Value Line Index -- Contains 1700 stocks so it much broader than the S&P 500 or the much narrower Dow 30 -- We were up by 1.63% for the week, 6.89% for March following 4.65% increase in February -- Very positive

1 - The Index closed Friday above its 20, 50 & 100 daily moving average

2 - Barchart's 13 technical indicators showed 12 of 13 buy signals and 1 hold

Barchart Market Momentum -- Contains approximately 6000 stocks - The percentage of stocks closing above their DMA for various time frames -- Above 50% for all 3 time frames

1 - 20 DMA -- 85.38% closed above -- 86.76% last week

2 - 50 DMA -- 82.69% closed above -- 82.82% last week

3 - 100 DMA -- 81.67% closed above -- 81.38% last week

Ratio of stock hitting new highs to new lows for various time frames -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral, below .99 bearish -- Very bullish for all 3 time frames

1 - 20 day ratio of new highs/new lows -- 2274/227 = 10.02

2 - 50 day ratio of new highs/new lows -- 1239/102 = 12..15

3 - 100 day ratio of new highs/new lows -- 1129/79 = 14.29

Summary -- The market appears to be rising on all 3 yard sticks. Unless something really drastic happens I'll just continue with my standard method of culling stocks that fail to maintain a price above their 50 day moving averages and feel confident that the market will continue to rise and I'll replace them with new selections.

Wall Street Survivor results -- The 8 analysts that post stock selections to Top Stocks have a friendly competition going over on Wall Street Survivor. Month to date the S&P 500 is up 3.07% and 5 of the 8 analysts beat that mark. Our Skeptical Capitalist Vad managed to increase his gain by 7.87% and I'm in the 5th position with a gain of 3.18%. Maybe next week.

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 the stocks in my Wall Street Survivor portfolio

During the last 20 trading sessions BA has had a price appreciation on 11 days and has been 4 for 5 this week. Barcharts's technical indicators have 12 of 13 buy signals with just one hold for a 96% weighted buy rating.

Analysts are high on the stock with 10 buy recommendations and 11 holds. Although this may be a loss year in sales, increases in earning are expected to show a 117.1% improvement. Next year sales are expected to increase by 4.6% coupled with a 7.4% increase in earnings per share. Wall Street is expecting a 5 year compounded growth of EPS of 8.5%.

Investor sentiment as measured on Motley Fool is very positive. The CAPS members feel the stock will out perform the market by a vote of 3438 to 363 with the All Stars in agreement 887 to 55. The Fool Wall Street journalists are positive also 25 to 3.

Please do your own due diligence to see if BA belongs in your portfolio. It has a positive price momentum, Wall Street buy recommendations and a very broad and positive investor following.

Boeing (BA) trades around 70 with a 50 day moving average of 61.75.

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.comDisclosure: no positions in BA at the time of publication

The company came up on my sonar when it had 18 days of price appreciation in the last 20 trading sessions and was 5 for 5 recently. There has been a 35.21% price appreciation in the last month and Barchart's technical indicators have 12 of the 13 signaling buy with a hold on the last one; that's a 96% technical buy signal.

Analysts think that this year the stock will have a 21.4% increase in sales and a 14.5% increase in earnings per share. They also have 7 buy and 2 hold recommendations published with no under perform or sell calls.

Investor sentiment is high on Motley Fool with the CAPS members voting 441 to 19 that the stock will out perform the market with the All Stars in agreement 134 to 3. The Wall Street columnists Fool follows also agree 4 to 0.

Please do your own due diligence to see it there is a place for this stock in your portfolio. This triple hitter has positive price momentum, good analysts recommendations and positive investor sentiment.

The stock is selling around 19 with a 50 day moving average at 15.50.

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.comDisclosure: no positions in SFL at the time of publication

On Barchart the stock has had price appreciation on 11 of the last 20 trading sessions and is 3 for 5 recently. The stock has enjoyed a 27.76% price appreciation in the last 30 days and has a buy signal on 11 of Barchart's 13 technical indicators with holds on the remaining 2.

Analysts predict great things with an estimated 51.96% increase in sales this year and a 16.4% increase next year. Coming from a loss they look for a 101.9% increase in earnings per share this year and a whopping 2366.7% increase next year -- remember that is coming off a loss. The 5 year compounded EPS increase is expected to be 10% per year. They have 6 buy and 6 hold recommendations out there.

