We’ve been writing for a few weeks that many secondary indicators were near levels normally associated with the market lows, so if something actually went right in the world, the market could respond powerfully—and we’re optimistic that process is now underway as interest rates have fallen off and the market popped beautifully last week. In response we’re bumping up our Market Monitor ... but only to a level 5 at this point, as the intermediate-term trend still isn’t up. Long story short: We’re OK throwing a couple more lines in the water, but we want to see constructive action from here (tame pullbacks, more breakouts, etc.) before turning truly bullish.

This week’s list has charts in a few different places (some coming off the lows, some near new highs, etc.), but a ton of them reacted well to earnings and most should do well if the market follows through on its rally. Our Top Pick is a stock that, after many months of tedious action, appears to be ready to resume its major upmove.

There’s not much new to say when it comes to the market—just about all of the primary evidence remains bearish, and interest rates are still in a firm uptrend, too. There are a growing number of secondary measures that are flashing green, effectively saying a solid bounce (and maybe more) should be coming soon. Thus, we’re staying alert and keeping a list of resilient stocks and sectors, but at the risk of repeating ourselves, we have to see the buyers show up for more than a few hours to start thinking investor perception is truly changing for the better. We’re leaving our Market Monitor at a level 4.

This week’s list has more than a few familiar names, including some initial earnings winners. Our Top Pick is a steady performer that also is showing great growth thanks to both of its top-selling brands—and the stock just emerged from nearly three months of chopping lower on its report. Try to buy on dips.

The market has continued to unravel, and there’s no need to review all the gory details from the prior few days—suffice it to say that the trend of interest rates remains up and the trend of most indexes, stocks and sectors remains down. It’s also true that emotions are starting to run high, with a few signs of panic out there as investors throw most everything overboard, bringing lots of stuff down to key levels. Because of that, we remain on the lookout for some sort of market turn, but until then, we advise holding plenty of cash and keeping any new positions on the small side as we wait for the sellers to run out of ammo. We’ll respect the latest leg lower and drop our Market Monitor to a level 4.

This week’s list is a great place to start building your watch list if you haven’t already, with many names that are clearly resisting the market’s pull. Our Top Pick is a tech name that looks to have the right mix of steady growth, big earnings expansion and huge AI potential—as well as a resilient stock.

The story remains mostly the same in the market as it has for the past few weeks: The intermediate-term trend for nearly all major indexes and the vast majority of individual stocks is pointed down. That said, there also are a decent number of stocks holding up fairly well—and with earnings season starting in a major way this week, the potential is there for some leadership to develop if we see some strong upside gaps following reports. We’re all for it happening, but overall it’s best to remain cautious as the market attempts to turn the corner. Once again, we’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5.

This week’s list has a wide array of good-looking names, though for our Top Pick we’re going with a liquid leader that, while not in the first inning of its run, acts like it wants to go higher.

Friday was an encouraging day, not just because the indexes were up—for the first time in a while, we finally saw a few stocks that were holding up well really pop higher. However, does that change what we’re thinking? Not yet—from a top-down perspective, the intermediate-term trend remains for the indexes and the vast majority of individual stocks. The way we’d think about it is that what we’re seeing out there is a good first step, but the market will have to show more to gain enough momentum for a sustained advance. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5 for now.

This week’s list targets many of the stocks that are perched near (or are already hitting) new high ground. Our Top Pick is leading a possible new group move in cybersecurity stocks—you can start small here, though we prefer to look for pullbacks as selling on strength is still the norm in the market.

The market looked ugly early last week before finding some support, but we’re going to need to see more before changing our stance. We will say that, with September in the rearview mirror, there are many studies that point to a year-end rally and we continue to see a decent number of potential growth-y leaders that aren’t far from overcoming some technical hurdles. In other words, now’s not the time to stick your head in the sand, but as always, we want to see it first (some decisive buying) before taking much action. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5.

This week’s has a broad array of resilient stocks, with our Top Pick in pole position to be one of the top growth stocks—if and when the market gets going.

