Chart to Share | NVO And Some Sector Stuff that's Nice to Know

I'm back at looking at charts again after being away from it for a while.  I have some favorite patterns that are high probability set ups.  There is always the probability that it goes the other way. So figure out your approach and manage your risks if you are wrong.

 Here's a chart that I would like to share:  NVO  I picked up a position @  $36.24 on 01/04/2017.  I wanted to share why.

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Context is everything in stock picking.  There is the market, the sector, and of course the individual chart as well as fundamentals.  Frankly, I pay less attention to fundamentals.  I don't have enough time nor interest to research and understand the salient fundamentals even though I am a financial professional.  Rather, I shortcut that by using institutional support as a proxy for fundamentals and do a quick look at summary data (BS + IS + Cash flow).   I figure those folks have the resources, so I'll just tag along and do cursory due diligence.  I never care what insiders are doing, and I never pay attention to that. 

Market and sector sentiment (e.g. what's happening to all the other frogs in the pot) all have to work together to increase odds of success in making a buy (long)/sell (short) decision with a favorable expected outcome.

 I've had many market data geekfests over the years.  One has to honor one's idiosyncrasies, and mine is centered on understanding salient data.  I've limited my data diet to 3 things:

1. Understanding the contextual dynamics of sector rotation and where to mine that information
2. Understanding the behavior of Institutional Holders (they are smarter and have more resources than I do) and where to mine that information. 
3. Understanding how items 1 + 2 manifest in charts.
 

 Sector rotation is a powerful thing....and the pharmaceutical sector's down draft is one that shows the effect on prices. Accordingly, my focus on sectors is one that points me where to look.  For me, I look at the 24 sectors, and then the 145+ individual sectors.  The sector performance is a signpost of where to dig for opportunities.

 I have all of the sectors (major + sub) mapped  in Stockcharts. I used to publish a weekly sector report on my charts to make it easy for others to see the work more elegantly  I may reprise that work.  For now, I use it as a gauge of understanding of what is going on in the church of what is happening now.

If you start to look at sectors regularly (e.g. a disciplined approach), you will realize that there is always a bull or bear market somewhere.  Let's take a look a pharmaceuticals of which NVO is a member of.  It is represented by $DJUSPR. 

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Pharmaceuticals tumbled 15.5% from August to early November due to the well-earned negative publicity regarding drug price overcharging.  The entire industry was out of favor as chart after chart will show.  But no need to look at lots of charts. We can see the encapsulation in this index.  Click here to be transported to the excellent WSJ FREE resource for this sector and explore other sectors.  Note that the Dow Jones index for any sector is composed of X number of items while the universe of stocks that populate that sector is larger.

For example, below are the eight stocks that are constituents of the he Pharmaceuticals Index.  Notice that NVO is not one of those; rather, it is a sector constituent along with 84 other stocks.  As these index stocks go in composite, so goes the index. Naturally, the other members of the sector are going to feel the emotions that are governing the index.   I encourage you to go to the WSJ website and explore, it is an excellent, free service with a wealth of tools that will allow you to see the market more broadly.

That's a long preamble...

As you can see from the DJUSPR index, it is making a nice "W" bottom recovery.  I picked up the NVO chart on a scan looking at compressed volatility and then did my due diligence.  Here's what I like about NVO:

• In a sector that is recovering
• Is showing recovery (accumulation) on its chart
• prices are consolidating in a narrow range foreshadowing a range expansion (up or down--no one has a crystal ball)
• volume is increasing
•  volume air pocket above denotes a low volume of potential sellers waiting to ease their pain should price move up.  My experience is that such volume profiles attract price movement as there are not a lot of eager sellers. (The converse is if there is a large volume bar and low pockets below.  The sellers are in your current volume bar and if price drops they sell).
•  It has excellent institutional support (though I qualify that below)
• Renaissance Technologies holds this as its #1 position as of 09/30/2016.  Below are their top 10 holdings from J3SG.com (fabulous, free resource).

And I will close with the top 10 Institutional Holders in NVO.  Overall, there was a reduction of 10M shares among the top 10 holders. This number is not insignificant.  Institutional holders will need to step in to make this price expand into a higher range.  As this data is as of 09/30/2016, the 12/31/2016 filings might show

I'll be publishing more charts that I like. None of these are recommendations, but perhaps a little bird-dogging to show you some places to hunt.