Investor sentiment is high based on a Motley Fools CAPs member vote of 1862 to 144 that the stock will beat the market this year. The All Stars agree 632 to 28. The Wall Street columnists Fool follows like it 12 to 1.

The stock is firing on all 3 cylinders:

1 - Positive price momentum

2 - Analysts predicting increased sales and earnings

3-A positive investor sentiment with a large following

Please do your own due diligence to see if the stock deserves a place in your portfolio. The stock trades around 61 and the 50 day moving average is slightly below 55.

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

Disclosure: No positions in X at the time of publication

The system can be summarized as follows:

1 - Find stocks that are consistently hitting new highs

2 - Look for analysts reports that estimate increasing revenues and earnings

3 - Use other free Internet sites to poll investor sentiment

4 - Always protect yourself from the unknown by using stop losses, either actual or mental

Last Fall I wrote reviews of 2 stocks, their names are not important. I pointed out that although the stocks were having consistent price appreciation, I could not find positive analysts reports or a large investor following. I cautioned that investing in these stock was highly speculative and any purchase should be protected by the use of stop losses.

Sure enough in just a few days the stocks collapsed and I became the target of cyber attacks by some short sellers. Let me explain why.

There are several groups of short sellers who identify stocks that are having upward momentum for no reason at all. They then short those stocks, alerts their paid subscribers to short the stocks and post negative reports across the Internet investing bulletin boards until the stock collapses. They close their short positions and then brag about how smart they are.

The last step is to cyber attack anyone as a stock manipulator, who pointed out that the upward price momentum was unwarranted before they where able to put their short sell scheme into place.

I will not be silenced by the Howard Sterns and Jerry Springers of the financial world. I will continue to point out stocks enjoying price increases for unknown reasons. You should continue to protect yourself from short sellers raiding your portfolio's value by the intelligent use of stop losses.

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

Value Line Index -- I use this Index because it contains 1700 stocks making it much broader than the S&P 500 or much narrower Dow 30 -- The Index was up for the week by 5.18%

1 - The Index plotted above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages -- positive trend

2 - Barchart's technical indicators rate the Index an 88% buy with 12 of 13 indicators on buy signals

Barchart market momentum indicator -- usually contains around 6000 stocks --the percentage of stocks trading above their daily moving averages for various time frames -- also a nice upward trend

1 - 20 DMA -- 88.28% traded above compared to 73.15% last week and 20.48% last month
2 - 50 DMA -- 79.46% traded above compared to 58.91% last week and 36.99% last month
3 - 100 DMA -- 79.44% traded above compared to 66.08% last week and 46.12% last month

Ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stocks hitting new lows for various time frames -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral and below .99 bearish -- this week looked good

1 - 20 day ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows -- 3059/196 = 15.61

2 - 65 day ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows -- 1131/85 = 16.43

3 - 100 day ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows -- 1121/542 = 2.07

Summary -- The market looked pretty strong for the week. I trimmed a lot of stocks from my various portfolios especially those that didn't respond to the change in the market; mostly those that didn't maintain a priced above their 50 day moving averages. Unless something drastic happens I'll replace those this week with confidence.

Wall Street Survivor results -- The S&P 500 has gone up 2.06% month to date and 6 of our 8 contestants beat that. Month to date Vad -- The Sceptical Capitalist gained 6.36% and I 'm in second with 4.67% gain. Ahh -- maybe next week.

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 do not hold any positions in the stocks in my Wall Street Survivor portfolio.

Since 9/11 I've noticed a great change in the environment in the US. I have to go through check points and security screenings that I never thought would happen. Even when I go to athletic events at public middle schools and high schools, I must open up everything and be wanded with a metal detector. When I go to local city and school board meetings I have to sign in, produce an ID and be screened by a metal detector. As I walk the downtown streets of Charlotte now instead of counting the number of Volkswagen beetles I find myself looking up and seeing how many security cameras I can find. It's almost like the only thing that they got wrong in the book 1984 was the date.

I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable but I'm trying to show you that this is a company that seems to be positioned to come up with solutions to what has become an ever consuming concern -- security.

They have 2 major divisions. The largest Kratos Governmental Solutions provides weapons systems advice to the US government plus state and municipal governments. One of their largest customers is the Department of Defense and they also advice those little armies we never had -- police SWAT teams. The second major division, the Public Safety and Security Division advises retail, health care, educational and municipal governmental entities on all the types of security concerns they might have. Now that you know the stock's story how about the numbers?