The Fed’s latest hawkish stance prompted an upside breakout in Treasury rates and a big late-week selloff in the stock market, with just about everything getting whacked. That action puts to bed the rally attempt from late August, of course, and reinforces our overall stance—the intermediate-term trend remains down, and with the broadening of selling pressure, we’re pulling our Market Monitor down to a level 5. To be fair, though, we’re not sticking our head in the sand: Yes, there are many worries, but the longer-term trend is still up and there’s plenty of evidence suggesting a resumption of the post-bear rally is coming at some point. Even so, it’s best to wait to see the bulls arrive first than to catch falling knives—right now, we advise holding plenty of cash.

While there aren’t many super-strong stocks out there, this week’s list has many that have taken the selling in stride thus far. Our Top Pick is helping to lead a group move that got underway a few weeks ago and could be starting its first pullback—further weakness would be tempting.

Stocks chopped up and then down last week, and all told, not much has changed—the market is still in the throes of a two-month correction, with a sideways-to-down intermediate-term trend and few stocks moving in a sustained way on the upside; simply put, there’s little money being made right now. That doesn’t mean we’re in the storm cellar—we’re OK having a few lines in the water and starting some small positions in potential leaders as the odds favor the next big market move being up. But overall, a cautious stance is warranted given the evidence. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 6.

This week’s list has something for everyone, with a variety of sectors and setups represented. Our Top Pick is an old name, but it’s cheap, strong and has an AI infrastructure angle that should keep buyers interested. Try to buy on weakness.

Some of the positives that we saw in the latter half of August are still hanging around, not the least of which is a good amount of resilience from growth stocks that popped higher on earnings or otherwise saw good-volume buying. That said, the market as a whole doesn’t look ready, with last week bringing another round of selling in the broad market and the major indexes—the intermediate-term trend never could turn up, and few stocks are really moving up at this point. Long story short, there are some encouraging pieces of evidence, but more patience is likely needed. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 6.

This week’s list is pretty well-rounded, with stocks from a variety of groups and of different sizes and profiles. Our Top Pick is a clear winner in the drug space with two big sellers; we’re OK grabbing a few shares here or (preferably) on dips.

Following a tough 9% dip in the Nasdaq and 6% haircut in the S&P 500, the market rebounded about as well as the bulls could have hoped--though, with that said, we don’t advise cannon-balling back into the pool per se, as the intermediate-term trend is mostly neutral here, interest rates are still a bugaboo and a lot of stocks still have work to do to repair the damage seen in late July and early August. Simply put, we see the past two weeks as a great first few steps for the market trying to emerge from its correction—but now we need to see continued follow through. We’ll bump our Market Monitor back to a level 6.

After a couple of so-so lists, this week’s crop of stocks is broad and includes many that have shown outsized buying volume of late. There are many enticing choices, but our Top Pick is threatening to break free from its recent launching pad and a giant post-IPO base after another great quarterly report.

Last week had a couple of big news items and, not surprisingly, the market was all over the place, with some strong up action, a wild reversal and then some support after the Fed’s talk. All in all, we consider the shows of support modestly encouraging, along with the fact that sentiment has taken a sharp turn lower as the worries of the world come back into focus. But nothing has really changed with the here and now: The intermediate-term trend of the major indexes and most stocks is pointed down, with few names making any progress. That can obviously change, but for now, we’re still patiently waiting for the buyers to retake control. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5 tonight.


This week’s list is another mixed set of stocks, though we like the fact that we’re seeing a few more positive earnings moves. Our Top Pick is trying to leave behind a multi-month range after its recent earnings surge.

From its July high to last Friday’s low, the Nasdaq pulled back almost nearly 9%, which is generally in line with some other “first corrections” in bull moves we’ve seen in the past, and the bounce since then is a good first step. That said, there’s still much more to prove here: At this point, all of the major indexes we track are below their 50-day lines, leadership-type stocks have been hit hard and interest rates remain an issue. Ideally the market begins to get back in gear right quick, but we need to see more than a couple of up days to conclude that. We’ll pull our Market Monitor down to a level 5 while remaining flexible for whatever comes.

