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The screening method is geared to swings of 3-4 weeks. The screens generated nothing of interest this week, with only stodgy, ultra-low beta names on the buy side, and shorts too ambiguous to bite on. Price structures were bearish but cycle and momentum measures were not.
During the week ended Friday, December 12, out of 1899 stocks meeting institutional price and volume criteria, the screens produced the following results :
Cumulative lists of longer-term setups:
241 resting big gainers up from 232 last week, and
318 sleeping dogs, up from 314.
141 breakout charts last 7 months- up from 134
110 breakdown charts last 7 months – no change
Weekly screens of cycle positions.
75 met strict major or intermediate trend buy setup criteria up from 43. 22 triggered short term
83 met strict major or intermediate trend sell setup criteria, down from 91. 25 triggered short term.
Tactics
For actionable trades, I visually review charts that triggered short term signals from the prescreened structural candidates. I chose just one buy and one short to add to the list this week. The rest were rangebound and too ambiguous to be strong low risk, high reward candidates.
I also review the existing issues on the list for whether to close, hold, or add or adjust stops. Here are the results of my final review for this week.
Trade Selections and Adjustments
- No new picks.
- 82 existing buy picks were previously designated to be closed last week (See table)
- Only 4 picks remain open, 3 with stops. 2 buys, 2 shorts
Performance Recap – December trudges into ignominy, with closed sales averaging a loss of -1.2% on an average holding period of 19 calendar days. Currently open picks have an average gain of 2.1% on an average holding period of 19 days. Closed picks in November had an average gain of 2.7% with an average holding period of 17 calendar days.