Barchart's technical indicators give a buy signal on 12 of the 13 indicators of an overall 96% buy rating. The stock has appreciated in 16 of the last 20 sessions and is 5 for 5 recently. The last 30 days has seen a 28.41% price appreciation.

Brokerage analysts predict that although they might only grow revenue by about 4.5% next year they should have an increase in earnings per share of 127.4% due to coming off a loss this year. They are looking of a 42% 5 year compounded growth rate in EPS. Not too shabby, they follow that up with 2 buy recommendations.

I like to know what the investor sentiment is so I usually go over to Motley Fool CAPS to see how their members are voting. The CAPS members think the stock will our perform the market by a vote of 96 to 2 with the All Stars voting 31 to 1. The Wall Street columnist Fool follow have positive articles 2 to 0.

Since the stock has a compelling story, positive technical momentum and a positive investor sentiment I'm adding Kratos Defense and Security Solutions (KTOS) to my Wall Street Survivor portfolio with all the appropriate mental stop orders around the 50 day moving average.

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 position in KTOS at the time of publication

Cooper Companies Inc (COO) -- through its principal subsidiaries, develops, manufactures and markets healthcare products. CooperVision markets a range of contact lenses to correct visual defects, specializing in toric lenses that correct astigmatism. The company also markets conventional toric and spherical lenses and lenses for patients with more complex vision disorders. CooperSurgical markets diagnostic products, surgical instruments and accessories to the women's healthcare market.

Price appreciation on 16 of 20 trading session, 5 for 5 recently with a 14.41% return for he month -- a 96% buy rating on Barchart's technical indicators.

Analysts look for a 4.9% sales increase with a 12.5% EPS growth -- 5 years compounded EPS growth of 14% and 5 buy recommendations

Investor sentiment on Motley Fool has the CAPS members voting to outperform the market 43 to 33, All Stars voting 12 to 17 and Wall Street columnists 4 to 3

Abiomed (ABMD) -- a developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical products designed to safely and effectively assist or replace the pumping function of the failing heart. The company currently manufactures and sells the BVS-5000, a temporary heart assist device, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the temporary treatment of all patients with failing but potentially recoverable hearts. The company is also engaged in research and development relating to other devices to support the pumping function of the heart.

15 price increases in 20 sessions and 5 for 5 recently plus a 30.76% monthly return -- a Barchart technical indicator buy rating of 80%.

Analysts predict a 18.7% increase in sales coupled with a 32.4% EPS growth. 5 year compounded EPS growth of 22.3% expected. 2 analysts have issued buy recommendations,

Investor sentiment on Motley Fool has a CAPS vote to out perform the market of 62 to 33 with the All Stars in agreement 19 to 14. The Wall Street columnists are split 4 to 3

Compass Diversified Holdings (CODI) -- was formed to acquire and manage a group of middle market businesses that are headquartered in North America. CODI provides public investors with an opportunity to participate in the ownership and growth of companies which have historically been owned by private equity firms, wealthy individuals or families. CODI's disciplined approach to its target market provides opportunities to methodically purchase attractive businesses at values that are accretive to its shareholders. For sellers of businesses, CODI's unique structure allows CODI to acquire businesses efficiently with no financing contingencies and, following acquisition, to provide its companies with substantial access to growth capital.

15 increases in price in 20 sessions and 5 for 5 recently. The monthly return of 21.93% has brought it a Barchart technical indicator buy rating of 96%

Analysts think a 6.4% increase in sales will bring a 43.0% increase in EPS. They predict a 12.5% 5 year compounded growth rate in EPS . They have 4 buy recommendations out there.

Investor Sentiment on Motley Fool brings a vote of 209 to 5 from the CAPS members that the stock will outperform the market followed by an All Star vote of 84 to 1, The Wall Street columnist like it 5 to 0

Newstar Financial (NEWS) -- is a specialized commercial finance company focused on meeting the complex financing needs of companies and private investors in the middle markets. The Company specializes in providing senior secured debt financing for the acquisition or recapitalization of mid-sized companies and commercial real estate. NewStar originates loans directly through a team of experienced, senior bankers organized around key industry and market segments. The Company targets 'hold' positions of up to $20 million and selectively underwrites or arranges larger transactions for syndication to other lenders. NewStar is headquartered in Boston, MA and has regional offices in Darien, CT, Chicago, IL, San Diego, CA, and Charleston, SC.

