Anatomy of a Highflier: Reading a Rocket Ride's Rorschach

Technical analysis differs from other forms of psychology in that it is the analyst, not the patient, who is looking at the Rorschach. A good technician on a good day is not just looking at stock charts, he's looking into the market's soul.

"Each day's trading pattern," says John Bollinger, president of EquityTrader.com, "portrays the fight between fear and greed, between optimism and pessimism. It's a picture of a psychological battle."

Nowhere has that battle been so pitched as in the Qualcomms (QCOM Quote) and VerticalNets (VERT Quote) and Protein Design Labs (PDLI Quote) of this world -- stocks whose runs have seemed to defy not just the law of gravity, but of the imagination itself.

Opening

Big moves usually start with a bang. Typically, the stock has been trapped in a range, and often it has recently seen a bit of a pullback. A great example of this is Rambus (RMBS Quote), the specialty chip developer that has sprinted 303% since the beginning of February. ...