The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (January 31)

Scroll to the bottom for year-to-date Growth and Value Screen results.

Just a reminder that this weekend's new Workshop rankings are not the ones we'll be using for the February models. The new month officially begins at the close of trading on the first Friday of each month, so there's still a week left of our January period.

The Thoroughbred Stock Challenge, however, does wrap up January's contest with today's session. Check the final results for January later this evening and make sure you get your entry in before the opening bell on Monday for the February game. (Leave yourself some room in case the Internet post office is no faster than snail mail. The time-stamp I get on your entry is the "official" entry time. Don't miss out.)

Did the laws of gravity finally catch up with APPLIED MAGNETICS <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: APM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: APM)") end if %>, or is this the proverbial profit taking? Who knows, but sitting on a gain since January 3 of nearly 80%, this single stock has gone a long way towards launching the Relative Strength and YPEG Potential screens into impressive orbits this month. The stock fell nearly three points today after a meteoric rise.

There were a few big winners today, though. ENSCO INT'L <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ESV)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ESV)") end if %> jumped nearly 5% after beating Street earnings expectations. First Call's consensus estimate was for 42 cents per share; the company recorded 45 cents late yesterday.

Two other stocks making strong moves today were OXFORD HEALTH PLANS <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: OXHP)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: OXHP)") end if %> and NEC CORP. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: NEC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: NEC)") end if %>. Both stocks have been down so far in January, but today, NEC popped 8% and Oxford Health regained more than 6%.

Another big winner today was AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: APCC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: APCC)") end if %>, up more than 6.5% after recent weakness. Earlier in the week I used American Power Conversion as an example of a stock that would have been stopped out using moderately loose sell stops. It began the month at $27.50 and has been as high as $31.375 recently. The stop I referred to was one that I placed on the stock at 25% below the closing high. So when APCC dropped to $23.50 this week, I was stopped out. The next day, the stock dropped even further, stopping anyone out at $22.00 who had used a 20% sell stop below the month's opening price of $27.50.

Since then, though, the stock is back up more than 20% from the absolute bottom. So this is looking more and more like one of the dreaded whipsaws that are a danger in using sell stops. But it may yet be too soon to tell. Sometimes stocks that drop so quickly will bounce again before resuming their decline. I don't pretend to know which way American Power Conversion will go from here, but that's the potential cost associated with using sell stops as insurance. You feel pretty silly watching the stock jump right back up. But without a stop, if the stock had continued dropping like a stone, you might feel something worse than silly. It's a trade-off each investor must decide for himself.

Have a good weekend, Fools.

Monthly Growth Screens
     (Jan. 3 to present)
27.01%  Relative Strength  
25.23%  YPEG Potential  
  9.96%  Low Price/Sales  
  5.64%  Investing for Growth  
  5.10%  S&P 500 Index  
  2.97%  Unemotional Growth  
 -0.18%  EPS Plus RS  

Annual Value Screens
     (Jan. 1 to present)
  5.66%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
  5.29%  Dogs of the Dow  
  4.49%  Beating the S&P  
  1.68%  Dow Combo  
  1.12%  Unemotional Value  
  1.12%  Beating the Dow  
 -0.26%  Foolish Four