I don’t want to toot my own horn, but reviewing my Stocks to Watch lists every day is worth your while. It takes about a minute or so to scan through the names on the list and when you’re done you have a very good sense of what’s going on in the market. Taking today’s lists as an example, let’s see what’s going on:

• Notable New Highs - I see Bema Gold (BGO), Freeport McMoRan (FCX), Phelps Dodge (PD), DRDGOLD (DROOY), which makes me think the metals are still very strong. And then there’s Schwab (SCHW - recently moved to Nasdaq from the NYSE (good for them)), and
  optionsXpress (OXPS), which makes me think the brokers are doing fine.
• Usual Suspects - I see a ton of Oil Service stocks here, with the HOLDR (OIH) at the top of the list… along with Schlumberger (SLB), Nat’l Oilwell (NOV), Noble (NE), and Nabors (NBR) all at or near new highs. So I know Oil Service is still strong (this is no surprise to anyone who read the interview with Matt Simmons in this week’s Barron’s, which I briefly excerpted earlier this week).
• Notable New Lows - Gee, that list looks super short… what can that mean?
• Random Observations - There’s Google (GOOG) at $445 a share. I see a bunch of stuff moving up or breaking out on unusual volume: Pixar (PIXR),BMC Software (BMC), F5 Networks (FFIV), Peabody Energy (BTU) (featured yesterday), eResearch (ERES), HealthExtras (HLEX),
  Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Psychiatric Solutions (PSYS), TTM Technologies (TTMI), NVIDIA (NVDA), Dynamic Materials (BOOM), Zoran (ZRAN), Cummins (CMI)…. not exactly looking like a lot of weakness out there.

I think you can see the value in taking two minutes out of your day to look over the lists. They’re free and always will be.