UNP Week

There's a lot to like in a stock such as the railroad Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) that every quarter or so for more than year has chugged up the slope to higher highs buttressed by higher lows. It ain't flashy, it's just the little stock that could, and I'll be happy 130% rise anytime I can get it.

	trend	adx	psar	pps	macd	macd trend	sto	sto trend
UNP (daily) $76.37

UNP last week barrel-housed through the 13- and 26-week moving averages on a slight volume increase -- a bit more than 1 percent. The breakthrough sets up a challenge to the most recent swing high of $78.61 traded on April 30.

Two things to like about the stock from a fundamental standpoint:

The company has shown a profit quarter after quarter even as its stock plummeted from an 20-year high of $85.80 down to the March 2009 recession low of $33.28

The company pays a dividend, as a proper old-line company should -- and that dividend was recently increased.

An encouraging sign for traders is that the stock ended the week with nearly all of its gains intact. The slight retrenchment on Friday is barely visible, even on a daily chart.

Reversal Levels

• $85.80, +12.4%
• $78.61, +2.9%
• $76.52, +0.2%
• $76.37 <== You are here.
• $67.98, -11.0%

The stock began its current upswing at $33.28 in March 2009 and hit a swing high of $76.61 on April 30. A push past $76.61 would keep the uptrend intact -- the sixth higher high in the rise since the March 2009 low.

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Disclaimer

Tim Bovee, Private Trader tracks the trades of a private trader for his own accounts. Nothing in this blog constitutes a recommendation to buy or sell stocks, options or any other financial instrument. The only purpose of this blog is to provide education and entertainment. No trader is ever 100 percent successful in his or her trades. Trading in the stock and option markets is risky and uncertain. Each trader must make trading decision decisions for his or her own account, and take responsibility for the consequences.

Abbreviations:

• psar - Parabolic Stop and Reverse
• adx - Average Directional Index
• pps - Person's Proprietary Signal
• ma20 - 20-day moving average
• macd - Moving Average Convergence-Divergence
• sto - Fast Stochastic

About the glance: The colors indicate the state of each signal.

• trend: Determined by the 5-day moving average, green for up, red for down, yellow for sideways
• adx: orange for above 30-up, blue for 20-down, purple for in the middle. Red is most prone to whipsaws
• psar, pps, macd: green for bull mode, red for bear
• sto: green for overbought, red for oversold, yellow for the neutral zone.