NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- They grow up so fast. It was only yesterday -- wasn't it? -- that eBay ( EBAY) was a cute toddler -- doing all sorts of tricks to make the adults laugh.
Everyone liked to pat it on the head and give it a piece of candy, but a big, serious company with earnings and shares and revenues and growth and all those other grown-up things? Not hardly. That was in the late '90s after eBay was founded in 1995. eBay is a teenager now: 17 years old. My, how it has grown. And like an elderly aunt hugging a reluctant nephew, the market has embraced this once unruly child. eBay today has a market cap of $68 billion. That's almost twice the size of General Motors ( GM). It's like choosing between Peyton and Eli Manning. But in this case, the younger, smaller brother prevails. Despite some skepticism from the Wall Street Journal and other corners, eBay has been able to grow its earnings this year by double digits. So far, eBay makes the grade for performance and valuation. But that is only two out of three parts of the stool. Let's look at the third: The chart. eBay is in a very strong uptrend. The chart went sideways a few months ago and established a nice base. Then a week ago it broke out. (Let's hear it for PayPal! Owned by eBay.) It's a great chart. So that makes it a trifecta. I have one rule about stocks I just do not violate: I only buy stocks that have good charts. eBay has a great chart. Let others guess where Apple ( AAPL) will bottom out. I'll wait and let the chart tell me. I'm in no hurry to lose money. Put all that together and that is why I like eBay as a conservative, large-cap growth stock. In my opinion-it is a BEST STOCK NOW. eBay's former CEO, Meg Whitman, is of course now trying to work her magic on HP ( HPQ). I saw some HP shares listed on eBay the other day. Nobody was buying. And to think, HP used to be just as cute as eBay. Follow @BillGunderson This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.