the Trade-Radar + TradingStockAlerts blog

This post is announcing that Tuesday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ . All are based on daily data. Today we have the following: 19 Swing Signals -- 10 BUY signals and 9 SELL Signals. 554 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 122 stocks that are new additions to the list and 118 that fell off the previous list. 45 Trend Busters of which 41 are BUY signals and 4 are SELL signals. 157 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 84 are bearish gaps and 73 are bullish gaps. The view from Alert HQ -- The weekend's signals suggested further gains for stocks but instead markets have struggled every day this week. Lack of news and low volume are putting the brakes on last week's rally. Today's signals are somewhat mixed. Trend Busters and Trend Leaders are still registering strongly bullish results while the Swing Signals...

Ebix, Inc. (EBIX)  showed up this weekend as a new addition to our Trend Leaders list. It earned this distinction by registering bullish indications via MACD and DMI analysis. Here is the chart: The chart shows that the stock has been in a downtrend since October. Now, however, it's beginning to show some life. It's making a strong recovery from the area around $45 and has broken resistance in the area around $50 as well as making a move above that downward sloping trend line. Background -- According to Yahoo! Finance, Ebix provides software and e-commerce solutions for the insurance industry primarily in North America, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Singapore. It focuses on the sale, customization, development, implementation, and support of insurance carrier system platforms. It also sells and supports broker/agency management systems. A major channel for the company is the EbixExchange, On-Demand Software Exchange that offers products and services that automat...

Investors focused on the positive and drove stocks to new highs in a low-volume, holiday-shortened week. It could have gone the other way as economic reports were mixed. Investors cheered improvements in existing home sales and a drop in initial jobless claims and they shrugged off much worse than expected new home sales and the revision of Q3 GDP down to a paltry 2.2%. Also released just before Christmas was the Durable Goods report for November. At a summary level, shipments, new orders and unfilled orders were all up while inventories declined. The numbers beat expectations and helped the market rise. From the point of view of the tech sector, shipments were down month-over-month but new orders were up nicely. Here is the chart for the tech sector as a whole: Investors tend to focus on the new orders numbers since shipments are ancient history. This chart shows new orders have hit the highest level in twelve months so it is clearly a welcome development. Even though new orders...

This is the usual quick post announcing that the weekend's stock signals are now available at Alert HQ . Today we have the following stock picks and signals: Based on daily data, we have 30 Alert HQ BUY signals and 2 SELL signals Based on weekly data, we have 5 Alert HQ BUY signal and 6 SELL signals We have 71 Bollinger Band Breakouts based on daily data and 263 Breakouts based on weekly data. We have 818 Cash Flow Kings 46 Swing Signals -- 42 BUY signals and 4 SELL Signals. 551 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 206 stocks that are new additions to the list and 37 that fell off the previous list. 82 Trend Busters based on daily data of which 80 are BUY signals. We also have 46 Trend Busters based on weekly data. 140 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. We also have 52 Gap Signals based on weekly data. The view from Alert HQ -- Markets exhibited holiday cheer this week wi...

This post is announcing that Thursday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ . All are based on daily data. Today we have the following: 46 Swing Signals -- 39 BUY signals and 7 SELL Signals. 379 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 150 stocks that are new additions to the list and 72 that fell off the previous list. 88 Trend Busters of which 83 are BUY signals and 5 are SELL signals. 171 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 85 are bearish gaps and 86 are bullish gaps. The view from Alert HQ -- On the weekend I asked whether tech could lead the market higher. We almost have the answer. The NASDAQ appears to breaking out to the upside. The other major averages have not been able to follow suit, at least not yet. Our signals tonight, though, make me optimistic that we'll see the S&P 500, the Dow and the Russell 2000 ca...

