Insider selling has fallen to a new low as of the week ending January 20th. Aside from a number of sizable purchases by a director at Hersha Hospitality Trust total purchases were less $1MM. Insider selling, on the other hand, remains high with the weekly total coming to $255.75MM. With earnings continue to show few signs of sustainability and organic growth it’s not surprising that corporate insiders continue to express little faith in their own shares via the use of personal money.

We’re less than 15% of the way into earnings season, but the numbers are well above estimates. 76% of firms have outperformed revenue estimates with 78% of all companies topping bottom line estimates. The organic growth remains in question, however, as cost cuts continue to be the primary reason for the outperformance. Meanwhile, full year 2009 revenues are likely to decline 14% year over year while 2010 estimates are calling for low mid single digit revenue growth – not exactly a “strong recovery”. It’s likely that corporate insiders will remain skeptical of the rally until they begin to see some real signs of sustainable organic growth in their income statements. As of now, signs of a sustained rebound in earnings and revenues remain mixed.

I am going to list some charts below of stocks that are on an incredible runs right now... basically the most '45 degree' angle like structure on the chart, without a lot of "gap ups" or "spiky" action. The market overall is really just a hodge podge mess, going nowhere for 2 months - but some action as always is happening under the surface. To clear out penny stocks or just daytrader specials, these all have at least 200K in volume on average, and a market cap over $300M.

We've already discussed Riverbed Technology (RVBD), and Palm (PALM) which also are on this list. Many of these names are so strong, they are at most pulling back to their 10 day moving average and not even within sniffing distance of their 20 day. One low risk way to play is buy the basket (preferably at the 10 day moving average or in between the 10 and 20 if possible), and place stops 2-3% below the 20 day moving average - rinse, wash, repeat on a weekly basis.

Conclusion: Closed end funds’ (CEFs) stock volume trading patterns may indicate that the CEF market segment may be heading towards a period of moderately sustained price appreciation.

Volume Counts: Price and volume are two basic building blocks of technical analysis. Non-technical investors have a tendency to focus mostly on price changes and give share volume short shrift. This article reviews the volume characteristics of the CEF market segment for any clues with respect to its price direction.