What’s up in the stock market? Pretty much everything! Last week, large-cap stocks (S&P 500), mid-cap stocks (S&P 400), and small-cap stocks (S&P 600) all reached new 52-week highs. Breadth indicators for the index also reached new highs. In other words, we are experiencing a broad-based rally in the stock market. —Recommended Link— Snag This “5G Savior” For $5 A Share Up to $31 billion in new business… as much as $6.6 billion in patent royalties… and its biggest competitor banned in America… this 5G tech stock could be the opportunity of a lifetime. But… Read More

What’s up in the stock market? Pretty much everything! Last week, large-cap stocks (S&P 500), mid-cap stocks (S&P 400), and small-cap stocks (S&P 600) all reached new 52-week highs. Breadth indicators for the index also reached new highs. In other words, we are experiencing a broad-based rally in the stock market. —Recommended Link— Snag This “5G Savior” For $5 A Share Up to $31 billion in new business… as much as $6.6 billion in patent royalties… and its biggest competitor banned in America… this 5G tech stock could be the opportunity of a lifetime. But you’ll need to make your move quickly… as soon as word gets out, banks and hedge funds could run the price up 10, 20, or 50X. Click here for details. Momentum is also bullish for major market indexes. Weekly charts of the S&P indexes are shown below with stochastics at the bottom. In strong bull markets, stochastics tend to move to high levels and then stay there for extended periods of time. For all three indexes, the position of the stochastics indicator is consistent with that trend; they all also show… Read More

Last week, I wrote about the staggering numbers behind global trade. I even mentioned a couple of ways investors could potentially profit. One of those ways is with containership leasing firm Seaspan (NYSE: SSW). A Seaspan assist ship docking with a bulk carrier (above) Seaspan made its market debut in 2005 with ownership of 13 containerships. That fleet size doubled to 25 vessels within two years and doubled again to 50 just three years later. Today, the company owns 112 ships. That makes it the world’s largest independent containership owner, with 15% more capacity than the next-closest competitor. Read More

Last week, I wrote about the staggering numbers behind global trade. I even mentioned a couple of ways investors could potentially profit. One of those ways is with containership leasing firm Seaspan (NYSE: SSW). A Seaspan assist ship docking with a bulk carrier (above) Seaspan made its market debut in 2005 with ownership of 13 containerships. That fleet size doubled to 25 vessels within two years and doubled again to 50 just three years later. Today, the company owns 112 ships. That makes it the world’s largest independent containership owner, with 15% more capacity than the next-closest competitor. These ships span the full spectrum, from small “feeder” vessels to mid-sized liners to ultra-large containerships (ULCS) that can hold up to 14,000 containers. Those containerships aren’t experiencing much downtime these days. Those ships were “on-hire” 99.6% of the time last quarter. That’s the highest utilization rate since 2011. Other than a few days in dry-dock for scheduled maintenance, Seaspan’s ships have essentially been available – and chartered – around the clock. And rates are holding steady. With a growing fleet, charter revenues have increased 5% year-to-date to $843 million. It helps that Seaspan has longstanding relationships with seven of… Read More

Here’s a bit of trivia… Did you know there are at least 79 different shoe sizes?  There is even an International Organization for Standardization publication for footwear sizing explaining the conversion of sizing systems and how manufacturers should size their products. Shoes are obviously important, and that level of detail is certainly necessary. And, thanks to detailed formulas included in the standard, we can all be certain to find shoes that fit.  I wish there was a similar publication explaining how to allocate positions in an investment portfolio. But, there’s not. There are some general guidelines. One is the 60/40… Read More

