Past week recap: Some sectors (namely tech and healthcare) remained attractive to institutional investors and their buying sent prices up again for the third week, along with the major indexes, though gains were smaller than in the first two weeks. Other sectors were flat or sold off somewhat (oils and industrials).
For us, a mixed week: some of our long positions set new weekly highs, but just as many appeared to peak and sag, at least for the moment – too soon to distinguish whether just another healthy “pause” or the beginning of an extended downtrend. Similarly, some of our recent shorts set new weekly lows, while others remained stubbornly flat. New weekly highs continue to outnumber new weekly lows. Sags in long positions in most cases were not large enough to trigger a sell signal, so trades are few.
Highlights: 6 new weekly highs in long positions. 11 stocks with double-digit long gains:
- FOLD +12%
- CECO +24%
- BXC +37%
- PES +48%
- LPSN +69%
- HNRG +13%
- FMSA +26%
- URBN +61%
- NGL +14%
- FTK +20%%
- NCI +25%
No new weekly lows among short positions. 1 stock with double-digit short gain:
- TRUE +23%
Analytics: Exiting NPTN this week, one of the last two Level 1 positions still held after analytics revision last summer revealed it to be contrary to profitable direction (the other being CYBE). While others eventually cycled through the counter position into a profitable direction, this stock has recovered only minimally, never cycled into a productive trend and now appears to be declining again, so we will absorb this loss now before it has a chance to become even larger.