Post Archive by Month

As is the case at the beginning of each year, the Momentum Index shown in my weekly StatSheet is being reset. Since it consists of an average of the 4wk, 8wk, 12wk and YTD momentum numbers, the YTD figure is obviously lower at the beginning of each year contributing to a reduced overall M-Index number. Keep in mind that the …

After Monday’s sharp rally, a pullback would have been in order yesterday but, as we’ve seen so many times in the past 6 months, a mid-day sell-off was rebuffed by last hour buying. It was a tug-of-war between 2 news items, as the indexes initially were dragged down by a report that pending home sales fell 16% in November, far …

The bulls took charge during the first trading day of the year, and all major indexes gained nicely finishing at their highest levels in 15 months. Supporting the rally were comments from Fed officials this weekend that the easy-money policy will be with us for a while longer. Another positive came from the first economic report of the year when …

TheStreet.com featured an interesting piece titled “ETFs in Two Flavors: Complex Or Simple.” Here are some highlights followed by my commentary: During the worst of the financial crisis, companies rolled out absolute return funds, which target a specific gain, usually about 6% to 8% a year, regardless of stock- and bond-market conditions. The funds, in the form of mutual funds …

As the New Year gets underway, the media will be out in full force again trying to predict as to what the stock market will do in 2010 as well as the direction the economy will be taking. My view has always been to pay attention to the few who saw the current credit/real estate crisis coming and not those …

Reader Trevor is located in the UK and is looking for a way to enter the market after the run up of last year. Here’s what he had to say: Although I have read your column avidly for a good while, I did not buy on the last buy signal. (I am in the UK so the funds etc are …