 |
  Superstock Investor
Investors Edge
Gold & Energy
Advisor 
![[Book: The Rise of Gold in the 21st Century: Safety and Profits in an Age of War, Terrorism, Oil Shocks, Inflation, and the Decline of the Dollar]](http://www.superstockinvestor.com/ssi/images/ads/pub111-100x159.gif)
![[Book: The New Bull Market in Gold]](http://www.superstockinvestor.com/ssi/images/ads/pub109-100x159.gif)
|
Morning MattersArchivesTHURSDAY, July 29, 2010:Weekly Chart Review Each week we highlight the S&P500, Russell 2000, NASDAQ Composite, UUP, EEM,TLT, HYG and CFT. The 50 day moving average indicator reviews whether the slope is positive or negative as our guide to be invested or have a sell on the above names. This week we find that ... More... TUESDAY, July 27, 2010:Short Interest Update This Morning Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date July 15th. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 13,757,829,749 from 13,927,200,566 which is revised. Our calculation shows a decrease of shares 169,370,817 or -1.21%. There were 1,583 increases with 1,697 decreases. In the last 18 reporting periods, NYSE has seen more advancers than decliners in 10 of the 18 reporting periods. During this period on a trade date basis (6/25 to 7/12), the S&P rose 0.18%. The conclusion is shorts basically remained with what they were short. In the prior reporting period, shorts held to what they were short just as they have for this latest period. For more information we would direct you to Phil Erlanger's website www.goodmorningwallst.com More... MONDAY, July 26, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Review Since we began our portfolio, it is now up 424.22% from 381.11% while the S&P 500 is down -16.90% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 9.22%. There have been 46 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 367% in two years and three months or 170% a year. The portfolio has 25% cash. There are eight open winners and one loser currently. The portfolio is 75% invested More... FRIDAY, July 23, 2010:New Feature In Morning Matters This morning we add a new section to each day's Morning Matters. There will be a section on readings of note. We will provide the link when possible. In certain cases, you may have to be entitled to the website to read the full article. As an example, the Wall Street Journal will provide partial access but to get the full story you will need to be a subscriber to the online More... THURSDAY, July 22, 2010:Weekly Chart Update Of Major ETFs Right now the S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000, Emerging Market ETF (EEM)and now the Dollar Bullish ETF (UUP) should not be purchased. EEM is very close to turning to a buy. Strength is seen in the ... More... WEDNESDAY, July 21, 2010:Does Yesterday's Reversal Indicate We Are Out Of The Woods? Yesterday the S&P 500 sold off early to 1056.88 before staging a nice rally to close at 1083.48. Last Wednesday we wrote a piece that reviewed our litmus test that all is well. First, the S&P 500 needs to move back above its prior high before the recent selloff. This level is 1131.23. We are not there yet More... TUESDAY, July 20, 2010:Playbook Updated This is the updated playbook. The S&P 500 is down slightly since the last update on July 9th. As issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% and we have not added or removed any positions. Recent addition Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will report earnigns this morning. More... MONDAY, July 19, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Review & Quick Comments The indexes were lower this past week. Below is a summary of open and closed positions. January was a losing month and February, March and April were winning months. May was the worst May since 1940 and June was a losing month as well. July has gotten off to a good start as year to date the indexes are down about -4.50% from -7.57% at the end of June More... THURSDAY, July 15, 2010:Weekly Charts Updated We highlight below the S&P500, Russell 2000, NASDAQ Composite, UUP, EEM,TLT, HYG and CFT. More... WEDNESDAY, July 14, 2010:The Easy Money Is In And Now The Hard Work Begins Just seven trading days ago the world looked like it was coming to an end now all is well remain calm. Maybe. There are five litmus tests that still need to be passed. They are as follows. More... TUESDAY, July 13, 2010:Latest Short Interest Numbers Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date June 30th. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 14,082,342,075 from 14,466,991,537 which is revised. Our calculation shows a decrease of shares 384,649,462 or -2.66%. There were 1,623 increases with 1,640 decreases. In the last 17 reporting periods, NYSE has seen more advancers than decliners in 10 of the 17 reporting periods. More... MONDAY, July 12, 2010:
Since we began our portfolio, it is now up 394.99% from 359.43% while the S&P 500 is down -18.73% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 8.98%. There have been 46 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 367% in two years and two months or 170% a year. The portfolio has 25% cash. There are six open winners and three losers currently. The portfolio is 75% invested. More... FRIDAY, July 9, 2010:Playbook Updated & Couple Quick Comments This is the updated playbook. There has been some nice strength since our last update. As issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we added a buy in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). There are nine positions and three open positions. From the 4th of July to Labor Day we will not provide Market Matters coverage on Fridays. Last week, in the Investor's Edge section we updated the Gold and Energy Options section with a new option idea. The trade was a buy of SPY August $104 Calls. This trade has hit the jackppot. Watch for a flash alert today as we want to lock in gains. They were bought for $3.25 and closed yesterday at $5.61 for a gain of $2.36 or 73%. More... THURSDAY, July 8, 2010:New Buy Idea This morning we will add a new buy to our Morning Matters Portfolio. The new buy is ... More... WEDNESDAY, July 7, 2010:Weekly Charts Of Major Indexes & Asset Classes We highlight below the S&P500, Russell 2000, NASDAQ Composite, UUP, EEM,TLT, HYG and CFT. Right now the S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000, Emerging Market ETF (EEM)and High Yield (HYG) should ... More... TUESDAY, July 6, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Review Update. Cash At 42%. Since we began our portfolio, it is now up 359.43% while the S&P 500 is down -22.91% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 8.17%. There have been 44 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 367% in two years and two months or 170% a year. The portfolio has 42% cash. There are three winners and four losers. The portfolio is 58% invested More... FRIDAY, July 2, 2010:Playbook Updated This is the updated playbook. There has been weakness since our last update. As issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 33% as we sold a name and added a buy. There are eight positions and four open positions. 1.Continue to watch the impact of bankruptcies and mergers on the market. Acquisitions are happening every week and there have been no bankruptcies of note in 2010. CELG bought ABRX this week. The IPO and Secondary market is firming up as there continue to be deals on almost a daily basis. There have now been more Venture Capital backed IPOs than all of last year. More... THURSDAY, July 1, 2010:New Buy RTH The selloff in retail names is overdone. Aa highlighted in this morning's scorecard, the largest name in the Retail HOLDRS (RTH) is undervalued by 20% to its price target. There are no names that are above their price target in the constituents of the RTH. Sure these names can go lower BUT we can hedge this buy idea and we will. This is exactly what we did with V and MON. More... WEDNESDAY, June 30, 2010:The Most Predicted Technical Correction Is Not Going To Happen Many technicians are talking about a troubling head and shoulders formation that at the end of the day will result in a new bear market. Sorry but it is not that easy. The consensus is now for this to occur. We prefer to challenge this mindset. Why? More... TUESDAY, June 29, 2010:Portfolio Update and Closing HRL Long Position For Gain This is our weekly portfolio update. Profits will be taken on Hormel (HRL) as consumer stocks ex Apple (AAPL) are really struggling here as the thought of a double dip takes hold. We do not buy into the double dip as we will explain later this week but the recent weakness in stock cannot be ignored. Cash moves to 42%. More... FRIDAY, June 25, 2010:New Short Interest Numbers Released For NYSE and NASDAQ During this collection period on a trade date basis (5/25 to 6/10), the S&P rose 1.19%. The conclusion is shorts pressed their bets which is the norm since last September. In the prior reporting period, shorts took profits so this pressing shows aggressive behavior. More... TUESDAY, June 22, 2010:How Not To Trade Options In Monday's Wall Street Journal, there was an "interesting" article in the options column written by Brendon Conway. The title of the article was "How To Play Puts and Calls In Less Volatile Markets". As one of the contributors to www.goldandenergyoptionstrader.com, I think I can weigh in on this article. The first premise of the article is that the VIX is returning to a more "normal" level. More... MONDAY, June 21, 2010:Weekly Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is now up 412.47% from 391.17% while the S&P 500 is down -15.75% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 9.37%. There have been 44 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 367% in two years and two months or 170% a year. The portfolio has 33% cash. There are six winners and two losers. The portfolio is 67% invested More... FRIDAY, June 18, 2010:Couple Cleanup Items On Portfolio The portfolio is 67% invested and 33% in cash. We hedged two positions. Puts were bought on Visa. They will expire worthless. This will raise our entry in Visa to $74.81. On the other hand, Monsanto puts have gained $2.35 and our cost on Monsanto now drops to $52.54. We will continue to hedge MON and sell the June puts and buy July $52.50 Puts for $3.79. More... THURSDAY, June 17, 2010:The Worst Downgrade Of The Century Are you kidding me? Two firms downgraded BP yesterday. The stock has now fallen from $60 to $31.85. More... MONDAY, June 14, 2010:Playbook Update In a nutshell, we are oversold on a daily basis but the weekly is now poor while the monthly trends are positive. Pullbacks have popped up in June/July,October/November and January/February. The May pullback was right on time and now the pattern if it is intact calls for a strong June and July. Two months of strength followed by a month of weakness. Many will find this hard to believe but the trend is pretty obvious and trends need to be respected until they are broken. More... FRIDAY, June 11, 2010:Uptrend Indicators Show Remarkable Improvement Over the next few weeks, James and I are going to implement a market timing section within our website that will include "the best of the best" timing tools. You have seen them if you read our commentary. Now we will section these indicators and create place to monitor these indicators. More... THURSDAY, June 10, 2010:Latest Short Interest Increased On NYSE and NASDAQ But Not The Whole Story Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date May 28th. The NYSE saw short interest increase to 13,987,064,443 from 13,908,944,756 which is revised. Our calculation shows an increase of 78,119,687 shares or 0.56%. There were 1,558 increases with 1,724 decreases. In the last 15 reporting periods, NYSE has seen more advancers than decliners in 9 of the 15 reporting periods. Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date May 28th. Short interest ... More... WEDNESDAY, June 9, 2010:Weekly Chartbook Update This morning we update the weekly chart review of the 50 day moving average and the slope of this moving average on several leading indexes for the first time since May 21st. Weeks like this are EXACTLY why we review this technical indicator. It tell us when to put the peddle to the metal, be cautious or run for the hills. More... MONDAY, June 7, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Review Since we began our portfolio, it is now up 375.90% from 391.17% while the S&P 500 is down -19.72% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 8.54%. There have been 44 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 367% in two years and two months or 170% a year. The portfolio has 33% cash. There are five winners to three losers. The portfolio is 67% invested More... FRIDAY, June 4, 2010:Playbook Update This is the mid week review on Friday due to the shortened trading week. There has been weakness since our last update. As issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 33% as we sold several names recently. 