L ike many investors, you may struggle with two key aspects of trading in stocks: how to read stock charts and how to find winning stocks before they break out.

The IBD Stock Analysis (ISA) helps with both.

The ISA articles and related videos are published Thursdays and Fridays on Investors.com, and the Friday article appears in the Monday newspaper. To see current and past ISAs, point and hover over the IBD TV tab on the main navigation bar of the Investors.com home page, then click on IBD Stock Analysis.

See Top-Rated Stocks Near A Buy Point

To help you build a timely, actionable watch list, each ISA highlights a leading stock that is forming a base or is in a potential buying zone. You’ll get a quick look at the company’s earnings growth and other fundamentals, as well as any recent news or trends that could affect the stock.

Improve Your Chart-Reading Skills

As with IBD Leaderboard. IBD Stock Analysis provides real-time education by showing you what to look for in the chart of a stock that could be setting up a new price run. You’ll see how to identify the type of chart pattern the stock is forming, spot strengths and weaknesses within the base, and calculate the ideal buy point .

In addition to the ISA articles, be sure to watch the related videos, which give you a more detailed look at both the daily and weekly charts for each stock.

Generic-drug maker Akorn (NASDAQ:AKRX ) was featured in the ISA on May 16, 2014 1 as it was forming a base with a 28.10 buy point.

Knowing how to count bases is an important part of chart-reading, since the biggest gains typically come from first-stage patterns. That’s why the ISA showed how Akorn had just reset its base count because the low in the new consolidation 2 undercut the lower in the prior pattern 3. making the current formation a first-stage base.

Akorn broke out a few days later on May 21. Although it continued to trade right around the buy point for a few weeks, it was up over 40% by the end of August.

The stock was again featured in the ISA on Sept. 18 as it pulled back to the 10-week moving average line 4. While a pullback to that benchmark line can offer a buying opportunity under certain circumstances, Akorn began to show more volatile action.

On Jan. 22, 2015, the stock made yet another appearance in the IBD Stock Analysis, since it was starting to tighten up and work on a new second-stage base.

The article and video also noted three reasons the top-rated pharmaceuticals stock could have a bullish 2015, including how 14 new product approvals were expected to start paying off this year.

The ISA showed how the stock was flashing two potential buy points: an earlier, more aggressive 42.64 entry as well as a handle buy point at 44.40. It cleared both over the next several days.

To get the most out of the IBD Stock Analysis, be sure to read the articles and view the videos regularly. It’ll help you keep your watch list up to date and hone your stock-picking and chart-reading skills.