It's more important to the market than the Fiscal Cliff, the sequester and all the debts of Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain combined

The drama of the Fiscal Cliff and the recent sequestration circus, plus the trials and tribulations of these four countries (which have run up huge deficits) have been well documented and known for quite some time. What is more important, in my opinion, is not the size of the debt which is staggering, but rather what is happening in the market and the market's perception of current events.

Market perception trumps everything else out there. Market perception trumps market fundamentals every time. Market perception is the one card that the government cannot control. It is the card that can potentially give the individual trader an edge.

So what is market perception? Well, have you ever noticed that when some big world event happens, or a new "hot" IPO hits the markets (remember FaceBook, Zynga and Groupon?), traders expect that market to go in the talked about direction and typically it does. What doesn't get talked about is how the market then corrects itself and the technicals really come into play.
Continue reading "It's more important to the market than the Fiscal Cliff, the sequester and all the debts of Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain combined"

Today's Video Newsletter: Sequestration Showdown Looms Large

Hello traders everywhere! Jeremy Lutz here, with your mid-day market update for Thursday, the 28th of February.

Markets are ending the month of February in an upbeat fashion today, albeit subdued. The Dow Jones industrial average is within striking distance of its all-time record high, despite the prospect of sequestration.

Big-name companies reported higher quarterly earnings, along with some big-time misses today which is leading to a mixed market. We'll take a look at two of the big-time misses, Groupon Inc (GRPN) and JC Penney (JCP).

The government reported that the jobless claims are falling and that the economy is doing better than last year so far in the first quarter. However, Washington's budget battle has cast a shadow over the market, with spending cuts set to automatically kick in Friday and no sign that the two political parties might work out their differences beforehand. Continue reading "Today's Video Newsletter: Sequestration Showdown Looms Large"

Poll: Do you use online discount services like Groupon?

Do you use online discount services like Groupon?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Groupon plunged 30 percent before Thursday's opening bell, after posting a larger-than-expected fourth quarter net loss.

The company issued a weaker-than-expected revenue guidance, feeding the belief of some on Wall Street that people have tired of the myriad of online restaurant, spa and Botox deals that Groupon offers.

The company says it focused on growth at the cost of some profitability by offering better deals to top merchants in a bid to expand offerings to customers. That boosted demand along with market share and helped spur bookings growth, though at the expense of revenue, Groupon said. Continue reading "Poll: Do you use online discount services like Groupon?"

Poll: Dot Boom = Dot Burst, yet again?

Yesterday I came across an interesting article about all of the upcoming dot com IPOs and thought it posed a great question to put to all of our Trader's Blog readers.

In case you're out of the loop, there are quite a few dot coms coming to the market including internet coupon giant Groupon, travel site Kayak, as well as social media megastars Facebook and Twitter.

Will this be a repeat of the dot com boom and subsequent burst of 1999 that lost investors millions. Have the dot coms (and investors) of the 21st century learned their lesson? Will you invest?

Which, if any, of these soon to debut IPOs will you invest in?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

*You may select more than one answer.

As always, feel free to leave your comments below.

Jeremy
On behalf of the MarketClub Team