One Way To Take Advantage Of This Difficult Period

Posted on by The INO.com Team

For some time now, I've been talking about the volatility of the markets and for the last three days, volatility has been front and center. So, what is an investor to make of this and what opportunities are there to make money?

One way to take advantage of this difficult period is to look at our Smart Scan technology. In today's graphic, you can see that the market is beginning to tilt more and more to the bearish side of the ledger.

You can see by the Smart Scan numbers, the "Long Term Down" stocks now exceed the "Long Term Up" stocks by almost 400. When you look at "Chart +100", which means there's a strong uptrend, you see just 140 stocks trending upward. The number of stocks trending down in "Chart -100" is over 1000!

There are many stocks that are close to or have just reversed to the downside and you should be either on the sidelines in these stocks or shorting them.

With this being the last day of a tumultuous week, I expect the market to be a little exhausted and do not expect to see a big move either way today. Having just made that statement, I'm going to hedge myself and say as this is Friday, markets can and do sometimes go into turmoil.

This could be a perfect weekend for utilizing the "52-Week rules". In this case, I would favor the "52-Week rules" on the downside of the market. If you are not familiar with the rules for shorting the market, here they are again. Continue reading "One Way To Take Advantage Of This Difficult Period" →

4 Variables That Could Affect Your Portfolio This Earnings Season

Posted on by admin

By: David Sterman of Street Authority

Over the past few years, a predictable trend has dominated earnings season. Analysts lower their profit forecasts in the weeks and months ahead of quarterly results, and then companies manage to slightly exceed the lowered set of expectations. It's happening again.

According to FactSet Research, on an aggregate basis, analysts lowered Q3 profit forecast by 4.2%, slightly above the typical 2.7% downward revision of the prior 20 quarters. In theory, lowering the bar further should boost the chances that companies manage to exceed current consensus forecasts.

But the typical "cut and beat" game may not be the key theme this time around. As third quarter earnings season gets underway later this week (as Alcoa (NYSE: AA) weighs in on Wednesday, October 8), a range of cross-currents promise to make this one of the more unpredictable earnings seasons in quite some time. Both positive and negative factors are likely to keep analysts and investors on their toes. This is not time to take a casual approach to earnings season. After rising 6% in the first six months of 2013, the SP 500 rose less than 1% in the third quarter.

Here are four key themes you need to monitor to help get a sense if the SP 500 can resume its upward trajectory in the fourth quarter: Continue reading "4 Variables That Could Affect Your Portfolio This Earnings Season" →

How An Egg Timer Could Improve Your Trading

Posted on by The INO.com Team

When I started my trading career in the early seventies, I worked under a guy named Gary, who was somewhat of a mentor to me.

Gary was an interesting guy and his trading style was just as interesting. Every time he made a trade, he would flip a large egg timer over and the sand would start running. The first time I saw him do this I asked myself, "what is he doing?"

Now you have to remember, I was new to trading back then and had never seen someone with Gary's unique approach and trading style. For all that I knew, having an egg timer on your desk and flipping it over every time you made a trade was a normal part of trading.

The idea is not as crazy as you may think.

Have you figured out why Gary was using an egg timer?

Was it because ...

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Continue reading "How An Egg Timer Could Improve Your Trading" →

Will Ebola Have A Lasting Effect On The Markets?

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Everywhere you turn, you see stories and videos about another Ebola outbreak. Major epidemics like the Ebola virus often create trends in healthcare, which can lead to major opportunities for investors.

Here is one stock that has been off the radar for most Wall Street firms, but is my favorite Ebola-related stock right now.

On July 30th of this year, this stock flashed a buy signal based on our Trade Triangle Technology - that was two and a half months ago! Do you remember seeing or reading about Ebola two and a half months ago? I expect not, as the Ebola virus was not front page news like it is now.

Chimerix To The Rescue

The chart below perfectly illustrates the upward trend of this stock. The green monthly Trade Triangle on the chart is where we were first alerted to the beginning of a bull trend for Chimerix, Inc. (NASDAQ:CMRX) on July 30th at $27.32.

Chimerix, Inc. (NASDAQ:CMRX) could have a great deal more room to go on the upside as a result of the Ebola pandemic. I do expect to see volatility in CMRX increase as it climbs a "wall of worry" from current levels. The more news that comes out about the spread or containment of the Ebola virus, the more volatility we could see. Overall, I do believe the trend for CMRX is on the upside and will remain that way for quite sometime. Always protect your capital with solid money management stops. Continue reading "Will Ebola Have A Lasting Effect On The Markets?" →

How To Be Positioned In A Volatile Market

Posted on by The INO.com Team

The last few weeks have been very volatile in the markets, with triple digit swings seeming to be the norm in the Dow. The question is, how can you position your portfolio and reduce your risk in a market like this?

Well in some ways, it's easier than you can imagine. Here at MarketClub, we always advocate diversification and spreading the risk. An example of that would be MarketClub's Internet portfolio that we make available to all members on a daily basis.

Presently, this portfolio has only a one position in the market. This means that we have 80% of our capital safely on the sidelines. With 20% of our capital working in the marketplace, it is easy to sleep at night and not have to worry about these giant up and down swings. Using the Trade Triangles, much of the guess work is taken out of the equation.

Here are the 5 stocks in the Internet portfolio: Continue reading "How To Be Positioned In A Volatile Market" →