Ciber (CBR) has sure been volatile these last few days. Here's why I find that interesting. First the breakout -- The company showed up this past weekend on the Bollinger Band Breakout list at Alert HQ. A look at the chart below shows how sharp the breakout has been. Even though the stock gave up some ground today, it's still up dramatically. Does this mean the company is about to announce surprisingly good quarterly results? Note that the stock has managed to hold above the lower blue horizontal line which was the first level or resistance and which is now acting as the first level of support. The stock has not yet broken through the upper blue horizontal line which is the current resistance level. On the plus side, MACD and Aroon are both starting to indicate a new trend that is pushing to the upside. Now the interesting part -- Many analysts and economics regard temporary staffing as a leading indicator of employment recovery, because many companies, being cauti...

Stocks gyrated this week in response to the release of the latest FOMC policy statement and developments in Greece including the corresponding downgrade of Greek government bonds. Economic reports were mixed. The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose more than expected in November and that was looked on as negative inflationary news. The higher prices, however, weren't reflected in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which was in line and implies price increases were not being passed on to consumers like you and me. Industrial Production beat expectations and Initial Jobless Claims rose for a second straight week while the moving average declined. All in all, economic fundamentals were OK this week and how important is Greece, anyway? Yet stocks didn't do much. except for tech stocks and small-caps that did actually manage to show gains this week. So how are things doing from a technical analysis point of view? The view from Alert HQ -- Charts of some of the statistics we track at A...

This is the usual quick post announcing that the weekend's stock signals are now available at Alert HQ . Today we have the following stock picks and signals: Based on daily data, we have 21 Alert HQ BUY signals and 17 SELL signals Based on weekly data, we have 2 Alert HQ BUY signal and 13 SELL signals We have 158 Bollinger Band Breakouts based on daily data and 226 Breakouts based on weekly data. We have 835 Cash Flow Kings 43 Swing Signals -- 35 BUY signals and 7 SELL Signals and 1 Strong BUY. 301 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 53 stocks that are new additions to the list and 70 that fell off the previous list. 53 Trend Busters based on daily data of which 49 are BUY signals. We also have 122 Trend Busters based on weekly data. 174 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. We also have 57 Gap Signals based on weekly data. The view from Alert HQ -- Markets ended the week m...

Last night I published the Thursday Swing Trading Signals and there was an interesting mid-cap tech company on the list. The company is Synopsys (SNPS). Why do I question whether it can rise from the dead? Take a look at this chart: You can see that the stock got slammed in early December and was left for dead. The sell-off was induced by an earnings report where the company announced lower quarterly profit and sales as well as higher expenses. Today, the stock opened with an upside gap and so far is holding its gains. Company Background -- Synopsys, Inc. and its subsidiaries provide electronic design automation (EDA) software and related services for semiconductor design companies in the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Asia Pacific. The software provides design and verification, optimization, simulation and timing analysis capabilities. The company supports both digital and analog chip design and provides professional services. Synopsys, a $3 billion company, is a...

This post is announcing that Thursday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ . All are based on daily data. Today we have the following: 20 Swing Signals -- 12 BUY signals and 8 SELL Signals. 318 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 103 stocks that are new additions to the list and 95 that fell off the previous list. 34 Trend Busters of which 26 are BUY signals and 8 are SELL signals. 173 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 92 are bearish gaps and 81 are bullish gaps. The view from Alert HQ -- A sour day in the market today led to losses in all major averages. The financial sector especially fell into disfavor again with Citi's misfire of a stock offering and Meredith Whitney's downgrading of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanely. For the second week in a row, initial jobless claims ticked up slightly while the four-week...

One of the features of this web site is what I refer to as the "super list" where I combine the results of two or more of the screens that the Alert HQ software performs and publish the resulting set of stocks. Today I'd like to feature a stock that seems to keep popping up on individual screens and was brought to my attention when I checked a few combinations of screens. This stock is one of the Cash Flow Kings from this past weekend and it's on Tuesday's Trend Leaders list. It's in my recent Q3 Growth Report because it showed gains in both its year-over-year and sequential earnings per share. Finally, it again exceeded it's upper Bollinger Band which earned it a place on Tuesday's Bollinger Band Breakout list. The name of this stock is Amedisys, Inc and its symbol is AMED. Normally, I focus on tech stocks but here we have a different animal. Amedisys is a healthcare company. It specializes in home healthcare and hospice services. Here are som...

