Medical devices are in demand

Each day when I screen on Barchart for the stocks that are hitting new highs the symbol MEND - Micrus Endovascular keeps coming up. When I sort for frequency this stock had 14 price advances in the last 20 trading sessions and had 4 in the most recent 5 days. It has enjoyed a 31.51% price increase in the last month. Barchart's 13 technical indicators hit a buy signal on all 13 indicators for a 100% buy rating

Micrus Endovascular Corporation is a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets implantable and disposable medical devices used in the treatment of cerebral vascular diseases.

Zack recently upgraded this company to a buy and other analysts agree. 11 analysts have increased their earning per share estimates in just the last 7 day. The consensus is for a 14.2% growth in sales and a 7.0 growth in EPS. The 5 year compounded EPS growth is estimated at 32.2%. Wall Street has 11 buy recommendations out with only 2 holds.

Other sites agree -- Motley Fool members think the stock will out perform the market by a vote of 72 to 4 with the All Stars in agreement 19 to 2. The Wall Street columnists Fool follows like the stock 16 to 0.

What more could you want in a stock:

1. Recent upgrade by Zacks
2. Price appreciation in more than 50% of the recent trading sessions
3. All 13 of Barchart's technical indicators signal buy
4. Other site like Motley Fool have over whelming interest

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

Disclosure: no positions at the time of publication

Don't be chicken to buy Tyson

When I begin to search for new stocks I always begin the same way using Barchart to run a list of the stocks having recent price appreciation and then sorting for the stocks that have had the most frequent price appreciations in the last 20 trading sessions. I then run through a sorting process to weed the list down further. My pick for today is Tyson Foods Inc (TSN) .

I'll go into the reasons in a moment. I don't know about you but I am eating a lot more chicken. Many of my friends are eating less red meat and those that haven't gone over to the dark side and become total vegetarians are restricting themselves to fish and chicken. Having been raised in the south I like chicken just about any way you can fix it: grilled, fried, baked, but I still like it with the skin on -- I'm not totally nuts yet.

Tyson Foods, Inc. is an integrated producer, processor and marketer of chicken and poultry-based food products. Tyson supplies chicken products through food service, retail grocery stores, club stores and international distribution channels. The core business is chicken in the United States; but they also make corn and flour tortillas under the Mexican Original brand and through its subsidiary Cobb Vantress, a chicken breeding stock supplier. If you haven't heard of the brand you don't eat chicken.

The stock is on my list because it has hit new highs in 12 of the last trading sessions and is 5 for 5 recently. The stock had a 22.45% price appreciation in the last 30 days and has 13 of 13 buy signals on Barchart's technical indicators for a 100% buy rating.

Of the 13 analysts following the stock 11 have revised their next years EPS estimates in the last 7 days. The consensus is for a 4.2% revenue growth next year coupled with a 5.1% increase in earning per share. They estimate a 8.5% compounded EPS growth for the next 5 years. Brokerage analysts give the stock 6 buy and 7 hold recommendations.

Short interest has also been decreasing from a high of 14 million shares last year down to 9 million at the end of January.

Just to double check my research I went over on Motley Fool and the CAPS members think the stock will outperform the market by a vote of 191 to 72 with the All Stars in agreement 55 to 15.

This is what I look for in a stock:

• The stock is having price appreciation in more than 50% of the recent trading sessions
• There is interest on Wall Street and the analysts are predicting increasing revenue and earnings
• Some other sites following the stock are not betting against it

Tyson Foods (TSN) might make a good addition to your portfolio. First research it yourself and see if it fits the rules you've set for yourself on risk and diversification. As always put in a stop loss at either a percentage drop or a daily moving average and monitor your portfolio on a regular basis.

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

Disclosure: no position at the time of publication

The Long and Short of it - February 16,2010

Each day I go on Barchart and sort the new high and new low list for frequency. I then take the top 10 highs and the top 10 lows and do additional screening. I'll list here those that pass and might be good additions to your portfolio. Use this list as a starting point and then investigate each stock to see if it has a place in your portfolio.

