The major indexes barely budged, with equal numbers of stocks declining on selling pressure and others rising on renewed buying by institutional investors. The anticipated Fed interest rate increase mid-week was met with a collective yawn.
Most stocks on our lists were among those institutional investors suddenly took a renewed liking to, rising on buying demand despite having been sold off in recent weeks, with no particular reason cited for their abrupt change in sentiment. This was beneficial for our existing long positions but unproductive for our short positions, especially recent ones. In fact, most trades this weekend are short-to-long reversals, the opposite of the trend of the past few weeks.
As a result, numbers of new weekly highs rose while new weekly lows declined. Aside from a few good gainers (EVH and FIVN long, URBN short), most of our stocks remained stuck in neutral or retreated back to original trade price levels, such that it was just not one of our more productive weeks this year.
Looking forward to a period where institutional investors trade with consensus conviction (either direction) to really move prices of many of our stocks for significant gains like we saw last Nov and Dec.
Highlights: 5 new weekly highs in long positions. 6 stocks with double-digit long gains:
ABX +17% FIVN +21% NEFF +52%
EVH +15% IVTY +27%
NGL +21%
4 new weekly lows among short positions. 3 stocks with double-digit short gains:
NPTN +18% ATW +29%
URBN +29%