Well, this is about as hot as it gets these days! It’s been difficult to find solid looking stock charts that are trending higher over the past three to six months but I continue to research. The overall market is still very weak so the lack of individual leaders is understandable. It’s not smart to buy against the grain of the market; swimming against the current is just plain stupid if you ask me. However, my attempt today is to post up a few positive looking charts that are showing up on my screens as potential leaders if and when a small rally occurs. Several of these stocks have crossed my screens since late 2008 and have been highlighted on the blog but LOPE is new one to the bunch.

Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (LOPE) has a great looking up-trending chart since the day of its IPO and started to show up on my daily screens in late December (the most successful IPO in a long time – out of the box). This is definitely a stock that I would purchase if the market was showing strength. For now, I will stay on the sidelines until I can see some form of a rally starting to take place.

The other stocks listed below are also displaying nice technical characteristics in this murky environment which leads me to believe that they have potential to become market leaders in a rally. APEI is closely related to LOPE as these stocks typically do well when the market is in a recession. GXDX and ENSG are related to the healthcare and/or science industry which seems to do well when the economy has turned sour as well. Stocks such as APOL, COCO and CECO were superstars after 9-11 in the months leading up to the rally of 2003. Medical related stocks were also topping my charts in late 2002 and early 2003. Times seem to be repeating so we’ll have to wait for a market signal before jumping into any of these candidates.

In any evert, keep them on your watchlist.

• APEI – American Public Education, Inc.
• GXDX – Genoptix, Inc.
• ENSG – The Ensign Group, Inc.

Several of these stocks have been highlighted in blog posts dating back to November – be patient! We’ll continue to sit on them until the time is right.

• Three Stocks to Watch
• “A”+ Stocks
• Strong Stock Charts
• Institutions Accumulating Shares

Does the New High, New Low Ratio still work?

Of course it does but just keep in mind that it’s a longer term indicator rather than a short term buy and sell signal. I make today’s post due to what I am seeing with the NH-NL differential as it is starting to tread near positive territory for the first time in many months. The key for a sustainable bull market will be a push to a new 52-week high for this indicator.

“Chart provided courtesy of “DecisionPoint.com”

For a history of NH-NL posts, please see this category.

How about the foreshadowing provided in the post I made on August 21, 2007? Talk about calling a top!

According to Carl’s data, we must go back to 1998 to find a lower reading than last week’s NH-NL ratio. Even more amazing is the fact that we must then go back 20 to 38 years to find readings in the same vicinity as 1998 and 2007.

Ignoring the spike in 1987, we must visit the 1970’s to find readings below the -400 level on the chart.