Here’s a bit of trivia… Did you know there are at least 79 different shoe sizes?  There is even an International Organization for Standardization publication for footwear sizing explaining the conversion of sizing systems and how manufacturers should size their products. Shoes are obviously important, and that level of detail is certainly necessary. And, thanks to detailed formulas included in the standard, we can all be certain to find shoes that fit.  I wish there was a similar publication explaining how to allocate positions in an investment portfolio. But, there’s not. There are some general guidelines. One is the 60/40 approach. This is when you allocate 60% of your portfolio to stocks and 40% to bonds. Another approach is to use your age. To determine the allocation using this method, subtract your age from 100 to determine the percentage of your portfolio that should be in stocks. So, a 20-year old would have 80% in stocks under this formula while an 80-year old would place just 20% of their portfolio in stocks. These guidelines are fine, but they don’t tell us very much. Among the things the formulas don’t tell us is how to generate income when interest rates fall… Read More

The last of the leftover turkey and pumpkin pie are gone, which means the countdown to Christmas has officially begun. And thus far, it has been a smashing success for retailers. While Black Friday has traditionally been considered the kickoff to the holiday season, many retailers are moving the start earlier and earlier. An estimated 40 million Americans jumped the gun and hit the stores on Thanksgiving Day in search of special deals and promotions. While checkout lines weren’t quite as long on Friday (according to RetailNext, foot traffic slipped 2% after rising 2% on Thursday), shoppers still spent freely,… Read More

The last of the leftover turkey and pumpkin pie are gone, which means the countdown to Christmas has officially begun. And thus far, it has been a smashing success for retailers. While Black Friday has traditionally been considered the kickoff to the holiday season, many retailers are moving the start earlier and earlier. An estimated 40 million Americans jumped the gun and hit the stores on Thanksgiving Day in search of special deals and promotions. While checkout lines weren’t quite as long on Friday (according to RetailNext, foot traffic slipped 2% after rising 2% on Thursday), shoppers still spent freely, both online and offline. Adobe Analytics (which monitors real-time spending at 80 of the nation’s top 100 retailers) estimates that online shoppers spent $7.4 billion on Black Friday, up from $6.2 billion last year. By Sunday night, physical and virtual stores had rung up a combined $69 billion in sales over the long four-day weekend. But The Shopping Binge Didn’t End There… Cyber Monday defended its title as the busiest shopping day of the year, with online retailers taking in $9.2 billion in sales. That’s a healthy 17% increase from last year – and a new record high. #-ad_banner-#Research… Read More

Interest rate policy can be boring. I’m reminded of this every six weeks as the Federal Reserve meets and Wall Street’s attention turns towards the Eccles Building in Washington, D.C. For years, CNBC has used the building as the backdrop for reporters when the Fed meets — as they were yesterday. Each time the Fed meets, traders anxiously wit to see what happens. Traders watch the news, largely consisting of a reporter standing in front of a building saying things like, “There’s a meeting going on inside.” Analysts will try to explain what members of the Fed were thinking at the meeting. Read More

Interest rate policy can be boring. I’m reminded of this every six weeks as the Federal Reserve meets and Wall Street’s attention turns towards the Eccles Building in Washington, D.C. For years, CNBC has used the building as the backdrop for reporters when the Fed meets — as they were yesterday. Each time the Fed meets, traders anxiously wit to see what happens. Traders watch the news, largely consisting of a reporter standing in front of a building saying things like, “There’s a meeting going on inside.” Analysts will try to explain what members of the Fed were thinking at the meeting. —Recommended Link— [TRENDING] Weird trade doubles your money in 3 days?​ This is going to be big… Jim fink just released the details of his 310F trade. This “Friday phenomenon” could generate returns of up to 100% or more… in the next 3-10 days… and continue to pay out… week after week. You can get in on the action now by following this link. The Fed’s thinking is nearly impossible to understand, but the Fed’s goals are relatively straightforward. The Fed operates under a mandate from Congress to “promote effectively the… Read More

When you look back on certain things in life, like industry trends, you often wonder how you didn’t see it coming. Or perhaps you did see it coming but didn’t realize the effect it would have on our lives. It could be something small that we take for granted like shifting your vehicle into 4-wheel drive with the click of the button, while you’re still driving. Or the remote control for a television. Then, of course, there are the bigger trends that have altered our lives in greater ways, like the internet, cell phones (now smartphones), airplane transportation, healthcare… the list… Read More

