In finance, momentum is the empirically observed tendency for rising asset prices or securities return to rise further, and falling prices to keep falling. For instance, it was shown that stocks with strong past performance continue to outperform stocks with poor past performance in the next period with an average excess return of about 1pc per month.[1][2] Momentum signals (e.g., 52-week high) have been used by financial analysts in their buy and sell recommendations.[3]
The existence of momentum is a market anomaly, which finance theory struggles to explain. The difficulty is that an increase in asset prices, in and of itself, should not warrant further increase. Such increase, according to the efficient-market hypothesis, is warranted only by changes in demand and supply or new information (cf. fundamental analysis). Students of financial economics have largely attributed the appearance of momentum to cognitive biases, which belong in the realm of behavioral economics. The explanation is that investors are irrational,[4][5] in that they underreact to new information by failing to incorporate news in their transaction prices. However, much as in the case of price bubbles, other research has argued that momentum can be observed even with perfectly rational traders.[6]
Wiki
Above is the Amazon share price plotted against its Coppock indicator. One option that would have worked well is to buy early in the climb and keep holding. However, many investors find it hard to hang on to the shares through the downturns, some of which have been severe.
A simple alternative is to buy and hold while Coppock is climbing and be out of the shares at all other times. Just looking at the chart, you can see how well this would have worked.
It helps that Amazon has been a strongly performing share. This is why the strategy may only work with the aggressive 3G growth shares I select for Quentinvest.
Presently, with Amazon, you would be out of the shares having sold either too early when Coppock turned down around last August or perhaps later on any subsequent sell signal (averages turning lower or a trend line break).
Most shares have falling Coppocks currently like the major indices, reflecting what I have described as a loss of momentum in the overall stock market.
On the chart of the S&P 500 ETF above, I have marked the important Coppock buy signals with yellow smileys. They have all been successful. The sell signals are less successful and would only be significant for an investor trading the S&P on leverage.
We are not looking for a perfect indicator, which is unlikely to exist. We are just looking for one which works, and this one does.
The debate about quantum computing is still raging, but I have noticed that all the smaller quantum computing stocks have rising Coppock indicators.
There is much happening in the world of quantum computing.
NVIDIA NVDA held its first-ever Quantum Day at GTC 2025 last week, where CEO Jensen Huang announced the launch of its Accelerated Quantum Research Center, set to begin operations later this year.
In January, quantum computing stocks plunged after Jensen predicted that useful quantum computers were still 15–20 years away.
D-Wave Comouting (QBTS), whose CEO had publicly challenged Jensen’s comments, claimed to have achieved “quantum supremacy.” The company specializes in quantum annealing, which is particularly effective for applications like materials simulation.
D-Wave demonstrated that its latest quantum machine simulated a complex magnetic material in just 20 minutes—potentially the first practical application of quantum computing, with significant implications for industrial material development. However, some physicists dispute this claim.
Microsoft & Amazon Tout Their Chips After Google’s Willow
Microsoft MSFT recently unveiled Majorana 1, the world’s first quantum processor powered by topological qubits. CEO Satya Nadella believes Majorana will enable the creation of a truly meaningful quantum computer not in decades, but in years.
Topological qubits are exceptionally fast, digitally controllable, and scalable. Microsoft claims that these qubits can be integrated into a single chip—small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand—yet capable of scaling to a million qubits.
Just a week after Microsoft’s announcement, Amazon AMZN introduced its prototype, Ocelot, which employs a new approach to quantum error correction by leveraging specialized quantum bits called “cat qubits.”
Earlier in December, Google GOOG revealed that its new computer chip, Willow, can perform calculations in under five minutes that would take one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers almost an eternity.
What is Quantum Computing?
Traditional computers use binary digits, or bits, which can represent only 0 or 1.
Quantum computers, on the other hand, use quantum bits, or qubits.
Qubits leverage quantum effects such as superposition, where particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously, and entanglement, where particles remain interconnected even when physically separated.
Thanks to these properties, quantum computers can process information at exponentially faster rates than classical computers, with the potential to revolutionize numerous industries.
However, qubits are fragile and can maintain their quantum states for only tiny fractions of a second, meaning any information they store is quickly lost. Additionally, they must be kept at extremely cold temperatures.