Buy Long Stocks:

PTIE - Pain Therapeutics - 100% buy - 13 of 20 days of price appreciation and monthly return 16.17%

Pain Therapeutics is developing a new generation of opioid painkillers.Opioids are drugs derived from the poppy plant. The company uses technology to reformulate opioid drugs, such as morphine, into new painkillers with improved clinical benefits. The company has four opioid painkillers in Phase II clinical trials. The company believes its drugs offer enhanced pain relief, fewer adverse side effects and reduced tolerance and addiction compared to existing opioid painkillers.

MEND - Micrus Endovascular - 100% buy - 10 of 20 days of price appreciation and a monthly return of 25.18%

Micrus Endovascular Corporation is a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets implantable and disposable medical devices used in the treatment of cerebral vascular diseases.

XCHO - XenaCare Holdings - 100% buy - 13 of 20 days of price appreciation and a monthly return of 451.72%

XenaCare Holdings, Inc. engages in the formulation, marketing, and distribution of nutrition supplement products primarily in the United States. Its clinical products include XenaCor, which lowers serum cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and homocysteine levels, designed to support cardiovascular health; XenaTri for lowering triglycerides and raising HDL to support cardiovascular health; and XenaZyme Plus that increases the body's oxygen carrying capacities, designed to support digestion. The company's clinical products also comprise body replenishment products. In addition, it offers formulations for the energy/lifestyle performance market, which consists of sports line for athletes, including SunPill that is formulated to protect the skin when exposed to damaging ultraviolet rays. XenaCare markets its products through the Internet, pharmacies, infomercials, and doctors' offices

REGN - Regeneron Pharma - 100% buy - 12 of 20 days of price appreciation with a 19.42% return

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and intends to commercialize therapeutic drugs for thetreatment of serious medical conditions. Regeneron's platform technologies include Targeted GenomicsTM, FunctionomicsTM, and Designer Protein TherapeuticsTM. Regeneron has drugs in clinical and preclinical development for the potential treatment of obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, allergies, asthma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, constipating conditions, ischemia, and other diseases and disorders.

SGB - SouthWest Georgia - 100% buy - 13 days of price appreciation in the last 20 sessions and a 52.48% return

Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation is a state-chartered bank holding company with approximately $two hundred ninety million in assets headquartered in Moultrie, Georgia. Its primary subsidiary, Southwest Georgia Bank, offers comprehensive financial services to consumer, business, and governmental customers. The current banking facilities include the main office located in Colquitt County, and branch offices located in Baker County, Thomas County, and Worth County. In addition to conventional banking services, the bank provides investment planning and management, trust management, mortgage banking, and commercial and individual insurance products. Insurance products and advice are provided by Southwest Georgia Insurance Services which has an office in Colquitt County. Mortgage banking for primarily commercial properties is provided by Empire Financial Services, Inc., a mortgage banking services firm.


Sell or Short Stocks:
PKY - Parkway Properties - 100% sell with 13 price declines in the last 20 sessions and a 22.92% decline in price

Parkway Properties, Inc. is a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust specializing in the acquisition, ownership, management,financing and leasing of office properties in the Southeastern United States and Texas.

BSX - Boston Scientific - 100% sell rating with 11 price declines in 20 sessions and a 19.15% price decline

Boston Scientific Corporation is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of minimally invasive medical devices. The company's products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties, including cardiology, electrophysiology, gastroenterology, neuro-endovascular therapy, pulmonary medicine, radiology, urology and vascular surgery.

Please remember to research these stocks fully before adding to your portfolio

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

Disclosure: I hold no positions in these stocks at the time of publication

Market gave me a suprise

Each weekend I always step back and try to cut through all the noise and see what the state of the market really is. I use Barchart to get all my data and try to use a consistent methodology so I get the feel of what is really happening. Let's look at the 3 sets of data I use to see where we're at this week.