1.Continue to watch the impact of bankruptcies and mergers on the market. Acquisitions are happening every week and there have been no bankruptcies of note in 2010. The IPO and Secondary market is firming up as there continue to be deals on almost a daily basis. Updated. 2.Unemployment numbers are due each Thursday and continue to slow bit by bit. Monthly numbers are due this morning and could be a whopper. More... THURSDAY, June 3, 2010:Comments From Our Sister Publication On Gold/Energy/Materials Market To quote Dickens, "It was the best of times. it was the worst of times..." The best of times in our universe relates to the gold stocks. The worst of times relate to the energy stocks. The BP oil spill is causing investors to throw out the baby with the bath water. More... TUESDAY, June 1, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Review Since we began our portfolio, it is now up 391.17% from 418.52% while the S&P 500 is down -17.87% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed ideas is 8.89%. There have been 44 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 367% in two years and two months or 170% a year. The portfolio has 33% cash. There are five winners to three losers. The portfolio is 67% invested More... FRIDAY, May 28, 2010:Is The Correction Over? In today's video, Phil looks at the short ratios of several ETFs including the DIA. Shorts have been adding and the big question is when we get the next short data whether they continued to add into Wednesday's low? If so, then a major short covering rally could be underway. More... WEDNESDAY, May 26, 2010:Video From Phil Erlanger Phil Erlanger of Erlanger Squeeze Play and now Good Morning Wall Street (www.goodmorningwallst.com) put out a great video worth watching on the state of the market. It should be noted he put out the video hours before the rebound materialized so in light of the rebound ... More... MONDAY, May 24, 2010:Mid Week Update On Monday This is the mid week review on a Monday as we did not get to it last week and wanted some more clarity with Friday's action. There has been continued strength since our last update on April 9th. As issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we sold several names last Wednesday More... FRIDAY, May 21, 2010:Weekly Chartbook Review Is the equity market toast or this another correction like we saw in June/July, October and January/February. Many are jumping to the conclusion that the complexion of the market has changed and the up move since March of 2009 is over. Is it over or is this a panic? More... WEDNESDAY, May 19, 2010:Portfolio Changes, Visa and Richard Russell Recent weakness in stocks is going to provide a great buying oppportunity. As such, we have several stocks that are not making money and it is time to sell them. This will increase cash and give us opportunities to deploy cash to make money on the impending rebound.We highlighted Visa (V) this morning in the stock scorecard for a reason. As noted, the stock has been hammered. We sometimes like to buy when others are in a panic. Therefore, we will buy Visa (V) on the open with a hedge. Last many are buzzing about the writing of Richard Russell the author of Dow Theory Letters. He wrote that the world is coming to an end. All stocks must be sold, except for gold stocks, and that dogs and cats will begin sleeping together... More... MONDAY, May 17, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 418.52% while the S&P 500 is down -16.25% through Friday's close. This is cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 9.73%. There have been 43 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 300% in two years or 150% a year. The portfolio has 8% cash from 16% cash. There are six winners to five losers. The portfolio is 92% invested. More... FRIDAY, May 14, 2010:New Buy This Morning With A Hedge "Crazy Eddie his prices are IN-S-A-A-A-A-NE." This was a famous slogan in the 1970s and 1980s in the New York Metropolitan area for Crazy Eddie retail stores. Now some thirty years later, "Monsanto's stock price is IN-S-A-A-A-A-NE." Therefore, we will buy the stock and hedge with a put to limit any more losses. More... WEDNESDAY, May 12, 2010:New NYSE & NASDAQ Short Interest Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date April 30th. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 13,838,745,511 from 13,888,799,431 which is revised. Our calculation shows a decrease of 50,053,920 shares or -0.36%. There were 1,565 increases with 1,736 decreases. In the last 13 reporting periods, NYSE has seen more advancers than decliners in 8 of the 13 reporting periods. More... TUESDAY, May 11, 2010:Weekly Chart Review All charts are created from www.erlangerchartroom.com and if interested in using this indicator in Chart Room please feel free to send us an email by using the Contact Us section from the home page. More... MONDAY, May 10, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 378.36% while the S&P 500 is down -16.25% through Friday's close. This is the cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 9.01%. There have been 42 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 300% in two years or 150% a year. The portfolio has 16% cash from 25% cash. There are six winners to four losers. The portfolio is 84% invested More... FRIDAY, May 7, 2010:Market Plunge Baffles Wall Street. Oh Really? This morning's headline on the front page of The Wall Street Journal reads "Market Plunge Baffles Wall Street". Give me a break. This plunge was VERY predictable on several fronts. More... WEDNESDAY, May 5, 2010:New Addition To Our Morning Matters Portoflio We are going to add another position with a short bias. Several weeks ago we added an inverse ETF on the market that is paying off handsomely. Now we are going to short a stock in this portfolio. With recent market weakness, this makes sense. Short MGM Mirage (MGM). We noted in the Stock Scorecard this morning that Las Vegas Sands will report after the close and a miss by them will hit the stock price of MGM as well. More... MONDAY, May 3, 2010:Adding A New Buy To The Portfolio We are adding Qualcomm (QCOM) as a new buy to our portfolio this moring. The stock is very cheap. The Superstock Scorecard has a price target of ... More... FRIDAY, April 30, 2010:Weekly Chartbook Ideas This morning we update early the weekly chart review of the 50 day moving average and the slope of this moving average on several leading indexes. Each chart shows the 50 day moving average and our indicator that shows the slope of the moving average. Green is positive slope and red is negative slope. More... MONDAY, April 26, 2010:Midweek Update on Monday This is the mid week review on a Monday as we did not get to it last week as we added a new idea to the Morning Matters Portfolio. There has been continued strength since our last update on April 9th. As issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we sold several names back on 3/22. More... THURSDAY, April 22, 2010:Weekly Chartbook Updated This morning we update early the weekly chart review of the 50 day moving average and the slope of this moving average on several leading indexes. Each chart shows the 50 day moving average and our indicator that shows the slope of the moving average. Green is positive slope and red is negative slope. We will highlight the ... More... WEDNESDAY, April 21, 2010:Weekly Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 415.31% while the S&P 500 is down -8.99% through Tuesday's close. This is the cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 10.13%. There have been 41 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 300% in two years or 150% a year. The portfolio has 25% cash from 33% cash. There are eight winners to one loser. The portfolio is 75% invested More... MONDAY, April 19, 2010:New Position This Morning We have not put on a short idea in a while. This morning we are shorting ... More... FRIDAY, April 16, 2010:Weekly Chartbook Updated This morning we update early the weekly chart review of the 50 day moving average and the slope of this moving average on several leading indexes due to the shortened trading week. Each chart shows the 50 day moving average and our indicator that shows the slope of the moving average. Green is positive slope and red is negative slope. More... WEDNESDAY, April 14, 2010:Latest Short Interest Comments Short interest numbers for the NYSE were reported for the period of settlement date March 31st Monday after the close. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 13,902,542,294 which is revised. Our calculation shows an decrease of -1.58%. There were 1,613 increases with 1,658 decreases. For more insights, we would direct you to www.goodmorningwallst.com. More... MONDAY, April 12, 2010:Morning Matters Portfolio Updated The indexes were higher this past week. Below is a summary of open and closed positions. January was a losing month and February was a winning month. Year to date the indexes are up around 5%. More... FRIDAY, April 9, 2010:Mid Week Review This is the mid week review. There has been continued strength. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 33% as we sold several names back on 3/22. More... WEDNESDAY, April 7, 2010:Several News Stories of Interest Every once in a while there are stories in the newspapers that stick out like a sore thumb. Why? Because they have big implications and yet the market tends to ignore the impact of these stories. More... MONDAY, April 5, 2010:Simon's Greed & Fear Index Still Up In The Clouds Several weeks ago we interviewed Steve Simon of Simon Economics. The purpose of the interview was to highlight his Greed & Fear Indicator. When this was published the Greed & Fear Indicator has just moved above 80%. It still remains at this high level. What are we to make of this? More... WEDNESDAY, March 31, 2010:Weeekly Charts Of Note This morning we update early the weekly chart review of the 50 day moving average and the slope of this moving average on several leading indexes due to the shortened trading week. More... MONDAY, March 29, 2010:Weekly Review The portfolio now is 33% in cash with 8 open ideas. Releases of note this week other than the weekly oil/gas numbers and jobless claims include personal income, consumer confidence, construction spending, March ISM Index, March Nonfarm Payrolls and the Unemployment Rate. More... FRIDAY, March 26, 2010:New Feature Of This Column Each Week This morning we introduce a new feature of this column. A weekly chart review of the 50 day moving average and the... More... THURSDAY, March 25, 2010:Short Interest Released. Latest Update Shows A Small Drop Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date March 15th. The NYSE saw short interest increase to 14,132,853,373 from 13,878,332,151 which is revised. Our calculation shows an increase of 254,521,222 shares or 1.83%. There were 1,618 increases with 1,638 decreases. Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date March 15th. Short interest ... More... WEDNESDAY, March 24, 2010:Wall Street Is Despised By Americans This morning two interesting articles appears on www.bloonberg.com entitled, "Wall Street Despised in Poll Showing Majority Want Regulation" and "Americans Say They Missed 73% Rise in S&P 500 As Economy Surged". We will provide the links at the bottom of this article. Wall Street is a rather broad term. Though we publish out of Florida and are more than a 1,000 miles from Wall Street we are Wall Street but consider ourselves the "New Wall Street" as opposed to the "Old Wall Street". The old Wall Street model is being blown apart due to massive failures. The landscape will be forever changed. Mutual funds now compete against ETFs. Banks face new regulations as do brokers. The list is endless. More... MONDAY, March 22, 2010:Locking In Some Gains. Cash Goes To 33% This morning we are going to lock in some gains. We went long the Ultra Dow Jones iShares (DDM) last April. It is now up 70%. The reason for the 70% move is that this ETF moves two times the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Are we negative now on the market? No just taking some gains off the table. More... FRIDAY, March 19, 2010:The Greed & Fear Index Unveiled At the end of last week we promised some comments on the Greed & Fear Indicator produced by Steve Simon of Simon Economics. We recently interviewed Steve and asked him five questions. Here is that interview. More... WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2010:Portfolio Review Up 389.5% Since April 2008 Since we began our portfolio, it is up 389.5% from 384.03% while the S&P 500 is down -12.59% through Friday's close. This is the cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 9.74%. There have been 40 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 300% in two years or 150% a year. The portfolio has 8% cash from 25% cash five weeks ago. There are eleven winners to zero losers. The portfolio is 92% invested More... TUESDAY, March 16, 2010:It's The Market Stupid Bill Weissert of Business Cycle Developments (BCD) today forwarded me a recent piece written by Roger Ibbotson in the Financial Analysts Journal entitled, “The Importance of Asset Allocation” (March/April 2010). This morning we offer a glimpse into this article and its implications for the investor. More... FRIDAY, March 12, 2010:Mid Week Playbook Update In a nutshell, it is as "good as it gets" and in early February many thoguht the world was ending again and now the crowd is stating the equity markets need a correction. The crowd is often fickle and wrong. The near term upside appears to be 1200 if we can clear 1150. More... WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2010:New Short Interest Numbers Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date February 26th. