Finding Swing Trading Candidates

“The best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year was the company behind Invisalign clear braces

  • Align Technology makes “clear aligners” that orthodontists use to straighten a patient’s teeth in lieu of metal braces and headgear.
  • Despite an onslaught of competition, Align Technology was the top-performing stock among S&P 500 companies in 2017.
  • Align Technology’s stock shot up from a $96.49 opening price on the first day of trading this year to an opening price of $223.22 on Wednesday. “(12/27/2017)
  • CNBC

ALGN performance in 2017 was most suprising because of wht it was not. It was not a tech or bitcoin stock. It is a medical device company.

In my previous post on How to Find Swing Trading Stocks (listed below), I mentioned that the basic first step is to find those stocks that have demonstrated, through their income statements and balance sheet, that the company has the potential to become a moat stock.

Once that this potential has been noted, the next step is to find the breakout stage, when the rest of the investing world notices that the company has developed some positive price momentum.

Align Technology started to show early signs of both after the annual report of the year ending December 2010.

The financial results continued to get better. The stock price followed.

The following monthly, and weekly pictures of ALGN should illustrate

the earnings and price growth of this unusual company.

ALGN WeeklyALGN monthly