Value Line Index -- this index uses 1700 stocks so it's much broader than the narrower S&P 500 or Dow 30 -- Up 2.54% this week -- Last month down 2.89% but up 1.57% so far this month -- Let's call it recovering

• Barchart's technical indicators signal a buy on only 5 of the 13 signals for an overall rating of hold
• The Index closed Friday above its 100 day moving average but is still below its 20 and 50 DMA

Barchart market momentum indicator -- normally covers approximately 6000 stocks --the percentage of stocks closing above their daily moving averages for various time frames -- still weak but improving

• 20 DMA -- 42.01% closed above -- last week it was only 20.01%
• 50 DMA -- 43.42% closed above -- last week it was only 35.31%
• 100 DMA -- 54.84% closed above -- last week it was only 45.63%

Ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stocks hitting new lows for various periods -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral, below .99 bearish -- we have 1 bearish and 2 bullish signals

• 20 day ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows -- 434/474 = .92
• 65 day ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows -- 246/209 = 1.18
• 100 day ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows -- 194/149 = 1.30

Summary - the market shows improving numbers but has still not returned to the level where I feel comfortable. When at least 50% of the stocks are trading above their recent daily moving averages then you have a better than 50/50 chance of having your portfolio increase. There is a lot going on over there in Europe and we seem to be improving faster than they are. Greece is a problem and I'm afraid that we may see problems in Portugal, Spain and maybe even France. My biggest fear is not the economic turmoil but maybe some civil unrest. If there are large numbers of men ages 18-40 unemployed and they begin to blame their governments for their plight we might see riots like we saw in some of the poorer parts of Paris a few years ago. Nothing good can happen during civil unrest. That leads me to my next investment.

Next week's strategy -- Since our economy has a jump on Europe I'm going to short the Euro. I'll do that by adding 500 shares of EUO - the ProShare Ultrashort Euro ETF - Right now the Euro is at 1.359. Back a few years ago I can remember when it traded at .85. If that happened again since this is a leveraged ETF I could see a gain of up to 120% on this trade.

Wall Street Survivor results -- This month I look like a champ so far. The S&P 500 is up .15% and I'm up 4.52% with the next competitor the Motley Fool All Stars up .57%. I'm still down for the lifetime of this contest but I'm trying to catch up. We've all seen how rankings can change at the drop of a hat. Wish me luck.

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

Disclosure -- I do not hold any positions in the stocks in my Wall Street Survivor portfolio at the time of publication.

Model portfolio deletetions February 11, 2010

The following stocks are being deleted from my model portfolios for poor price performance and failure to maintain a price above even the 100 day moving averages :

VM500 - S&P 500 portolio - SKY - Skyline

VMNHI - the new high portfolio for stocks trading above 100K shares a day and above $5 -- Bios -- Bioscrip Inc

Both VMSIX - S&P 600 portfolio and VMSLO - portfolio for stocks hitting new highs but trading less than 100K shares a day and/or less than $5 -- WXS - Wright Express

VMSHT - short porfolio -- NTRI - NutriSystems - has had a price collapse and has been ADDED to the short portofolio

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who write on financial matters here and on Financial Tides. Please leave a comment below or email JimVanMeerten@gmail.com

Disclosure - no positions in these stocks at the time of publication

Stock picks for February 11, 2010

The following stocks might be possible additions to your portfolio. Use BarChart to find further information:

NQM - Nuveen Inv Quality - closed end Muni bond fund -- recent price appreciation in 5 of 5 days

CRWG - Crowdgather -- a OTC bulletin board stock -- social networking -- recent price appreciation in 5 of the last 5 trading sessions

MPAC -- Mod - Pac -- a small run specialty printing firm -- recent price appreciation in 5 of the last 5 trading sessions

TBNK -- Territorial BanCorp -- small regional banks are hot and this one is in the prime market of Hiwaii -- 5 of 5 days of price appreciation

MEND --Micrus Endovascular -- medical devices --5 straight day of upward momentum

These are just a start -- please use Barchart and your own tools before adding to your portfolio

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

Disclosure -- no positions in these stocks at the time of this publication.

Small banks are hot

As always I start my quest for the next great stock by taking the new high list on Barchart and sorting for frequency. I then take the top 10 and look for something interesting. Yesterday when all the major banks were getting hit on the chin the smaller and regional banks seemed to be doing better. Sandy Spring seems to be that small bank I'm looking for.

