Should You Own ETFs In A "Stock Pickers Market"

Most Wall Street participants believe 2019 will be a “stock pickers” year; So how will that affect Exchange Traded Fund investors?

Well first off, what is a “Stock Pickers” market or year? That is a market in which to make a decent return; investors will need to pick individual stocks, not just buy the market as a whole or an index such as the S&P 500 or Dow Jones. At this point, most Wall Street analysts believe the major market indexes will end the higher just slightly higher. In mid-February, Goldman Sachs analyst posted a note indicating they think the S&P 500 will only climb to 3,000 by the end of the year, but the next few months could be flat.

Vanguard went a little further and said it believes the market will only return roughly 5% median annualized return over the next 10 years. Vanguard’s opinion paints an even worse picture than Goldman’s and hints at the idea that investors will need to be “stock pickers” for the next decade if they want to see returns greater than 5% annualized.

So, the experts are telling us that investors need to cherry pick individual stocks if they want to make a real-return greater than a few percent over the next year or maybe more. But what if they don’t know how to find and pick market-beating stocks, they need not worry because that is why actively managed ETFs where created. Continue reading "Should You Own ETFs In A "Stock Pickers Market""

Copper Triggered A Short Entry

So, dear traders, our patience was finally rewarded last week. Copper has provided us an even better opportunity as the price climbed higher to make a deeper retracement and the distance of the drop is now even greater. We started from the $2.75 level, then we moved higher to $2.885, but none of them were activated.

I spotted the famous reversal pattern on the chart, which adds to my structure analysis and I will show it in the chart below.

Let’s go through the trade setup steps again as the entry signal was triggered.

Step 1. Chart Analysis and Step 2. Trading Idea

These steps can be skipped as we already know what we are looking for.

Step 3. Trade Setup

We should prepare a Sell Setup to enter the trade using specific entry, stop and take profit levels. These are the things that make a trade. If you don’t have all three levels in your mind, you better avoid trading as it would become mere gambling. Continue reading "Copper Triggered A Short Entry"

Saudi Arabia's "Mini Oil Embargo" May Backfire

On October 20, 1973, Saudi King Faisal announced KSA was joining in an oil embargo against the United States and Europe in favor of the Arab position in the Yom Kippur War. In an interview with international media, King Faisal said:

“America's complete Israeli support against the Arabs makes it extremely difficult for us to continue to supply the United States with oil, or even remain friends with the United States."

The price of oil quadrupled in short order, a few months. The oil shortage in America was managed by gasoline rationing by President Nixon. Drivers could buy gasoline on “odd” or “even” days, depending on the last digit of their license plate. There was also a maximum dollar amount set on purchases of $10. Motorists often had to wait in line for an hour to buy gas.

The economic impact on the U.S. and the world economy was devasting. It caused a massive recession in 1974-75, even though the embargo was lifted in March 1974. The Saudis and other OPEC producers learned how “inelastic” (i.e., non-responsive to price) gasoline demand was and their ability to stuff their coffers even with small cuts to production. Continue reading "Saudi Arabia's "Mini Oil Embargo" May Backfire"

Copper Update: This Is How I Would Trade This Sell Setup

Two weeks ago I put the spotlight on copper as I found there was a nice trading opportunity in the making. The trigger for the short trade was set at the $2.75 (below minor low) to avoid emotional trading or simple guessing, and it paid well as the price dipped from the $2.84 area and stopped 2/10 of the cent above the preset trigger. Then the price reversed much higher as I expected as it should retest the former top of $2.87 before it finally goes down.

We call it a trade setup. Before that, we had an idea, which was based on some kind of analysis. So, converting good ideas into profitable trades makes us better traders. Add patience, discipline and some sort of trading strategy to get consistent profits. Otherwise, a good idea could remain to be just a good idea without pleasant outcomes for us.

Let me show you in this post how I would trade this copper idea on the short side step by step.

Step 1. Chart Analysis: Copper Futures Daily,

Copper
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com
Continue reading "Copper Update: This Is How I Would Trade This Sell Setup"