How to Invest in the Theme
Some of the world’s largest tech companies—including Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, and IBM—along with many startups, are actively developing quantum computers or advancing quantum technologies. Governments worldwide are also investing billions in this sector.
Smaller pure-play quantum companies like Rigetti Computing RGTI, D-Wave Quantum QBTS, and IonQ IONQ had seen their stock prices skyrocket following Google’s announcement. However, these companies may not be profitable anytime soon, and their shares tend to trade largely on headlines.
In his report—Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power—Kevin explains why NVIDIA is his top pick for capitalizing on this theme. He also wanted me to let you know that he forgot to mention that while many quantum computing technologies rely on ultra-low temperatures for superconducting operations, IonQ’s trapped-ion platform operates at room temperature and is rack-based, similar to classical computing. CEO Peter Chapman described it as: ‘We still use a classical computer… it’s just a quantum chip at the centre”
Since it’s too early to predict winners, a diversified approach via ETFs makes sense. The Defiance Quantum ETF QTUM invests in the global quantum computing and machine learning industries.
Zachs, 24 March 2025
The stocks are incredibly volatile. In just one month, shares in D-Wave Quantum have moved between $4.45 and almost $12. The rising Coppock line suggests buying every time the shares plunge. The same applies to IonQ and Rigetti Computing. Build a holding acquired at low prices and then look to sell once Coppock starts to fall.
Below, D-Wave describes what it does.
From its inception, D-Wave has focused on delivering products and services that provide the fastest path to practical, real-world, value-creating applications for our customers. Cloud-based and enterprise-ready, the company raised more than $300m in private funding prior to its public listing on the New York Stock Exchange on August 8, 2022. D-Wave is the only company in the world that is building both annealing and gate-model quantum computers, unlocking commercial use cases in optimisation today, while building the technologies that will enable new solutions tomorrow.
D-Wave Quantum website
D-Wave claims to be making exciting progress in solving real-world problems.
The behavior of materials is governed by the laws of quantum physics. Understanding the quantum nature of magnetic materials is crucial to finding new ways to use them for technological advancement, making materials simulation and discovery a vital area of research for D-Wave and the broader scientific community. Magnetic materials simulations, like those conducted in this work, use computer models to study how tiny particles not visible to the human eye react to external factors. Magnetic materials are widely used in medical imaging, electronics, superconductors, electrical networks, sensors, and motors.
“This research proves that D-Wave’s quantum computers can reliably solve quantum dynamics problems that could lead to discovery of new materials,” said Dr. Andrew King, senior distinguished scientist at D-Wave. “Through D-Wave’s technology, we can create and manipulate programmable quantum matter in ways that were impossible even a few years ago.”
Materials discovery is a computationally complex, energy-intensive and expensive task. Today’s supercomputers and high-performance computing (HPC) centres, which are built with tens of thousands of GPUs, do not always have the computational processing power to conduct complex materials simulations in a timely or energy-efficient manner. For decades, scientists have aspired to build a quantum computer capable of solving complex materials simulation problems beyond the reach of classical computers. D-Wave’s advancements in quantum hardware have made it possible for its annealing quantum computers to process these types of problems for the first time.
“This is a significant milestone made possible through over 25 years of research and hardware development at D-Wave, two years of collaboration across 11 institutions worldwide, and more than 100,000 GPU and CPU hours of simulation on one of the world’s fastest supercomputers as well as computing clusters in collaborating institutions,” said Dr. Mohammad Amin, chief scientist at D-Wave. “Besides realizing Richard Feynman’s vision of simulating nature on a quantum computer, this research could open new frontiers for scientific discovery and quantum application development.”
D-Wave news, 12 March 2025
D-Wave is a type of company which, under the right circumstances, could see an exponential increase in value. The implications for humanity and technological progress of having such staggeringly powerful machines at their disposal beggars belief. Small wonder all the megacaps want to join the party.
These quantum computing stocks are all about newsflow, and that is likely to be good, given the money going into the technology. On the flip side, growing enthusiasm means we could see many IPOs raising money to fund research.
Share Recommendations
D-Wave Computing QBTS
Rigetti Computing. RGTI
IonQ. IONQ