SANDY SPRING ( SASR ) is a bank holding company for Sandy Spring National Bank of Maryland. The bank is community oriented, and conducts a full-service commercial banking business through community offices located in Montgomery, Howard, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties in Maryland. Looks like they are in a very strategic geographic region.

The analysts are beginning to take note and Janney Montgomery Scott, FBR Capital and Robert W. Baird have all recently upgraded their recommendations on this stock. In the last 7 days there has been 5 upward EPS revisions and the consensus is that there will be an increase in revenue of 6.7% plus an EPS improvement from a 28 cent loss this year to a profit of 83 cents. Nice EPS improvement.

On the technical side Barchart has 4 of the 5 short term technical indicators as a buy with one hold for an 80% short term rating. The stock had 13 new price appreciations the last month for a 48% price gain.

Now I'm not sure which banks are going to survive but I do know that the industry as a whole will survive. The industry is just too vital to the economy and the way we all do business everyday not to have a place in our communities. Small community banks will survive and Obama has promised to make that happen and give them support.

I'm taking a flyer on this one and adding Sandy Springs ( SASR ) to my VMSLO portfolio. This is the more risky of my 2 model portfolios but it goes in the risky portfolio because the trading volume recently has been below 100K shares per day.

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who writes on financial matters here and on Financial Tides. Please make a comment below or email JimVanMeerten@gmail.com

Disclosure: I hold no positions in SASR at the time of publication.

Is hot air deflating your portfolio?

I just returned from a week in Orlando at the Money Show. The speakers were terrific and I came back with a lot of good ideas that I'll share in the coming weeks. I'm not sure what happened to your portfolio but I came back to a lot of triggered stop losses. My Wall Street Survivor portfolio is down 1.97% for the month which puts me back in 6th place behind this months winner so far, Tobin Smith who has a 1.56% gain.


Most speakers at the Money Show had different opinions on the market, how to play it and what's in store for the next 6 months but one thing they all agreed on was that earnings, the economy and job numbers are not being properly factored into this market. Things are improving but every time someone in Washington opens their mouth the hot air deflates the market. Is the hot air deflating your portfolio?


Let's take a step back and see how the market did. As usual I'll use Barchart for my data.

Value Line Index -- I use this index because it contains 1700 stocks making it broader than the narrower Dow 30 or the S&P 500 -- this week down by .95%

• Barchart's technical indicators signal a 40% sell signal -- 3 buys, 2 holds and 8 sells
• The index closed Friday below its 20, 50 & 100 day moving averages for the first time in many months

Barchart's market momentum indicator -- approximately 6000 stock are used -- the percentage of stocks closing above their daily moving averages for various time frames -- above 50% good but below 50% bad -- this week all 3 looked bad

• 20 DMA -- only 20.08% closed above
• 50 DMA -- only 35.45% closed above
• 100 DMA -- only 45.78 closed above

Ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stocks hitting new lows for various time periods -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral, below .99 bearish -- this week all 3 time frames were very bearish

• 20 day ratio of new highs to new lows -- 278/3660 = .08
• 50 day ration of new highs to new lows -- 152/1733 = .09
• 100 day ratio of new highs to new lows -- 74/962 = .08

Summary -- The market is reacting very negatively to the hot air spewing out of Washington. The improving economy, job numbers and earnings are being overshadowed by the threats coming out of the White House. Isn't it ironic that Obama took all the campaign handouts from Wall Street, the banks and hedge fund managers and now spends his time demonizing them and telling the common folk how he will punish them. This week I'll trim non-performing stocks from my portfolios but I'll hold up replacing them till I see a little bit of support in the market numbers.

Alternative strategy -- At the Money Show I ran into 2 of my all time Wall Street heroes -- Robert Stovall and Paul Kangas. Both these guys are going strong and still giving us all some productive and sane advice. Since it's Super Bowl Sunday it might be time to give a return visit to Mister Stovall's Super Bowl indicator. He's observed that the winner of the Super Bowl predicts the performance of the market for the rest of the year. If the NFL wins he can look forward to an up market, if the AFL wins the market will perform poorly. Don't laugh; the indicator has been correct for 34 of the last 43 Super Bowls. Before you go to bed tonight the Bowl game winner will be determined and you'll know how to play the market. I'm not taking sides, I just want to know whether to go long or short.