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 13,826,928,711 from 13,991,260,798 which is revised. Our calculation shows ... More... MONDAY, March 8, 2010:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 384.03% from 344.76% while the S&P 500 is down -14.15% through Friday's close. This is the cumulative return of all recommendations since April 1, 2008. The average return of all open and closed recommendations is 9.60%. There have been 40 recommendations to date. This equates to turnover of 300% in two years or 150% a year. The portfolio has 8% cash from 25% cash three weeks ago. There are eleven winners to zero losers. The portfolio is 92% invested More... THURSDAY, March 4, 2010:Mid Week Update This is the mid week review. There has been recent strength the two last weeks and this trend continued this week. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 8% as we bought two stocks since in the last few weeks. More... TUESDAY, March 2, 2010:Mini Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 355.75% while the S&P 500 is down -15.88% through Monday's close. The portfolio has 8% cash from 25% cash six weeks ago. There are nine winners to two losers. The portfolio is 92% invested More... MONDAY, March 1, 2010:Adding Anothe New Buy Last week the EEM was purchased and this week we will buy... More... THURSDAY, February 25, 2010:Short Continue To Add To Their Positions Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date February 12th. The NYSE saw short interest increase to 14,002,613,200 from 13,492,652,518 which is revised. Our calculation shows an increase of 509,660,682 shares or 3.77%. There were 1,960 increases with 1,284 decreases. Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date February 12th. Short interest ... More... WEDNESDAY, February 24, 2010:Weekly Review Moved To Wednesday Due To New Stock Recommendation on Monday Monday we recommended a new name for our Morning Matters Portfolio so we did not undertake our weekly review. Instead we are completing the review this morning. More... MONDAY, February 22, 2010:Adding A New Buy With the current rally underway, we thought it made sense to put some cash to work. The emerging markets have sold off 16% from the high in January to the low at the end of January More... FRIDAY, February 19, 2010:Rates Are Going Up Worldwide The Federal Reserve after the market closed on Thursday raised the discount rate from .50 percent to .75 percent a quarter of a point. The discount rate is the rate the Federal Reserve charges banks for short term loans. The initial reaction is a selloff of stocks. More... THURSDAY, February 18, 2010:Mid Week Update This is the mid week review. There has been recent strength last week and this trend continued on Tuesday and Wednesday. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we sold three stocks since the beginning of the year. More... TUESDAY, February 16, 2010:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 320.04% from 310.11% while the S&P 500 is down -18.92% through Friday's close. The portfolio has 25% cash from 0% cash five weeks ago. There are seven winners to two losers. The portfolio is 75% invested. More... FRIDAY, February 12, 2010:Why Next Tuesday Could Be A Meltup? Investing with the glass half empty rather than half full after Defaultmaggedon 2008 occured has not paid off. In fact,investing with the glass half full is what has paid off. Short sellers got killed in 2009 and looks like another beating could be at hand. More... WEDNESDAY, February 10, 2010:NYSE and NASDAQ Short Interest Numbers Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date January 29th. The NYSE saw short interest increase to 13,494,975,619 from 13,343,634,678 which is revised. Our calculation shows an increase of 151,340,941 shares or 1.13%. There were 1,725 increases with 1,530 decreases. NASDAQ saw... More... MONDAY, February 8, 2010:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 310.11% from 312.03% while the S&P 500 is down -19.62% through Friday's close. The portfolio has 25% cash from 0% cash five weeks ago. There are six winners to three losers. The portfolio is 75% invested More... FRIDAY, February 5, 2010:Using The Retracement Tool To Gauge Where the Markets are Going Many are becoming alarmed at the selling over the past two weeks. The S&P 500 hit 1150 on Tuesday, Janaury 19th. Now the S&P 500 is at 1163.11. This is a drop of 86.89 points or 7.56%. The calls are coming in for a 10%, 15% or even 20% correction. How valid are these claims? More... WEDNESDAY, February 3, 2010:Mid Week Review This is the mid week review. There has been recent weakness last week but Monday and Tuesday reversed to the upside. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we sold three stocks recently. More... MONDAY, February 1, 2010:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 312.03% from 327.22% while the S&P 500 is down -19.04% through Friday's close. The portfolio has 25% cash from 0% cash four weeks ago. There are seven winners to two losers. The portfolio is 75% invested. More... FRIDAY, January 29, 2010:The Glass Is Half Full Last Sunday there was an interesting article in The New York Times. The premise of the article was the risks to the market. Three risks were identifies. They were earnings, valuation and policy risk. The current selloff is being driven by policy risk. Policy risk in my humble opinion does not cause bear markets. It causes panics. In this case, the fears are 100% unwarranted. Why? Simply those in control of policy for the U.S. changed last Tuesday. More... WEDNESDAY, January 27, 2010:Weekly Playbook. Caution Advised. This is the mid week review. There has been recent weakness. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we sold three stocks recently. More... MONDAY, January 25, 2010:Weekly Portfolio and Macro Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 327.22% from 363.57% while the S&P 500 is down -17.69% through Friday's close. The portfolio has 25% cash from 0% cash three weeks ago. There are eight winners to one loser. The portfolio is 75% invested More... FRIDAY, January 22, 2010:Mid Week Update Pushed To Friday This is the mid week review. There has beeen recent weakness. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Cash is at 25% as we sold three stocks recently. More... TUESDAY, January 19, 2010:Weel;y Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 363.57% from 331.67% while the S&P 500 is down -14.05% through Friday's close. The portfolio has 25% cash from 0% cash two weeks ago. There are eight winners to one loser. The portfolio is 75% investe More... FRIDAY, January 15, 2010:Latest Short Interest Numbers Fell Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date December 31st. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 12,983,708,631 from 13,454,512,121 which is revised from 13,534,278,885. Our calculation shows a decrease of ... More... WEDNESDAY, January 13, 2010:Weekly Playbook Update This is the mid week review. With the recent upwards action, some sideways action is needed. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. Last Friday we increased cash to 25% as we sold three stocks. More... MONDAY, January 11, 2010:Weekly Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 331.67% from 323.45% while the S&P 500 is down -13.68% through Friday's close. The portfolio has 25% cash from 0% cash the past week. There are eight winners to one loser. The portfolio is 75% invested More... FRIDAY, January 8, 2010:Taking Some Profits On Model Portfolio This morning we are locking in a few winners to make room for some new ideas next week. Gains will be taken on ... More... WEDNESDAY, January 6, 2010:Top 10 Questions For Inquiring Investors Last week we started to look at the biggest questions on investors minds for 2010. We have listed the first seven questions facing investors. This morning we complete the list with our final three questions. More... TUESDAY, January 5, 2010:Publishing Schedule in 2010 Morning Matters will be produced each Monday, Wednesday and Friday with occassional pieces on Tuesday and Thursday. The Madison Letter will have a similar schedule. Both the stock scorecard and Market Matters will be produced each day. More... MONDAY, January 4, 2010:Weekly Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 323.45% from 335.48% while the S&P 500 is down -15.93% through Thursday's close. The portfolio has no cash. There are ten winners to two losers. The portfolio is fully invested. More... THURSDAY, December 31, 2009:Questions On Investors' Minds Yesterday we started to look at the biggest questions on investors minds for 2010. We listed the first three questions facing investors. This morning we list those as well as four more. More... WEDNESDAY, December 30, 2009:Followup From Yesterday's Lesson & Investor Questions For 2010 A reader wrote in asking if we could perform the same analysis on International Paper (IP). No problem. But first we thought that we would start looking what the biggest questions are on investors minds for 2010? More... TUESDAY, December 29, 2009:Lessons In Investing With A Review of Belo Corp (BLC) This week we are starting a new series of articles. The series will be called lessons in investing. The first lesson today relates to cheap stock prices. Many investors believe that a low stock price equates to a good opportunity for them. This is a huge myth and often can lead to dismal performance results. However, many stocks did rebound this year from very low levels to record gains of much greater than 100% from their lows. More... MONDAY, December 28, 2009:Weekly Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 335.48% from 306.77% while the S&P 500 is down -15.07% through Thursday's close. The portfolio has no cash.There are ten winners to two losers. The portfolio is fully invested. More... THURSDAY, December 24, 2009:No comments today or tomorrow We will not be producing comments today or tomorrow. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas or holiday. Production next week will be Monday and Wednesday as well. More... WEDNESDAY, December 23, 2009:Mid Week Playbook Update This is the mid week review. With the recent sideways action, a big move appears to be starting in the last month of the year within the last two weeks of the year. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. The portfolio updated each Monday is fully invested. The portfolio is now up 318.47% since April of 2008 and from 306.47% on Friday's close. More... MONDAY, December 21, 2009:Weekly Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 306.77% from 302.59% while the S&P 500 is down -16.88% through Friday's close. The portfolio now has some cash for the first time in a while. There are eleven winners to one loser. The portfolio is fully invested. We will be producing commentary on only Monday and Wednesday this week and next week due to the holidays. More... FRIDAY, December 18, 2009:Weekly Playbook Updated The mid week review is delivered on Friday this week. With the recent sideways action, a big move awaits in the last month of the year. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. More... WEDNESDAY, December 16, 2009:Things That Make You Go Hmm... Part II Last week we wrote a column entitled "Things That Make You Go Hmmm". This week we comment on several of these bullets and add a few more and take away a couple. 