NASDAQ Chartbooks

Find Technical Breakouts and Patterns of Interest

The NASDAQ Chartbook has been prepared with 9 charts on a page versus 4 charts on a page as in our Industrial and Resource Chartbooks. This is so that we are able to include virtually all NASDAQ stocks in the Chartbooks, over 3000 charts. The NASDAQ chartbook is designed to allow users to scan rapidly through the stock charts looking for technical breakouts and patterns of interest. We include a limited amount of fundemental information and our main focus is on technical patterns.

REFERENCE GUIDE FOR THE NASDAQ CHARTBOOK

A) COMPANY NAME - indicates the common name up to 45 characters.

B) COMPANY SYMBOL - up to 5 characters.

C) DETAILED SECTOR DESCRIPTION - indicates our most recently recorded description of the companies main activities. Although we update this data regularly we welcome your detailed comments towards maintaining accurate information.

D) WEEKLY SHARE PRICE - Each vertical line indicates the share price range for the week. The short, horizontal bar indicates the week’s closing price. These prices are adjusted to reflect any stock splits, and are plotted on a semi-logarithmic scale. The alternative scaling method is arithmetic. Arithmetic scaling gives constant scale increments. For example, a $.10 change in share price will be the same distance vertically on the chart regardless of whether the $.10 change is at the top or the bottom of the chart. Semi-log scaling, used in the ISC chartbook charts, reflects the percentage change in stock price regardless of where it is measured. For example, a 1/4 inch price range at the bottom of a chart might represent a price change of 10%. Therefore a 1/4 inch price change at the top of the chart would also represent a 10% change in price. Semi-log scaling is used so that investors can visually determine the varying rates of percentage change in the security’s price.

E) 40 WEEK MOVING AVERAGE PRICE LINE - Calculated as the average of the previous 40 weeks’ closing prices, this figure is then plotted as a coarse dotted line. It serves to indicate the direction of the underlying longer-term trend. The purpose of the moving average is to produce a line that reduces the effect of short term fluctuations so that the longer term trend is clearer. Often investors use the 40 week moving average in conjunction with the 10 week moving average to note crossovers or parallel movement - to confirm trends or show divergences. For example, when the fast line (10 week ma) crosses up through the slow line (40 week ma) this may indicate a change in the price trend upward.

F) 10 WEEK MOVING AVERAGE PRICE LINE - Calculated as the average of the previous 10 weeks’ closing prices, this is plotted as a fine dotted line. The 10 week moving average price line serves to smooth out the short-term price fluctuations and provides an indication of the trend.

G) 13 WEEK RELATIVE STRENGTH INDEX - This is a momemtum oscillator designed by Welles Wilder Jr., and indicates the 13-week rate of change in share price. It is used as an overbought-oversold indicator by comparing previous rates of momentum at which the stock temporarily reversed direction. It is also used to confirm intermediate-term new highs or lows. If the share price moves to a new high or low, on lower momentum than the provious high or low, then the move may not be as likely to be sustained. The RSI has a range of 0 to 100 where the dashed horizontal line on the chart represents 50. If the RSI figure is above 50 the RSI line will be above the dashed line.

H) WEEKLY SHARE VOLUME - Each vertical line represents the number of shares traded that week, plotted on an arithmetic scale. The scale is split into 5 segments whereby the top number is the number for the highest volume day on the chart (excluding extraordinary volume - see K). The other 4 numbers on the scale are derived by dividing this maximum number by 5 and multiplying it by the number of the scale-bar (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th).

I) THE NAME CHANGE LINE - a vertical dotted line on a chart is displayed if there is a notice of reorganization of the company during the period of the chart. This could be a name change, stock split, consolidation (reverse stock split, amalgamation, etc. In conjunction with the dotted line, a one line summary will be displayed just above the left side of the volume scale noting the nature of the name change and the exact date when it occured. Only the data for the most recent name change is displayed on the ISC charts

J) EXTRAORDINARY VOLUME - If during the period of the chart the highest volume is over 50% higher than the second highest volume, the volume is represented with a dotted line. Often, such volumes can be significant of trend change, so we highlight them with this method. In addition, the dotted volume bar serves to prevent a single high volume day from recalibrating the other volumes so they become too low and are indistinguishable.

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