely ushered in what Olivier Tischendorf aptly described as a change in the market's tone. In this market environment I find it constructive to patiently refine my watchlists as the market separates the wheat from the chaff and the strongest stocks show what they are made of.

Dan Zanger's Trading Advice

2011-03-06T23:36:00.001-05:00

A casual interview of the legendary Dan Zanger with I-TV's Matt Blackman at the end of 2005 or early 2006. Dan talks about his trading performance in 2005 and touches on a number of keys to success. Lots of good material for a 6 minute video. Of course, he makes it sound so easy. For mortals like me trading isn't always easy, and actually Dan addresses this on his website: "If trading were easy

This is a bull market you know

2011-02-27T23:18:00.000-05:00

Last week's quick selling sparked the usual top calling. I think it's more useful to assess the current conditions rather than guess what the future holds. My objective is to separate the market signal from the noise. I don't have the time or genius to do anything fancy so I boil it down to this -- markets can only be in one of three stages: (1) bullish trend, (2) bearish trend, or (3) sideways

MBC.TO - MBAC Fertilizer is Phosphate + Potash

2011-02-21T22:58:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post this week to point out MBAC Fertilizer (MBC.TO | TSX), a small Canadian stock from this weekend's all-time high list. MBC expands my list of stocks in the fertilizer sector that I either own or am watching, including: Greatquest Metals (GQ.V | TSXV, CVE), a phosphate play; and Allana Potash (AAA.V | TSXV, CVE), a potash play. Technically speaking, MBC's chart looked good

Financial Stocks enter Weinstein Stage 2

2011-02-13T15:02:00.003-05:00

Financial stocks outnumbered all other sectors in this week's all-time high list. At the same time XLF, the financial sector ETF, broke through the resistance level I mentioned a few weeks ago. A retest of resistance is likely, but if it can close the month above the $17.00 neckline then it will be in the markup stage of its cycle (Stage 2 by Weinstein). Here is the chart of XLF showing what I

WDG Giyani Gold - New Name, New High

2011-02-06T14:14:00.000-05:00

This weekend's all-time high list has over 400 stocks led by the Basic Materials and Financial sectors. I want to focus on Giyani Gold Corp. (WDG-V) a small-cap resource stock listed on the TSX Venture exchange that recently changed its name. WDG has a great chart and last week it emerged from a long consolidation to hit a fresh all-time high on nice volume. What is interesting to me is that the

Confused Investors Lose Money

2011-02-02T07:30:00.000-05:00

A key reason why so many investors and traders lose money is that they are confused. I suppose this isn't surprising -- the stock market is confusing, and there are many investing half-truths out there. Over the years I've scratched my head numerous times thinking about apparent paradoxes like these: How is it possible that Trendfollowing and Mean Reversion are both successful trading strategies

AAA - Allana Potash Stock Hits All-Time-High

2011-01-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

Allana Potash Corp (CVE, TSXV: AAA) was one of the stocks that stood out as I went through the charts in the all-time high list this weekend. Here is what made it catch my eye and a little more about the company. I like the long-term weekly chart for several reasons. First, for most of the last year and a half the price has trended upward along the upward sloping 40-week moving average. This was