5 Stocks Poised for Breakouts

Anacor Pharmaceuticals

One stock that's trending within range of triggering a major breakout trade is Anacor Pharmaceuticals (ANAC), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel small-molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platform. This stock has been hammered by the bears so far in 2013, with shares off by 25%.

This company reported earnings on Thursday, beating Wall Street EPS estimates by 9 cents per share, after reporting a loss of 36 cents per share versus estimates of a loss of 44 cents per share. Revenue rose 26.15% to $3.28 million from the year-earlier period.

>>4 Biotech Stocks Under $5 to Watch

If you take a look at the chart for Anacor Pharmaceuticals, you'll see that this stock has been uptrending strong for the last few weeks, with shares marching higher from its low of $3 to its intraday high of $4.02 a share. During that uptrend, shares of ANAC have been mostly making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move is quickly pushing shares of ANAC within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ANAC if it manages to break out above its 50-day moving average of $4.10 a share and then above its gap down day high from January at $4.39 a share with volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that registers near or above its three-month average action of 375,222 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, ANAC will set up to refill some of its previous gap-down zone that started near $5.50 a share. Any high-volume move above its 200-day at $5.34 and then above $5.90 will put $6.50 to $6.70 into range for shares of ANAC.

Traders can look to buy ANAC off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right around some key near-term support at $3.50 a share. One could also buy off strength once ANAC takes out those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop near $3.70 a share.

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