Election years always bring out predictions about which stocks will do best under the next administration. These predictions are usually little more than informed guesses since no one really knows what policies will be implemented until after a president takes office and begins… Read More

Stocks were mostly lower last week but rose Friday, Nov. 16, when U.S. political leaders expressed optimism that a deal to avert the fiscal cliff is possible. Trend may be determined by answer to ‘What If…?’ What if the tax increases and spending cuts associated with the fiscal cliff are… Read More

Stock prices, as measured by the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) have fallen about 8% in the past two months. Traditional technical indicators now say that SPY and other stock market index exchanged-traded funds (… Read More

Short-term trading can be profitable, but can also require a great deal of time to find trades and then execute them in fast-moving markets. Because of those challenges, I also look at long-term trading opportunities, hoping to find positions that can be held for six months or more. To do… Read More

The DeMark Sequential is a popular indicator among market professionals. It is designed to pinpoint potential tops and bottoms in any market. It is available by subscription to large investors using expensive Bloomberg terminals and other professional trading tools. According to… Read More

Despite the recent market weakness, many traders and fund managers have enjoyed big gains this year. Even after the election week sell-off, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes are up more than 10% since the start of the year.#-ad_banner-# For tax purposes, some… Read More

The winners of the past six months are likely to be among the best performers in the next six months, according to research published in a number of academic studies. And relative strength (RS) can be used to find the biggest winners… Read More

Commodities are markets that many individual traders have ignored in the past. They have been traded with futures contracts in a market that is in some ways riskier than stock markets. Futures can have unlimited financial risk… Read More

Every once in a while, traders seem to forget that market prices move up and down and start expecting to see a move in one direction last forever. In the late 1980s, many traders assumed that the Japanese stock market was… Read More

Value investors use a number of filters to identify stocks that have the potential to deliver big gains. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and price-to-sales (P/S) ratio are among the most popular tools. Low ratios are used… Read More