This post is announcing that Tuesday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ . All are based on daily data. Today we have the following: 29 Swing Signals -- 20 BUY signals and 7 SELL Signals plus 1 Strong BUY and 1 Strong SELL. 308 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 115 stocks that are new additions to the list and 61 that fell off the previous list. 61 Trend Busters of which 54 are BUY signals and 7 are SELL signals. 162 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 84 are bearish gaps and 78 are bullish gaps. The view from Alert HQ --  Stocks couldn't repeat Monday's winning ways today but neither did they erase all the upward momentum. Tonight's Alert HQ signals are actually rather positive and I'm pretty encouraged by this. The number of stocks on the Trend Leaders list has finally managed to sneak above 300. And...

Well, it seems like the markets are going nowhere fast. Major averages had nothing to show for the week's trading but fractional gains and losses. There was a limited news stream but what news we had ranged from neutral to positive. Weekly jobless claims ticked up but investors took comfort in the fact that the four-week average moved down. The Trade Deficit for October was released and it showed an increase in exports which supported sentiment on the manufacturing sector. Retail sales for November was quite a bit better than expected, providing hope the holiday shopping season would be profitable for retailers. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index advanced, as well. So economic fundamentals were again reasonably positive this week. How are things doing from a technical analysis point of view? The view from Alert HQ -- Charts of some of the statistics we track at Alert HQ are presented below: This first chart presents our moving average analysis. The num...

This is the usual quick post announcing that the weekend's stock signals are now available at Alert HQ . Today we have the following stock picks and signals: Based on daily data, we have 20 Alert HQ BUY signals and 12 SELL signals Based on weekly data, we have 2 Alert HQ BUY signal and 11 SELL signals We have 78 Bollinger Band Breakouts based on daily data and 197 Breakouts based on weekly data. We have 850 Cash Flow Kings 46 Swing Signals -- 37 BUY signals and 9 SELL Signals. 255 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 42 stocks that are new additions to the list and 41 that fell off the previous list. 75 Trend Busters based on daily data. We also have 114 Trend Busters based on weekly data. 158 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. We also have 62 Gap Signals based on weekly data. The view from Alert HQ -- Markets ended the week with pretty much no change. Our Alert HQ signal...

On Tuesday we saw a BUY signal for Adtran (ADTN) on our Swing Signals list. Back on Tuesday, after checking the chart, it looked to me like the stock was looking quite promising but was coming up against some serious resistance. Now that it's a couple of days later, let's take a look at the chart below and see how things are working out.   You can see how the stock fell from around $26 all the way down to $20. You can also see the major resistance indicated by the green-blue horizontal line. As of the close on Tuesday, Adtran was poised just below this line. As of the close today on Thursday the stock has managed push roughly 2% above this resistance line. MACD has also turned bullish now. It looks like the stock is ready to run. Background -- Adtran is a $1.39 billion networking company whose products support voice, data, video, and Internet communications. They are essentially in competition with companies like Cisco. Adtran sells primarily to large corporate custom...

This post is announcing that Thursday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ . All are based on daily data. Today we have the following: 49 Swing Signals -- 38 BUY signals and 9 SELL Signals and 2 Strong SELLs. 253 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 60 stocks that are new additions to the list and 89 that fell off the previous list. 52 Trend Busters of which 48 are BUY signals and 4 are SELL signals. 162 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 89 are bearish gaps and 73 are bullish gaps. The view from Alert HQ -- Stocks continue to plug along in a range. Today's action set no new highs nor short-term lows. We had a small tick up in weekly jobless claims and a small decrease in the four week average. This mixed result took a bit of the edge off the market's bullishness but, after a day of modest ebb and flow, major aver...