The stock has enjoyed 15 days of increases in 20 sessions and is 5 for 5 recently. A monthly increase of 21.93% has brought a 96% Barchart technical buy rating.

Analysts have the sales increase predicted of 9.2% and a whopping 392.3% EPS improvement coming of a loss. Estimates of a 15% 5 year compounded growth of EPS is their estimate. The 2 buy recommendations are followed by a hold.

Motley Fool CAPS members vote to out perform the market 46 to 19 with the All Stars voting 23 to 4. The Wall Street columnists are 3 to 0

Actel Corp (ACTL) --designs, develops, and markets field programmable gate array and associated development system software and programming hardware. Their product line consist of ten families of antifuse-based FPGAs; Designer Series Development System, DeskTOP, and CoreHDL software; SiliconExplorer debugging and diagnostic tools; Activator and Silicon Sculptor device programmers; and sockets.

15 price increases in 20 sessions plus 4 for 5 recently. The monthly return of 25.45% brings it an 80% Barchart technical buy rating.

Analysts only have a 15% compounded 5 year EPS growth estimate with 1 buy recommendation posted.

Motley Fool CAPS members think the stock will outperform the market by a 35 to 13 vote with the All Stars at 9 to 5. Wall Street columnist have only 1 buy out there.

Well, that's the list for today. Start with these and go through whatever due diligence you fell comfortable using. Be careful.

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

Value Line Index -- I use this because it contains 1700 stocks making it broader than the S&P 500 or the even narrower Dow 30 - Down .4% for the week but still up 4.65% for the month.

1 - The Index closed on Friday above all 3 daily moving averages -- 20, 50 & 100 DMA

2 - Barchart's 13 technical indicators had 8 buys, 3 holds and 2 sells for a 48% overall buy rating

Barchart market momentum -- The percentage of stocks trading above their DMAs for various periods -- If the figure is above 50% then you have better than 1/2 a chance to make some money -- all 3 slightly down but still in your favor

1 - 20 DMA -- 73.25% closed above the 20 DMA -- down from 74.89% last week

2 - 50 DMA -- 58.95% closed above the 50 DMA -- down from 61.39% last week

3 - 100 DMA -- 66.14% closed above the 100 DMA -- down from 67.38% last week

Ratio of stocks hitting new highs to new lows for various time frames -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral, below .99 bearish -- looks like we are still OK this week

1 - 20 day ratio of new highs to new lows -- 1171/271 = 4.32

2 - 50 day ratio of new highs to new lows -- 486/138 = 3.52

3 - 100 day ratio of new highs to new lows -- 406/102 = 3.98

Summary -- We were just slightly off the momentum we had last week but not really negative. Might be a good week to cull what hasn't performed and search of some new replacements next week.

Wall Street Survivor results -- Well for the month the S&P 500 was up 2.85% and 5 of our Top Stock contestants beat that mark. Anthony Mirhaydari lead the pack with a 10.57% MTD return and I managed to follow closely with a 10.05% increase. On Friday I sold Tyler Technologies (TYL) because it just wasn't maintaining a price above its 50 day moving average. I'll hunt for a replacement later next week.

We've turned another page on the calender so let's see who the new leader will be next month.

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 any stock mentioned.

Lately the stock has just languished and not done very much. In the past month something has been happening. All of a sudden KKD came up on my Barchart screener for stocks having the most frequent price appreciations. The price has been moving up and the stock had price appreciation in 7 of the last 20 trading sessions and 4 of the last 5. In the last 20 sessions there has been a 15.38% price increase. The stock is enjoying very positive ratings on Barchart's short term technical indicators.

Analysts are not real high on the stock but do predict a 20.5% increase in earning per share this year and a 15% EPS 5 year growth rate.

Why the priced movement? There are some rumors that Wendy's or some other chain may either buy the company outright or begin offering their donuts as a breakfast item. KKD has been known to sell smaller versions of their donut frying machines that can be used as an alternate to owning a whole store.

This is a stock to watch and maybe place a stop on the 20 day moving average in case the rumor is full of holes.

