Market up W/E 12/4/2009

Each week on Financial Tides I try to step back away from all the daily news and hypes and determine how the market really performed in the last week. After I look at the real state of the market I make my investing strategy for the next week. Will I be buying, selling or just sitting on the side lines? I use BarChart to find my data.

Value Line Index -- an index of 1700 of the larger exchange traded stocks -- much broader coverage than just the S&P 500 or Dow 30 -- Index had positive price appreciation for the week

• The Index was up 3.31% for the week
• BarChart technical indicators were 9 buys, 3 holds and 1 sell - Overall rating of 64% buy
• Short term indicators - 80% buy
• Mid term indicators - 75% buy
• Long term indicators - 64% buy

BarChart market momentum - how many stocks closed above the Daily Moving Average for various time periods - approx. 6000 stocks -- better than 50% of the stocks closed above their DMA for all 3 periods

• 20 DMA -- 66.85% above
• 50 DMA -- 62.46% above
• 100 DMA -- 71.78% above

Ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stocks hitting new lows for various periods -- above 1.00 positive, 1.00 neutral, below .99 negative -- ratio positive for all 3 periods

• 20 day ratio 1537/571 = 3.01
• 65 day ratio 728/223 = 3.26
• 100 day ratio 664/318 = 2.09

Summary -- The market had positive weekly price appreciation, the majority of the stocks closed above their daily moving averages, the ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stock hitting new lows shows the market displayed strength to the upside

Investment Strategy -- Of course I'll trim out any stocks that can't maintain its price above their 50 DMA and I'll feel confident to make new purchases that meet my screening criteria.

Wall Street Survivor score board -- The Top Stock columnists that recommend stocks place those stocks in a model portfolio on Wall Street Survivor for a little friendly competition. Results month to date are:

• S&P 500 MTD up .02%
• 7 of the 8 participants beat the S&P 500
• I'm in 1st place with a return of 3.56%

Disclosure: I do not hold positions in any of my Top Stock recommendations at the time of publication

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who writes on financial matters here and on FinancialTides. Please leave a comment below or email FinancialTides@gmail.com