Understanding Momentum

Listen to MP3 and Follow Along in PDF Workbook as Gary Smith Discusses Momentum


Seminar Topic: Gary's presentation details his favorite momentum patterns from past actual trades, V-bottom upside reversals, late day upside price surges, extreme momentum days, Friday-To-Monday momentum and momentum break patterns, 1% true selling days and (his favorite), divergence patterns in the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 2000.

He also shows you how he uses various sentiment indicators to determine how aggressively to trade these patterns. He discusses the mental and financial realities of trading for a living. Lastly, he details some of the tape reading techniques he uses for intraday trading and how he believes that the real money in trading comes from the trends that extend beyond intraday. Although this session is older, the techniques can still be applied to current practices.

 

    Covers:

  • Technical Indicators
  • Pure Price Action
  • Momentum Patterns
  • Trading Weapons
  • Mutual Fund Trading Strategies
  • Trading Stock Index Futures
  • Realizing a Realistic Return                     

 

Gary Smith is a trading maverick who, in his thirty-three year trading career, has learned to shun much of conventional trading analysis, including chart analysis, oscillators, moving averages, waves, cycles, and even computers, as pure fiction. He trades in reaction to market changes as they occur, not after the fact when they can be measured by traditional analytical tools.

                                                                           PDF Work Book (Follow Along with MP3)
                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                 Listen to Seminar w/ Smith

        Enjoy,


  

There's an old adage on Wall Street that goes something like this ...

Date: June 25, 2007.

From: MarketClub Headquarters

Subject: Apple's new iPhone

Dear reader,

There's an old adage on Wall Street that goes something like this, to make money in the market you "buy the rumor and sell on the news".

What this adage reminds me of is the upcoming launch of Apple's iPhone.

Let me be right up front with you. I am a huge fan of Apple (not just a computer company anymore). I have been using Apple computers since 1982. Hey, that's 25 years I have been buying Apples and tapping away at their keyboards.

How time flies.

OK, enough with the sentimental stuff... so here we are just days and hours away from what everyone at Apple would like us to believe is the product launch of the century.

The iPhone

Is Apple going to sell 10 million iPhones in 12 months?

Is all the hype already built into the stock price?

If Apple fails to sell 10 million iPhones, is that a huge failure in the eyes of the market?

But hey, let's be fair, the phone is cool, way cool. So what if the cost is $499 or $599 ... Apple has reached icon status like few other companies in the world It's not the money, it's the status and the cool factor of owning an iPhone that matters most to users, Forget the fact that they just paid an arm and a leg for a communication and entertainment device.

But, there's more, or a Steve Jobs would say ... "Oh, And There's Just One More Thing".

Well Steve Jobs is more than a comeback kid. Here's a guy who in his early 50's (he was born on the 24th of February 1955) who has to be the coolest guy on the planet, after all it was Steve who saved Apple from extinction

It was Steve who along with his brilliant British designer Jonathan Ive created the #1 icon of a generation, the iPod. Here they are coming at us again, with something we have, don't need ... but gotta have ... the iPhone.


But not so fast, Apple stock has been on a tear, and lots of investors are betting the iPhone is going to be a huge success ... how huge? That's what the market is going to tell us on Monday when Apple stock opens up to trade after its rock star debut this weekend.

But nothing goes up forever, and that's what got me thinking about that old Wall Street adage "Buy the rumor sell on the News".

Now, I am not saying that you do just that, buy the rumor and sell on the news. What I am saying is that come this weekend, the iPhone goes on sale at 6.p.m. Friday across the country. The speculation on Monday is going to go something like the first weekend of a major new movie release. You know, you've probably heard it every weekend ... box office receipts were x millions of dollars, but analysts expected a bigger opening and were disappointed with ticket sales. Or it could go something like this, record opening for iPhone, Apple scores a slam dunk with long lines of iphoneiacs (this is a name I coined for people who have gotta be the first to have an iPhone) waiting outside all AT&T stores nationwide.

We will see.

The Chinese have a saying/curse, "... may you live in interesting times." Well, if your Apple or AT&T I guess these are very interesting times.

The key to Apples fortune with the iPhone is to watch the market action on Monday and Tuesday. This action will tell the true story of were the iPhone is going to lead Apples stock price.

Come Monday, professional traders are going to judge how much of the iPhone hype is already built into the market and what is the upside potential for this stock. It's all based on perception.

Big weekend, but not big enough. Small weekend but lot's of interest in buying the phone later. It's all perception.

But, as Steve Jobs would say, "Oh, And There's Just One More Thing". That one more thing is MarketClub's "Trade Triangle" approach. The chart clearly shows on September 5, 2006, MarketClub dynamically flashed a buy signal at $70 a share.



The question is when does MarketClub get out? The only way to answer that question is to watch this video.

One last thought.

I can't help thinking that Bill Gates is out there somewhere thinking to himself "I should have killed Apple years ago." and "Why can't I be cool like Steve".

