Don’t Marry Stocks – You Will End in Divorce
As has been the theme all quarter we continue to prune and plant, reducing exposure in those areas that have essentially melted up and adding exposure in areas that have not. In other words, you could say that we have cut back on those handful of super sexy stocks and sectors and rebalanced into the rest of the market. Again, that is how you successfully manage portfolios for the long-term. Otherwise, your portfolio ends up severely overweighted in a small […]
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Date: March 6, 2024
Small Caps Beat The Bears – NYCB Did Not
The markets sure have been resilient. In the strongest of uptrends which this clearly is, all the bears get are 1-3 day pullbacks where they all wonder, “is this it, the top?” Last week, the S&P 500 had a very mild early week pullback along with the NASDAQ 100. By weeks end, they were at fresh all-time highs. At the same time the two aforementioned indices were slightly declining, the Russell 2000 index of small companies was going up. You […]
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Date: March 4, 2024
Inflation Versus High Prices
Happy Friday! Rather than a written blog today, I did a video on the most asked question of late regarding inflation versus high prices. Weekend is here and as far as the eye can see, Mother Nature is back to her unkind ways in New England. Cold, thaw, rain, warm, rinse and repeat. Of course, my buddies at Kirkwood are preparing for 120-150 inches of snow over the next 5 days. Now that is insane! On Wednesday we bought levered […]
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Date: March 1, 2024
Complacency Rises – People Getting Giddy, Cocky & Greedy
The markets sure have gone quiet or so it seems. Let’s take a look at the Volatility Index (VIX) below. While stocks have marched steadily higher since the October bottom, the VIX tells a slightly different story as it fell into December and then mildly rallied since. I would have expected the VIX to be below 12. Does that matter? Not really, especially not in the short-term. It is just telling us that the options trades are expecting a bit […]
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Date: February 28, 2024
Ducks Are Quacking – Sexy & Exciting Out, Boring & Stodgy In
The ducks were quacking last week, but especially on Thursday and Friday. For newer readers, that means investors were hungry for stocks. Those same people ridiculed and scorned me in Q4 2022 when I pounded the table about a new bull market launching. They laughed at my 2023 forecast labeled “The Year of the Bull”. Today, they can’t buy enough stocks. They want Nvidia and Super Micro and Microsoft. Well, folks, they can have them. Over the past week we […]
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Date: February 26, 2024
Nvidia Delivers (Sell) – Weird Behavior Follows – Pay Attention
Thursday was definitely a weird day in the markets. And I am not talking about Nvidia which is all the rage. Heading into its earnings I wrote that the stock was a buy on Wednesday as it should pop on the news.While I usually do not flip stocks that quickly, the stock is now a sell on the news and overreaction. Stock market action on Thursday was strange and not exactly in a good way. We did a fair amount […]
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Date: February 23, 2024
Nvidia, Nvidia, Nvidia, Apple and Fox Business
First, I am very excited to join my friend and the most dapper man on TV, Charles Payne, on Fox Business’ Making Money likely between 2:05pm and 2:30pm today. I am old enough to remember when the stock market was obsessed with GE’s earnings. It was a huge market mover. Everyone opined. Networks lined up to have CEO Jack Welch join them. Then GE fell out of favor. The market then became obsessed with Apple’s earnings. Everyone followed the stock. […]
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Date: February 21, 2024
Figuring Out The Transports And Avoiding The Rust
They’re not making it easy. But do they ever? Yes, they do. Who is “they”? I’m not really sure, but I seem to use the pronoun a lot. Let me give you an example of one thing that confused me lately. Look at the two charts below. The first one is the Dow Jones Transportation Index which is made up of thing like airlines, rails, truckers and shippers. It is nowhere near its August 2023 peak which is concerning. Now […]
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Date: February 17, 2024
One Day Wonder or The Start of a Big Decline
The markets had a little down day, eh? I like when people ask me why the markets “crashed” on Tuesday. I mean, stocks are up 20% since the October bottom and hadn’t had even a 2% decline in three months. And we see a single down day of 1-3% and people are all beared up. I want to say that I don’t get it, but I totally do. It’s investor psychology and behavioral finance. And let’s be crystal clear like […]
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Date: February 14, 2024
***Q4 Client Update***
2023 ended much the way it began, with the bulls firmly in charge, our strategies locked and loaded long and me continuing to pound the table for higher prices. However, the financial market landscape could not have been more different. 12 months ago, it was difficult to find a positive forecast. I was almost all alone on the bullish island for 2023. Wall Street, the pundits and the media were firmly negative. Recession was coming. Inflation was out of control. […]
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Date: February 12, 2024
