Strategies

Below is a description of what I believe to be the best stock market indicator – ever. I am referring to the percentage of S&P 100 stocks above their 200 DMA which gives traders a clear early warning signal of impending serious market downturns and later safe re-entry points.

...Everyone is worrying that we are at or near a market peak and this has investors extremely hesitant to buy stocks for fear of a big decline or perhaps even a crash. Obsessing over the risk of a crash, however, could lead to analysis paralysis but there is a basic investing strategy that can save investors from losing too much hair as they make the decision to buy stocks. It's called dollar-cost averaging. Let me explain how it works and why it's great for investors with long-term investing horizons.

Since the U.S. stock market still appears to be trying to make up its mind which way things will go from here, this appears to be as good a time as any to expand on the idea of using the VIX to "buy the freaking dips."

Following the 2007-09 financial crisis, many investors decided they needed insurance on their portfolio to protect against the possibility of another “black swan” event and poured money into a host of new funds that were supposed to help if there was another downturn — long/short funds, tail risk strategies, absolute return funds, option hedging strategies, tactical asset allocation funds and the like - but they missed the idea completely. They were trying to plan ahead for uncertain events that could surprise everyone. Of course this is impossible, because you can’t hedge out the risks of unknown events - they’re unknown after all. So how should an investor protect oneself from another such occurrence? The answer is below.

If you have 401k assets, are a financial professional or individual investors looking to construct portfolios and not move monies very often, and looking to beat inflation over an extended period of time, the chart below is well worth being aware of.

The Small Dogs of the Dow is a simple and effective strategy that has outperformed the Dow and the S&P 500 significantly over the last 20 years. Let me present this in simple terms:

The "Dogs of the Dow" is a widely-known passive investment strategy that says to simply buy the 10 highest yielding Dow 30 stocks at the start of each year. Below is a look at how 2013's Dogs of the Dow have fared thus far. You'll be pleasantly surprised. Words: 289

We have noted previously that short-sellers have been crushed this year as many of the best performing stocks have also been some of the most heavily shorted stocks. So far in December, however, short-sellers have been getting a bit of a respite. Of the 29 names listed, only 8 are up so far this month. All in all, these 29 stocks have averaged a decline of over 4% this month compared to a loss of just 0.62% for the S&P 1500. It looks as though Christmas has come early for the short-sellers this year. Here's the list of all 29 stocks and how they have performed to date.

Each December we publish a list of investment themes that we feel are critical to the coming year. Below are our expectations for the U.S, Japanese and European stock markets, municipal bonds and gold.

Fed Chair Bernanke vehemently denies that the Fed “monetizes the debt,” but our research shows the Fed may be increasingly doing so. We explain why and what the implications may be for the dollar, gold and currencies.