I pose this question, are you pullback ready for the simple reason of being prepared. The S&P 500 index hit the 1150 mark again as the market pushes through the January highs. There is excitement and optimism over the move off the February lows and it is great to make money when the market move higher.
However, are you ready for the market to pullback. I am not prophesying when or how it will happen. It is just understood when the market moves 8-10% in either direction it will test the trend and we need to be prepared for such an event. Mental preparation is as important as finding the right stock to own.
What a week for the market. The Nasdaq led the way, with a weekly gain of 4%; the NYSE Composite rose 3.6%; the S&P 500 added 3.2% and the Dow picked up 2.3%. Technical breakouts among institutional-quality names is exactly what you want to see in the early stages of a market rally, and there have been plenty of them. Apple (AAPL) broke out in heavy volume on Friday, rising nearly 4% to $218.95.
This is a perfect environment to be adding growth names to my Market Movers model portfolio, and I will doing more of it in coming weeks. All 16 names in the portfolio traded higher Friday. Some top performers in the portfolio include Valeant Pharmaceuticals Int'l (VRX), Celgene (CELG), Panera Bread (PNRA) and Brookfield Properties (BPO) among others.
For more information on my Market Movers newsletter, you can e-mail me at ken.shreve@thestreet.com
