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Relative Strength IBD
Yeah, Baybee!

By Jim Stevens (Workshop)

BURLINGTON, VT (Sept. 9, 1999) -- How about an investment that's been doubling money in less than 12 months on average for about three years? A monthly version of the Relative Strength - IBD (Investor's Business Daily) mechanical stock screen boasts this record.

The last I knew, a complete backtest of this model was still being assembled by industrious message board contributor Sux2BeU -- thanks, Sux! In the meantime, many of us have liked the current results of the model so much that we can't resist saying "I'll take a large serving of RS-IBD monthly on the side, please."

As I mention in my Foolish Interview, this screen is what led to my "best investment" back in February of 1997. Dell Computer <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") end if %> has since remained in my portfolio by way of the RS-IBD or Keystone screens, racking up gains to what is now about a ten-bagger. A few more stocks like that and I'll be spending way more time in the lower latitudes! Oops, not very unemotional there, sorry.

Getting back on track, I bring you an update of the monthly RS-IBD screen. The stocks for the model are picked as follows: Starting with the 100 stocks ranked #1 for timeliness in the Value Line Investment Survey, sort out the top 5 or 10 with the highest IBD relative strength scores. Break ties with the IBD earnings per share (EPS) score. Update once per month, replacing any stocks that no longer make the screen. Just like the Unemotional Growth model, the trades for the mock IBD-RS portfolio I track are based on the closing prices for the first Friday of the month.

Here are last month's stocks as listed in the August 6, 1999, current rankings, listed with their performances for August through last Friday:

Qualcomm Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QCOM)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QCOM)") end if %>         10.58%
VISX Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VISX)") end if %>              2.65%
JDS Uniphase <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: JDSU)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: JDSU)") end if %>          35.43%
PMC - Sierra Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PMCS)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PMCS)") end if %>     20.40%
IDEC Pharmaceuticals <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: IDPH)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: IDPH)") end if %>  28.33%
CTS Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CTS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CTS)") end if %>                18.30%
Xilinx Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: XLNX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: XLNX)") end if %>           19.36%
Imunex Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: IMNX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: IMNX)") end if %>          22.08%
American Freightways <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AFWY)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AFWY)") end if %>  -6.67%
Best Buy Co. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") end if %>            -10.35%


IBD-RS5                       19.48%
IBD-RS10                      14.01%
S&P 500 Dep Rcpts <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(AMEX: SPY)") else Response.Write("(AMEX: SPY)") end if %>  4.29%