This is the EPS comparison to the same quarter in the prior year (PYQ=prior year quarter). My thinking was to screen out the top 80th percentile of earnings growth stocks on both a short term anda long term basis. Its sort of the thinking of a basic CAN SLIM type of screen. Lots of these are 'flash-in-the-pan' types of stocks that get a brief boost from 1-2 quarters of accelerating growth in EPS. Using Powerscreener Lite I set the stock universe to the S&P 400, 500 and 600 groups and set up a layout to show 5y, 3y, 1y and PYQ EPS growth numbers. Then I run a ranking of them using Excel's PERCENTRANK function and use Excel's excellent filtering capability to find the number for the 80th percentile. That's how I 'recalibrate' the screen weekly or monthly. I used to rank all stocks > $2 and trading more than 10,000 on a weekly basis, but it became too time consuming. Yes. Powerscreener Lite used to be called just Powerscreener and before that it was something else - I forget the name (Multex something or other). I've been using it for about 5 years. If you are creative you can use it to do just about anything the high priced websites offer in terms of screening. Its a great tool. Between that and MSN's Deluxe screener you shouldn't need to pay for any screening at all, IMO. Hope that helps. -ace
ace, Powerscreener is the old Multex. IF you remember the old WallStreetCity / Telescan screener (btw it seems like it will be a good one for getting a universe) is at: http://prosearch.businessweek.com/businessweek/general_free_search.html?mode=advanced This does relative searches for eps and rel str. I just found it recently. Doug
I purchased 800 shares of REDF today with an average share price of 19.6575 USD. <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=945061>
I've looked at that before. The 'relative' numbers aren't ranks they are just differences over the time period. The 26w relative strength is simply a 26 week ROC of the price. Its the same thing that Powerscreener does. I didn't like the Business Week one as much as the others that I mentioned. If it works for you though that's all that matters. Thanks for sharing. -ace
Still holding over the weekend. I placed a limit sell order for all shares at $19.81 USD but the market moved south soon after only selling 130 of the 800 shares. Enjoy the weekend everybody. - Spydertrader
I attempted to sell all the shares, but only received a partial fill. Rather than cancel my sell order after price moved south, I waited for price to come back to my selling price. It never did. With the close rapidly approaching I assumed price would head further south - especially after the Dow failed to breach the psychological 11,000 barrier. At this point, I had two choices: Sell the remaining shares for what would have amounted to a two dollar net gain, or hold through the weekend in anticipation of another run at Dow 11,000 might pull my little REDF boat right along as well. I figured I might as well hold onto the remaining shares since price remained inside the 30 min chart channel - waiting for Monday and another attempt at a price increase on REDF. - Spydertrader
Spydertrader, from your last stock, it seems you change your strategy from buy break out to buy at bottom, doesn't it?
The decision to enter into a position (long or short) results from an increase in volume. We confirm these signals with price improvement, MACD Histogram and The Stochastic Indicator. Ideally, I want to have a position before price moves too far. According to Jack's Documents, we want to find ourselves in a long position as an "Equity moves from a score of zero or one to a score of seven or six." Doing so increases the opportunity for larger gains and reduces the opportunity for loss creation (even with an FBO). As others have pointed out in previous posts, some of my largest gains have resulted from buying an equity when price holds in the lower portion of the price channel. REDF continues to hold within the channel (albeit at the lower end). As a result, I hoped to have given myself a much better chance of realizing a big gain. When volume started to deteriorate (along with price) on Friday, I attempted to sell my shares and take profits. After all, I can always obtain another position, at a later date (or at a much better price). However, my plan did not materialize exactly as I anticipated, and I found myself moving onto plan B. Hence, I held through the weekend. As always, I recommend a review of Jack's Documents - especially The Big Post I - X (attached to The Original Journal) in an effort to understand the big picture and the fundamentals behind the methodology. Good Trading to you. - Spydertrader