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

I start with the list of stocks hitting new highs and lows for the last 20 days and sort for frequency. I then take the top 10 from each list that have hit new milestones in at least 50% of the last 20 sessions. That list of the 10 top gainers and 10 top losers is where I start.

I put them all in a test portfolio and then start eliminating stocks. First I cull any that do not score as 80% short term buy or sell signal on Barchart short term technical indicators. Next I cull any that do not have a positive or negative price change for the last 5 days. That list leaves me with just 11 issues out of the original 20. I list the information from Barchart and Yahoo Finance that is available to all of you.

Long Positions:

PTIE -- 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.

The issue has hit new highs on 17 of the last 20 sessions with a 19.11% price appreciation in the last month. Analysts think the stock will increase sales 137.1% next year and have a 5 year compounded EPS growth rate of 83.0%

MEND -- 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.

Increases in price in 17 of 20 sessions plus an increase in price of 33.66%.

ISSI -Integrated Silicon Solutions designs, develops and markets high performance memory devices including static random access memory, low and medium density dynamic random access memory, and nonvolatile memory, as well as voice recording devices and certain microcontrollers and embedded memories. Their memory devices are used in networking applications, telecommunications, data communications, disk drives and other peripherals, personal computers, office automation, instrumentation and consumer products.

The stock has had a price appreciation on 14 of the last 20 sessions and a 46.11% price increase of the month. Analysts look for sales to grow 14.5% and EPS by 29.4% nest year with a 10% 5 year compounded EPS growth for the next 5 years

ZARLF -- Zarlink Semiconductor delivers wired, wireless and optical connectivity solutions that bring together networks and people, and it provides highly specialized ultra low-power chipsets for use in medical applications. Zarlink customers include Samsung, Motorola, Alcatel, Mitsubishi, Cisco, Sony, Nortel, Lucent, Siemens, Ericsson and Fujitsu.

Price appreciation in 14 of the last 20 session with a price appreciation of 54.45%. Analysts look for sales increase of 9.8% plus EPS growth of 1500% (off a loss) and a 5 years EPS growth of 12.5%.

SLE -- Sara Lee Corporation is a global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality, brand-name products for consumers throughout the world. The company's mission is to continue to build leadership brands in consumer packaged goods categories. The company has three global businesses: Food and Beverage, Intimates and Underwear, and Household Products through which it manufactures and markets products of exceptional quality and value under leading, well-known brand names such as Sara Lee, Earth Grains, Jimmy Dean, Douwe Egberts, Chock full o' Nuts, Hanes and Playtex.

13 price increase in the last 29 sessions with a 14.79% price increase. Analysts estimate an increase in sales of 4.0% with EPS growth of 8.9% next year plus EPS growth of 8.77% for the next 5 years.

PRGO -- Perrigo Company, is the nations largest manufacturer of store brand over-the-counter (non-prescription) pharmaceutical products and also manufactures store brand nutritional products. Store brand products are sold by national and regional supermarket, drugstore and mass merchandise chains under their own labels and compete with nationally advertised brands. The Company's products include analgesics, cough and cold remedies, antacids, laxatives, feminine hygiene and smoking cessation products, and vitamins, nutritional supplements and nutritional drinks.

Price appreciation in 13 of 20 sessions and a price increase of 16.73% for that period. Analysts estimates of sales up 7.9%, EPS up 9.2% and 5 year EPS growth of 17.45%

LANC -- Lancaster Colony Corp. manufactures and markets three families of products: Glassware and Candles; Specialty Foods; and Automotive. Consumer glassware includes a diverse line of decorative and ornamental products such as tumblers, bowls, pitchers, jars and barware. The food products manufactured and sold include salad dressings and sauces; fruit glazes, veggie dips and fruit dips; frozen unbaked pies. It also manufactures and sells a complete line of rubber, vinyl and carpeted car mats both in the aftermarket and to original equipment manufacturers.

13 of the last 20 session have had price increases with a 14.58% price appreciation. Analysts think EPS will be up 43.33% this year and revenue up 4.1% next year.

Sell or Short positions -- If you own these consider selling; if you're experienced you might short these:

DTSI -- DTS, Inc. is a digital technology company dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience. DTS decoders are in virtually every major brand of 5.1-channel surround processors, and there are more than 300 million DTS-licensed consumer electronics products available worldwide. A pioneer in multi-channel audio, DTS technology is in home theatre, car audio, PC and game console products, as well as DVD-Video, Surround Music and DVD-ROM software.