1.What if the dollar begins to rally and stocks rally alongside the dollar? This is EXACTLY what is happening and a shock to many that cannot think outside the box. More... TUESDAY, December 15, 2009:New Buy This Morning Last week we closed our position in the Powershares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bearish (UDN) for a gain of 4.74%. We will replace UDN with Fluor Corp (FLR). Since August the stock has sold off by almost 50%. More... MONDAY, December 14, 2009:Weekly Review And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 302.59% from 298.14% while the S&P 500 is down -16.59% through Friday's close. The portfolio now has some cash for the first time in a while. There are ten winners to one loser. There is one position in cash. More... FRIDAY, December 11, 2009:Closing Out UDN in Morning Matters Portfolio For A Gain We bought the Powershares Deutsche Bank Dollar Bearish Index ETF(UDN) in September of 2008. It has gained 5.37% since we put the trade on and recently it has started to correct as the dollar has begun to rally. More... THURSDAY, December 10, 2009:Latest Short Interest Numbers Updated After Wednesday's Close Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date November 13th. The NYSE saw short interest increase to 13,202,567,761 from 13,173,105,311 (revised) from an original 13,181,255,649. Our calculation shows an increase of 29,462,450 or 0.22% . There were 1,749 increases with 1,465 decreases. More... WEDNESDAY, December 9, 2009:Things That Make You Go Hmm.... This morning we thought that we would ask thought provoking questions to get you thinking about the markets as we move into yearend. More... MONDAY, December 7, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 298.14% from 302.46% while the S&P 500 is down -16.62% through Friday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are eleven winners to one loser. More... THURSDAY, December 3, 2009:Making A Change In The Morning Matters Portfolio We will sell shares in Fred's Inc (FRED) and buy... More... WEDNESDAY, December 2, 2009:Weekly Playbook Updated It has been a while since we updated our playbook which looks at the top ten events/issues impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. With the recent sideways action, a big move awaits in the last month of the year. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio More... MONDAY, November 30, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 302.46% from 307.86% while the S&P 500 is down -17.71% through Friday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are ten winners to two losers More... FRIDAY, November 27, 2009:Bond Holders Are Being #%&$*ed Over Again This morning futures are down levels we last saw in the fourth quarter of 2008. The S&P Futures are at 1077 from 1110 on Wednesday's close. Why? There are several moving parts and once again the media is missing the bigger story. More... WEDNESDAY, November 25, 2009:New Short Interest Numbers Are Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date November 13th. The NYSE saw short interest ... More... MONDAY, November 23, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 307.86% from 320.16% while the S&P 500 is down -17.72% through Friday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are ten winners to two losers. This week comments will be produced on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. More... FRIDAY, November 20, 2009:Erlanger Nantucket Sleigh Ride (ENS) Indicator In Trouble On A Daily Basis Yesterday afternoon Phil Erlanger of Good Morning Wall Street put out a Hot Alert Video on the Erlanger Nantucket Sleigh Ride Indicator for the S&P 500 on a daily basis. It is in trouble as ... More... THURSDAY, November 19, 2009:When To Sell? James Stewart who writes for The Wall Street Journal and Smart Money wrote an interesting article in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal that was worth the read and gave me some serious ammunition to rebuttal his article. The premise of the article is that it makes sense to buy low and sell high. This is an old adage on Wall Street. 100% agreement with this thought process. However, the flaw in his article is that ... More... TUESDAY, November 17, 2009:The Health Of The Market Stocks look ready to run. How do we know this? Breadth has improved. What is breadth? Simply it tracks the number of stocks that closed higher or lower in trading. More... MONDAY, November 16, 2009:Adjusted Production Schedule This Week and Nextq Due to travel this week, we will produce commentary on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Next week due to Thanksgiving we will produce our work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for your patience. More... THURSDAY, November 12, 2009:Good Things Are Happening In the first few minutes of trading on Monday, stock moved above resistance. Then the high for the first hour of trading was taken out to the upside. The hand ringing of last week is no more. The strong close was also a big positive. Gold and oil were strong. Meanwhile the dollar was dead on arrival More... WEDNESDAY, November 11, 2009:Latest Short Interest Numbers Released By NYSE and NASDAQ Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date October 30th. The NYSE saw short interest decrease to 13,014,888,577 from 13,450,432,834. Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date October 30th and ... More... TUESDAY, November 10, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 320.16% from 268.61% while the S&P 500 is down -17.59% through Monday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are ten winners to two losers. More... MONDAY, November 9, 2009:Thar She Blows Friday's Erlanger video from www.goodmorningwallst.com was notable. The one month hi/low shows breadth in the market. When declining, the market is in distribution. Often the signal line can be tested like we are currently seeing with the past week's action. More... THURSDAY, November 5, 2009:Couple IPOs On Deck Today This morning David Menlow weighs in on two IPOs due up this morning and the thought is that these are not A+ deals. More... WEDNESDAY, November 4, 2009:Weekly Update A Few Days Behind Schedule Due To Other Articles of Importance Since we began our portfolio, it is up 268.61% from 309.69% while the S&P 500 is down -21.19% through Tuesday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are seven winners to five losers More... TUESDAY, November 3, 2009:Buyouts, Buyouts and More Buyouts The naysayers can no longer deny it. The economy is in recovery. The proof. Companies willing to pay up to buy other companies. After the close on Monday, Stanley Works bought Black & Decker. This morning Berkshire Hathaway iss buying Burlington Northern Santa Fe. More... MONDAY, November 2, 2009:The Interview: Banks Must Lend For Sustainable Growth On Sunday morning, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared on “Meet the Press” with David Gregory. It was an interesting interview. Much was learned and it should be shared. The U.S. economy is at just the beginning of economic expansion according to Geithner. Last week third quarter GDP was reported and it grew at 3.5%. Many have trashed this number stating that the growth came from only the stimulus plan. Those that trashed the numbers either have a political agenda or they want the market to move lower. More... THURSDAY, October 29, 2009:Dow Theory and The Market This morning Phil Erlanger provides commentary via his latest video. The subject is the Transportation Index and the movement of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. More... WEDNESDAY, October 28, 2009:Critical Point In The Market The G Force Indicator is alerting us that the market should bounce here. This indicator determines when the market reaches overbought or oversold levels. Currently, the market is holding its prior lows that are hit when ... More... TUESDAY, October 27, 2009:New Short Interest Released by NYSE/NASDAQ The latest short interest numbers were released through settlement date of October 15th. Short interest rose on both NYSE and NASDAQ. For more details read on... More... MONDAY, October 26, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 309.69% from 325.34% while the S&P 500 is down -18.61% through Friday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are nine winners to three losers More... THURSDAY, October 22, 2009:Why Stocks Sold Off Sell-offs like this are often attributable to policy decisions/comments out of Washington. The Beige Book did not move stocks it was a nonevent. From 2:30 onward, the following comments were offered up and they definitely scared investors. More... WEDNESDAY, October 21, 2009:Is The VIX At A Dangerous Level? There is lots of confusion on the macro front. Inflation last week. Deflation this week. Earnings good but not good enough. Therefore, we need to look at the technicals to better understand what is going on. The market is ... More... TUESDAY, October 20, 2009:The Consumer Is Not Dead The consumer is no longer on life support. What are the points that validate this comment. First, Apple (AAPL) blew out numbers. Appple sells more to a retail versus an enterrprise market. The windows PC is still the staple computer of enterprise or business. More... MONDAY, October 19, 2009:Weekly Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 309.69% while the S&P 500 is down -18.61% through Friday's close. The portfolio is fully invested. There are nine winners to three losers. More... FRIDAY, October 16, 2009:You Can In Fact Have A Full Head Of Hair And Be A Market Timer Henry Blodgett is the former bad boy of Wall Street. He used to be the internet analyst for Merrill Lynch. He was banned for life for proclaiming companies to be junk while he was recommending them. It was the truth. The problem was he said this in emails and the SEC made an example of him. The good news is the internet continued to advance and he went on to become one of the bigger bloggers around with a following that includes us. Yesterday he put up a post that was very uncharacteristic of him. It was not well thought out and just plain wrong. More... THURSDAY, October 15, 2009:Adding A Buy Idea To Our Portfolio The Morning Matters Portfolio is now fully invested. Today we are adding a new buy idea in the retail space. There are no retailers in the portfolio so this makes sense. More... WEDNESDAY, October 14, 2009:Weekly Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 319.04% from 310.52% while the S&P 500 is down -19.09% through Tuesday's close. The portfolio is 8% in cash. There are ten winners to one loser. More... MONDAY, October 12, 2009:Due to Columbus Day Holiday There Are No Comments Today With the bond market and government offices closed, we are taking advantage of a rare day off. Comments will return tomorrow. More... FRIDAY, October 9, 2009:New Buy For The Morning Matters Portfolio The world's rebound does not rest on the shoulders of the United States. Rather it will be driven by China. China is one of the oldest civlizations in the world and is emerging from communism and moving towards capitalism. This is good news for companies worldwide. Why? More... THURSDAY, October 8, 2009:Playbook Is Updated Wednesday is the day we update our playbook which updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. However, we the update this week to Thursday. