[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] I’m a technical trading guy – there’s no better way, in the moment, to get the full picture to know when to pull the trigger on a trade – or the ripcord. Technical analysis is the way to understand price action in the short term.  But you can’t ignore fundamentals, the forces that dictate, more than anything, the long-term performance potential of stocks.  We’ve been looking at a couple of “under-reported,” under-appreciated fundamental forces lately.  Let’s take a look at another indispensable tool… 

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] This is what I’d call a highly unusual “Santa Claus rally” period – what with the consecutive days of selling and all. But keep it in perspective; volume is light this time of year and the bears don’t have much fight in them right now. This is a great time to reflect on a record year for the market – a year rife with opportunities, particularly in leadership sectors like communications and consumer discretionaries. On the other hand, this is the first time in three months that I have minimal crypto exposure, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sideways grind there in the coming weeks and months. On the other other hand, that strikes me as being healthy for this asset. This all signals to me that bulls will still have the edge in 2025, although the possibility

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] By any measure, the “Santa Claus rally” that historically boosts stocks through the end of a calendar year has failed. There are just a handful of trading sessions left in the Santa Claus rally period, but I still see folks hopefully scanning the horizon in hopes the jolly fat bull might appear… There’s a tendency among some to squawk about a bull market – then lean on the “greater fool” to save them. But I want to show you what the charts say. We’ll dig into the technicals of this correction and see if there’s a silver lining. We’ll run through four signs sellers throw off when they’re about to run dry. Let’s take a look…

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] We need to talk about what’s happening in these markets right now. Because the Santa rally is now toast…   We’re seeing something that should get your attention – extreme correlations across sectors that we haven’t witnessed in recent memory.   Sure, tech’s been holding everything together, but when you’ve got the Dow and Russell getting absolutely decimated, homebuilders dropping from +33% to +11% YTD, and almost every sector except tech showing serious weakness, you’ve got to pay attention.   The really concerning part?   We’re seeing higher degrees of correlation, meaning there’s no place to run, no place to hide.   Even with a 1% down day, we haven’t even seen tech truly get hit yet.   But with these correlation patterns emerging, that could change fast. And when tech starts to feel it, the whole market’s going to

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] This month we’ve explored a few of my favorite fundamental criteria, like free cash flow and operating margin, to name a few, for picking safe stocks with great upside potential. Let’s keep it going, and look at two other boring-sounding numbers that can spice up your returns: assets-to-liabilities and the fixed charge coverage ratio. Trust me – getting a handle on these will provide plenty of excitement as your portfolio gets stronger and more lucrative. These are mainly all about debt. It’s not all the same, and what a company does with it and how it handles it can make all the difference. The companies I’m about to name will provide stability in the increasingly likely event we get profit-taking and selling at the very end of 2024 and into the new year. In other words, these are great for

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] Stocks nailed a higher low last week – which we discussed at length in the TheoTrade live trading room. I’m seeing strong leadership from the tech sector and emerging strength in semiconductors, too. I’ve been pounding the table about this for a few weeks now; these two conditions tick that final “box” we need to confirm the bull. Crypto, too, is coming off a higher low here and we’re seeing fresh highs in many of our portfolio names. The market’s getting healthier by the day; we went from the worst market breadth of the year at the beginning of last week to the strongest by Friday. I’ve got every reason to believe participation will broaden going into 2025 – I’ll have more on this on Thursday with my Trinity Trade presentation. For now, let’s look at what’s on my screen

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] We’re about to go through the “Turn” from 2024 to 2025… and I’ve got outperformance on my mind. I want to ensure we’re looking at the publicly traded stocks offering the best chance at superior returns in the coming year. We have to consider the likelihood that 2025 will not be like the FOMO-driven years 2024 – or 2023, for that matter. Inflation is in play (it never really left!) and the Fed is essentially rudderless and has been since long before last week’s debacle. So I think it’s a good idea to look at stocks that can give us what we need in the absence of a rally. That’s why I’m looking at dividend-payers, trading at reasonable valuations, and with a decent volume of calls being traded. Tonight I’ll show you what I’ve found…

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] The Fed straight-up stole Christmas. But that’s not the only game in town. I’m talkin’ Festivus… the Pole, the Airing of Grievances, the Feats of Strength… I’d bet the last two days have left unprepared traders with a lot of grievances to get out there. No grievances from my Three Trades a Week people – we closed out a one-day 233% win with an SPX butterfly this afternoon. We took the market along for the ride up – the big indexes are anywhere from 1.5% to 1.6% higher than where we opened. All in all an eventful day with triple witching (around $4 trillion in notional value coming out – more in a second) and high volatility. I’ll take you inside it all tonight; we’ll look at opportunities in silver, bonds, and even Apple (AAPL) right now…

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] The markets started the week half-asleep, but yesterday, when Fed Chairman Powell took future rate cuts off the table, they woke up terrified and fell right out of bed. A lot of leading stocks, like Tesla and Nvidia took massive, multibillion-dollar haircuts in a matter of minutes. A lot of investors considered these safe – “the only game in town,” even. It’s true some of yesterday’s biggest losers are rising again, but I’m looking at a subset of stocks right now with the “secret sauce” to get through extreme Fed-driven turbulence. A lot of these stocks did drop, but not quite in the same way as the rest; some didn’t sell much at all. They’re rebounding faster and with much more conviction, too. These names are uniquely positioned for us right now because they all have this one thing in

[video_player type=”embed” style=”1″ dimensions=”640×360″ width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”][/video_player] The markets got the hawkish version of Powell today… and the implication that there won’t be any more rate cuts. The big indexes don’t like Hawkish Powell, not one bit. They took his remarks “poorly.” And by “poorly” I mean “they jumped off a cliff.” So what had been a kinda-up day turned into a big down day, anywhere from 2.5% to 3.5% after 2 PM. It was rough. And remember: At least according to the seasonality, we’re supposed to be in the Santa Claus rally right now. I have to say I don’t think it’s happening this year, at least not from where I’m standing. The good news is there are plenty of plays out there to make money – even if everyone else is losing theirs…