Daily State of the Markets
Remember, Do Nothing, Absolutely Nothing Until...
In case the action over the past few days hasn't made it clear, traders appear to be implementing an age-old Wall Street-ism right now... "Do nothing, absolutely nothing until there is something to do." Put another way, it looks like most investors have decided to sit on their hands until…
Traders: We Won't Get Fooled Again
With a fifth consecutive down day now in the books, which just happens to be the first such occurrence of the year, those coming to work dressed in their bear costumes were seen rejoicing Wednesday evening. Despite the fact that the S&P 500 is off less than 2 percent (-1.898% to be ex…
Does This Market Have Serious Issues?
Given that (a) stocks have fallen for four consecutive days and (b) there haven't been any clear-cut, obvious catalysts to the pullback, it is probably safe to say that there are "issues" at work behind the scenes. Granted, the decline over the past four days hasn't been severe (the S&…
Putting Fear Back In The Mix
There are times when the market's moves do not appear to have a clear-cut driving force behind them. Monday's decline of about one-half percent was a decent example of this. Stocks fell for a third consecutive session and although the damage wasn't terribly significant, the fact of the ma…
Bernanke Taking No Chances
Ben Bernanke's Fed surprised the vast majority of investors yesterday when the FOMC decided not to begin tapering the stimulus being provided to the economy via the monthly purchase of $85 billion in bonds and mortgage-backed securities. The move came as a surprise because "Gentle Ben" ha…
Is The Taper Priced In?
Depending on your point of view, stocks appear to be set up to either (a) break out to new highs after today's Fed announcement or (b) dive back into what would then be a very defined trading range. While the consensus among analysts is that Ben Bernanke will announce a "tapering" of the …
Has a New Secular Bull Market Been Born?
I had the honor of being invited to present at this weekend's Traders Forum (a trading/investing education event) put on by Trader's Library. What is great about this type of event is the opportunity to interact with both students and fellow investment professionals on the outlook for the…
How To Stop "Diworsifying" Your Portfolio
In yesterday's missive, we exposed the fact that a diversified portfolio is dramatically underperforming the return of the U.S. stock market in 2013. While some may argue that we will soon see this phenomenon dissipate due to the propensity of financial assets to ultimately revert back to…
Diversification (Is) For Dummies
Most investors, almost all 401K owners, and the vast majority of professional financial advisors will likely agree that diversifying your investment portfolio across asset classes is the key to long-term success. While history will likely bear out the validity of this thesis, here's a new…
Have the Bears Missed Their Opportunity (Again)?
Yesterday morning's meandering market missive ended with the following note, which seemed prudent at the time it was written: "While the bulls could always get something going should the situation in Syria subside quickly, the cycles suggest that it might be a good idea to be careful out …