Old rivalries never end, they just get more interesting.

That's all for today.

Don't forget to tune into the Apple stock show this coming Monday on the NASDAQ, it ought to be interesting.

Every success trading Apple.

Maybe hedge funds are too smart for their own good.

There used to be a time when investing was simple.

You know what I mean, you buy at 10 and sell at 15 and make 50% on your money. I can understand that, and so can most investors.

I have to admit that some of these off book derivatives that banks and hedge funds are creating and trading are just not that simple to understand.

When the time comes, and it will, you will see, the you know what, hit the fan. Some of these hedge fund managers will see that a lot of stuff that looked good in computer simulations may not look or work as well in the real world (see the sub prime melt down).

Just look at what happened to this hedge fund, Amarath Advisors who lost 6 BILLION and how they thought they where smarter that the markets.

And now the Blackstone Group has gone public with great fanfare. Now that's going to be an interesting one to watch. I am going to be watching this one closely, if it drops below its initial public offering at price of $31.00 it could spell problems for the whole market. If this stock trades below 30 you are going to see a lot of press and finger pointing and speculating that we are seeing a top in the markets.

The only way to consistently be successful in the market is to learn how the market works, have a game plan and have two other key elements necessary for success.

Here they are:

* Discipline

* Diversification

Once you understand how the markets work, have a game plan, and master discipline and diversification, you are on your way to success.

Every success in the future,

Some Sunday morning thoughts on the market ...

Well here it is Sunday morning and I am thinking about the market. That's not so unusual, as I think about the market everyday.

But what I am thinking about this particular Sunday morning is the market action last week. The negative action has to have been disappointing to the bulls.

Let's examine some of the facts of what traders are looking at and what has them worried.

Interest rates: Last week the 10 year Note inched higher yet again and interest rates closed higher for the week. The upward trend in interest rates remains positive, this is not a good sign for the stock market.

Crude Oil: Forget the Middle East that's a disaster already. If that was not enough you have Nigeria which is not exactly going along with anyones game plan. Bottom line, oil closed higher on the week. I would not be surprised to see oil trading over seventy dollars a barrel on Monday or Tuesday of the new trading week. This is not a good sign for the stock market. Higher fuel costs, translate into higher food cost, which translates into higher inflation, which means higher interest rates. These are not good signs for the stock market.

OK, let's sum this all up by looking at the market itself. As I have said before, listen to the market as it tells you what it wants to do. Last week the Blackstone Group went public. This to me was a pretty bearish sign. Here you have some of the smartest guys on the planet selling their assets to the public. Think about it for a second, would you if you are making all this money in all these private deals cut the public in for a share of the pie???

My guess is, if the principals of Blackstone are still around in a few years they will take Blackstone private again with a stock buy back.

Just a thought.

Back to the market. Three weeks ago MarketClub flashed a "Trade Triangle" exit signal on the Dow. The same exit signal held true for the S&P. The lone exception was NASDAQ which managed to inch to new highs last week.

For the record, the major trend for all the indexes remains positive according to the MarketClub formula.

The bulls argue that there's lot's of liquidity and that stocks are cheap relative to whatever metric du jour they are using to measure stock values.

I say watch the market and not the words of the talking media heads. Always remember market action trumps market talk every time.

Here's what I expect will happen. Look for and expect more volatility in the markets. The easy money has been made. Look for money to become more expensive to borrow as rates climb higher. The wild card has to be oil. Under seventy dollars is under the radar for most market mavens and media pundits. Over seventy dollars and it's a whole new ball game.

So there we have it, the Ying and Yang of the market. Are we seeing a top in the global stock markets or is this the pause that refreshes.

For me, I am going to watch the market action and MarketClub's "Trade Triangles" as I know they offer the most subjective view of what the future holds.

Anyway, that just some of the things I am thinking about this Sunday morning. Have a great week in the market and remember there is usually a bull market somewhere in the investment world and MarketClub can help you find it.

Cheers,


Do You Know The INTRINSIC Value of Your Stocks?

I was searching around the net for a morning read and a ran into The Financial Whiz. Like a regular blog user I first went to the WHO section. I like to feel like I can connect with the writer. Well to my surprise the blog, spreadsheets and articles were produced by a senior Finance Major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Bryan. This young guy already has seven years of trading under his belt, with knowledge in stocks, fixed income instruments, options and forex. Below is a post he made on June 9th and I thought that this may be of interested to MarketClub members and guests. Visit his blog by clicking on the logo above this paragraph.

[Courtesy of The Financial Whiz . com...]

One of the approaches that the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Student Managed Investment Portfolio utilizes to value companies is known as the Comparable Ratio Valuation. This method uses a spreadsheet that I developed last year in allowing a potential investment to be compared against its closet competitors to find a company’s “intrinsic value.” While this approach may ignore fundamental flaws in a company’s business model, it gives an investor a good base to start analyzing potential stocks to invest in.

