Scanning for NEW long-term uptrend stocks ?

Andyt

Hi All

I'm curious if it's possible to write a scan for NEW long-term uptrending stocks ?

What criteria are useful ? Such as 52-week price high on above average volume and 50-D MA crosses above 200-D MA and any others ?

How can one write a scan for this ? Thanks very much.

Andrerw

markd

Well, you don't know whether a strong stock is going to turn into a long term up trending stock and no scan can tell you - that depends on future earnings and the future is unknowable. But if a stock shows strong volume and new highs, you know that, at least for the short term, there is a consensus about its near term prospects.

Here's one approach to finding those stocks:

[ [SCTR.mid >0] or [SCTR.small > 0]]

and [ [exchange is NYSE] or [exchange is NASD] ]

and [close x Upper Price Chan(63)]
and [volume > sma(21, volume) * 3]

This scan catches stocks making a new quarterly high close on big volume. Naturally, not every one will follow through. Many of them will be already in an up trend. These events probably reflect favorable earnings announcements or other news. Some might be takeovers, in which case, the move is usually over. I think the better prospects show a breakout from a range, maybe three months or so, that forms after a rally from lower lows to a higher high.

You might not want to enter them right away. Sometimes they continue rising from the breakout, but sometimes they will retrace almost the entire gain, or extend out in a long range before moving up again. You might want to do a little fundamental research (finviz is pretty good for news and numbers(free), also links to the 10K (read the management analysis section), IBD might have a ranking (subscription required)).

You could add SCTR.large if you want, but smaller companies usually have more room to grow. You can also play with any of the parameters - 63, 21, 3, to see if it makes a difference.

Many days, and sometimes many days or even weeks at a time you may not get any hits. The market is hot right now, so you should get a pretty good number. Also, run the scan for a few dates in the past to see what happened to those hits. It will give you an idea of what to expect. Also, those hits may still be good opportunities.

Andyt

Thanks very much for the input, markd. I learned a lot from your various posts. You're very knowledgeable about the market.

One question is how do you run the scan for a few dates in the past to see what happened to those hits ? This is a great way to back test the scan. Can you please demonstrate ? Thanks again.

markd

On the Advanced Scan page, near the top where it says "Starting 0 days ago..." you can edit the zero. Click your cursor in the 0 window and the calendar pops up. You can use the arrows on the calendar to select a month and year, then click on the day to select it.

Andyt

I didnt know about this feature. Thanks for the info, Mark.

markd

@Andyt This is a great page to review for the mechanics of putting together a scan:

http://stockcharts.com/docs/doku.php?id=scans:advanced_scan_workbench