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Alpesh Patel
Alpesh Patel's columns :
04/20/2006Oil and other crazy commodities
04/13/2006A quiet dip?
04/07/2006Equities booming - so where is the rally?
03/30/2006More Highs
03/15/2006Awful Feb - looking back in March
03/01/2006Highs on Equity Markets
02/22/2006European Interest Rates
02/17/2006The Quiet Before the Storm?
02/08/2006The Heat is Off
02/02/2006February the month of Valentine
01/25/2006Another Flight
01/12/2006Stock Picks for 2006
12/14/2005Fast Jet to India
11/17/2005The View From Here
11/02/2005After the Party
10/23/2005IX Investment Expo
10/02/2005Women Traders
09/27/2005Forex for us?
09/21/2005Trading as a Business
09/14/2005Women and Men; Mars and Venus
09/07/2005Fund Managers
08/31/2005Exchange Traded Funds
08/24/2005New York, London, Chicago
08/16/2005NYC Again
08/10/2005Summer Fun
08/03/2005Global Markets from a Foreign Perspective
07/29/2005Portfolio Destruction
07/20/2005Trader Health
07/13/2005Portfolio Management
07/06/2005Analyst Speak

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Alpesh Patel – A weekly look at market opportunities and pitfalls
Alpesh B. Patel is one of the UK's best-known traders and financial journalists. He writes a regular column for the Financial Times, has written seven bestselling books on trading, and makes regular television appearances for Bloomberg, Sky Television, Channel 4, The Money Channel, and the BBC.

Long Summer Into September

09/20/2006

As I write I am Chennai airport about to fly to Hydrebad. I am here to see some of the latest business ideas in IT. The centre of global capitalism has shifted East, but as one entrepreneur pointed out to me today, the home of financial markets remains the UK.

On ADVFN's charting, looking at the FTSE 100, it is difficult to see anything but weakness for the weak ahead. When you add in short-term indicators like the MACD (moving average convergence) a key market weakness warning comes when the market does not make new relative price highs as the MACD does. That is happening. The 6,100 levels looks a bit off in the next fortnight to month as things stand.

Examining just one of the better performers over the past week, we have Drax Group. The company has had a couple of falls and trying to make good a recovery. It is classic case, which you can view on ADVFN, of a stock which rising in a downtrend, as opposed to having fallen in an uptrend and about to resume upwards more permanently. How do we know this? Because its rises remain below the downtrend which began in August with a price peak and which is unbroken by the recent rises.

The UK stocks showing the strongest short term bullish momentum are: PipeHawk, Christie Group, IndigoVision, is on the list too of course.

(Email me if you would like the presentation on the stocks I like for 2006, which I broadcast on BBC2 - the picks in the past two years produced a 83% compound return.)

Value-Growth

For a 12 month outlook, I look for stocks based on company growth criteria (eg revenue and profit growth) and on valuation criteria that I have developed over the years (incorporating price earnings growth). I then datamine for outstanding names. Currently on my radar are: Lookers, NWF, SHL Group and UCM Group.

Remember I am targeting about 20-25% with the value growth criteria. Last year it produced 33% return.

On my momentum value search for stocks based on momentum (eg price moves over the 2 week and 6 month periods) as well as valuation criteria (such as price to earnings growth, dividend yields), names showing up there include: Asfare Group, Jourdan, Touchstone Group.

Crazy Small Stock

These are high risk volatile stocks which could move sharply higher or move sharply lower in my radar are: Tex Holdings, Abbeycrest, Austin Reed Group.

Also, if you would like a free multi-media CDROM on 'Investing Better' for ADVFN readers, which covers spreadbetting, CFD trading and momentum indicators like the MACD, posted to you then drop me an email with your postal address to alpesh.patel@tradermind.com.

Spreadbetters

Spreadbetters and futures traders often look at hard and soft commodities. Here's my quick take on the action for the week ahead:

  • Oil: Sideways
  • Copper: Sideways
  • Gold: Down
  • £/$: Down possible sideways
  • Dow: Up
  • FTSE 100: Down
  • Soyabean Oil: Down

Alpesh B Patel, author of “Alpesh Patel on Stock Futures” available from the ADVFN bookstore.