[isatrader]

I highlighted BHI at the end of May as a US stock in Stage 1, but it's attempting to make a Stage 2A breakout today, and it's weekly technical attributes score has moved from a 6 to an 8 out of 9 SATA score. See attached.

[gbarbs]

I will have to get up to speed on the point and figure charts. I don't really know how to read those. I stayed away from INO for now. Will keep an eye out for a better entry point. I sold HCBK after volume decreased on the breakout.

Today I looked through some property and casualty insurance companies. This looks like a strong group within the financial sector. Looking at the individual companies in the group my broker puts together, I counted approximately 55 stage 2's, 11 stage 3's, 2 stage 1's, and 0 stage 4's. 3 were not clear enough to read. I say approximately because I counted a few as 2 and 3 when I could not make a decision. In any case it was clearly bullish and most 30 WMA's were rising strongly. It appeared many in the grou were in a pullback towards the MA, but with the MA's still rising strongly I thought it would be a good place to look for a continuation buy.

After going through the individual charts, my favorites were ASI, AGO, HCI, HTH, UVE. None have great entry points today, but ASI has been trading in a very narrow range the last 6 weeks. So, you could set a close stop on that one. None have any 10 year overhead resistance except AGO.

   
   
   
   
   
   

[gbarbs]

I had a buy stop set up for ITMN that was hit yesterday. No volume yet but it is rising on the daily chart. RS is acceptable but not good. Waiting to see what happens.

INO took off like a rocket! Wish I could make decisions in hindsight. Looking back the wide base and high volume was attractive. I stayed away because I wasn't comfortable with the sell stop location.

   
   

[gbarbs]

Charts of interest to me....JKS is looking good. Nothing is perfect but just completed a H&S almost 2 years old. This one I bought. Haven't done anything on the others yet.

ZHNE has earnings report tomorrow and jumped 18-19% on huge volume yesterday. It looks like a possible continuation buy. I don't like the resistance at 1.50 although it is about a year and a half old. RS looks ok on the initial breakout. Just acceptable to me. It interests me because it broke through near term resistance with such large volume it is making me think the earnings will be good news tomorrow.

Waiting for VSAT. it is at 10 year high, RS and volume look good. I guess I would look to buy on a break above 73.5 or if it comes closer to the TL or MA, but wondering if it is establishing enough support at 67.50 to buy now and set a stop there???

RWC looking to see if that steeper TL holds or if it falls back to a safer buying area. Otherwise RS is great, volume good. Not at a 10 year high but resistance is old.

   
   
   
   

[anupam384]

ASTX: I know its been quite sometime since ASTX broke out. It also pulled back. I got in at 5.20. I think it still has room to run.

[gbarbs]

ASTX: I know its been quite sometime since ASTX broke out. It also pulled back. I got in at 5.20. I think it still has room to run.

anupam - i like the sector a lot, and the chart. it has nice wide swings in the base - had a significant advance before the BO, and the RS pulled away from zero. those i recall are ingredients for big winners. i have several in this sector. acor, amag, itmn, thrx, cbst. just posted ino on the trader thread the other day, but wasn't sure about the entry point and didn't buy. it then took off so a good sign i guess for the group. idix is looking to form stage 1 base and is further behind than the others - maybe a chance to catch one on the breakout soon?

the only negative comment i can make is i am not sure about your entry. what are you using as your sell stop? looking at the daily, i could see using maybe 4.99?? but looking at the weekly i am not seeing nearby support. good luck and thank you for the post. i missed this one and added to my watchlist.

[isatrader]

ASTX: I know its been quite sometime since ASTX broke out. It also pulled back. I got in at 5.20. I think it still has room to run.

Hi anupam384,

I've attached the weekly and daily charts for ASTX and some long term point and figure charts, and have marked the Stage 2A breakout point, which imo occurred in June 2012 as it broke out and the 30 week MA also turned higher, which it didn't in January that year when the price spiked sharply higher, and hence why that wasn't a Stage 2 move, and would have still be considered Stage 1 at the time.

ASTX is currently in a fairly strong Stage 2 phase and has outperformed the S&P 500 since it broke out into Stage 2A last year. So you're entry at 5.20 would be considered a pullback entry within Stage 2, and normally would be used for additional buying, as ideally for the investor method the initial entry should be half at the Stage 2A breakout level (June 2012) and half on the first significant pullback and stabilisation (late November 2012) - which in ASTX's case would have got you in around the 2 to 3 range.

Stop loss positioning for the investor method should go below the last significant weekly swing low and the 30 week MA. So for this that would be below 3.90 - however, if you'd actually entered at the Stage 2A breakout point and had been raising your stop as suggested in the book it would be a bit lower as you don't raise you stop until the price gets near to the previous swing high, which it hasn't reached yet.

So I just wanted to make that clear for any new members reading this and say good luck to anupam384 with the trade.

[isatrader]

what are you using as your sell stop? looking at the daily, i could see using maybe 4.99?? but looking at the weekly i am not seeing nearby support. good luck and thank you for the post. i missed this one and added to my watchlist.

Hi gbarbs, you are looking at this from the trader method perspective I'm assuming, whereas I'm presuming as anupam384 posted it in the investor method thread because he's considering holding it for much longer than you would with the trader method. So hence the stop loss will be much wider under the 30 week MA and last significant swing low. However, if you were putting in a stop loss for the trader method the last swing low is too far away at around 7x the 200 day average true range, so you'd need to look for recent support and usually it would also go below the 50 day MA as well. So as the June swing high was at 4.97 and the 50 day MA is at 4.92, you'd probably want to put the stop loss a bit below both of those, which would give you a much more acceptable trader stop loss distance of around 2x the 200 day average true range.

For more detailed information on the stop loss positioning, there is a thread in the members only section which you can find here: http://stageanalysis.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=25 and requires you to register if you are only viewing this as a guest.