Performance - 2026

1st Quarter 2026

The first quarter of 2026 was a very tricky period to participate in the stock market as the market experienced more choppy action that started in October 2025. The S&P 500 put in a correction low in late November 2025, but after a strong week one of the rally the rest of December 2025 was lackluster to the upside. Then starting in January 2026 the market continued to the upside for the first month of the year, but the major indices only slightly made a new high before rolling over into another correction.

The S&P 500 then spent the next two months during February and March 2026 in correction and the S&P 500 put in a low at the end of March with nearly a -10% move lower. The best stocks had to fight their way through all of this heavy market during the first quarter of 2026, and some stocks were able to perform well, but they were much fewer than what would happen in a strong market. The headwind of the overall market simply has made the stock market much harder to trade to the long side than when individual stocks have the S&P 500 at their back powering them higher.

Leading sectors during this period included red hot fiber optics stocks, semiconductors, computer hardware, artificial intelligence, space, and biotech stocks. GEV, SNDK, and FSLY were some of the best entries below as each stock emerged from a base with minimal or no overhead resistance and had strong sector strength behind them. Both SNDK and FSLY also had monster volume on their breakouts which is a key edge to finding big winning stocks. Both SNDK and FSLY ended up being two of the best stocks in the entire stock market to trade during the first quarter of 2026, and Stage Analysis gave great entries into each stock!

The Timing Model in this newsletter went negative right at the end of January which was the start of the correction that bottomed in late March. Failed breakouts and high volume selling in late January was the key tell that the market was starting to falter and the high volume selling in the major indices was also apparent on the weekly charts. At the end of March a weak volume bounce started which is more prone to failure, and there's potential the second quarter of 2026 could be another hostile period until institutions start coming back into this market with more volume.

The bottom line is after a very strong market in 2025 after the first quarter 2025 bear market, 2026 has proven to be a corrective and hostile market so far after the huge rally. Patience continues to be needed to let the hostile market play out and a better trading opportunity to the long side will likely present itself later in 2026.

The following stocks are reviewed in the video below:

GEV - Issue #158

PL, AAOI - Issue #159

LUNR, DAWN - Issue #160

ADEA - Issue #161

SNDK, EQNR - Issue #162

UCTT - Issue #163

GEV, WTI - Issue #164

VIAV, GLW, AAOI - Issue #166

FSLY - Issue #168

ZSL - Issue #170

FSLY - Issue #171

FSLY, LWLG - Issue #172

(Note: Stocks in bold were on the Best Stage 2 Breakouts, Stage 2 Breakout Pullbacks, or Long Term Trades list for that issue of the newsletter)

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