Price decreases in 14 of the last 20 sessions for a loss of 12.41%.

PBIB -- PBI Bank, Inc. provide quality banking services, great rates and excellent customer service. We believe PBI Bank represents the future of banking and our growing customer base agrees. PBI Bank, Inc. is headquartered in Louisville, KY. They have many banking centers across Central Kentucky to serve our customers banking needs.

Price deceases in 13 of the last 20 sessions plus a 23.73 Loss in price

ELGX -- Endologix, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets products for the treatment of coronary and vascular diseases. A leader in the emerging field of vascular brachytherapy, Endologix, has developed a unique method for the delivery of radiation to prevent restenosis following the interventional treatment of atherosclerosis.

11 prices losses in 20 sessions for a 15.62% loss.

Bonus stock:

This is a stock you may eventually hate. It has no revenue and has a lost of competition and it's price action may for tell a pump and dump. This is a lotto ticket.

NGLF -- National Golf Emprioum -- 17 price increase in to session for a 200% price increase -- only for the most experienced speculators.

Don't buy or sell any of these without through research to see if the trades are right for you.

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 any of these stocks at the time of publication

First let's visit the Conference Board's report on the Leading Economic Index -- LEI. You'll remember that this is a once a month report I use to get a quick gauge on the state of the economy. The LEI was up .3% for the tenth month in a row with the Coincident Economic Index up .2% and the Lagging Economic Index is still declining at .1% but slowing. That makes 2 up and the Lagging slowing -- good signs of good things happening.

Now on to my 3 Barchart indicators that I follow:

The Value Line Index -- contains 1700 stocks so it's broader than the S&P 500 and the narrower Dow 30 -- up 3.45% for the week which is the second week in a row of price appreciation

1 - Barchart's 13 technical indicators rate the index a 64% buy with 9 buys, 3 holds and only 1 sell
2 -The Index closed Friday above its 20, 50 & 100 daily moving averages

Barchart market momentum indicator -- approximately 6000 stocks covered -- the percentage of stocks closing above their DMAs for various time frames -- good signs here too

1 - 20 DMA -- 74.99% closed above -- only 36.77% did last week
2 - 50 DMA -- 61.58% closed above -- only 42.92% did last week
3 - 100 DMA 67.49% closed above -- only 53.72% did last week

The ratio of stocks hitting new highs to stocks hitting new lows for various time periods -- 1.0+ bullish, 1.0 neutral, below .99 bearish -- very bullish this week

1 - 20 day new high to new low ratio -- 1672/306 = 5.46
2 - 65 day new high to new low ratio -- 559/94 = 5.94
3 - 100 day new high to new low ratio -- 431/69 = 6.25

Summary -- According to the Conference Board indices the economy in the US is improving. My 3 Barchart indicators tell me the market is improving. I'm happy.

This week's investment strategy -- with both the economy and the market giving a thumbs up I'll trim any stock not trading above its 50 DMA and not be afraid to replace it. I'll stay fully invested but as always will trim if the individual stocks reverse.

Over on the Wall Street Survivor competition Anthony Mirhaydari is in first place for February so far and managed to get an 11.22% return with the S&P only up 3.29% for the same period. I got the silver so far this month with a return of 9.43%. I'll trim out ScanSource Inc (SCSC) for failure to maintain a price above its 50 DMA and I'll wait till the market opens on Monday to replace it.

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 the stocks mentioned in this article

The representatives we sent to Washington think they should have the right to call the President of Toyota to come from Japan, bow before them and take a whipping in public for knowing he had a problem and taking too long to fix it. Some are even asking for his resignation. Let's use the same standard on them.

We sent them to Washington to fix some problems. We even identified the problems we wanted fixed. We wanted effective financial regulation with jobs for everyone between 18 - 65 who is able bodied. We wanted affordable housing and secure communities. Every American should be able to have nutritious food, decent medical care and an opportunity to an education. We wanted full funding for our military so that when we send them into a conflict that is in our interest they have all the tools and the go ahead to get the job done safely, quickly and effectively and get home fast. We want secure borders.

I don't know about you but I feel that they have postured and discussed and did ineffective fact finding worse than Toyota ever dreamed of.

