Top Takes From RealMoney

The RealMoney contributors are in the business of trading and investing all day on the basis of ongoing news flow. Below, we offer the top five ideas that RealMoney contributors posted today and how they played those ideas.

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1. Perfect Bullish Percent-R Retest Yesterday

Moby Waller
4/2/2009 1:08 PM EDT

Yesterday's S&P 500 close gave us a very nice confirmed bullish Percent-R retest on the daily chart. It also had a successful test of key middle levels on the hourly chart. If you are using charting software, we utilize different inputs, levels and techniques on our Percent R analysis than are the defaults on most programs -- BigTrends founder Price Headley and others in our firm have developed methods for smoothing out and utilizing the Williams Percent R that are not really being used by anyone else that I'm aware of. And the nice thing about this indicator is that it can often be a "leading indicator" as opposed to a lagging one, which is basically the "holy grail" of most technical analysis.

2. Apple Hitting Six-Month Highs

David Sterman
4/2/2009 11:45 AM EDT

You have to go back to September (which seems quite long ago) for the last time Apple(AAPL Quote) was above $112. The stock is getting lifted by an analyst upgrade today.

You can also see some sector strength in the list of stocks hitting new 52-week highs today, including: