5 Stocks Poised for Breakouts

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

A stock in the food processing complex that's trending close to triggering a major breakout trade is Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), which is engaged in the specialty coffee and coffee maker businesses. This stock has been hammered by the bears so far in 2012, with shares down over 44% so far.

If you take a look at the chart for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, you'll see that this stock was slammed by the short-sellers during the last six months, with shares dropping from over $65 to its recent low of $17.11 a share. During that sharp move lower, shares of GMCR have consistently made lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of GMCR have now bounced hard off that low of $17.11, and it's moved back above its 50-day moving average of $20.99 a share. That move has pushed GMCR within range of triggering a major breakout trade.

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Market players should now look for long-biased traders in GMCR if this stock can manage to trigger a breakout trade above some key overhead resistance levels at $25.39 a share, and then above $26.20 to $26.89 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that registers near or above its three-month average action of 6,544,340 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then GMCR will have a great chance of re-testing and possibly taking out its gap down day high from back in May at $30.29 a share.

One can look to buy GMCR off any weakness to anticipate that breakout, and simply use a stop near some key near-term support at $22.55 a share. Or one could just buy off strength once GMCR starts to clear the first tier of those breakout levels, and then simply use a stop that's a few percentage points below your entry. I would add to either position once GMCR takes out $30.29 with heavy volume.

This is another heavily-shorted stock that is hated on Wall Street. The current short interest as a percentage of the float for GMCR is extremely high at 26.8%. The bears have also been increasing their bets from the last reporting period by 18.6%, or by about 5.49 million shares. Look for a big short-squeeze to develop if GMCR challenges that previous gap from back in May.

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