When you look back on certain things in life, like industry trends, you often wonder how you didn’t see it coming. Or perhaps you did see it coming but didn’t realize the effect it would have on our lives. It could be something small that we take for granted like shifting your vehicle into 4-wheel drive with the click of the button, while you’re still driving. Or the remote control for a television. Then, of course, there are the bigger trends that have altered our lives in greater ways, like the internet, cell phones (now smartphones), airplane transportation, healthcare… the list goes on.  Some of these larger trends have even spawned a number of new industries within that larger trend. Take the internet for example. Because of the evolution of the internet, software-as-a-service (SaaS) has ballooned into its own massive industry.  A more prominent company in the SaaS industry is Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM). The customer relationship management firm shook up the software industry by using a subscription-based method to sell its software. Investors who got in on this trend have done very well… I recently made the case that buy-and-hold investors should make a place for solid growth stocks in their… Read More

As many of you know, I’ve been expecting a pullback in the stock market. Two weeks ago, I noted, “The chart indicates a 2.5% pullback is likely before we see the market rally sharply into the end of the year.” The chart of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE: DIA) is shown below with important support levels. On the bottom of the chart, I’ve tracked my Profit Amplifier Momentum (PAM) indicator. The pullback, from high to low over the past two weeks, was 2.9%. —Recommended Link— Most Traders Do THIS Wrong (Hint: They’re… Read More

As many of you know, I’ve been expecting a pullback in the stock market. Two weeks ago, I noted, “The chart indicates a 2.5% pullback is likely before we see the market rally sharply into the end of the year.” The chart of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE: DIA) is shown below with important support levels. On the bottom of the chart, I’ve tracked my Profit Amplifier Momentum (PAM) indicator. The pullback, from high to low over the past two weeks, was 2.9%. —Recommended Link— Most Traders Do THIS Wrong (Hint: They’re paying Wall Street instead of letting Wall Street pay them!) They’re screwing it up… and they’re missing out on the chance to make easy profits every single week without a ton of risk.  Are you falling victim to this pitfall? Click here to find out.​ As you can see from the bars in the bottom segment, PAM is already showing signs of bottoming. That signal tells me that our pullback — while short — is likely already over. Now, there could still be additional weakness in the first… Read More

Company executives and board members might sell some of their shares for any number of reasons. But there’s really only one reason they buy more: an expectation that the stock will deliver gains. That’s why insider buying can be more telling than insider selling. Nobody knows High-Yield Investing portfolio holding Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) better than the firm’s Chairman and co-founder Richard Kinder. It speaks volumes that Kinder has been gobbling up huge blocks of KMI shares all year. And he has stepped it up the past couple of months, buying 300,000 shares on October 29, another 300,000 on October 31, another 300,000… Read More

Company executives and board members might sell some of their shares for any number of reasons. But there’s really only one reason they buy more: an expectation that the stock will deliver gains. That’s why insider buying can be more telling than insider selling. Nobody knows High-Yield Investing portfolio holding Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) better than the firm’s Chairman and co-founder Richard Kinder. It speaks volumes that Kinder has been gobbling up huge blocks of KMI shares all year. And he has stepped it up the past couple of months, buying 300,000 shares on October 29, another 300,000 on October 31, another 300,000 on November 11, and then 300,000 more on November 26.  He’s not the only bull in the Kinder Morgan executive lounge. On November 20, director Sarofim Fayez put up $4 million of this own money to buy 200,000 shares near $20 per share. This enthusiastic insider buying is a reassuring vote of confidence. Management continues to “eat its own cooking” and now owns about 15% of the outstanding shares. And I share their optimism wholeheartedly. The Case For KMI Record U.S. natural gas production is playing right into Kinder Morgan’s strength. After all, the firm’s vast pipeline system handles roughly… Read More