Top Stock Pick Report: A Q3 For the Record Books

Subscribers to Chart of the Week received this commentary on Sunday, October 5.

For the uninitiated, this report was sent out to subscribers to end 2024, as a list of stocks to buy and hold through the year. If you could stomach the brutal start to the year, congrats, you might be able to tell your boss to take a hike.

The stats don’t lie; 14 of the 18 stocks finished Q3 in the black, 12 of those 14 nabbed double-digit gains. For the year, four stocks have doubled in value, 13 boast double-digit gains or more. Three names have strung together three-straight winning quarters, while no loser has a deficit more than 7%, as of this writing.

Below, we’ll power rank the 18 based on year-to-date return and offer a quick snapshot on their prognosis heading into the fourth quarter.

1. Nebius Group NV (NASDAQ:NBIS): Take a bow Reilly McAdams, who recommended this idea. You’ve now surpassed Rachel as everyone’s favorite McAdams. Nebius has been wheeling and dealing in the AI landscape, but 10% of the stock’s total available float is still sold short.

2. Bloom Energy Inc (NYSE:BE): A data center bubble beneficiary. Had to quadruple check that Q3 gain. Climbing even after a post-earnings breather of 1.8% in September. As of this writing, nearly 19% SI/F ratio.

3. Rocket Lab Corp (NASDAQ:RKLB): Been beating the earth exploration drum for a while now. Is that a bullish flag pattern forming amidst its month-long consolidation!? Brushed off $750 million stock sale, has technical support, and still has contrarian potential (12.7% SI/F). Unironically, to the moon.

4. Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB): What’s this? A boring old bank stock? DB straight vibin (that’s a deep cut for you golf sickos), and a poster child for value investing.

5. Carvana Co (NYSE:CVNA): Riding that 50-day moving average after a 17% post-earnings bull gap on July 31. Short interest down in most recent reporting period, but 8.7% SI/F.

6. Sea Limited (NYSE:SE): One of only three names on the list with three-straight quarters in the black. Not eye-popping squeeze potential anymore, but chart support in place.

7. SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI): Has taken a 16% haircut off its Sept. 22 record high, testing its 50-day moving average. With 9.8% SI/F, this one could have room to run still.

8. Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN): You know the drill with COIN by now, the crypto play. Still a lot of analyst skepticism to unwind.

9. Ezcorp Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW): Really like that bounce off its 200-day moving average back in late July. And with 16.4% SI/F, this and SOFI could be just getting started in fintech world.

10. Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU): A former growth stock reinventing itself. A little oversold per its 14-day RSI.

11. Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL): Monitor the chip imports, tariff drama with this one. But could that be a little bull flag pattern forming?

12. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA): See, we’re not all about growth stocks here! Pulling back, but still as of now in a channel of higher highs off those April lows.

13. STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE:STM): Suffered a 15.9% post-earnings bear gap on July 24. Has slowly tried to fill that gap, to no avail.

14. CF Industries (NYSE:CF): Just filled its own post-earnings drawdown of 7.7% in early August. Sneaky SI/F of 6.5. Definitely an earnings report to watch on Oct. 23, especially with 14/17 brokerages maintaining “hold” or “strong sell” ratings.

15. Beam Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BEAM): Still working off the brutal first six months. But trading at its highest level since March right now and has the highest SI/F% of our Top Picks. Don’t call it a comeback!

16. SEI Investments Co (NASDAQ:SEIC): Going in the wrong direction. Testing its 200-day moving average.

17. Opera Ltd (NASDAQ:OPRA): Couldn’t take advantage of an early-September “buy” rating. Hasn’t gotten off the bus yet for Q4 (11% weekly loss).

18. LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC): Really says something when your worst performer is only down 6.4% year to date and is fresh off a 26.3% quarterly gain. Testing a historically bullish trendline, and an area that’s the site of its post-earnings bull gap from July 30.

At the time of this writing, BEAM, COIN, DELL, NBIS, ROKU, and STM all have 14-day Relative Strength Indexes of 70 or more. In Nebius’ case, the RSI sits deep in overbought territory at 88. But honestly, given the robust gains nearly all these stocks have wrought, I am surprised more aren’t in that “overbought” territory.

Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, but there are bullish cases to be made – still -- for all 18 of these names. We’ll catch up more on these in December.

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Don’t let a government shutdown, parabolic growth stocks, and Taylor Swift’s new album distract you from the fact that we’re somehow, some way, in the fourth quarter of 2025. It feels like yesterday we were looking at those (now) April lows and buckling our seatbelts. Now…

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