The NASDAQ Composite closed the week at its highest level since January 4, 2008, and has gained 104% since its March, 2009 low. The index is now just 303 points below its November 2, 2007 high. A further gain of 12% from here will see the index reach that significant point of resistance due to lots of overhead supply. Compare this performance with that of the S&P 500, which has risen 82% from its March, 2008 low, but still has to gain a further 28% to recover to its 2007 high.

Does this mean that the S&P 500 has more upside potential? Possibly, as the QE2 stimulus will flow to the major banks first. With money being cheap due to low interest rates the reward to risk ratio for equities looks more attractive so we will see much of the QE2 money flow from the banks into the equities markets. They have to put the money somewhere (or inflation will erode its value) and they are unwilling to lend to businesses and individuals while the economy is still sputtering. Note that the S&P 500 gained 3.6% this week compared to the NASDAQ's 2.85%.





The number of successful breakouts jumped to 53 this week with an average gain at Friday's close of 5.2% easily beating the returns of the major indexes.

No new features this week

A potential subscriber asked us

"Lets say I can set up breakout alerts of my own on my broker's software (price and volume),but I'd like the watchlist on your site to give me a very small amount of candidates, preferably which already meet cantata conditions and telling me in advance how much volume will be needed for a 1.5 vol breakout. Which one of your subscriptions will cover it?"

Since few of us are as wealthy as we were, this topic may be of interest to our newsletter readers so here's the answer.

The minimum subscription that gives access to our watchlists each day is the Silver subscription. At this level you can see all watchlists, all symbols and all the technical and fundamental analysis associated with each symbol, including breakout price and breakout volume at the 1.5 times average daily volume level.

At the Silver level you don't get access to

• email alerts
• filters
• personal watchlists
• watchlist downloads
• chart browser
• database search

but you can still sort each watchlist by RS Rank, price, volume, and technical and fundamental rankings and see the stocks that meet out target criteria (MTC). You also have unlimited access to the CANTATA Evaluator. By sorting you can make the cream rise to the top and then perform due diligence on just a few stocks before placing an order with your broker. By the way, each watchlist is sorted initially by descending RS Rank, as that is the criterion we have found most important in determining performance after breakout.

A Silver subscription costs $38.50 a month with hefty discounts for longer periods.

For the even more budget conscious, there is also our "essential" service which still gives you access to the watchlists and CE (only for watchlist stocks) for just $19.95 a month. the url for the essential service is http://essential.breakoutwatch.com.