Can either of you link up BVN's chart....all yahoo has is the 5 day for some reason.  Choppy means volatility to me, and if the volume is good then potentially good for trading.

http://www.stockcharts.com

It's Free

I didn't say I wanted to play this stock - I wanted your opinion. Fundamentally its great, but I'm trying to improve on technical analysis. I agree that this chart is awful, disgusting, perhaps YUCK if thats the word you'd like to use

You've been doing this 11+ years and know a whole lot more than I do. I'm TheApprentice here

YeSSs~!! Thank you Joshua

Thanks apprentice, I was just being lazy....looks like she's flying a bit high right now, and OBV indicates distribution.

look at the real chart where the real money is made the long term. You can not get 200% gains in four days. Why trade a four day move? Look at the bigger picture. CANSLIM is the best method for the past 10 yrs for a reason. No strategy is superior to this one.

Look at this chart for God's sake.


If you can't tell me 7 things wrong with this chart then you need to go back to charting school.

Long story short I manage a fund for my university but don't have full say as to what we invest in. This stock is in our portfolio and I have never been a fan. Today's jump is more reason in my mind to SELL. I shouldn't have posted this question on the 'Long' page - I am looking to sell, sorry for the mix up

I will be the first to admit that I need to go to charting school though

No mix up. That is what all of these forums are for. Mix and match. I just saw a personal question asked in a market discussion forum. It is no biggie.

BVN would be more of a sell to me than a long with this chart pattern.

How does everyone make such little charts?

I downloaded that program from windows XP that lets you resize it but it still looks funny without being full screen.

Joshua, I have read your blog for awhile and really appreciate what you do.  I have a question for you and I am not sure if this was the right topic to post it.  I have read in your blog how you scan for stocks, after you do your scan on TCNet do you weight any of your criteria more than any other?  Or are all stocks in your list considered "equal" until you check your charts?  If this is a repetitive question I apologize but I did not see any postings referencing this.  Thanks, Curtis

This is a great question (technical based):

No criteria is weighed more than the other except for volume. If one stock breaks out and has great fundamentals and another one does too the one with the biggest volume surge would be more of a favorite. Also the more green BOP (the bars on the bottom window of my charts) the better. In the previous uptrend, the base, and on the breakout if the BOP stayed green I will go more long that stock than others.

Another very important thing that is weighed more than anything else is the visual pleasure I get from the shape of the base. I can tell within a quick glance small things that I don't like. If the base is flawless I will weigh it more.

So volume is the most important thing, the shape (tight tight basing..little change in price) is the next most importatnt thing, then the green BOP is important.

Those are the three things that always indicate to me I have a possible great long.

CXW BSML so far are good examples...but EGOV was too at the time and it failed. Want to know why? We are not in a bull market.

When these picture perfect patterns create themselves in a bull market it is almost automatic that they work in the early stages!! In later stages of a bull market like the rally from October-May you will see lots of charts that are close to perfect but still will fail. These beautiful charts in fresh bull markets are the stocks that normally give me 200% plus gains.

Thank you for your answer.  I am trying to create some of my own screens and I like the criteria that  you use.

Josh, I tried to screen a short list last night, I got 122 short candidates.  How many candidates normally show up in your screening ?  Do you go through each of them, it is painful go through in stockcharts.  Is there any way to specify 50 dma is decline as screen criteria ?  Thanks

Today I will have 188 shorts to go through. It will take me around 5 minutes. I will then go back over the ones I flagged. Total time 10 minutes.

I don't have a criteria for the 50 dma to be trending down. Normally the ones that show up on my scan are already trending down. And my short scan is NOT a good scan.

It is my long scans that earned me the title Sir Aloha in TCNet.

ZONS: Very pretty weekly chart.