We have the FOMC in November when the Fed is expected to raise rates by 0.75% once again and the fourth by this amount in a row; plus, we do have the last FOMC to look forward to in December.
Regardless of that and from a technical and vpa perspective, stocks in this year’s worst-performing sectors look interesting which is why I’ve drawn up a list of stocks for analysis in the coming weeks.
The image below is from Finviz and confirms that the two worst-performing sectors/groups YTD are Technology and Communication Services. I am using a very simple filtering system which is 1. Only US stocks. 2. Stocks with a market cap of over $2bn, and 3. Must have an average volume of over 1m. This has resulted in 24 Communication Services stocks, although some are also Tech stocks.
The first stock I want to cover is Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN), not only because of the really nice vpa signatures on the daily chart but also because almost 16% of Lumen shares are currently sold short, resulting in a short ratio of 12, and any short ratio over 10 increases the possibility of a sharp squeeze higher. FINRA requires all short positions to be reported twice a month, and the next date is Tuesday, October 25, so a nice confluence of fundamental factors alongside our technical signals.
Earnings season is also underway, and Lumen is due to report on November 2.
