Investing - Pro Trader Today

Correction Call and the Cost of Opportunity

To quote Chris Rock… “that’s right I said it!” On Monday, I suggested a correction for the S&P 500 might be at hand. And if you wanna pile on a little, feel free to scroll back through the Pro Trader Today archives… But – I can save you the trouble. I’ve been cautious on stocks […]

Correction time…Maybe?

We’ve gotten a few “developments” over the last couple of days that the stock market doesn’t seem to like very much… First, there were the minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting. You know the one, on June 14, where the Fed opted to leave rates where they were, at 5%-5.25%. But the bigger news […]

The Broken Fed

We talked on Friday that it was time to take a little off the table. After all, the S&P had shot 3.6% higher since a new bull market was confirmed on June 8. And right on cue, the selling started. The S&P 500 has been down every day since Friday. Yes, the pullback we’ve seen is partly because the AI hype was off the charts. And the rush to buy stocks after the “surprise” breakout for stocks at new highs had a roll to play too…

We Have a Breakout

Ladies and gentleman: we have a break out. This a 1-month candlestick chart of the S&P 500. Each glyph represents one day’s action, and the glyphs are called candlesticks because, well, they look like candlesticks. At least the long ones do…

The Cartman Doctrine

It’s pretty obvious that many U.S. companies are already implementing their own Cartman Doctrine – they are taking their supply chains and going home, or, at least to more friendly countries that don’t carry the geopolitical risk that China does.

The Case for Lemonade (NASDAQ: LMND)

I Got a Fever… I got curious back in 2008-2009. The Great Financial Crisis (GFC) was steamrolling every aspect of the economy. Advertising was especially hard hit. Newspapers failed, magazines got really thin… but TV was still awash in GEICO ads. GEICO’s “Caveman” was voted America’s favorite advertising icon in 2008…

Pittsburgh Rare Market

As investors, we try to come up with the perfect recipe for selecting the companies we invest in. Rising dividends, expanding market share, positive cash flow, whatever it may be. And there are plenty of examples of great investors we can learn from and copy. Warren Buffett is a common example, and for very good reason. He follows a simple recipe and he knows exactly what the final dish will look like.

Is It Really that Bad?

If you wanna get a laugh from your family, friends or co-workers today, I’ve got a sure-fire way you can get at least a small grin from even the most cynical and humorless person you know… Tell ‘em you’re bullish on stocks.

A Failure to Fear Monger

Welp, guess I’ll join the legions of financial/investment writers out there and talk about inflation and the Fed. Even with banks failing and a big jump in the number of economists and strategist-types saying recession is about to take us all for a ride to lower stock prices, the Fed is still the one driving this crazy bus…

Fair Value? Really?

With 5,300 stocks out there, it’s a pretty good bet that a pretty solid percentage are complete crap and should be completely off-limits for individual investors. And I will be so bold as to say that even within Morningstar’s cozy little neighborhood of 700 stocks, there will be more than a handful of crap.