Investing For Growth

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Tuesday, December 03, 1996
The Daily IFG Report FOOL GLOBAL WIRE by Robert Sheard (MF DowMan) LEXINGTON, KY. (December 3) -- After being up strongly through most of the day, the Nasdaq gave back almost the whole enchilada, but today's fractional gain was enough both to set a new record high and close above 1300 for the first time. The big winners were personal computer component makers, spurred on by an extremely bullish report by Hutchinson Technology <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:HTCH)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:HTCH)") end if %>, the disk-drive component maker. With the growing popularity of the Unemotional Growth screen and the Relative Strength variation for Investing for Growth, let me take the time here to explain just what those rankings are that we pull from Investor's Business Daily. The Relative Strength ranking in IBD is simply a measure of price performance over the last year. IBD tracks the gain or loss of each stock over the previous year with the most recent quarter weighted more heavily than the first three. Then the stocks are ranked in percentiles to generate the scores we see in the paper. So a Relative Strength score of 87 means that over the last year, using IBD's time-weighted formula, that stock's price has performed better than 87% of all other stocks. If you remember your scores from school tests, that would mean your stock is in the 13th percentile. The EPS (earnings per share) ranking is measured the same way, except that the score measures the year's growth in earnings rather than the year's change in the stock price. In both cases, a score of 99 is the highest possible ranking, meaning your stock is in the top 1%. The final ranking I've been including for information purposes only is the Accumulation/Distribution ranking. Based on a grade from A down to E, this is Investor's Daily's measure of institutional interest in the stock, and it is often linked to the Relative Strength ranking. I haven't built this ranking into any of the screens I've tested because it's relatively new to Investor's Daily's coverage, and so there's not a long history to work with. One potential use for it is as another tie-breaker when the stocks in question are identically ranked for Relative Strength and EPS growth. So there you have it ... what the rankings measure and how to read what the scores tell you. Stay Foolish.	The Current IFG Stocks Green Tree Financial <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:GNT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:GNT)") end if %> Nike <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:NKE)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:NKE)") end if %> Nautica Enterprises <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:NAUT)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:NAUT)") end if %> Three Com <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:COMS)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:COMS)") end if %> Western Digital <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:WDC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:WDC)") end if %> Sun Microsystems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:SUNW)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:SUNW)") end if %> Compaq Computer <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:CPQ)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:CPQ)") end if %> Tellabs <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:TLAB)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:TLAB)") end if %> ADC Telecom <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:ADCT)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:ADCT)") end if %> Claire's Stores <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:CLE)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:CLE)") end if %> Last Update: 11/29/96
Today's IFG Numbers INVESTING FOR GROWTH MODEL (12/03/96) Day Week Quarter Year History IFG 0.82% 2.32% 3.97% 15.60% 4602.97% DJIA -1.21% -1.21% 9.53% 25.90% 677.31% S&P 500 -1.09% -1.15% 8.87% 21.49% 602.48% NASDAQ 0.04% 0.60% 5.99% 23.59% 778.51% Bought # Stock In At Now Change 7/8/95 7732 TLAB 24.00 41.50 72.92% 7/5/96 4562 COMS 44.38 75.88 70.99% 7/5/96 5077 SCIS 39.88 55.75 39.81% 10/4/96 6250 ADCT 32.00 39.25 22.66% 10/4/96 6063 NAUT 33.00 34.25 3.79% 7/5/96 8756 MIR 23.13 23.88 3.24% 10/4/96 4001 KO 50.00 49.75 -0.50% 10/4/96 4879 GNT 41.00 40.00 -2.44% 10/4/96 3218 NKE 62.13 55.75 -10.26% 10/4/96 9642 CLE 20.75 17.13 -17.47% Bought # Stock Cost Value Change 7/8/95 7732 TLAB $185,568.00 $320,878.00 $135,310.00 7/5/96 4562 COMS $202,438.75 $346,141.75 $143,703.00 7/5/96 5077 SCIS $202,445.38 $283,042.75 $80,597.38 10/4/96 6250 ADCT $200,000.00 $245,312.50 $45,312.50 10/4/96 6063 NAUT $200,079.00 $207,657.75 $7,578.75 7/5/96 8756 MIR $202,482.50 $209,049.50 $6,567.00 10/4/96 4001 KO $200,050.00 $199,049.75 $(1,000.25) 10/4/96 4879 GNT $200,039.00 $195,160.00 $(4,879.00) 10/4/96 3218 NKE $199,918.25 $179,403.50 $(20,514.75) 10/4/96 9642 CLE $200,071.50 $165,119.25 $(34,952.25) CASH $672.07 TOTAL $2,351,486.82 Transmitted: 12/3/96

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