<FOOLISH WORKSHOP>

Monthly RS-IBD Update      

by Jim Stevens ([email protected])

Burlington, VT (May 10, 1999) -- Shortly after the first Friday of each month, we check in on the performance of two Foolish Workshop stock screens that are traded on a monthly cycle, the Relative Strength-Investor's Business Daily model and the Unemotional Growth model. You can take a look at the start of this process for the current year in my 01/04/99, UG Plus RS report. Well, it's that time again, and once more the RS model outdid the ol' UG for April. We'll cover that one first.

Coincidentally, TMF Bogey's 05/07/99, RS-IBD Answers report from last Friday was a rundown of the stellar performance of this model when traded on an annual cycle. Bogey's article also featured selected links to message board posts by Sux2BeU, the resident expert on the model. Sux2BeU swears by keeping to a monthly cycle because of the superior performance, most especially in a qualified retirement account.

Getting down to it, for those of you who haven't heard of the screen, the RS-IBD works like this: Starting with all of the stocks ranked 1 for Timeliness in the ValueLine Investment Survey, select the ten (or five) with the highest RS (relative strength) percentile score in Investor's Business Daily. Ties for 5th or 10th place are broken using the EPS score. Repeat this process once a month for the monthly model.

Since the last update of the screen in the 04/05/99, Monthly Relative Strength report, here's how the model has been doing:

Yahoo! Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") end if %>        -17.98%
America Online <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %>        -21.21%
VISX  Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") end if %>           7.27%
Qualcomm Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QCOM)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QCOM)") end if %>*      57.85%
Schwab (Charles) <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") end if %>*      10.15%
Sun Microsystems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") end if %>*   -7.97%
EMC Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") end if %>             -24.34%
Uniphase Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: UNPH)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: UNPH)") end if %>       2.42%
Xilinx Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: XLNX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: XLNX)") end if %>          6.30%
Best Buy Co. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") end if %>           -9.25%
                           Top 6*     4.68%
                           Top 10     0.32%

(* There was a three-way tie for the number 4 spot in this screen last month, so the return is for an equally weighted 6-stock portfolio instead of a 5-stock portfolio this month.)

With the pull-back we had in the high techs and, especially, the Internet darlings, some of the stocks took haircuts. A blistering month for Qualcomm kept at least the 5-stock model a little ahead of the game once more. On the year, the returns are now 70.27% for the 5-stock screen and 37.90% for the 10-stock version. By comparison, the Standard & Poor's 500 Depositary Receipts <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(AMEX: SPY)") else Response.Write("(AMEX: SPY)") end if %>, are up 4.37% in the April period and up 9.48% since the first 1999 update.

Here's the RS-IBD stocks for the month of May, the same way they're listed in the Workshop Rankings:

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 %>
CNET Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CNET)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CNET)") end if %>
America Online <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %>
Schwab (Charles) <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SCH)") end if %>
Yahoo! Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: YHOO)") end if %>
Gemstar Int'l <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: GMST)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: GMST)") end if %>
Dycom Inds. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DY)") end if %>
Uniphase Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: UNPH)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: UNPH)") end if %>
Quiksilver Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ZQK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ZQK)") end if %>

I'll update the Unemotional Growth screen on Thursday.

Have a great week!

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