People are happy when they are making progress and moving forward in their lives. With regards to the financial markets, progress means making money. It doesn't necessarily mean making crazy returns, but people are generally pleased when their accounts are moving forward in a slow and steady manner. I've talked to many people in the financial world recently and the mood is very somber. For example, there are declines across the board in newsletter subscriptions, [...]

My friend Ryan Detrick posted a chart recently showing that bullish sentiment among individual investors dropped to its lowest level in 23 years! There are fewer bulls now than in March 2009 and March 2003. For those who don't remember, the low in March 2003 was after a brutal 3-year Bear Market that started with the dot com collapse and extended past 9/11. March 2009 was after a -50% decline that crushed the housing market and [...]

One strategy I use during market corrections is Relative Strength. Specifically, I look for stocks showing "strength" and holding up well "relative" to the market. The theory behind this is that if the big institutions do not sell certain stocks during corrections, these stocks have a high probability of moving higher when the correction is over. For example, during the financial crisis of 2008-09, two stocks that barely went down were Green Mountain Coffee and [...]

For the past month, I've been writing on this blog how I moved my clients to 90-100% cash at the beginning of the year. The number one email question I've received is: "When do you get back in?" Before I answer the question, there are a few points I would like to make: 1) This blog is not investment advice. Please don't follow anyone blindly (including myself). You should know your timeframe, risk tolerance, investment [...]

I am writing this blog post to offer words of encouragement and to hopefully help people learn from my past mistakes. Most people don’t like to admit their mistakes because we all want to pound our chest and let the world know how great we’re doing. I have no problem admitting that I used to struggle tremendously in corrective markets JUST LIKE THE ONE WE’RE IN NOW, until I made one simple adjustment. I’ve been [...]

Part of my investment philosophy is raising cash and sitting out during unhealthy markets. I've received several emails telling me "it's impossible to time the market" and "you're arrogant to claim you know when it's unhealthy." It's not called arrogance, it's called putting in the work, studying history, and having the confidence to act. If you learn ONE thing from reading this article, I want it to be this: When the market is below its [...]