<FOOLISH WORKSHOP>

Monthly Relative Strength      

by Jim Stevens ([email protected])

(FOOL GLOBAL WIRE)
by Jim Stevens ([email protected])

Burlington, VT (April 5, 1999) -- The first Friday of the month is behind us, Fools, so it's again time to update the monthly traded models I keep tabs on here in the Foolish Workshop. Scorching the competition, the Relative Strength-Investor's Business Daily screen again gets first billing.

You'll find a description of the RS-IBD at the Workshops Screen Explanations page. The model is tracked on an annual basis on the Workshop Returns page, but recent history has shown that updating the stocks on a monthly rotation has great promise. The companies are quite volatile, so new Fools beware! Money can be lost as fast as it's made. For more thoughts on Relative Strength, read TMF Bogey's recent Workshop Report, Respecting Momentum.

Below are the March 1999 RS-IBD companies from in my 03/08/99 Monthly Relative Strength report listed with their performances on the month through last Friday (the market was closed, so it's the same as the performance through last Thursday):

Schwab (Charles) <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") end if %>    16.36%
Yahoo! Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") end if %>      12.48%
America Online <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %>      72.54%
VISX  Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") end if %>       34.12%
Best Buy Co. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") end if %>        11.68%
Oracle Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ORCL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ORCL)") end if %>    -31.05%
EMC Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") end if %>           23.01%
Quiksilver Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ZQK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ZQK)") end if %>      4.84%
Sun Microsystems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") end if %> 20.61%
Amgen <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AMGN)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AMGN)") end if %>            16.26%
                           Top 5        29.44%
                            Top 10      18.08%

Wow! Only one dud in the group. The 1999 performance tally for this hypothetical monthly model is now 62.66% for the 5-stock screen and 37.46% for the 10-stock version. The plain vanilla Standard & Poor's 500 Depositary Receipts <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(AMEX: SPY)") else Response.Write("(AMEX: SPY)") end if %>, are up a yawning 1.41% in the March period and less than 3 percentage points year to date.
Here's the RS-IBD stock list for the month of April, according to the most recent Workshop Rankings: 
Yahoo! Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") end if %>
America Online <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %>
VISX  Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") end if %>
Qualcomm Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QCOM)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QCOM)") end if %>*
Schwab (Charles) <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") end if %>*
Sun Microsystems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") end if %>*
EMC Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") end if %>
Uniphase Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: UNPH)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: UNPH)") end if %>
Xilinx Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX
Best Buy Co. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") end if %>
*Indicates a three-way tie for fourth place, according to the Workshop current rankings.

Check my Thursday column for the latest numbers on the Unemotional Growth model.

Have a great week!

New Rankings | Workshop Returns