In fact, the shares have trended steadily higher since bottoming out near the $20 level in late October 2008. ORLY has rallied to a 78% gain, and is currently enjoying support from its 10-day and 20-day moving averages. The equity is fractionally lower today as it consolidates some of its recent gains, but a contrarian analysis indicates that the recent uptrend isn't over yet.

For starters, analysts are still highly skeptical of the outperforming stock. ORLY might have outperformed the SPX by 33 percentage points during the past 60 trading days, but half of the 14 brokerage firms following the shares still maintain a tepid Hold rating. Any upgrades or bullish initiations, such as Baird's, could draw new buying pressure to the shares.

Short-covering support should also benefit ORLY. Short interest represents more than 11% of the stock's available float, and some of these bears will likely be forced to buy back their shares as the equity's ascent continues.

Finally, options players are trying to fade the rally. During the past 10 days, traders on the International Securities Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange have bought to open 7.11 puts for every call on ORLY. In other words, bearish options have been more than seven times more popular than their bullish counterparts.

In short, there's plenty of pessimism surrounding this security, despite its solid price action. As the remaining bears on Wall Street gradually capitulate to ORLY's strength, the shares should be buoyed by the unwinding of short positions. During the near term, look for this stock to continue its technical outperformance.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.