Now is a great time to buy fundamentally superior stocks, particularly small- and mid-cap stocks.

For one, this month kicks off the seasonally-strongest time of year for smaller stocks. This seasonal strength is typically caused by year-end pension funding as well as the fact that folks tend to be happier during the holidays. In other words, as we gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah and the like, consumer sentiment tends to improve and that seasonally has rubbed off on investor sentiment.

Interestingly, these positive feelings typically continue in the New Year, when the stock market benefits from persistent inflows that are caused by additional pension funding in the new fiscal year.

And secondly, investors are using earnings as an excuse to take profits in some stocks that have had strong runs so far this year. Earnings season is separating the winners from the losers, ending profit runs and starting new ones. Now is a great time to start your own profit runs, so this week I’m doing things a little differently with my Monday afternoon blog post.

This time, I’ve screened out 66 mid-cap companies that are on the move in Portfolio Grader.  Now that we have a new batch of Fundamental and Quantitative Grades for the week, I recommend that you note these upgrades and downgrades and see whether any applies to your current holdings.

Upgrades

Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys

Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds

Downgrades

Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds

Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells