Guest Author - Guido Deboeck

Twenty years ago the stock market dropped by 23% in one day. That was on October 19, 1987. Probably few people remember that day or even those who do, like me, may have erased from their memory what it was like to see so much unrealized gains evaporate in one day. I recall I was up 39% for the year when it happened; by the end of the year only 5% of those gains survived. I had been in the markets for several years but October 19, 1987 was my first big down year. Since then there have been other big down days that I can remember and the more of those you see, the more they look a like. Experience teaches that the key thing to do is to ignore “the water under the bridge”; think and act cool i.e. rationally, not panic; and plan for the next big opportunities.

Unless you were on vacation last week, you know by now that last week was the worst week in the markets in years. NASDAQ, NYSE, S&P500 and the DOW all plunged between 4.2% and 5.6%. Will that be the end of the correction? No one knows, just remember that since 2003 the stock market is up by some 65% and that a normal 10% correction would require some further down drafts; a 33% correction could take away one third of the gains made since 2003.

I read several newspapers this morning in which lots of articles try to rationalize last week’s plunge in various ways. Is that really important? Why it happened or what caused the plunge is great material for journalists (and historians) but does not help you.

Real value added can only be achieved by looking forward, not "rear-view mirror driving". Hence after the close on Friday I screened all listed stocks for those that have EPS rankings greater than 90, relative strength rankings greater than 90, an A or B for sales, profit margin and ROE, an A for accumulation, a current price greater than $15, a stock price within 10% of 52 week high and with current 50 day average volume greater than 300,000. The results were 10 stocks, complemented with five names that I watched closely in the past week which did not suffer from the market plunge. At least two of these five actually made me some decent money last week.

Here is my list of ten that meet all the above criteria: SRCL (Stericycle Inc), ISRG (Intuitive Surgical), VSEA (Varian Semi Equipment Assoc.), FFIV ( F5 Networks), AQNT (Aquantive) TPX ( Tempur Pedic), NILE (Blue Nile), CAM (Cameron), BIDU (Baidu), NOV (Nat. Oilwell Varco). And here are five more that I have kept a close watch on: AAPL (Apple), GOOG (Google), WCG (Wellcare Health Plans), SNCR (Synchronoss Technologies) and OMTR (Omiture).

I let you explore each of these stocks and decide for yourself whether the market plunge of last week is a sufficient reason not to consider buying any of these.