[isatrader]

Attached is the weekly and daily charts of a mystery stock with a set of questions below for you to answer, and I'd encourage you to elaborate if you can as it helps in analyzing the Stage.

1. Is price above a flat, rising or declining 30 week MA?
   
2. Is price above the 10 week MA?
   
3. Is the 10 week MA rising or falling?
   
4. What is the volume doing?
   
5. Is the relative performance versus the S&P 500 strengthening or weakening?
   
6. Is the relative performance versus the S&P 500 above or below the zero line?
   
7. Is the relative performance zero line itself down, flattening or rising?
   
8. Is there significant near term resistance? If yes, then where?
   
9. What is the Stage of this stock?
   
10. Should an investor buy the stock? Elaborate.
    

The mystery chart this time was BSX (Boston Scientific) which was attempting to make a Stage 2A breakout, and had closed the week just above the breakout level. The price was above a flat to slightly rising 30 week MA, and the shorter term 10 week MA had turned up a number of weeks before and was close to crossing the 30 week MA.

However, volume was poor on the breakout week, below average and the relative performance versus the S&P 500 was strengthening, but it was still below a flattening relative performance zero line. But the biggest issue was that there was still significant near term resistance up to around the 6.4 area, which it had failed to clear twice earlier in the 2012 and so although it was technically in Stage 2A, the other technical attributes that we look for in an A+ candidate weren't all present, and so imo it would stay on the watchlist until it cleared the near term resistance and there was improvement in the volume and relative performance versus the S&P 500 as the risk of a failed breakout is increased otherwise.

Below is the marked up weekly chart.

   

So what happened next? Well, in this case the following two weeks saw a decent increase in volume, which helped BSX to sail through it's near term resistance and the relative performance versus the S&P 500 broke above it's zero line strongly, and so BSX now had A+ potential, and hence would have been a strong buy candidate, especially as it also had a strong monthly close above it's 30 month MA for the first time in many years with a strong volume increase as well, which added extra conviction to it.

As you can see in the below chart, it's had a strong Stage 2 advance with numerous consolidations/pullbacks towards the 10 and 30 week MA, and has advanced over 100% so far in just over a year and three months. Currently the 30 week MA momentum is slowing and price is in another consolidation phase and so I'd give it a Stage 2B rating now, as it's late in Stage 2 advance. Below is the weekly and monthly charts.