Visa (V), $65.75: As I mentioned on Twitter last week, the stock is building a cup with handle pattern. A down-sloping handle is currently forming with a pivot point breakout at $68.55. I will be looking to add shares on a breakout. FYI: I currently own shares from 2008.

See the post Visa, from December 17, 2008 for further details:

Why do I like VISA’s potential?

• $1o Billion would represent the second largest IPO ever!
• Revenues are expected to grow steadily as consumers continue to use their cards
• VISA processed 44 billion transactions totaling $3.2 trillion in 2006 (Mastercard processed 23.4 billion transactions totaling $1.9 trillion)
• VISA has made $771 million on $3.7 billion in revenue during the first nine months of 2007
• VISA makes their money from the fees it charges to card users and merchants using its network

BEST OF ALL:

• Because it acts as an intermediary, Visa doesn’t sustain losses when consumers don’t repay the debts run up on credit cards bearing its brand. Those liabilities instead fall to the banks that issue the cards and set the terms of repayment
• Most of Visa’s major stockholders are banks. They include: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which owns 23.3 percent of the company’s Class B Stock; Bank of America Corp., 11.5 percent; National City Corp., 8 percent; Citigroup Inc., 5.5 percent; U.S. Bancorp, 5.1 percent; and Wells Fargo & Co., 5.1 percent.

Let’s see what happens. The gov’t here in the US scares me these days when it comes to credit cards so pay attention to what they are doing. I wish they would just butt-out and go back to doing what they are meant to do.

Well, this is about as hot as it gets these days! It’s been difficult to find solid looking stock charts that are trending higher over the past three to six months but I continue to research. The overall market is still very weak so the lack of individual leaders is understandable. It’s not smart to buy against the grain of the market; swimming against the current is just plain stupid if you ask me. However, my attempt today is to post up a few positive looking charts that are showing up on my screens as potential leaders if and when a small rally occurs. Several of these stocks have crossed my screens since late 2008 and have been highlighted on the blog but LOPE is new one to the bunch.

Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (LOPE) has a great looking up-trending chart since the day of its IPO and started to show up on my daily screens in late December (the most successful IPO in a long time – out of the box). This is definitely a stock that I would purchase if the market was showing strength. For now, I will stay on the sidelines until I can see some form of a rally starting to take place.

The other stocks listed below are also displaying nice technical characteristics in this murky environment which leads me to believe that they have potential to become market leaders in a rally. APEI is closely related to LOPE as these stocks typically do well when the market is in a recession. GXDX and ENSG are related to the healthcare and/or science industry which seems to do well when the economy has turned sour as well. Stocks such as APOL, COCO and CECO were superstars after 9-11 in the months leading up to the rally of 2003. Medical related stocks were also topping my charts in late 2002 and early 2003. Times seem to be repeating so we’ll have to wait for a market signal before jumping into any of these candidates.

In any evert, keep them on your watchlist.

• APEI – American Public Education, Inc.
• GXDX – Genoptix, Inc.
• ENSG – The Ensign Group, Inc.

Several of these stocks have been highlighted in blog posts dating back to November – be patient! We’ll continue to sit on them until the time is right.

• Three Stocks to Watch
• “A”+ Stocks
• Strong Stock Charts
• Institutions Accumulating Shares