The Motley Fool: The Foolish Workshop, Tuesday, February 03, 1998

Tuesday, February 03, 1998

The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (Feb. 3, 1998) -- In honor of the market's burst this week, today will be a Relative Strength day. Many investors use Relative Strength (a measure of price performance for stocks over a variety of periods) either as a primary or secondary screen in their investment process.

To provide you with a list of stocks to play with, here are the twenty stocks from the Value Line database that racked up the best gains in the 26 weeks prior to January 28. The list only includes stocks that have some kind of timeliness ranking. Eliminating stocks with no timeliness ranking typically skips over most stocks that are up strictly on merger and acquisition activity.

269%  Best Buy Co. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") end if %> 
   94%  WinStar Communic. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WCII)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WCII)") end if %> 
   85%  Unisys Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: UIS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: UIS)") end if %> 
   75%  Ethan Allen Interiors <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ETH)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ETH)") end if %> 
   74%  Phila. Suburban <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PSC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PSC)") end if %> 
   73%  Alaska Air Group <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ALK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ALK)") end if %> 
   71%  Capital One Fin'l <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: COF)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: COF)") end if %> 
   71%  Safeskin Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SFSK)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SFSK)") end if %> 
   69%  VWR Scientific <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VWRX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VWRX)") end if %> 
   68%  Mobile Telecom. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MTEL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MTEL)") end if %> 
   59%  Intuit Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTU)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTU)") end if %> 
   58%  Aliant Communic. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ALNT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ALNT)") end if %> 
   56%  Oshkosh B'Gosh 'A' <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: GOSHA)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: GOSHA)") end if %> 
   55%  Cincinnati Financial <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CINF)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CINF)") end if %> 
   54%  US Airways Group <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: U)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: U)") end if %> 
   54%  Whole Foods Market <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WFMI)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WFMI)") end if %> 
   53%  Rio Hotel & Casino <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: RHC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: RHC)") end if %> 
   53%  Primark Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PMK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PMK)") end if %> 
   53%  Family Dollar Stores <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: FDO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: FDO)") end if %> 
   51%  Texas Inds. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: TXI)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: TXI)") end if %>

But in an added twist, let's also look at the twenty ugliest performers over the same 26 weeks. If you're a bottom feeder or perhaps even looking for a short, maybe these stocks will interest you. If you're holding some of them long, however, our condolences.

-48%  Seagate Technology <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SEG)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SEG)") end if %> 
 -49%  Data General <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DGN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DGN)") end if %> 
 -49%  Freep't-McMoRan C&G <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: FCX)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: FCX)") end if %> 
 -50%  Malaysia Fund <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MF)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MF)") end if %> 
 -52%  Phosphate Resource <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PLP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PLP)") end if %> 
 -52%  Sybase Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SYBS)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SYBS)") end if %> 
 -52%  Boston Chicken <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: BOST)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: BOST)") end if %> 
 -52%  Atmel Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ATML)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ATML)") end if %> 
 -53%  Service Merchandise <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SME)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SME)") end if %> 
 -53%  Western Digital <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: WDC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: WDC)") end if %> 
 -53%  Money Store <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MON)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MON)") end if %> 
 -56%  Netscape Communic. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: NSCP)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: NSCP)") end if %> 
 -56%  Designs Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DESI)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DESI)") end if %> 
 -57%  Cabletron Sys. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CS)") end if %> 
 -57%  MedPartners Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MDM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MDM)") end if %> 
 -58%  ADC Telecom. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ADCT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ADCT)") end if %> 
 -60%  Green Tree <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: GNT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: GNT)") end if %> 
 -62%  Applied Magnetics <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: APM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: APM)") end if %> 
 -62%  Echo Bay Mines <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(AMEX: ECO)") else Response.Write("(AMEX: ECO)") end if %> 
 -83%  Oxford Health Plans <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: OXHP)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: OXHP)") end if %>

Fool on!

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