Daily Posts Archive

Most growth stocks are still on their launching pads, which I think is a good thing, at least for now—if the market strengthens from here, my guess is we’ll see some rotation into exciting new growth ideas. That said, I’m also seeing many “follow-on” opportunities in growth stocks—names that soared to new price highs in recent weeks (often following a great earnings report) and have since traded very tightly on light volume … a constructive sign that higher prices are ahead.

Finding the right growth stocks isn’t easy. To do so, focus on these important factors--and ignore the ones that don’t matter.

I have no idea if the biotech sector is near a bottom, but based on history, it would seem that we’re within 10% or so of that mark. The greatest risk seems to be that the binary outcome possibilities for developmental-stage biotech stocks (either fail or succeed) don’t mesh with investors’ risk appetite right now.

Today we start with a discussion of oil prices, starting with the chart published in January 2015, which shows that oil prices, after building a long plateau in the $110 per barrel range, plummeted to $50 per barrel in late 2014.

My topic today is what I call TOGA stocks, which stands for The Ones that Got Away. I got an email a few weeks back from an acquaintance who is still beating himself up because he didn’t buy Cisco Systems (CSCO) at 10 cents per share (split-adjusted) in 1990 and sell it at 80 in 2000.