1) The first week of 2016 was the worst 5-day start in the history of the stock market. The non-stop selling caught many market participants by surprise. While most were expecting some form of a bounce during the second week of January, the selling continued. It was mostly fueled by: slowing fundamentals, poor technicals, lack of leadership, global economic slowdown and complacency based on many sentiment measures. 2) Finally, on January 20th, some signs of [...]

I'm beginning to think the weekends are giving people amnesia about the stock market. We started this year with two BRUTAL weeks of selling. After the MLK long weekend, the market gapped up the morning of January 19th and sentiment seemed VERY complacent. It was as if the long weekend made everyone forget all the selling during the first two weeks of the year. That day, I told my friend we need to see the [...]

Here are excerpts from the memo I sent to clients this evening. It's a summary of the market so far this year and some possibilities going forward: I am very pleased that we survived the first 2 weeks of 2016 with our heavy cash position. The first week of January was the worst 5-day start in the history of the stock market. I was expecting some form of a bounce during the second week, however, the warning signs continued to [...]

I received several emails over the weekend from people who are really struggling and panicking about this market. This is not the end of the world. This a correction, plain and simple! The biggest challenge most people are having with their investments is: Should I just leave everything alone? Or should I cash some out? The reality is that people want the best of both worlds, and that is not very realistic. In other words, [...]

The stock market is a master manipulator. It conditions us to think a certain way over and over and over until we are convinced of a pattern. Then, just when we think we have things figured out, the market magically changes character. Keep in mind that a pattern can continue for a long time before the market eventually changes. The reason I bring this up is because something very interesting happened last week. For the [...]

“In 1923, seven men who had made it to the top of the financial success pyramid met together at the Edgewater Hotel in Chicago. Collectively, they controlled more wealth than the entire United States Treasury, and for years the media had held them up as examples of success. Who were they? Charles M. Schwab, president of the world’s largest steel company; Arthur Cutten, the greatest wheat speculator of his day; Richard Whitney, president of the [...]