Only 6 of the 16 stocks on the leadership list were positive for the week, but the magnitude of the gains far outweighed the losses and overall the list was up about 1% for the week.
BWLD was the biggest gainer, being one of two stocks that reported this week. They posted good numbers and had a massive gap up, something I normally would steer clear of, but just the day before IBD published a column about buying stocks that gap up on very high volume: basically, what they said is they usually move quite a bit higher. While this was way beyond a proper buy point in the base it broke out of, I diod buy it in the Market Watch game and now have a pretty hefty profit. The fear I have of pulling the trigger after a big gap is psychological; I have actually done informal studies of gaps and most gap ups do result in a move that usually lasts a couple of weeks and gains 20% or more. I have a target here around 90, and this is a good chance to watch and see how well that "target" system works.
USHS was the second biggest gainer. This was a newcomer on the list this week, thanks to a burst of volume it has recieved since the first of the year, and on it's debut day (Monday), it collpased for no reason I could see. It did, however, hava a somewhat bullish candle that day (the close was quite high off the low), and it reversed the next day, offering a perfect entry point. If the volume keeps increasing it could get pretty volatile, and give us a few wild rides the way
ZAGG did a few months ago.
NANO was the other stock to report this week, and was the biggest decliner. Last Friday (the blue arrow), this hit a high and then reversed, which might have been a warning that someone knew the numbers were going to be disappointing (yeah, I know that's illegal, but I'm paranoid enough to believe it still happens). Here is another case where I will be watching it for 10 trading days after the report to see if it reverses and starts heading back up again.
MELI was the second biggest decliner, and as usual, the second biggest decliner is often the most bullish looking chart of the bunch. This established a new trading range in November with a gap up, then had a breakout attempt in December that failed. One of the reasons it may have failed is because it wasn't a real breakout: by my pivot point system, the high at 89.90 market the middle, not the top, of the trading range, and I project the top to be about 103. If this follows my thesis, it should pull back to around 90, then reverse and move up to around 103. However, I believe this reports soon, so that might throw a monkey wrench into the works.