I am tired of Washington not fixing the problems we have all identified for them. They have promised us that they agreed with our requests and they had what it took to fix them. All we had to do was vote for them -- and maybe send a few bucks to their campaign chests.

I haven't seen a single problem fixed; in fact some are even worse. It's time for that product recall to happen. The representatives in place are ineffective and even detrimental to the health of America.

When you go to the polls, start the product recall. I don't care if the candidate is a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or independent; the party I want to see out of office is the Incumbent Party.

The way to turn around our economy is to get a new ship and a fresh crew.

We need new blood and new ideas. Let's all clean house, go out and find new candidates that can think outside the box and get the job done.

It's been said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Isn't that what we've been doing? We send the same people who were ineffective back to Washington hoping they will be effective this time.

Join me in a total product recall of the product we sent to Washington. Join me in a defeat of the Incumbent Party and send them all home.

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.

To help me whittle down the list I use Barchart's 13 technical indicators and eliminate those that rank below 100% on all 13 indicators. Last, I want to make sure that the stock had a price appreciation in the last 5 days. I'm left with just 4 stocks. Let's research them one at a time.

Sirius XM (SIRI) -- according to their press release: Sirius Satellite Radio is building a digital satellite radio system that will broadcast up to 100 channels of music and entertainment programming to motorists throughout the continental United States. The company plans to offer channels of commercial-free music and channels of news, sports and entertainment programming for a monthly subscription fee. Sirius Satellite Radio has an exclusive agreement with Ford Motor Company to install Sirius receivers in Ford vehicles.

The stock had 8 price advances in the last 20 sessions and increased in 4 of the last 5 days. It has a buy on all 13 of Barchart's technical indicators and had a 56.72% increase in the last 30 days.

On the fundamental side analysts estimate that sales will increase 11.2% next year with a whopping 91.7% increase in earnings per share. The 5 year compounded growth rate is expected at 30% per year. They give the stock 3 buy and 3 hold recommendations.

Lin TV Corp (TVL) -- LIN TV Corp. is a pure-play television company covering the United States and Puerto Rico. They own and operate television stations and provide management or sales services to television stations. Under local marketing agreements, they provide substantial portions of the broadcast programming for airing on another station in the same market as a station they own and operate and sell advertising time for that station.

The stock has enjoyed price appreciation in 10 of the last 20 sessions and had 3 increases in the last 5 days. It too gets 100% rating on all 13 of Barchart's technical indicators and had a 27.38% price increase in the last 20 sessions.

Analysts consensus is for a 23.7% increase in sales and a 1133% increase in EPS. Sounds big but that's voodoo math coming from a loss this year. There is only 1 hold recommendation out there.

Global Traffic Network (GNET) -- Global Traffic Network is a provides custom traffic and news reports to radio and television stations outside the U.S. The Company is a Delaware corporation that, through its two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries, provides customized traffic and news reports to affiliated radio and television stations, in exchange for commercial airtime inventory. The Company operates traffic and news network in Australia, and is quickly ramping operations in Canada. In exchange for providing custom traffic and news reports, television and radio stations provide Global Traffic Network with commercial airtime inventory that the Company sells to advertisers. As a result, radio and television stations incur no out-of -pocket costs when contracting to use Global Traffic Network's services.

Again this stock hits 13 out of 13 for Barchart's technical indicators. The stock had 10 price increases in the last 20 sessions and is 3 for 5 recently. The price increase in the last 20 sessions was 12.67%.

Analysts expect a 10.3% increase in sales and earnings increase of 1050%, coming off a loss. Recommendation of 3 buys and a hold are there.

Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI) is the last to make the cut. Sinclair Broadcast Group is a diversified broadcasting company that owns or provides programming services pursuant to local marketing agreements to more television stations than any other commercial broadcasting group in the United States.

With all 13 of Barchart's technical indicators signaling buy the stock had 4 price appreciations in the last 20 session but is 3 for 5 recently. 19.46% price increase in the last month isn't bad.

Fundamentally this is the weakest stock with revenue expected to decrease by 1.2% next year but earning up 10.2%. With only a 3% growth rate consensus for the next 5 years the stock still enjoys 2 buy and 2 hold recommendation from analysts.

I'm not sure what your opinion is but it sounds like Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) is the pick from this bucket of broadcasting stocks. Yes this is a penny stock trading at close to a dollar a share but with volume up to 9 million shares a day, it's a penny stock we can all love.

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

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