To download a copy of the valuation spreadsheet model, please visit: http://www.iupsmip.com/component/
option,com_remository/Itemid,36/func,startdown/id,100/

In the above spreadsheet example, an analysis of Amgen (AMGN) was done and the spreadsheet ultimately found the company to be trading at a discount of about 19% to its peers.

This spreadsheet is not the only determining factor in an investment decision; the sheet is preliminary a tool to analyze and identify stocks that will require more detailed research before a final decision can be made. The twenty minutes that it takes to input the numbers into the spreadsheet will save you roughly two hours or more compiling due diligence. In a future post, I will present the SMIP’s fundamental analysis worksheet that must be completed prior to the company being presented to the team.

At first, the spreadsheet is somewhat difficult to maneuver, but I will guide you through the process.

The areas highlighted in green are areas that will require you to input information to be used in compiling the intrinsic value of the company.

Company Inputs Section:

The data to be used here can be found at the links provided, but when analyzing a different company, please replace the ticker symbol with that of your company.

Item

Can Be Found at

Price Per Share:
$56.94

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=
AMGN

EPS (Earnings Per Share): $4.41

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=
AMGN
under the Earnings Est section, I tend to use the Next Year Average Earnings Estimate

Growth Rate:
11.2%

the bottom of the page of the following link http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=
AMGN
under the Growth Est, in this figure I tend to use the next 5 years prediction.

Market Cap:
$66,030.0

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=
AMGN
, where the figure is $66.03 Billion, which the figure that should be used in the spreadsheet should be in millions, therefore, billions would appear in thousands. If a company had a market cap of $500 million, it should be inputted as 500.00 into the spreadsheet.

Sales:
$14,740.00

the Key Statistics in the Income Statement section at http://finance.yahoo.com/q/
ks?s=AMGN
under Revenue (ttm). This number should be listed in the spreadsheet in millions.

Book Value
per Share: $17.01

the bottom of the page at http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=
AMGN
under the Balance Sheet section.

Cashflow per
Share: $3.49

http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/
jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?
tkr=AMGN
under the Latest 12 Month
Data in the middle of the page, this
is a dollar amount per share.

Shares Outstanding (mil): 1,160.00

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=
AMGN
under the Share Statistics
section, this number should also be
listed as in millions.

EBITDA (mil):
$6,480.00

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=
AMGN
under the Income Statement section, this number should be listed in millions.

Enterprise Value
(mil): $68,610.00

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=
AMGN
under Valuation Measures section, this should be listed in millions.

PEG Ratio: 1.23

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=
AMGN
under Valuation Measures section, this should be listed as is.


AMGN Competitors Section:

To get a good start on which companies to use as your comparable analysis, you should visit http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=AMGN and http://finance.google.com/finance?q=AMGN and look under the Related Companies section. You want to find a sample of 5-6 related companies to input their valuation ratios to value your company. When selecting companies to use as comparables, you should look for companies that have a market cap above $250 million.

I will give an example of how to collect the information for the first competitor on the list BAX, Baxter International. You will need to collect the following information:

Item

Can Be Found at

P/E Ratio: 24.8

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BAX as the Forward P/E under the Valuation Measures

PEG Ratio: 1.72

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BAX as the PEG Ratio under Valuation Measures

P/S Ratio (Price to Sales): 3.48

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BAX as the Price to Sales Ratio under Valuation Measures

EV/EBITDA: 14.32

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BAX as the Enterprise Value/EBITDA under Valuation Measures

Price/
Cashflow: 17.7

http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/
finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=BAX
under the Latest 12 Month Data section towards the bottom, this is a ratio and what you are looking for is Price/Cashflow Ratio

Price/Book: 5.6

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BAX as the Price/Book Ratio under Valuation Measures

After this step, repeat the above processes for the other 4-5 competitors. If the ratio is not available for a company, just leave that section blank so it will not be used in the valuation calculation. If one company’s ratio is an outlier as compared to the other companies in the spreadsheet, consider leaving that section blank so it will not give an artificially high intrinsic value.

The Intrinsic Price Calculation:

The spreadsheet then takes the average of the 5-6 competitors’ ratios and then applies those ratios to the information provided about the main company under analysis. It then gives a price of the company for each of the valuation ratios: Price/Earnings, PEG, Price/Sales, EV/EBITDA, Price/Cashflow, and Price/Book. All of the prices that are given from those ratios are then averaged together to give the “Average Intrinsic Price”, which is then compared to the current stock price. Finally, a percentage drawn from these calculations shows if the company is overvalued or undervalued—and by how much it is. If the percentage is positive, then the company is undervalued as compared to its peers, and if the percentage is negative, then the company is overvalued.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Email me with any ideas, questions, or comments.

Lindsay Bittinger


li*****@in*.com