Nasdaq Trading Strategies: NPSP, SLXP, QCOR
Stocks are off to a strong start in the first hour of trading. The Federal Reserve will make its interest rate decision at 2:15 p.m. Eastern today. The Fed is widely believed to be ready to lower the Fed funds rate to its lowest level in a generation.
The Nasdaq was actually the least oversold market compared to the Dow industrials and S&P 500 coming into Tuesday’s trading. Nevertheless, of the stocks in our Top 25 PowerRatings Stocks roster that are trading above their 200-day moving averages, most of those stocks come from the Nasdaq.
NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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NPSP |
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PowerRating) Short Term PowerRating 8. RSI(2): 6.76
Within this subset, some of these stocks have already shown the sort of strength – rather than the sort of intraday weakness – that removes them from our potential trade list. Remember, not only are we looking for stocks to pull back on a daily basis. We are also looking for stocks to show intraday weakness, the pullback after the pullback, which our research has indicated provides short term traders with a valuable edge.
Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
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PowerRating) Short Term PowerRating 8. RSI(2): 18.25
This concept of the pullback after the pullback is similar to the attitude that momentum traders have, only in reverse. Momentum traders look to see evidence of strength, and then wait for additional strength before taking a long position, for example. In contrast, swing traders who would rather buy low and sell high than buy high and sell higher, prefer to see the stocks they are interested in become cheaper before they buy.
Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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PowerRating) Short Term PowerRatings 8. RSI(2): 1.28 (PR chart not available)
I’ve included here three stocks – all from the Nasdaq – that have not moved significantly higher since their closes on Monday. All have Short Term PowerRatings of 8, which means that all three belong to that class of stocks that, according to our research, have outperformed the average stock by a margin of more than 8 to 1 after five days.
David Penn is Editor in Chief at TradingMarkets.com.