Seeing as the rally has not been faded, there stands to be a good chance that shorts will cover into the close. Below, you will find the top ten short squeeze plays from my favorite custom screen in The PPT, identifying stocks with large short positions and other factors lending themselves to a big squeeze. Subscribers can click here to see the full screen, toggle the parameters, and/or save it.

Click on image below for full size.

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I alerted 12631 members last evening to the fact that Corinthian Colleges had been registered by The PPT algorithm as having an oversold hybrid score (combination of many technical and fundamental factors). Historically, COCO has had phenomenal results in the following trading sessions after the hybrid oversold reading.

Of course, the for-profit education plays have been severe laggards to the broad market over the past few years. When you combine that glaring underperformance with the omnipresent regulatory risks, it is easy to see why many traders have sworn off these names as simply being untradable.

Much like the solars and LED plays, the for-profits have been drama queen teases. However, putting the taboo to one side is the essence of objectivity, and we know that many of these for-profit education stocks have enormous short positions in them consisting of bears looking to ride these firms down to $0/share. Therefore, it follows that unless the straight-line-to-zero-express has not only left the station but is close to its destination, there are bound to be some excellent trading opportunities on the long side.

Looking at the daily chart of the heavily-shorted COCO, we know by now that the stock has been in a seemingly perpetual downtrend. Recently, a high volume buy spike on the back of perceived easing of regulations showed just how powerful a short squeeze can be in a hated stock and sector. After a low volume pullback the past few days leading to The PPT hybrid oversold score, a close above $4.74 would give back the initiative to the bulls to press the squeeze.

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Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Group (TYG), a closed-end equity mutual fund, has been registered by The PPT as having an oversold technical score. Before I get to the statistics, it is also worth noting that the stock closed clearly below its lower daily Bollinger Band. Now, that fact alone is not a reason to get bullish on an oversold stock. However, when you combine that technical analysis with the data below, you will see that going long TYG is a high probability trade here (I currently have no position). After previous times when TYG registered a technical oversold score by The PPT algorithm, the stock has been consistently higher five, seven, and even ten trading sessions out.

Here are the statistics to support that statement.

5 Day – Avg Return	3.45
5 Day – Times Up	7.00
5 Day – Times Down	1.00
5 Day – # Signals	8.00
5 Day – % Times Up	87.50
7 Day – Avg Return	3.86
7 Day – Times Up	8.00
7 Day – Times Down	0.00
7 Day – # Signals	8.00
7 Day – % Times Up	100.00
10 Day – Avg Return	3.58
10 Day – Times Up	8.00
10 Day – Times Down	0.00
10 Day – # Signals	8.00
10 Day – % Times Up	100.00

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePjFAZKWKVo 550 412] ________________________

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The resilience of the IYR (ETF for the real estate sector), and particularly the REITs, continues to impress despite the plethora of reason to be cautious on the broad market. While the senior indices and many sectors have indeed suffered technical damage, the IYR has digested last week’s failed breakout remarkably well. Whereas the S&P 500 is hanging on for dear life down at its 150 day moving average, the IYR is nowhere close to that reference point on its own chart, instead coming to terms with the 50 day moving average.

Moreover, there is a faction of traders who believe that the real estate sector is an excellent leading indicator for the broad market. If that is the case, then we have a bullish divergence on our hands. To my eye, the IYR needs to hold the $60 level in order for the bullish divergence to persist.

I have also included a slew of long ideas within the Residential REITs, which seem particularly well set up here.

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I have been following the impressive run that he consumer staples have had in recent months, but cautioned a few weeks back that they were becoming dangerously overbought. Now that the XLP (ETF for the staples) has pulled in to the rising 50 day moving average, I believe that enough hot money latecomers have been shaken out of chasing the boring old man stocks to warrant taking a look at them here. After all, the overall uptrend still looks to be intact. Moreover, even if the broad market remains soft all summer in terms of risk appetite, I think these plays will continue to be attractive as quality firms offering high yields.

If you are looking for retirement account long-term buy and holds, look no further than the most famous old man stock himself, KO. I also think that CL PG and PM are worth a look here.

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