What the charts of these 20 stocks are trying to tell you

Posted Mar 31st 2008 12:28PM by Timothy Sykes
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), General Electric (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT), Intel (INTC), Ford Motor (F), Home Depot (HD), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Applied Materials (AMAT), Bank of America (BAC), Merrill Lynch (MER), Wachovia Corp (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Buy, Stocks to Sell

Even in these uncertain times, there are stocks that have far better odds of outperforming than others. Yup, for a minute, just forget about all the different industries, economic guessing games, earnings-valuation time lags and the rest of the market randomness that makes stock picking so difficult and "market gurus" so ineffective. Focus instead on the incredibly telling stock charts of these companies:

Bullish Charts:

General Electric Co (NYSE: GE)
Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GILD)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT)
Nabors Industries Ltd (NYSE: NBR)
Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD)

Bearish Charts:

Merrill Lynch & Co (NYSE: MER)
Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC)
Lehman Brothers Holdings (NYSE: LEH)
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI)
Ford Motor (NYSE: F)
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC)
Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ: AMAT)
Wachovia Corp (NYSE: WB)
Washington Mutual Inc (NYSE: WM)

The bullish charts distinguish themselves by breaking above their recent price ranges. Stocks like Gilead Sciences, Nabors Industries and Wal-Mart Stores are enjoying multi-month breakouts.

While investors in stocks with bearish-looking charts like Merrill Lynch, Sirius Satellite Radio and Applied Materials have seen the downtrends, even with the recent bounces, hold firmly in place and now their pullbacks have also been steeper.

I know what you're thinking -- this is just short-term technical analysis mumbo jumbo. You prefer "investing in solid companies for the long haul." I have no problem with long-term investing -- okay, maybe a little -- but that doesn't mean you should ignore what these charts are telling us. After all, investors should care only about stock performance, not company quality!

Disclosure: I have no positions in any of these stocks--as I preach on my blog, I prefer trading more predictable smallcaps and microcaps.

Tags: amat, bac, f, ge, gild, hd, intc, leh, mer, msft, siri, timothy sykes, TimothySykes, wb, wm, wmt

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-31-2008 @ 2:01PM

Gumby said...

Why is everyone still so clueless on how close Ford Motor is toward bankruptcy if they dont start buying Ford cars .... Are we prepared for Ford bankrupct if not GM too... Are we ready yet? Or will we just shrug our shoulders and later on cry about how our programs got cut back...?