Shares hitting highs and lows

To help you find the shares which are riding momentum (both positive and negative), every week we publish a list of shares that have hit or are very close to hitting a new 52-week high or low. The tables include details of shares which have prices within 3 per cent of either a year high or year low.

Find out more about companies beating broker forecasts in the links below

Last month, Emma Powell asked if Sigma Capital Group's (SGM) returns would continue. Investors clearly think so. 

XP Power (XPP) is another IC buy idea doing well. 

Why does momentum matter?

Good returns on momentum strategies were first spotted in US stocks by Sheridan Titman and Narasimhan Jegadeesh in 2001 and since then have been discovered in international markets as well as in commodities and currencies.

The success of momentum investing is fairly robust and Professor Titman thinks this is because of investor overconfidence. Chris Dillow explains more in this article. 

Riding the momentum isn't a guarantee of success, but as Algy Hall's momentum screen indicates "when things go well, they tend to go very well indeed". You can read how Algy's momentum screen has performed over ten years in this free article.