Time To Tune Up

Sometimes we
forget to look
at bigger pictures of the market, as we concentrate so
much on picking individual stocks for trading. As you know, your chances of
winning are greater if you buy stocks from the strongest sectors. Needless to
say, your odds will also be improved if you short stocks from weak sectors of
the market.

The performance of Exchange traded funds (ETFs) can provide us with
excellent information on both weak and strong sectors of the market. You can
find this valuable information in TradingMarket’s.com Funds
Indicators
section. 

As of the close of June 22, the top
ETF in the past month is Biotech Holdings (BBH), and its daily chart is
shown below.

The next step is to look for buy candidates from the biotechnology sector. (Of
course, you can trade Biotech Holdings above.) One easy way of looking for
stocks is by using TradingMarkets.com Stock
Scanner
.

Just follow these simple steps:

   1. Choose Biotechnology for the Sub Sector

   2. Insert closing price ranges of your choice

   3. Put in desired 50-day average volume

   4. Insert 3-month RS numbers

   5. Go to the Closing Price Comparison To
Moving Averages section and choose.

That’s it. As I said, it’s easy. The example below is the result of scanning for
stocks with a closing price of 25 or higher; 50-day average volume of 300,000
shares or higher; 3-month RS of 95 or higher;
and a closing price above
both 20- and 50-day moving averages.

DATE
RANGE BETWEEN

and

Sub
Sector

Exchange

CRITERIA ( >= )  
BETWEEN    ( <= )
CRITERIA ( >= )  
BETWEEN    ( <= )
Closing
Price



and
Price
Chg



and
50
day

avg. volume


and
%
of

avg. volume


and
ADX
and
RS
(12 MO)





and
DMI

RS
(6 MO)





and
EPR
and
RS
(3 MO)





and

Closing
Price Comparison To Moving Averages

Closing
Price

20
Day MA


Closing
Price

50
Day MA


Closing
Price

200
Day MA


 

Sort
/ Search

Sort
By

 

Company
/ Symbol Scan
DATE
RANGE

and
SYMBOLS STOCK
NAME

2 indicators found

Date Symbol Exchange Stock
Name
Sub
Sector
 Price   CHG  50
DAV (00)
%
of AV
EPR RS12 RS6 RS3 ADX DMI 50
DMA
CT/B
25%
06/22/01 GILD C NASDAQ Gilead
Sciences, Inc.
Biotechnology $
61.13
$
3.53
19045 161% 0 97 92 97 18 U > T
06/22/01 TKTX C NASDAQ Transkaryotic
Therapies Inc
Biotechnology $
32.00
$
0.06
4901 35% 0 96 87 98 44 U > *

Price and volume data provided by MyTrack

Try it with weak stocks, too. I’m sure you’ll find interesting setups.

Until tomorrow,

Eddie