Spotting Strong Industries in a Weak Market
No matter how weak the market, stocks in some industries will do fine. You can still make money if you spot those strong industries. You can use BigCharts' Industries report (Figure 2-2) to identify strong industries. BigCharts (www.bigcharts.com) displays lists showing the 10 best and 10 worst performing industries for periods ranging from one week to five years. The default is three months, and that's a good starting point. But things change quickly, so check the one-month listings to make sure that a hot industry on the three-month chart isn't fading. Once you've spotted an industry of interest, you can click on the industry name to see a list of the 10 best and 10 worst performing stocks within that industry for the selected period.
Figure 2-2. BigCharts 10 best performing industries over the past three months, as of March 17, 2002. Start by selecting Industries on BigChart's home page (www.bigcharts.com). You can click on an industry name to see a list of the 10 best and 10 worst performing stocks in the industry.
You take on additional risks when you buy stocks in underperforming industries, even in strong overall markets. So it pays to see how your candidate's industry is faring anytime that you're considering a purchase.