Identifying Historical Trading Patterns and More Thursday Thoughts

* Patterns With an Edge - I am getting a fair number of requests for posts re: how to conduct simple backtesting of market patterns using Excel. My own sense is that this would be best accomplished through a hands-on, skills-building teaching session rather than a blog post. If this would be of interest to you, please leave a comment for this blog post and let's see what we can organize.

* Hot Sectors - Excellent research from Charles Kirk on how stock screening illuminates sector strength.

* Is The Worst Over for Banks? Several excellent perspectives are linked by Abnormal Returns.

* Finding an Edge Among Stocks That Have High Short Interest - Fascinating findings reported by the CXO Advisory blog.

* Partying Like It's 1997 - Bespoke Investment Group finds a link between today's market and that of 1997.

* Rising Inventory - Trader Mike updates his links with some interesting views, including a look at the rising inventory of unsold homes from Countrywide.

* Finding Yield - StockPickr identifies companies that have increased their dividends lately and who is buying those shares.