5 Stocks Ready to Break Out

WINDERMERE, Fla. (Stockpickr) -- Trading stocks that trigger major breakouts can lead to massive profits. Once a stock trends to a new high, or takes out a prior overhead resistance point, then it's free to find new buyers and momentum players that can ultimately push the stock significantly higher.

One example of a successful breakout trade I recently flagged was biotechnology and drugs player Affymax (AFFY), which I featured in Mar. 1's "5 Stocks Poised for Breakouts" at around $2.66 a share. Shares of AFFY had gapped down huge from $16 to $2.34 a share with massive downside volume. That beat-down pushed shares of AFFY into extremely oversold territory, and AFFY's relative strength index reading hit 11.33. Just because a stock is oversold doesn't mean it will snap back, but experienced traders know that you can get powerful bounces when they do. I told readers to watch for a breakout trade to trigger if AFFY managed to clear some near-term overhead resistance at $2.82 a share with high volume.

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Guess what happened? Shares of AFFY triggered that breakout on Thursday with massive upside volume. The stock exploded to the upside and hit an intraday high of $4.10 a share, which represents an enormous gain for anyone who pulled the trigger on that breakout. Volume on Thursday registered 45 million shares, which is well above AFFY's three-month average action of 3.40 million shares. The uptrend might not be over for AFFY, so traders should look for the next breakout to trigger if AFFY can clear $4.10 a share with high volume. I would use today's low of $3.22 a share to key off of for near-term support.

Breakout candidates are something that I tweet about on a daily basis. I frequently tweet out high-probability setups, breakout plays and stocks that are acting technically bullish. These are the stocks that often go on to make monster moves to the upside. What's great about breakout trading is that you focus on trend, price and volume. You don't have to concern yourself with anything else. The charts do all the talking.

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Trading breakouts is not a new game on Wall Street. This strategy has been mastered by legendary traders such as William O'Neal, Stan Weinstein and Nicolas Darvas. These pros know that once a stock starts to break out above past resistance levels, and hold above those breakout prices, then it can easily trend significantly higher.

With that in mind, here's a look at five stocks that are setting up to break out and trade higher from current levels.

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