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Jan 19, 2021
Oil & Gas Exploration Stocks that are Overbought and Just Got Bearish Signals

Oil & Gas Exploration Stocks that are Overbought and Just Got Bearish Signals

Oil companies, especially exploration companies, have rallied sharply since the end of October. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) rallied 89.7% from the October low to last week’s high. The huge rally has put the ETF in overbought territory based on the 10-day RSI and daily stochastic indicators.

The ETF came to my attention on Friday when I ran a scan of stocks that were overbought and had seen their daily stochastic indicators make bearish crossovers. The XOP was on the list along with 10 individual companies. I ran these 10 companies through the Tickeron Screener and there were two companies that jumped out at me for getting bearish signals with pretty high confidence levels.

Cabot Oil & Gas (COG) and EQT Corp. (EQT) were the two companies with bearish signals and both received bearish signals on January 15. The signal for EQT showed a confidence level of 76% and Cabot’s signal showed a confidence level of 75%. These signals call for declines of at least 4% over the next month.

Looking at the fundamental analysis indicators, both companies have more negative marks than positives, but EQT has five negative scores and only one positive score. Cabot has four negative scores and three positive scores. Both companies get poor ratings from the Valuation Ratings, the Profit vs. Risk Ratings, the SMR Ratings, and the Seasonality Scores. The only area where they both score well is the Outlook Ratings.

The stocks score much better on the technical side. EQT has three bullish signals and two bearish signals while Cabot has four bullish signals and one bearish signal. Both companies got bearish signals from the Bollinger Bands and both have been overbought for numerous days on the stochastic indicators and the RSI indicator. Both companies get have received bullish signals from the MACD, the Momentum Indicator, and the Moving Average indicator.

Oil prices have been considerably more volatile recently and the energy sector has followed suit. Over the last few months the energy sector has been the top performing sector on a number of days, but it has also been the worst performer on a number of days. Obviously with the upward trajectory of the stocks over the last few months, there have been more big upward moves than downward ones.

For a complete comparison between Cabot and EQT see the Tickeron analysis below. The analysis shows how these two companies score compared to one another, and it also looks at the industry as a whole.

Related Ticker: XOP

Contributor

Harry Richardson — Algorithmic Trader & Strategy Developer Harry is an algorithmic trader specializing in impulse and breakout trading strategies across cryptocurrency and equity markets. With more than 10 years of experience in developing automated trading systems, he focuses on building structured algorithms designed to capture momentum while maintaining strict risk control. His approach combines quantitative analysis, real-market execution, and continuous performance monitoring. Vitalii prioritizes risk management, drawdown control, and strategy stability over short-term optimization, ensuring algorithms are adaptable to changing market conditions. He has developed and tested hundreds of automated strategies, working extensively with live trading environments, forward testing, and portfolio-level algorithm management. His work centers on transforming trading ideas into fully operational, scalable automated systems.


Momentum Indicator for XOP turns positive, indicating new upward trend

XOP saw its Momentum Indicator move above the 0 level on August 10, 2026. This is an indication that the stock could be shifting in to a new upward move. Traders may want to consider buying the stock or buying call options. Tickeron's A.I.dvisor looked at 82 similar instances where the indicator turned positive. In of the 82 cases, the stock moved higher in the following days. The odds of a move higher are at .

Price Prediction Chart

Technical Analysis (Indicators)

Bullish Trend Analysis

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for XOP just turned positive on August 11, 2026. Looking at past instances where XOP's MACD turned positive, the stock continued to rise in of 49 cases over the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .

The 10-day moving average for XOP crossed bullishly above the 50-day moving average on July 20, 2026. This indicates that the trend has shifted higher and could be considered a buy signal. In of 21 past instances when the 10-day crossed above the 50-day, the stock continued to move higher over the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .

Following a 3-day Advance, the price is estimated to grow further. Considering data from situations where XOP advanced for three days, in of 377 cases, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .

The Aroon Indicator entered an Uptrend today. In of 302 cases where XOP Aroon's Indicator entered an Uptrend, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued Uptrend are .

Bearish Trend Analysis

The RSI Indicator demonstrates that the ticker has stayed in the overbought zone for 3 days. The longer the ticker stays in the overbought zone, the sooner a price pull-back is expected.

The Stochastic Oscillator demonstrated that the ticker has stayed in the overbought zone for 7 days. The longer the ticker stays in the overbought zone, the sooner a price pull-back is expected.

Following a 3-day decline, the stock is projected to fall further. Considering past instances where XOP declined for three days, the price rose further in of 62 cases within the following month. The odds of a continued downward trend are .

Notable companies

The most notable companies in this group are ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation (NYSE:XOM), Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), MARATHON PETROLEUM Corp (NYSE:MPC), Valero Energy Corp (NYSE:VLO), Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG), Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY), Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG), Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN).

Industry description

The investment seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of an index derived from the oil and gas exploration and production segment of a U.S. total market composite index. In seeking to track the performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index, the fund employs a sampling strategy. It generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the index. The index represents the oil and gas exploration and production segment of the S&P Total Market Index ("S&P TMI").

Market Cap

The average market capitalization across the SttStrtSPDRS&POil&GasExplor&ProdtnETF ETF is 44.41B. The market cap for tickers in the group ranges from 253M to 678.92B. XOM holds the highest valuation in this group at 678.92B. The lowest valued company is BRY at 253M.

High and low price notable news

The average weekly price growth across all stocks in the SttStrtSPDRS&POil&GasExplor&ProdtnETF ETF was 23%. For the same ETF, the average monthly price growth was 25%, and the average quarterly price growth was 118%. SOC experienced the highest price growth at 23%, while CLNE experienced the biggest fall at -11%.

Volume

The average weekly volume growth across all stocks in the SttStrtSPDRS&POil&GasExplor&ProdtnETF ETF was 25%. For the same stocks of the ETF, the average monthly volume growth was -11% and the average quarterly volume growth was -36%

Fundamental Analysis Ratings

The average fundamental analysis ratings, where 1 is best and 100 is worst, are as follows

Valuation Rating: 58
P/E Growth Rating: 48
Price Growth Rating: 39
SMR Rating: 72
Profit Risk Rating: 45
Seasonality Score: 13 (-100 ... +100)
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