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. More... WEDNESDAY, October 7, 2009:New Video From Phil Erlanger: The Big Picture Is Coming Into Play Market is still in a pullback phase as the S&P 500 needs to move into and then above its DMA channel. With early action Tuesday, the S&P 500 has moved back into its DMA channel. The low end of the channel is 1049.51. The lows continue to be higher lows which is a big plus for the S&P 500 and the overall market. More... TUESDAY, October 6, 2009:The Stock Scorecard Takes On New Meaning Going forward we will take a stock that is suddenly put front and center with investors due to a variety of reasons. It could be an upgrade or downgrade or a proposed merger. Also, we could view a piece of news having meaningful impact on stock price. This morning we highligh Brocade (BRCD). The company on Monday put itself up for sale. Will potential bidders pay the targeted price or upper bound? More... MONDAY, October 5, 2009:Weekly Review and Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 310.52% from 316% while the S&P 500 is down -22.71%. The portfolio is 16% in cash. There are nine winners to one loser More... THURSDAY, October 1, 2009:Recent Video From Phil Erlanger A recent video from Phil focused on the ability of the market to hold its gains even though we are in a pullback phase for the major indexes. Higher beta stocks are hanging tough. It should be noted that higher beta is not accelerating to the downside. More... WEDNESDAY, September 30, 2009:The Third Quarter Of The Year Comes To An End The third quarter comes to an end today. It has been a killer quarter to the upside. The markets have now put in two positive quarters in a row. Can the market string together another positive quarter in a row. This morning we look where we have been and where we are going. More... TUESDAY, September 29, 2009:Comments Yesterday From Gold And Energy Options Trader This morning we are publishing comments from www.goldandenergyoptionstrader.com. They did a nice job of summarizing the current state of the energy and commodity markets. If you want to trade options, then you should really spend some time on this website. More... MONDAY, September 28, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 319.26% from 337.95% while the S&P 500 is down -21.26%. The portfolio is 16% in cash. There are nine winners to one loser. Releases of note this week other than the weekly oil/gas numbers include consumer confidence,Q2 GDP, personal income, construction spending, ISM, nonfarmpayrolls/unemployment and factory orders among others More... FRIDAY, September 25, 2009:Short Interest Numbers Released After The Close This morning the latest short interest numbers have been released and Phil Erlanger weighs in on this release. Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date September 15th and fell to 13,524,875,310 from 13,784,184,812 which is a revised number from the original release of 13,785,419,814. The overall decrease against the revised number is 259,309,502 shares or -1.88%. More... THURSDAY, September 24, 2009:Another Sign of Health For The Markets Today there are five IPOs and six secondary issues being priced. This is a HUGE deal, no pun intended. Why? These pricings demonstrate that indeed capital is flowing back into the equity market. If capital was not flowing in, then these deals could not be getting completed. More... WEDNESDAY, September 23, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 337.95% from 310.44% while the S&P 500 is down -19.21%. The portfolio is 16% in cash. There are nine winners to one losers More... THURSDAY, September 17, 2009:Expect A Pullback With Yesterday's Move The Madison Letter has been very bullish throughout the summer. With yesterday's action, the Madison scores are getting frothy to say the least. Each day in The Madison Letter we track the major indexes and their buy, neutral and sell points. Several ideas are also given as buys or sells. What the reader does not see is that we track almost 150 ETFs and indexes. More... TUESDAY, September 15, 2009:No Commentary Due To Travel Today There will be no Morning Matters or Market Matters today due to travel. We will resume comments tomorrow. We will note yesterday's action was very positive for stocks as the potential for a big sell-off existed with the tariff action enacted by the President. More... MONDAY, September 14, 2009:Weekly Portfolio Review And Summary/Review of Last Week/This Week Since we began our portfolio, it is up 310.44% from 292.83% while the S&P 500 is down -21.39%. The portfolio is 16% in cash. There are ten winners to no losers. More... FRIDAY, September 11, 2009:Latest Short Interest Numbers Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date August 31st and fell to 13,785,419,814 from 14,129,801,752 which is a revised number from the original release of 14,196,401,372. The overall decrease against the revised number is 344,381,938 shares or 2.44%. More... THURSDAY, September 10, 2009:Comments From The Madison Letter A great free service within SuperStock Investor is The Madison Letter. Madison can be found on the lower left side of the website within the Investor Edge section. This commentary tells us whether to be invested or in cash. A key component of The Madison Letter is the Madison Market Timing Indicator. Since April of 2007, this indicator has told us whether to be long, short or in cash. Currently, The Madison Letter is invested on the long side. Here are today's comments. More... WEDNESDAY, September 9, 2009:Weekly Playbook Is Updated And The Environment Is A Plus For Stocks Wednesday is the day we update our playbook which updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. More... TUESDAY, September 8, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 292.83% from 281.72% while the S&P 500 is down -23.37%. The portfolio is 16% in cash. There are nine winners to one loser More... THURSDAY, September 3, 2009:Can You Hedge Yourself For Armageddon? One of my college buddies sent me an email and asked for my comments. The email stated that a very bad terrorist event is imminent in the United States. The government has not been vigilent enough and the next event will be far worse than 9/11. The natural question is if in fact such an event were to take place how does an investor prepare for a potential crash day due to such an event? More... WEDNESDAY, September 2, 2009:Weekly Review A Few Days Later Due To Data Glitch On Monday Since we began our portfolio, it is up 281.72% from 293.06% while the S&P 500 is down -24.76%. The portfolio is 16% in cash. There are nine winners to one loser. More... TUESDAY, September 1, 2009:An Additional Weekly Review This morning I bring in comments that are written on my blog which is http://divergenceconvergence.blogspot.com. The thought process for this piece has been developed using Erlanger Chart Room (www.erlangerchartrooom.com). We hope you enjoy. More... THURSDAY, August 27, 2009:Russell Cheapies And A New Buy What are the Russell Cheapies? These are stocks in the Russell 2000 that trade under $5. Some of these stock have provided fabulous returns since March. Why? Once they move above $5 then institutions can be buyers. A secret of Wall Street is that funds do not buy stocks under $5. Hedge funds do but the mutual funds are ruled by compliance and this is a strict rule at many firms. Therefore, if one can pick up a stock under $5 and it moves above $5 then the acceleration can be great. We have found such a stock and are recommending it this morning. More... WEDNESDAY, August 26, 2009:Weekly Playbook Is Updated Wednesday is the day we update our playbook which updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. More... TUESDAY, August 25, 2009:New Buy In The Model Portfolio This morning we will add a new buy to the Morning Matters Portfolio. There are now nine long positions with three positions in cash. Therefore, the portfolio is now 75% invested. More... MONDAY, August 24, 2009:Weekly Review:Last Week Was Strong The indexes were stronger this past week. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 293.06% from 272.18% while the S&P 500 is down -22.64%. The portfolio is 33% in cash. There are eight winners to no losers More... THURSDAY, August 20, 2009:Wednesday Playbook Is One Day Late Due To Travel Wednesday is the day we update our playbook which updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. However, we were traveling so the update this week is Thursday. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio. More... TUESDAY, August 18, 2009:Vacation Schedule Summer is fading and we are take some time off this week. This column and Market Matters will appear only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A similar production schedule will occur the week of August 31st. More... MONDAY, August 17, 2009:Weekly Review Of The Past Week And Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 272.18% from 284.93% while the S&P 500 is down -24.30%. The portfolio is 33% in cash. There are six winners to two losers. More... THURSDAY, August 13, 2009:Another Buy Idea in Our Morning Matters Portfolio A recent initial public offering (IPO) looks very interesting and we are going to add it to our portfolio. There could be big upside in this nutritional stock. More... WEDNESDAY, August 12, 2009:Weekly Playbook Update Wednesday is the day we update our playbook which updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio More... TUESDAY, August 11, 2009:Recent Video From Phil Erlanger What is a good system for trading a market exchange ETF? How about the SPY? Tracking the one month new highs and lows is a great way to trade SPY. My firm has such an indicator, the Mkt 1 Month HiLow. This line is then overlaid with a 50 day exponential moving average. More... MONDAY, August 10, 2009:Weekly Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 284.93% from 268.49% while the S&P 500 is down -23.82%. The portfolio is 42% in cash. There are six winners to one loser More... THURSDAY, August 6, 2009:New Buy Idea in The Morning Matters Portfolio This morning we are adding a new buy to our Morning Matters Portfolio. Started in April 2008 the portfolio is up 281% through yesterday. Since inception there have been 22 winners to 7 losers. Looks like this is a no brainer to be the 23rd winner. More... WEDNESDAY, August 5, 2009:Weekly Playbook Updated Wednesday is the day we update our playbook which updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called with either additions or deletions to our portfolio More... TUESDAY, August 4, 2009:No Commentary Today Due To Travel We will return with commentary tomorrow as we are traveling today. Stocks are lower in early morning futures. It is natural for the market to test 1000 on the S&P 500 and 2000 on the NASDAQ Composite. More... MONDAY, August 3, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 268.49% from 262.28% while the S&P 500 is down -25.55%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. There are six winners to no losers. July was higher and we now enter the slow summer trading month of August. The media is calling for a volatile month. We disagree and feel the strength continues. More... THURSDAY, July 30, 2009:A Tool To Trade Market Exchange Traded Funds (ETFS) Like SPY What is a good system for trading a market exchange ETF? How about the SPY? Tracking the one month new highs and lows is a great way to trade SPY. My firm has such an indicator, the Mkt 1 Month HiLow. This line is then overlaid with a 50 day exponential moving average. This morning Phil Erlanger weighs in with his latest video. More... WEDNESDAY, July 29, 2009:Market Playbook Updated We have not updated our playbook the past two weeks as we have been writing our series on MPT/PMPT/QPT. The playbook is back this week. The playbook updates the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called. More... TUESDAY, July 28, 2009:Applying Quantitative Portfolio Theory To The Current Market Last week we had moved our discussion of Quantitative Portfolio Theory (QPT) to reviewing BFG/The Madison Letter. Now we will apply this methodology to the current state of the equity market in the U.S. and the world. Many are calling for a pullback just as stocks have gotten moving after being stuck between and 875 and 950 on the S&P 500 from May through mid July. Does this make sense? More... MONDAY, July 27, 2009:Weekly Review and Portfolio Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 262.28% from 235.45% while the S&P 500 is down -26.17%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. There are six winners to no losers. The indexes were higher this past week. Releases of note this week other than the weekly oil/gas numbers include homes sales, consumer confidence, durable goods and Q2 GDP among others. More... FRIDAY, July 24, 2009:Part Two of Quantitative Portfolio Theory: Determining Outliers Technical analysis is key to Quantitative Portfolio Theory (QPT). QPT believes that technical analysis is more important than fundamental, economic or geopolitical analysis in determining where the price of a stock or asset is going to move over a short or long term period. To not spend time understanding technical analysis will prevent one from allocating assets correctly. What is technical analysis? It is the study of price and volume data to predict the future direction of how a security will move. If one turns a blind eye to technical analysis, they will find that the batting average of winners to losers will prevent them from achieving outsized gains in the volatile trading environment seen since 2005. More... THURSDAY, July 23, 2009:Part One of Quantitative Portfolio Theory Last week we reviewed Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and the recent perceived improvement to MPT called Post Modern Portfolio Theory (PMPT). This morning we begin to review our attempt at asset allocation and preservation of capital which we will call Quantitative