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

Disclosure: I have no positions in the stock in my Wall Street Survivor portfolio

Politicians tank the market again

I like to analyze the market by using a combination of fundamental and technical analysis. Normally using that combination keeps me on the right side of the market. Lately the market seems to act irrationally every time a President or other politician opens their mouths. Somewhere back in a high school civics class I thought I remembered a teacher saying the purpose of government was to make and enforce laws and provide the common services that public and private companies couldn't provide.

These days the main purpose of the government seems to be to control the capital and equity markets, lower your taxes by limiting your bonuses, spend money they don't have on stimulus packages that don't create new jobs ( which increases the deficit) and scare the heck out of the stock market whenever it seems things are going great.

So far the scoreboard for the middle class is you are either unemployed or taking home less money because you've lost your bonus, the balance on your 401K or IRA is half of what it was 2 years ago, your house is underwater because the value is down but the mortgage balance isn't and if you need a loan to tide your small business over till the recession ends no bank will loan you money.

Yes Obama has made good on his promise to lower the tax bill of the middle class but he forgot to tell us he would do it by lowering the numbers on your W-2.

Well it's the weekend again and time to take a look on what the market did. As usual I go to Barchart for my data and I look at the Value Line Index because it is contains 1700 stocks and is broader than the narrower S&P 500 or Dow 30.

Value Line Index -- 1700 stocks -- down 2.3 % for the week. That makes us down 3 weeks in a row and down for the month by 2.89%. Remember we were up in November by 3.74% and December up by 7.01%. Is that a correction or change of direction?

• The Index closed below it's 20 & 50 day moving average but still managed to trade above its 100 DMA
• Barchart's technical indicators gives the Index a 24% sell signal with 4 buys, 2 holds and 7 sells

Barchart market momentum -- approximately 6000 stocks -- the percentage of stocks trading above their daily moving averages for various time periods --short term reversal but still up for the long term

• 20 DMA -- only 23.87% above
• 50DMA -- only 43.56% above
• 100 DMA -- 51.43% above

Ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stocks hitting new lows for various time frames -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral, under .99 bearish -- looks bad for all 3 time frames

• 20 day new high/new low ratio -- 382/2092 = .18
• 65 day new high/new low ratio -- 211/516 = .41
• 100 day new high/new low ratio -- 148/374 = .48

Strategy for the next week -- The economy according to the Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators seems to be mending, fundamentals of the companies that made it through the recession seem to be improving but the market is showing signs of nervousness from the political instability that Washington is creating. I'm going to sit on the side lines and trim a few non-performing stocks this week but not replace them till I see more support in the market.

I'm taking the week off and going down to the Money Show in Orlando to hear what the big boys are saying. The list of speakers is impressive: Steve Forbes, Howard Gold, Jim Jubak and two of my all time favorites Paul Kangas and Robert Stovall. There will be educational seminars by Jamie Dlugosch, Kelly Wright, Tobin Smith and Louis Navellier I'm really looking forward to talking to Jim Rohrback, Ken Kam, Michael Shulman, Nicholas Vardy and the always entertaining Jon Markman. If this sounds like a commercial, it's totally unsolicited. I've attended and spoke at 3 of these and really enjoyed each time. See you there.

Well, I've put off the bad news till last. My Wall Street Survivor portfolio is in the toilet. The S&P 500 was down 3.72% for the month but I'm down 7.09% mainly because I'm margined out. Hats off to Anthony Mirhaydari for calling the market sentiment properly and being up 3.72% while I came in 8th place out of 8.

See you at the Money Show.

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

Hang up on Motorola

Motorola (MOT) continues to disappoint. Now they are finally selling their cell phone business. Time for you to get out of Dodge too.

My points:

• Price decrease in 8 of the last 20 trading sessions
• Price loss of 18.07% in a month
• Barchart has 13 of 13 technical indicators signaling see
• Analysts predict 5 year compounded EPS loss of 4.55%

Sell of short immediately

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

Disclosure: no positions at the time of publication