This post is announcing that Tuesday's Swing Signals, Trend Leaders, Trend Busters and Gap Signals are now available at Alert HQ . All are based on daily data. Today we have the following: 20 Swing Signals -- 12 BUY signals and 8 SELL Signals. 282 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 98 stocks that are new additions to the list and 76 that fell off the previous list. 38 Trend Busters of which 35 are BUY signals and 3 are SELL signals. 161 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. 76 are bearish gaps and 85 are bullish gaps. The view from Alert HQ -- I hate writing about days like today. Stocks were down for no particular reason and the drop was sizable. The major averages all closed below their 20-day moving averages except for the Russell 2000 which, after lagging the other indexes, is now hanging in there better than the rest. Despite today's losses and Monday's losses...

This past weekend we generated a nice list of Alert HQ BUY signals. Despite a drooping market on Monday there were some stocks that still registered gains. One of them is Multi-Fineline Electronix (MFLX). Take a look at the following chart. You can see this stock is really perking up. MACD and DMI are all swinging bullish and the stock has made it above it's 50-day moving average on a day when most other tech stocks sagged. The down-trend starting in September has been broken to the upside. All good signs. Background -- Here is the descripition from Yahoo! Finance: “Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. engages in the engineering, design, and manufacture of flexible printed circuit boards and related component assemblies for the electronics industry. The company’s products are used in feature phones, smart phones, consumer electronic devices, portable bar code scanners, computer/storage devices, and medical devices… It operates primarily in the United States, China, Singapore, ...

As so many economic reports have begun to show that the Great Recession is beginning to recede, many analysts have pointed to the employment situation as a nearly intractable problem. It was expected that employment would be picking up by now, given how many other indicators were showing recovery. Yet job creation has been lagging and layoffs have continued at uncomfortably high levels. Friday, however, the Nonfarm Payrolls report delivered the last piece in the puzzle. The report was better-than-expected in a number of different dimensions. Only 11,000 jobs were lost in November, far less than the 125,000 median estimate. Prior months were revised to show smaller drops. Also providing a big surprise, the unemployment rate declined to 10.0%, from a previous reading of 10.2%. So economic fundamentals are looking up. How are things doing from a technical analysis point of view? The view from Alert HQ -- Charts of some of the statistics we track at Alert HQ are presented below: ...

This is the usual quick post announcing that the weekend's stock signals are now available at Alert HQ . I apologize for the delay but we had a struggle with our systems today and it took some time to get things squared away and operating properly. Today we have the following stock picks and signals: Based on daily data, we have 31 Alert HQ BUY signals and 4 SELL signals Based on weekly data, we have 1 Alert HQ BUY signal and 14 SELL signals We have 105 Bollinger Band Breakouts based on daily data and 200 Breakouts based on weekly data. We have 849 Cash Flow Kings 32 Swing Signals -- 26 BUY signals and 6 SELL Signals. 262 Trend Leaders , all in strong up-trends according to Aroon, MACD and DMI. We have 57 stocks that are new additions to the list and 52 that fell off the previous list. 78 Trend Busters based on daily data. We also have 67 Trend Busters based on weekly data. 172 Gap Signals -- stocks with upside or downside gaps or gaps that have been closed. We als...

Thursday's TradeRadar Trend Busters had some BUY signals on a number of tech stocks. Among them was Open Text (OTEX). Looking at daily data, the stock has been surging, bouncing off its 200-day moving average and moving above its 50-day moving average. Bursting above a short-term down-trend earned the stock a place on the Trend Busters list. Let's pull back a bit and take a longer term perspective. The following is the weekly chart and a nice steady, up-trend appears to be solidly in place. Background -- Open Text Corporation develops and sells Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions primarily in North America and Europe. Its products enable corporations to manage traditional forms of content, such as images, office documents, graphics, and drawings, as well as to manage electronic content, including Web pages, email, and video. They facilitate document management, collaboration, social media, Web content management, digital asset management, records management, ...