It was on this day fifty years ago that the Star Trek franchise first appeared, and in the half century since it has apparently cut a swath across much of North American culture. I say apparently, because I have never been a Trekkie. All I know about the series is that series character Mr. Spock at one point gave the Vulcan Salute and said “Live long, and prosper.”

That’s a pretty good motto, it seems to me. Above you will see the chart for a stock I bought a few months ago – yet another example of my favourite pattern, the cup and handle formation. As you can see on this chart, we now seem to have a breakout on the ETF SCIF, which focuses on small cap stocks trading in India. For a list of its key holdings, please click here.

If you take a look at the small circle on the far right of the PPO box, you will notice that at the end of last week the stock gave a buy signal. To my mind, this confirms the seriousness of the breakout that began in mid-July. Today’s action seems to confirm that breakout, and takes the ETF within spitting distance of its all-time high (US$49).

I do own this ETF, having bought it when it first breached the red-green support resistance line, in July. Of course, I don’t have a clue whether it’s the kind of thing that would fit in your portfolio.

And speaking of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Mr. Spock, in real life his last tweet was this. “A life is like a garden,” he wrote. “Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.” That could also describe a nicely assembled portfolio.

Live long, and prosper.