Goldman Sachs (GS)

I've been following Goldman(GS), with interest since it crashed in April, 2010 wondering how it would fare afterwards. We've referred to this stock in the past as "the stock that refuses to die," and we can see from the chart that it hasn't expired just yet ;)

In July, 2010, it broke out of a Bull Flag and the upside targets of 146.40 and 156.81 got MADE with no problem. That looked encouraging for the bulls, and indeed, it was the beginning of a move to the upside into the current time-frame.

In mid-October, 2010, Goldman broke out of another pattern, a triangle, which put an upside target of 174.80 IN PLAY, with a target date of roughly December 20,2010. That would be the same number of days from the breakout that it took the pattern to form. When a target takes longer to achieve than it took the pattern to form, it becomes questionable whether or not it will be achieved at all.

Goldman didn't make the target by the anticipated date of Decemmber 20, but by that date, it wasn't showing any problems. It was sitting at the bottom of the handle of what looks to be a Cup & Handle formation (pattern in blue).

The Cup & Handle broke out to the upside on the first session of 2011, putting another upside target of 185.99 IN PLAY. In "fractal-like behavior," (repeating pattern) it closed back below the breakout for two days, suggesting a possible failure, just as it did when it broke out of the triangle back in July, 2010.

On January 12, 2011, Goldman broke out to the upside again, and on January 14, 2011 the outstanding target of 174.80 finally got MADE.