Discussed in this article: The ExOne Company ( $XONE )

I want to look at the 3-D Printers today. Here’s the thing, you look at this ExOne ( NASDAQ:XONE ), which had been in a really nice uptrend for a while; nice sideways consolidation, it looks to me like the stock was ready to go ready to move after it broke out here. Yes, a new high on pretty good volume, but then when it pulled back it just kind of settled in. Technically there were a lot of reasons why this stock could have gone higher.

However, when it broke below the 50-day moving average you would have to look at this and say, “That’s different.” Do you know why? It’s never done that before, never broken below the 50-day moving average before, new issues have a way of doing that. So once the stock broke down you could see that the momentum was lower.

A big high-volume day here, big high volume day here. On a day like this there was no reason to be in the stock after this, because you could see what was happening. It’s easy to look here and say, “Well this is all low volume stuff, and after this move, didn’t get a reversal just more consolidation, so the stock “quote” has more work to do and then we’ll look for more upside.” Well what you’re wondering is, “I wonder what the institutions are doing, I wonder what the big guys are doing?”

Okay, so all these 3-D printing companies are filing secondaries, and they’re basically saying, “Our stocks are up, we want some money.” So ExOne ( NASDAQ:XONE ) has that deal going on, but they kick-out here. They didn’t really move down that much, at least not in relation to where it is now, but when you see this big volume, you see the stock do what it does, that’s your signal to sell.

At the very least you look at it the following day and say, “Okay, well we got a big high-volume move here and I think their secondary was at $62.00 or so.” So the stock does this and then it stabilizes the next day. “Okay, well maybe this is it, $62.00 is the bottom and now I’m moving to the upside. But just in case you know what I think I’ll do? I’m going to set a tight stop right under there, because if this stop gets hit that’s going to mean that I’m wrong, I don’t like being wrong.”

So what happens? Your stop gets hit the next day; you’re out $61.00, maybe. What have you done? You’ve saved eleven or twelve dollars by just looking at the stock technically. But you say, “Well wait a minute, I’m bullish on 3-D printers.” Okay, me too once they start printing cartilage for my knee I will really be bullish on them. But then you just look at the others, you don’t just bailout of ExOne ( NASDAQ:XONE ).

Look at Stratasys ( NASDAQ:SSYS ), secondaries are not really hurting this one; a pullback, this is your bounce point, right here below the 50-day moving average, every time it’s pulled back it’s been right to buy. So now you’ve got a low risk entry, right here, 91-$92.00 is really where support is, so this is an opportunity to be buying; when all the technicals are lining up really well for a low risk, not a picture-perfect or an absolute winner, but for a low risk trade, because you’re defining your risk.

Now 3D Systems ( NYSE:DDD ), another crowd favorite in the 3-D printers, hence 3 D’s in the ticker. A nice sideways consolidation for a while, a little drift sideways after a break-out, now this is another low-risk buy point; a lower risk would have been last week, but what I’m saying is, the stock is in consolidation, it’s close enough to the 50-day moving average, and you look and see what’s happening with Stratasys ( NASDAQ:SSYS ), this stock looks like it could be moving nicely pretty soon too.

So my point is, if you’re in ExOne ( NASDAQ:XONE ) because you think that’s the one, it’s an IPO; by the way I remember Cramer had said a month or two ago, “You’ve got to get out of that, that’s really speculative,” and he pointed to one of these others. These others are doing a lot better.

Just know that when you’re selling one stock because it’s not doing what you want it to do, look around at other stocks in the sector, because maybe the sector is doing what you want it to do, you’re just not in the right stock.

The 3-D printer market is on fire. Voxeljet AG (VJET) is one you just want to let burn.

Lots look for some trades in the 3-D Printing stocks — XONE, SSYS, DDD. (October 12, 2013)

Let’s look at the 3-D Printers.