This week’s list is a mixed bag, with something for everyone. Our Top Pick is a tech name that’s always had good numbers, and after many starts-and-stops this year, appears as though it’s finally changing character.

It’s been another constructive week for the market, with the major indexes up and most leading stocks acting appropriately. More important to us is that the broad market kicked into gear, which has turned the intermediate-term trend up for all of the major indexes we follow.

Overall, the week started out just fine, and for many stocks and indexes it remains so, though as things progressed the broad market began to have some issues again. As of this morning, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are flat to up 1%, but equal-weighted big-cap indexes are down 1.5% or so and small and mid-caps are down 2.5% to 4%. As for interest rates, they’re up marginally (10-year Treasury up three basis points).

The market has been a horror show for the most part in recent weeks, but we have felt that if something went right in the world, the many positive secondary factors (breadth, sentiment, etc.) could get the market moving in a hurry.

It’s been another mostly sour week in the major indexes, this time led by the Nasdaq—even after this morning’s gap higher, most major indexes are down in the 1.5% to 2% range. Interestingly, the 10-year Treasury yield is down this week, albeit by a mere 7 basis points.

The story remains the same for the market this week: The major indexes are all down (in the 1% to 2% range), which keeps the intermediate-term trend pointed down (every major index we look at is below its 50-day moving averages). Going along with that, the vast majority of individual stocks (about 80% of the S&P 1500) are in the same boat and hundreds of stocks are hitting new lows most days while only a couple handfuls hit new highs.

It’s been an interesting week thus far—we’ve seen interest rates take a nice step backward (10-year note is down 16 basis points this week), which has helped the indexes build on last week’s show of support, albeit in a modest way (up 0.5% to 1.5%, in general).

This week was looking a lot like last week, with the major indexes and lots of individual stocks and sectors hitting the skids earlier this week before bouncing—but today’s better-than-expected jobs report is erasing any good tidings from that. Including the indicated open, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are off in the 1% range, while broader small- and mid-cap indexes are off more than 3%.

The market has found some support as the week has gone on, turning what looked like a second straight dreadful week into a reasonable one. Near the open of Friday’s trading, the bigger-cap indexes were up modestly (1% or less) on the week, while small-/mid-cap indexes were up 1.5% or so.

For the past two months, the market had been pulling back and bouncing around normally, but this week, the post-Fed action has seen selling pressures pick up in a big way—the (more resilient) big-cap indexes have quickly retreated back to their August lows while broad measures have plunged.

After a couple of good weeks, the sellers reappeared after Labor Day and have driven the market (especially the broad market) lower. Coming into Friday, big-cap indexes were down 1.5% to 2%, while small- and mid-caps were off more than 3%.

It’s been a very solid week for the market, with a batch of so-so economic data and falling interest rates (the 10-year Treasury is down about 13 basis points on the week as we write this) bringing in the buyers. As of this morning, all of the indexes we track are up in the 2% to 3.5% range, with the Nasdaq leading the way.

Our Cabot Top Ten Trader’s market timing system consists of two parts—one based on the action of three select, growth-oriented market indexes, and the other based on the action of the fast-moving stocks Cabot Top Ten features.

Cabot Top Ten Trader is meant to be something where we do the first four or five steps of the process for you and then let you take it from there.

By following thse guidelines, we’ve always been able to get on board relatively early in each new bull cycle.

A brief guide on using the Cabot Top Ten Trader.

Guidelines to improve your investment results with Cabot Top Ten Trader.

The Cabot Top Ten Trader system evaluates price and relative performance of 8,000 charts each week to select the strongest momentum stocks.

This is a collection of tips on stock chart reading, something that’s key to Mike Cintolo’s growth stock methodology, but something few individual investors (and even professional investors) understand too well.

If you follow these rules, you’re sure to boost your portfolio’s results.

Here some of the most common questions Mike Cintolo gets from the readers of Cabot Top Ten Trader.