Portfolio Theory. More... WEDNESDAY, July 22, 2009:Market Playbook Updated Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called. More... MONDAY, July 20, 2009:Weekly Update Since we began our portfolio, it is up 235.45% from 201.72% while the S&P 500 is down -29.10%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. There are five winners to one loser. More... FRIDAY, July 17, 2009:No commentary today due to summer schedule As we noted at the beginning of summer, we will be sporadic in terms of our Friday writing. Normal commentary will return on Monday. There are no earnings misses this morning. Futures remain in a narrow range. Enjoy the weekend and let's hope for more strength next week. More... THURSDAY, July 16, 2009:Comparing and Contrasting MPT and PMPT In our past two morning commentaries, we have reviewed Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and Post Modern Portfolio Theory (PMPT). This morning we lay out the positives and negatives of each approach. The best characteristic of both MPT and PMPT is that they offer investors a systematic approach. This is much preferred to sticking your finger in the wind to figure out which way to invest. However, one approach could leave investors with a false sense of security and the other limits upside. More... WEDNESDAY, July 15, 2009:Asset Allocation Part 2: What is PMPT? Some have come to believe that MPT can be improved by using Post Modern Portfolio Theory (PMPT). Those that are using PMPT to enhance a portfolio believe that all that investors care about is their downside risk. Put another way, “I just gave you $10,000 and I can only lose $1,000.” All investors have a certain risk profile. Many know that a 30 year old has a greater risk tolerance than a 70 year old. More... TUESDAY, July 14, 2009:Lessons Found in MPT One of the most widely followed theories of investing is Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). Developed by Harry Markowitz,the theory holds that investors need to diversify their assets to avoid all going down at the same time. This theory has been blown out of the water in the past year as almost all assets classes moved lower. In 2008, stocks move lower in the U.S. Also, corporate bonds had a very difficult year. Foreign markets saw their markets crumble. Oil and commodities fell. Treasuries in 2008 were about the only asset class to survive. Meanwhile, the Treasury market has been wiped out in 2009 as yields have risen. More... MONDAY, July 13, 2009:The Week In Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 201.72% from 211.65% while the S&P 500 is down -33.72%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. There are two winners to four losers in open positions. More... FRIDAY, July 10, 2009:Why Relative Strength Against The S&P 500 Matters All portfolio managers are benchmarked against the S&P 500. They want to own stocks that outperform this index. Therefore, it makes sense to track when a stock is getting ready to outpeform the S&P 500. How do we do this? Simple. Use Erlanger Chart Room software to chart a stock's performance and how it is doing against the S&P 500. More... THURSDAY, July 9, 2009:Alcoa Beats As Earnings Season Begins and The Second Stimulus In our humble opinion, the buyside has again set the bar too low as many believe this will be a heinous reporting period. Last quarter, companies beat estimates by 18%. However, that is not going to take stocks higher alone. We also need to see jobs being created which brings us to our second issue this morning. The stimulus plan. The idea of a new stimulus plan is being floated... More... WEDNESDAY, July 8, 2009:Market Playbook Updated June was another positive month for the S&P 500 but a negative one for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The fourth positive month in a row for the S&P 500. As markets come out of a bottom, odds favored several more strong months. However, July has gotten off to a poor start. More... TUESDAY, July 7, 2009:Grumpy Old Men Why are the "grumpy old men" still being trotted out on television? These grumpy old men have gotten it so wrong the past two years they should be put out to pasture. Yet their white noise continues to make headlines. Why? More... MONDAY, July 6, 2009:Weekly Update Portfolio pulls backa bit with the weakness but remains in good shape. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 211.65% from 228.02% while the S&P 500 is down -32.42%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. There are four winners to two losers. More... THURSDAY, July 2, 2009:Big Jobs Number Due Out At 8:30 EDT. Excellent comments from Brian Wesury At 8:30 the monthly jobs numbers are due we will have some comments post the number. Expect a volatile trading session. On Monday, Brian wesbury wrote a great piece entitled, "Michael Jackson: A Lesson In Economics". Enjoy it is well done. More... WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2009:How Our Playbook Has Changed Week Over Week Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called More... TUESDAY, June 30, 2009:Pulling The Trigger This morning Phil Erlanger produced a nice video for his free service www.goodmorningwallst.com. Several times a week Phil releases videos on interesting topics. This morning's video is on "pulling the trigger". More... MONDAY, June 29, 2009:Weekly Review Of Morning Portfolio And Changes To Key Statistics Since we began our portfolio, it is up 228.02% from 242.83% while the S&P 500 is down -30.72%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. There are five winners to one loser. More... THURSDAY, June 25, 2009:Overall short interest for NYSE rose by 1.31% while NASDAQ rose by 0.74%. Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date June 15th and rose to 15,348,195,628 from 15,146,892,934 with an original release of 15,291,319,914 shares. The overall increase against the revised number is 201,302,694 shares or 1.31%. More... WEDNESDAY, June 24, 2009:The Playbook Updated Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called. More... TUESDAY, June 23, 2009:The Major Indexes Have Moved Almost Straight Up Since The March Lows. The recent pullback was a no brainer. The major indexes have moved almost straight up since the March lows. Along the way there have been five periods on the S&P 500 where two day or longer pullbacks materialized. The current selling began a week ago Monday on June 15th. More... MONDAY, June 22, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 242.83% from 227.81% while the S&P 500 is down -30.55%. The portfolio is 50% in cash. More... THURSDAY, June 18, 2009:Economic Numbers Show No Signs Of Inflation Our weekly review of economic numbers finds that both CPI and PPI show no signs of inflation. This is both a plus and minus. Why? Read on to find out... More... WEDNESDAY, June 17, 2009:The Playbook Updated Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called. More... TUESDAY, June 16, 2009:Sometimes stock prices are not influenced by earnings but geopolitical events First, Iran held elections and now the results are being called into question around the world. This is a problem because an unstable Iran creates the potential for conflict in the Middle East. More... MONDAY, June 15, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio in April of 2008, it is up 227.81 from 221.73% while the S&P 500 is down -28.66%. A recent big winner has been the XLF and we will close this trade out this morning on the open. So far the XLF has gained 87.54%. More... THURSDAY, June 11, 2009:Weekly Economic Update. The bottoming process continues. How do the economic numbers look a week later. Several new numbers are out that should be added to existing numbers discussed last week. There are no signs that the economy is experiencing futher deterioration. More... WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2009:Top Ten List Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called. More... TUESDAY, June 9, 2009:Treasuries and the Chryslet Bailout Two areas of concern are the state of the treasury market and the decision after the close by the Supreme Court to hear argument by three Indiana state pension funds and consumer groups. There is precedence that could stop this merger between Chrysler and Fiat and ultimately shutter Chrylser. More... MONDAY, June 8, 2009:Weekly Review And Update on Model Portfolio Since we began our portfolio in April of 2008, the portfolio is up 221.73% from 209.15% while the S&P 500 is down -29.13%. More... FRIDAY, June 5, 2009:Major Indexes Take Out 200 Day Moving Averages To The Upside This week several indexes have taken out their 200 day moving averages to the upside. The $64,000 question is will they hold? Several also have seen their 50 and 200 day moving averages cross to the upside. These are very powerful charts. This will be monitored closely. More... THURSDAY, June 4, 2009:Weekly Update On Economic Numbers. Improvement continues How do the economic numbers look a week later. Several new numbers are out that should be added to existing numbers discussed last week. More... WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2009:Weekly Playbook Updated Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up. As these issues evolve each week, then audibles may need to be called. More... TUESDAY, June 2, 2009:Latest Comments From Phil Erlanger's Monthly Newsletter At the end of each month, Phil Erlanger of www.erlangersqueezeplay.com weighs in on the latest developments. This month's newsletter is a must read. Several of his themes are reviewed here and for a full review one should go to More... MONDAY, June 1, 2009:Weekly Review The market was higher this past week. Below is a summary of open and closed positions. The first month of 2009 is now on the books and will go down as the worst January in 113 years. February was the third worst February on record. March and April were among the strongest months on record. May put in a third positive month in a row. We now enter the seasonally tough period of June through October. More... FRIDAY, May 29, 2009:Update on Economic Numbers How do the economic numbers look a week after we first reviewed the state of the economy. Several new numbers are out that should be added to existing numbers discussed last week. More... THURSDAY, May 28, 2009:Latest Short Interest Numbers Are Released Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date May 15th and fell to 15,146,124,765 from 15,173,139,551 (revised) with an original release of 15,170,198,654 shares. The overall decrease against the revised number is 27,014,786 shares or -0.18%. More... WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2009:Weekly Playbook Updated Each week we update the top ten events/issues mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead that could trip up the market or cause a melt up More... TUESDAY, May 26, 2009:Weekly Review With Cash Still High at 42% Since we began our portfolio, it is up 185.03% while the S&P 500 is down -33.13%. More... THURSDAY, May 21, 2009:Staying above 8500 is proving to be a tough level I am a fan of paying attention to major levels on indexes like 8000 9000 10000 for the Dow Jones as well as 8500 9500 and 10500. The media ALWAYS comments on these numbers when the are taken out to the up or downside. Since May 1st, 8500 has been crossed ... More... WEDNESDAY, May 20, 2009:Semiconductors appear to have ended their correction Each week we update the top ten events mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead. More... TUESDAY, May 19, 2009:The Recession Is Over Expansion. Peak. Recession. Trough. Expansion. Peak. Recession. Trough. So goes the business cycle. A battle is brewing between the bulls and the bears over the status of the economy. Who is right? More... MONDAY, May 18, 2009:Weekly Update A light week is ahead for earnings and economic data. However, there are several conferences of note this week. Expect data points out of conferences to dominate the air waves. More... FRIDAY, May 15, 2009:Key Levels The S&P 500 is struggling to move back above 900. Meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average has moved back below 8500. Next the NASDAQ Composite has failed to hold 1700. More... THURSDAY, May 14, 2009:Where retail sales that bad? One of the great lies today was that the retail sales were bad. From the likes of CNBC and other media outlets they proclaimed the data to be bad. Run for cover as Round 6 of selling is about to start. More... WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2009:Top Ten List: A Midweek Review Of What is Moving Or Can Move The Market Each week we update the top ten events mid week impacting the market. This mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead More... TUESDAY, May 12, 2009:Latest Short Numbers Released Short interest for the NYSE and NASDAQ was released after Monday's trading session. The shorts continue to run for the hills as the pain is too great... More... MONDAY, May 11, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 204.70% from 164.77% last week while the S&P 500 is down -29.94%. Our buy on the XLF is now up 95.50%. A stop of $12 will be put in place. The XLF closed today at $13.02 and was opened at $6.66. More... FRIDAY, May 8, 2009:Initial Reaction To Bank Stress Test Is Positive. Will it hold? The deadline to release the results of the Bank Stress Test has come and gone. Initially, most of these banks even those that need capital are being bid higher. Take Bank of America (BAC) the stock is now over $15 and closed at $13.51. What does this reaction mean for investors and the future of the market? More... THURSDAY, May 7, 2009:To Twit Or Not To Twit That Is The Question? My answer is to twit. Out of the blue comes Twitter to join Facebook as one of the most popular websites. Twitter is a website dedicated to messages that cannot exceed 150 characters. This is the ultimate in KISS (Kept it Simple Stupid). More... WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2009:Top Ten List: The Play Book for what matters right now Last week we listed the top ten events for Wednesday. A mid week review of what matters helps keep one grounded to what is important to focus on ahead. More... TUESDAY, May 5, 2009:Erlanger's Latest Monthly Piece is Out The Door The market’s strength has emboldened the bulls, but have the technicals sounded the “All Clear?” Phil Erlanger answers this in his latest montly. Partial comments can be found here for your review. For a full read, one should go to www.erlangersqueezeplay.com. More... MONDAY, May 4, 2009:Another Strong Week For Stocks Since we began our portfolio, it is up 164.77% as of last week while the S&P 500 is down -33.84%. The market was higher this past week. More... FRIDAY, May 1, 2009:Irrational Exuberance or recovery underway? One of our friends asked yesterday the question, "Is the current rally irrational exuberance or the real thing(i.e. economic recovery)." Upon further reflection, the answer seems pretty easy with the data in front of the market. The answer is the real thing. More... THURSDAY, April 30, 2009:How did our top ten events play out? The net results is very few negatives and the S&P 500 advanced by 2.16%. The S&P 500 still needs to move above the April high of 875.63. The press conference went well tonight with President Obama continuing to impress. The run should continue as Asian stocks are up in early action. If the S&P 500 can move above this level, then we will add the More... WEDNESDAY, April 29, 2009:Big Day Ahead For Stocks What is on our top ten list of important events for Wednesday? Each day we keep a game plan of what to focus on for the day ahead. More... TUESDAY, April 28, 2009:Weekly Review Since we began our portfolio, it is up 166.60% from 171.31% last week while the S&P 500 is down -35.35%. Cash remains at 67%. The market was lower this past week for the first time in seven weeks. More... MONDAY, April 27, 2009:Deviating From Our Normal Monday Review This morning we have commentary from Fari Hamzei of Hamzei Analytics. Fari has provided commentary to us in the past. This morning he has updated his latest commentary and notes... More... FRIDAY, April 24, 2009:The TLT is worth paying attention to here. The big rise in the TLT coincided with a nice pop in stocks at the November low through December. Markets love interest rates dropping becasue the cost of capital falls as well. Watch the TLT closely for signs of further equity strength. More... THURSDAY, April 23, 2009:What Choppiness On The Dow Jones Industrial Average is Telling Us A very cool indicator in Erlanger Chart Room is Choppiness. This indicator alerts one to when a new trend is getting ready to begin or the current trend reaches exhaustion. “ Choppiness” is a modern indicator based on ideas of chaos theory and fractal geometry. E. W. Dreiss, a trader based in Australia, came up with the creative idea of using fractal geometry as a way to measure price movement in a security. He cleverly assigned a "dimension" to a price movement chart. More... WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2009:Due to travel no commentary for Wednesday Commentary will resume on Thursday morning as I will be traveling in the early morning. More... TUESDAY, April 21, 2009:What no one will admit about Monday's rout What caused the selling Monday? Some or most media pundits said Bank of America's (BAC) earnings. This is rubbish. Why? More... MONDAY, April 20, 2009:
Since we began our portfolio, it is up 171.31% while the S&P 500 is down -34.44%. The market was higher again this past week for the sixth week in a row. It was the seventh positive week of the year. Below is a summary of open and closed positions. The first month of 2009 is now on the books and will go down as the worst January in 113 years. February was the third worst February on record. March was one of the strongest months on record. April has been positive so far. There are two weeks left More... THURSDAY, April 16, 2009:Our take on earnings season one week in Earnings season began over a week ago. What is our take so far? Amazingly, the market has been able to hold its gains so far. The ability to come through earnings season with no significant hit to the current rally would be a very bullish sign. Such a result would show that investors are looking out into the future with a positive outlook. More... WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2009:Is the recent rally stalling? So is the recent move over? Over the past six sessions there have been only two that were positive. There is an indicator that we follow developed by Phil Erlanger called the ENS. This indicator attempts to capture when the meat of the move is underway to the upside or downside. So were is the S&P 500 this morning? More... TUESDAY, April 14, 2009:Latest Short Interest Numbers Released Show Covering The fuel to take the market higher saw a decrease over the weekend. The latest short interest number saw a decrease as shorts ran for the hills. No wonder as stocks had a tremedous month in March. This morning Phil Erlanger notes... More... MONDAY, April 13, 2009:Weekly Review and Portfolio Update There are now 8 positions in cash and 4 positions invested. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 163.56% while the S&P 500 is down -35.42%. More... THURSDAY, April 9, 2009:What are earnings going to be for the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 2009/2010? The bears argue that the Dow Jones Industrial Average needs to drop to 6000 because earnings for 2009 are going to continue to fall. Do we buy into this argument? Not for one second. Why? More... WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2009:Retracements Point To More Weakness One of my favorite tools is the retracement lines. The Fibonacci Retracement lines help us determine how much of a pullback is likely to occur after a run to the upside or how much of a bounce should take place after a sell off. CLearly, the markets have three distinct moves since November. More... TUESDAY, April 7, 2009:Is the rally over? This morning we delve into the issue on everyone's mind. "Is the rally over?" The answer is maybe. The reasons for the rally to end are numerous as are the reasons for it to continue. Now we need to see how the chairs are rearranged. More... MONDAY, April 6, 2009:
There are now 8 positions in cash and 4 positions invested. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 148.58% while the S&P 500 is down -36.48%. Genentech is now closed as it no longer trades given it was purchased by Hoffman. Also, LQD was added as a buy last week. More... FRIDAY, April 3, 2009:As bonds go, so goes the market As bonds goes, so goes the stock market. The bond market will confirm the rebound in equities. Cash is king in the bond market as cash is used to pay coupons on bonds. If the coupon is questioned, then bonds fall in value. Of late there has been a great deal of weakness. However, improvement is now starting to be seen in a variety Erlanger charts. More... THURSDAY, April 2, 2009:Prioratizing the Day Each day we review what could impact markets. Ussually this is done through our morning matters. However, due to an early flight we are going to highlight our top seven list for today. More... WEDNESDAY, April 1, 2009:Comments from Rusty Robinson of Robinson Investment Group "The American Dream. Housing prices should stabilize the second half of 2009. Record low mortgage rates already have led to an improvement in existing home sales. Stemming the tide of foreclosures remains the goal of the government bailout efforts. Only time will tell if this is the right approach. We still believe the Federal Reserve must set-up a bank that takes on the bad loans similar to the Resolution Trust Company in 1990. Once this aggregator is in place, the banks can delineate the good loans from the bad loans and unfreeze their capital." More... TUESDAY, March 31, 2009:Bonds struggle The corporate bond ETFs are struggling big time. These ETFs are grouped into several categories. First there is the iShares High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG). Second there is the iShares Corporate Bond Trust (CFT) and iShares Investment Grade Bond (LQD). Third we have the iShares Preferred Trust (PFF). More... MONDAY, March 30, 2009:Even though defensive, portfolio cranking away. There are now 8 positions in cash and 4 positions invested. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 142.10% while the S&P 500 is down -38.49%. More... FRIDAY, March 27, 2009:When the unexpected happens So the S&P 500 has now gone from a low of 666.79 to 832.86 for a move of 166.07 or 24.91%. Still year to date the S&P 500 is down -7.79% as it started the year at 903.25 and peaked at 943.85. How much more upside is there or could there be? Well if you were a reader of Phil Erlanger's work then you would know that... More... THURSDAY, March 26, 2009:Latest Short Numbers Releases Yesterday Short interest rose 10.75% from the last short interest report on the NYSE. The NYSE revised the prior report of total short interest, which now shows that short interest in the prior report rose 2.96% versus a jump of 3.07% the NYSE reported at the time. Short interest on the NASDAQ rose 4.43% from the last short interest report. More... WEDNESDAY, March 25, 2009:Today we present a bearish scenario as we move forward Stocks pulled back on Tuesday as the bickering out of Washington D.C. over AIG(which really stands for And It's Gone as in the company, money from D.C. etc...)bonuses. Shameful. A lack of leadership caused stocks to pull back. There is no finger pointing here as the lack of leadership exists on a executive, legislative and corporate level. Still stocks are much higher than they were last week. Will they hold? More... TUESDAY, March 24, 2009:Back above the November lows on the Dow Jones Industrial Average what does it mean? Our friend and fellow researcher Fari Hamzei put out an interesting note earlier today that we would like to share with our readers this morning: "Historically, a major bank bailout by Government is very bullish for the stock market 6 to 12 months hence." More... MONDAY, March 23, 2009:Weekly Review: Cash to 67% from 50%. Weakness ahead? There are now 8 positions in cash and 4 positions invested. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 122.48% while the S&P 500 is down -42.06% More... THURSDAY, March 19, 2009:Why 7552.29 is a key level 7552.29 is a VERY key level for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. All other indexes are above their November 20th end of day close EXCEPT for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That level is 7552.29. If the Dow cannot climb above this level, then this More... WEDNESDAY, March 18, 2009:Buy when you want to buy... We live by an expression one of my dearest friends taught me buy when you want to buy not when you have to buy More... TUESDAY, March 17, 2009:Where do we go from here? To the casual observer, Monday's action was not a big deal. However, it could be a big deal for several reasons and must be watched closely. Why? More... MONDAY, March 16, 2009:Weekly Review Plus Summary Of Bernanke's Comments on 60 Minutes There are now 6 positions in cash and 6 positions invested. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 121.78% while the S&P 500 is down -42.96%. More... FRIDAY, March 13, 2009:Jon Stewart 100 Jim Cramer 0 For those that do not watch Jon Stewart, I suggest that you watch the interview he did with Jim Cramer last night. A feud has been evolving between these two ever since Stewart took CNBC and Cramer to task for what we call "shoddy research". The original clip can be found at the More... THURSDAY, March 12, 2009:Update to portfolio changes and Phil Erlanger comments on the latest short interest numbers Phil Erlanger noted, "Short selling intensity rose for 23 (96%) of 24 sectors. The largest jumps in short selling intensity included insurance, telecommunication services, retailing, automobiles, materials, semiconductors, transportation, consumer services, software, pharmaceuticals and health care equipment. Short selling intensity fell for household and personal products." More... TUESDAY, March 10, 2009:
