Market Insights

Major indexes remain well below last year’s peaks despite their recent bounce. But some stocks are now trying to break out to new highs — unfazed by the volatility of late.

The screenshot below from TradeStation’s Scanner shows several companies at or near 52-week highs. Most are technology names with double-digit revenue gains — a sign that growth investing isn’t dead. It’s simply moving to smaller firms as bigger names pause.

Scanner and chart showing symbols within 3% of their 52-week highs, based on Tuesday’s close.

Here are some results:

• Twilio (TWLO): One of 2018’s biggest gainers barely flinched when volatility swept the broader market in December. Now the cloud-software stock is pushing against the psychologically important $100 level.
• Eli Lilly (LLY): The pharmaceutical maker has been consolidating over $100 since the summer amid strong quarterly results and positive drug news. Investors are looking for newer medicines to drive growth going forward.
• Ciena (CIEN): The networking and fiber-optic company has gained market share from Chinese rivals, boosted margins and is buying back shares.
• Glu Mobile (GLUU): The mobile-video game maker continues to benefit from user growth and better profitability after consolidating its developer centers.
• American Tower (AMT): Wireless towers are a backbone of the digital age. The biggest player in the U.S., AMT has beat estimates for at least the last three quarters.

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Do you want scans for names like these? My search took less than five minutes to create and used three simple criteria:

1. It looked for companies averaging at least 1 million shares of daily volume over the last two weeks.
2. We wanted a minimum market capitalization of $1 billion. Both of those eliminated smaller and less liquid companies.
3. The key ingredient was a custom indicator called “Distance from 52-week high.” Here’s the code:

   Plot1(((Last / high52wk ) -1)*100 ) ;

This single line of Easy Language shows a stock’s position relative to its 52-week high. Higher numbers are more potentially bullish because they mean a company took less of a beating in the recent selloff.

In conclusion, some new leaders may be emerging as calm returns to the markets. It’s a great time to learn more about TradeStation’s powerful tools so you can stay on top of the action all year long.