Finding Leading Stocks

The Market Shift Was Hiding in the Screens

One of my favorite scans, and one I ran for years in MarketSurge, is the Big EPS and Sales screen. I now run the same scan inside the Momentum Trading Strategy software.

When you sort the results by one-year relative strength, the familiar leaders dominate: SNDK, MU, LITE, WDC, WTX, TER, etc.

The strongest groups are also the ones we have become accustomed to seeing: semiconductors, computer hardware, telecom, and communications equipment.

But sort the exact same screen by one-month relative strength, and the picture completely changes.

Now you see medical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, and marine shipping names moving toward the top.

This shift was visible in the individual stock screens weeks ago.

When the indexes, sectors, industry groups, and individual stock screens all begin telling the same story, you are no longer guessing whether leadership is changing.

You are watching it happen in real time.

The Screen Behind Today’s Breakout List

One of my favorite ways to use the Relative Strength Stock Screener is starting with the Leaders / CANSLIM preset, then layering Today’s Market Movers on top of it.

That combo has been surfacing a lot of names I like today.

ALAB is breaking out to new highs.

LRCX is breaking out to new highs as I write this.

TER is right near new highs.

This is why I like combining leadership filters with current-day strength. It helps narrow the market down to the names that already have strong characteristics and are actually moving right now.

Not All Semis Are Breaking Down

Semiconductors have weakened, but leadership has not disappeared.

A few names are still bucking the trend.

TER, TSM, and LRCX are all acting well, with each either near new highs or breaking out toward new highs today.

Right now, TER, TSM, and LRCX are still showing strength.

Stocks gapping up to, or near, new highs this morning:

MU, WDC, STX, INTC, TTMI, TER, ALAB, AMD, VSH, LSCC, STM, TSM, and ADI.

This Is Why You Track Leadership Before Everyone Else Sees It

On April 8, the market gave us the signal.

We had a follow-through day, the NASDAQ-100 reclaimed key moving averages, including the 50-day and 200-day, and the conversation shifted from defense back toward offense.

But the real edge was not just knowing the market was improving.

The edge was knowing where to look.

When the market gets stronger, I want to be focused on the strongest industry groups and the strongest stocks inside those groups.

That is exactly what we had been tracking for months.

• Telecom.

• Computer Data Storage.

• Semiconductors.

Many of these names were not random new ideas. They had already been showing up in our work, some for months, and some even last year.

So when the market confirmed on April 8, there was no need to bounce around looking for the next hot ticker.

The leadership was already there.

From the April 8 signal to yesterday’s close:

AAOI up 40%

LITE up 12%

CIEN up 12%

VIAV up 30%

SNDK up 81%

WDC up 38%

STX up 53%

TER flat

AEIS down 4%

AEHR up 50%

LRCX up 12%

FIX up 30%

GLW flat

Not every stock works.

That is normal.

But when the market confirms, and multiple stocks from the same leading groups start moving together, that is usually not a coincidence.

That is institutional money flowing into a theme.

Strong market.

Strong industry groups.

Strong stocks.

That is the process.

The goal is not to chase every move.

The goal is to already know where the strength is clustering before the move becomes obvious.

Everyone’s Asking Why I Like TER… You’re Asking the Wrong Question

Somebody asked me why I like TER.

Honestly… what is there not to like?

99 Relative Strength.

89% EPS growth last quarter.

44% sales growth last quarter.

That alone puts it in elite territory.

But it gets better.

Sales are accelerating. Earnings are accelerating. ROE is pushing 20%. Pre-tax margins are above 20%.

This is exactly what real leadership looks like.

Then you look at the chart.

Clean uptrend. Higher highs. Higher lows. No mess. No confusion. Just strength.

And while the market was breaking down?

TER held up well.

That tells you everything you need to know about demand.

This isn’t just a good stock.

It’s part of a powerful theme in a strong industry group and more importantly, it’s a leader within that group.

That’s where the real money is made.

So again… why do I like TER?

Wrong question.

The real question is… why don’t you?

This Is What Real Leadership Looks Like

It’s not a coincidence.

When we look at the Top 10 Industry Groups right now, we’re seeing clear clustering of strength:

• Telecom: AAOI, LITE, CIEN, VIAV

• Computer Data Storage: SNDK, WDC, STX

• Semiconductors: TER, AEIS, AEHR, LRCX

All showing up in the top groups.

This is exactly how leadership reveals itself.

It’s not just one stock. It’s clusters of strength moving together.

When you start seeing multiple names across the same industry groups all:

• Breaking out

• Showing strong relative strength

• Backed by strong fundamentals

That is not random.

That is institutional money flowing into a theme.

This is how real trends work.

Stay focused on where the strength is clustering, just like we teach in the MTS Course. https://tradingmomentum.substack.com/s/mts-course

How do we find the strongest names in the strongest groups?

Relative Strength Stock Screener.

Use it now as part of the MTS Web App https://momentumtradingstrategy.app/

That’s where the opportunity is.