A couple housekeeping items tonight. First, we are going to cover our short position in the Regional Bank HOLDRS (RKH) on the open. This position was established at $98.25 and today closed at $33.69 for a gain of $64.56 or 65.71%. Later this week the House Financial Services Committee will hear testimony on charges to liberalize mark to market accounting. This will spur a ... More... MONDAY, March 9, 2009:Weekly Update Each Monday morning we update our Model Portfolio and provide a structured review of the week ahead and what happened to markets in the past week. The market was lower again for the past week. To date in 2009, there has been only one positive week. Pretty tough year so far. More... FRIDAY, March 6, 2009:Retracment Levels On the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 400 are close to being taken out The November to January period see the Dow Jones and S&P 500 having broken all retracments. The S&P 500 needs to gete back above 741.02 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 7392.41. A plus is the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 400 are above their 100% retracement levels from the November lows to the January highs. However, these levels are ... More... THURSDAY, March 5, 2009:It's the bond market stupid and powerful bastards If President Obama and Larry Summers begin to talk about restoring the bond market then one can breathe a little easier. Until then, we are in trouble, James Carville noted, "Every time I would talk to someone, they would say, ‘You can’t do that, it will freak the bond market out.’ I said, ‘Goddamn, whoever the bond market is, these bastards are powerful More... WEDNESDAY, March 4, 2009:What we learned from Warren Buffet's letter over the weekend This past weekend Warren Buffet released his annual letter. Many consider this to be a must read each year. After all, he is not named "The Oracle of Omaha" for nothing. This year is different. Why? More... TUESDAY, March 3, 2009:Q: Why is the market is crashing? A: We are living in an Obamanation First, we usually leave politics out of our column. However, this morning analysis of the political spectrum is necessary because President's Obama agenda is causing the market to crash day by day. How do we know this? More... MONDAY, March 2, 2009:February goes down as the third worst February on record. More to follow? The first month of 2009 is now on the books and will go down as the worst January in 113 years. February was the third worst February on record. There are now 6 positions in cash and 6 positions invested. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 82.63% while the S&P 500 is down -44.58%. More... THURSDAY, February 26, 2009:Latest Short Interest Numbers are Out In the latest reporting period, short interest rose on the NYSE by 2.79% and NASDAQ short interest fell by -0.98%. Short interest provides a look into how professional investors are betting for or against stocks. Situations where the shorts bet against a stock are called short squeezes. We like to buy these names. Stocks that have low short interest and are moving lower are called long squeezes. These are to be avoided or shorted. More... WEDNESDAY, February 25, 2009:Rally and Fail? Or rally and follow through to the upside? The reaction to last night's speech by President Obama will be key to watch today. Follow through to yesterday's rally will be very telling as to whether the market has turned a corner or the pattern of rally then fail remains the norm. More... TUESDAY, February 24, 2009:Watch to see if the S&P 500 can hold 741.02 The selling continues unabated. Some thoughts here on the ugliness this past week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is below is November 20th end of day low and November 21st intraday low. The S&P 500 is below its November 20 end of day low but still above its November 21st low at 741.02. More... MONDAY, February 23, 2009:Weekly Review There are now 6 positions in cash and 6 positions invested. In the past week, the short in EEM was covered and a buy in IBB was initiated. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 103.65% while the S&P 500 is down -41.94%. More... FRIDAY, February 20, 2009:What The A/D Line is Telling Us? This has been an ugly week. Thankfully, there were only four trading days this past week. One more to go. Stocks continue to move lower as buyers refuse to step in and bid stocks higher. Each day we review the Advance/Decline Line. The past four days have been awful for the Advance/Decline Line. More... THURSDAY, February 19, 2009:7552.29 What does this number 7552.29 mean? More... WEDNESDAY, February 18, 2009:Weekly Review Update This Morning There are now 6 positions in cash and 6 positions invested. In the past week, the short in EEM was covered and a buy in IBB was initiated. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 111.23% while the S&P 500 is down -40.50% More... FRIDAY, February 13, 2009:Was a bottom put in yesterday? Welcome to Friday the 13th! Coupled with a full moon today should be an interesting day. Yesterday was a classic turnaround day. Stocks were on their lows of the day at 3:00 and then a very strong rally off the lows. The S&P 500 was under 810 and finished the day at 835.17. More... WEDNESDAY, February 11, 2009:Brothers Gonna Work It Out After stumbling, bubbling and fumbling their way through the financial crisis since last year, the market said enough. Brothers Bernanke,Geithner,Summers, Biden, Obama, Reid, Pelosi and others need to end the bickering and work it out. Failure to do so will continue to send markets lower. Caveat Emptor. More... TUESDAY, February 10, 2009:Waiting For Godot The major indexes barely budged all day long. The summary of today's action backs this up. Nothing is going to happen until the Stimulus and Bailout Bank Plans to reach resolution. There is not much need for in depth analysis until there is some resolution with these plans. More... MONDAY, February 9, 2009:Changes to the Model Portfolio. Covered EEM. Bought IBB. There are now 6 positions in cash and 6 positions invested. In the past week, the short in EEM was covered and a buy in IBB was initiated. Since we began our portfolio, it is up 118.81% while the S&P 500 is down -34.44%. More... FRIDAY, February 6, 2009:Retail Sales, IBB, EEM, Jobs Numbers and Bailouts Some resolution on the bailout is due Monday and the rumor making the rounds is that mark to market will be suspended allowing the banks to not have to write off as much as they have been in 2008. This is just a rumor but clearly a trial ballon that is being laumched. More... THURSDAY, February 5, 2009:January Same Store Sales Due Out Markets will turn attention to same store sales. Same store sales compare the sales of the current month against last year's month. Therefore, tomorrow we get January 2009 same store sales against those stores open in January 2008. More... WEDNESDAY, February 4, 2009:A Biotech Revolution Ahead? One big positive for the markets could be more dollars to scientific research. This column tries to remain apolitical but certain facts need to be pointed out when those facts will impact stock prices. President Bush fought stem cell research due to his religious beliefs. The new administration will open up stem cell research and other forms of scientific research. Why mention this today? More... TUESDAY, February 3, 2009:How can it get any worse? FUBAR and Phil's latest commnetary This morning we heard a guest on CNBC state, "How can it get any worse?" If you thought that last fall, then you were disappointed in January. The current situation is nothing short of a great military term FUBAR. The only good news is with such disarray there is room for improvement. More... MONDAY, February 2, 2009:The Weekly Review Of Our Portfolio and What Liew Beneath The Headlines The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now in a range of 8,500 to 8,000. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is now between 850-800. Choppiness scores on the major indexes move into the mid 50s to low 60s. Downward action has taken hold. More... FRIDAY, January 30, 2009:Q4 GDP is due out at 8:30 EST. A potential D Day for the markets. D Day for the markets. At 8:30 Q4 GDP is due out. GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product. GDP measures national income and input for a country. The most used way to track GDP is called the expenditure method. More... THURSDAY, January 29, 2009:Pay attention to how stocks react to the news rather than the news itself An old Wall Street saying is, "Pay attention to how stocks react to news, rather than the news itself." Lately, there is lots of bad news. Each day the market is greeted with more job cuts. Earnings are being missed left and right. More... WEDNESDAY, January 28, 2009:Futures, FOMC and New Short Interest Reviewed This Morning The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) finishing there meeting today and rates are expected to stay where they are. I note that a big ramp in futures heading into a FOMC meeting is never a plus. A case of buy the rumor and sell the news? More... TUESDAY, January 27, 2009:The Big Story Cash on The Sidelines Equlas 80% of the value of the U.S. Stock Market This is the last week of the month. A rebound is needed to calm the fears of investors. Cash on the sidelines equals about 80% of the value of the U.S. stock market. We are not counting the cash that has been buried in the backyard by countless investors. More... MONDAY, January 26, 2009:The Latest Weekly Review Understanding where major asset classes is key to understandng the playing field... More... FRIDAY, January 23, 2009:Why the Advance/Decline Line matters key indicator to pay attention to is the advance decline line. This tells us how many stocks are higher and lower each day. Over the past ten days, there have been 5 winnning days and 5 losing days. A stalemate. Expect to see ... More... THURSDAY, January 22, 2009:Retracement and Moving Averages Stocks rebounded and none too soon. Many investors watching the retracement levels from the November low to the January highs. Last week the 38.2%, 50% and this week the 61.80% retracement levels were violated. More... WEDNESDAY, January 21, 2009:Looking to lock in gains on RKH Short Soon When I took over writing the Morning Matter's Column last April, it was decided that a portfolio needed to be constructed to track our recommendations and thoughts. Talk about a tough period to recommend stocks. So how are we doing nine months into the process? More... MONDAY, January 19, 2009:Commentary on the latest short interest numbers from Phil Erlanger [Published 01/15/2009] Short interest fell -2.19% from the last short interest report on the NYSE. The NYSE revised the last report of total short interest, which now shows that short interest in the previous report fell -3.99% versus a decline of -3.20% the NYSE reported at the time. Short interest on the NASDAQ fell -5.19% from the last short interest report. More... |
FREE SERVICESMorning BriefingGet the information you need to make profitable decisions first thing in the morning. Access to the information is FREE, not knowing it could cost you a bundle! SUBSCRIBER SERVICESSuperstock Investor NewsletterPublished once a month. Get the big picture, what happened last month and predictions for the month ahead. Investors EdgeTake advantage of the knowledge provided by people who live to monitor the Stock Market. People like:
Get access to information from publications like:
*** Not a Subscriber?
![[Superstock Investor Newsletter]](http://www.superstockinvestor.com/ssi/images/ssi-issue-screenshot.gif) Superstock Investor's goal is to provide subscribers a steady stream of original stock ideas with an emphasis on takeover candidates. These are companies that have flown onto our radar screens as potential takeover targets, or special situations with some catalyst promising to send their shares soaring. Continue.. |