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Top Rocket Stocks for Week of March 10

James Altucher

One of the primary goals behind Stockpickr.com is to help individual investors (myself included) add a little bit of discipline to their trading.

Part of this discipline is to constantly check the 52-week lows and analyst downgrades lists, a practice I regularly follow.

Each week I compile a new list of Rocket Stocks, 10 stocks that I believe have the potential to climb in the coming days.

This portfolio does not necessarily contain the ideal long-term stock picks for your mother's 401(k), but rather these stocks are short-term picks for momentum traders. Statistically, snapback and breakout stocks have worked well, netting some nice returns along the way.

In this volatile market, stocks that trade with catalysts have worked best.

Before we take a look at this week's Rocket Stocks portfolio -- which includes names like National Oilwell Varco (NOV - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Potash (POT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) -- let's see how last week's picks fared

• BJ's Wholesale (BJ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Up 7.5% on the week after beating analysts' fourth-quarter estimates and raising its 2008 earnings forecast.
• Balchem (BCPC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Up 1.8% on the week as fourth-quarter net sales were up 100% year over year.
• Marvell Technology (MRVL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 3.2% on the week.
• Harvard Bioscience (HBIO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 4.8% on the week.
• Basic Energy Services (BAS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 5.5% on the week after reporting in-line fourth-quarter earnings.
• Goldman Sachs (GS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 5.8% on the week.
• Merck (MRK - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 6.6% on the week
• Petrobras (PZE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 6.6% on the week.
• PetSmart (PETM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 10.7% on the week after lowering its 2008 profit outlook.
• Blockbuster (BBI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): Down 13.1% on the week, despite posting fourth-quarter profit more than quadruple.

Now let's look at this week's Rocket Stock portfolio.

Sasol (SSL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), a South Africa-based integrated oil and gas company, makes this week's list. Sasol reports quarterly results Monday. The stock has a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 10 and P/E-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 0.8.

With oil at record prices, Sasol is a diverse play on the global consumption of oil. Sasol has a lot of European exposure, especially in Eastern Europe, where the weather has been extremely cold this year.

Over the past year, Sasol has increased its gross profit margins from 40% to 52%. Last year, the company beat estimates by an average of 14.5%.

Sasol also has a lot of exposure to offshore drilling in Africa, which has the highest margins. Only 4% of the company's revenue comes from U.S.-based business and could be helped by a positive currency conversion.

With oil at record prices, analysts have not really raised their earnings estimates on Sasol and that should help the company beat estimates.

Also, worth looking at is Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CIG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), a Brazilian utility company that provides energy distribution solutions. It reports quarterly results Monday.

For the rest of this week's picks and more detailed analysis, check out the Rocket Stocks for the Week of March 3-7 at Stockpickr.com.

As always, to find the snapbacks and potential breakouts on a regular basis, check out these Stockpickr portfolios, which I use in my own research each week:

• Today's Hot List: This daily list is a must-view every midday to see what stocks are making the biggest moves and why.
• Always check the Biggest Percentage Losers, a list of stocks that lost big the day before, because they can snap back hard.

  When you check this list on Stockpickr, you can see which stocks are owned by the quality hedge funds and mutual funds. Pay attention to those. They will be buying at the lower prices, so you should be also.

• Ditto for the 52-week-low list. You must check the above two lists every day if you hope to find volatile stocks.
• Biotech Short Squeezes: Dendreon(DNDN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and others can often be found in this category.
• Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume: These are potential breakout stocks.
• Stockpickr's System Trades of the Day: These are trades triggering that day in various back tested trading systems we've developed.
• Stocks With Unusual Option Activity: Perhaps someone knows something?
• Latest Activist Situations: These are beaten-down stocks that hedge funds are accumulating shares of and demanding change in. Believe me, these hedge funds piggyback each other. And once they start rocking the boat, things happen quickly. This should be on your must-view list.

One final place to frequent is the Answers section on Stockpickr, where ideas such as those presented in this article are thrown around daily.