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Well-Priced Stocks Will Ride Out These Market Swings

Posted 21 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category Investing, Market News, Stocks, Trading

By Dan Plettner

Is it time for the market to step back and digest the recent ascent, or time for investors to step up and realize the balance of risks remains skewed to the upside?

As I discussed last month, 2011 had a frustrating feel. The volatility and tendency for managers to be challenged in outperforming indices was noteworthy even in the presence of extraordinarily attractive valuations.

In 2012, the market has rewarded some already, and bewildered others. Those who have eschewed all but Treasuries and dividend growth stalwarts have significantly underperformed the rally.

There is a lesson: price matters. When securities are priced well, they tend to outperform for some period. But “when” tends to be the market’s painful tease. What we have been seeing is usually what the masses focus on in making investment decisions, rather than what logic objectively suggests should occur. Essentially, the masses are constantly focused on the rear-view mirror. Read More

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Tags: 2012, closed-end fund, Closed-End Funds, Dan Plettner, decisions, Dividend, invest, investment, investment decisions, investors, Market, market swings, rally, risks, securities, stocks, SunAmerica, Treasuries, valuations, volatility, Well-Priced Stocks

Playing This Trending, Overbought Market

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Posted 21 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category ACOM, CASC, ETFs, EWZ, Investing, IYT, Market News, QQQ, Stocks, Trading, XLK

By CJ Brott

Both of our investing models, ETF Only and Macro Plus Income, have adjusted portfolio holdings and trading strategies as the market has evolved.

Since the October bottom of last year, market volatility has declined and the markets have trended higher. As measured by the decline in the CBOE VIX to the rise in the Average Directional Index (ADX) price trends have surfaced which enable breakout buying and other momentum strategies to be successful. Because of this we have diversified the ETF model from four holdings concentrated in food, energy and mid cap U.S. equities into more momentum driven ETF’s including PowerShares QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ), SPDR Select Sector Technology Fund (NYSEARCA:XLK) and iShares MSCI Brazil Index (NYSEARCA:EWZ). Read More

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Tags: ACOM, ADX, Ancestory, Ancestory.com, Ancestory.com Inc., Average Directional Index, Bespoke Investment, CASC, Cascade, Cascade Corporation, CBOE, CBOE VIX, CJ Brott, Dow Jones Transportation Average, equities, ETF, ETFs, ETF’s, EWZ, GNC, GNC Holdings, investing, iShares, iShares Dow Jones Transportation Average, iShares MSCI Brazil, iShares MSCI Brazil Index, Lowry’s Investment Research, Market, market volatility, markets, NASDAQ, NASDAQ:ACOM, NASDAQ:QQQ, NYSE, NYSE:CASC, NYSE:GNC, NYSEARCA, NYSEARCA:EWZ, NYSEARCA:XLK, overbought, PowerShares, PowerShares QQQ, PowerShares QQQ Trust, QQQ, SPDR Select Sector Technology, SPDR Select Sector Technology Fund, stocks, strategies, Technology SPDR, trading, trading strategies, trends, valuation, VIX, volatility, XLK

This Market Rally May Have Some Legs

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Posted 21 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category Economy, Investing, Market News, Natural Gas, Trading

By Jesse Barkasy

Jesse Barkasy

The major stock market indices have had a good run in January and many stocks are breaking out to new 52-week highs. Our Trend Following model now seeks to find if there are any clear leaders to invest in while being cautious about a return to a choppy market.

We have tested a few breakouts and they certainly are holding much better than they were in the past few months. This may indicate institutions are buying and holding. This U.S. market is in rally mode and that makes sense, given the slim choice of investments in the world today. The many large natural gas discoveries in North America is also very welcome news in my view. This puts our electrical grid economy on a solid foundation for many years to come. Read More

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Tags: bull market, economy, Europe, investments, Jesse Barkasy, Market, market rally, natural gas, rally, stock market, stocks, trend following, U.S., United States

Welcome to the Economic Twilight Zone

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Posted 21 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category Economy, Investing, Market News, Trading

By Paul Franke

The stock markets latest push higher in January and early February is starting to feel like the ending phase of a bull move. Market participants are way too eager to ignore the deteriorating macroeconomic setup.

Whether it’s the highs odds of a war with Iran developing in the critical Middle East oil region, the still unchecked U.S. federal deficit spending spree, the sky-high U.S. trade deficit, a slowing economy in China, or the debt troubles in Europe there are many imbalances in the global economy in 2012. Similar to 1987 or the late-1990s tech boom peaks, investors rushing headfirst into a market that is ignoring reality are asking for trouble and a major loss of capital at some point. Read More

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Tags: 2012, austerity, China, debt, Deficit, deficit spending, Dollar, economic growth, Economic Twilight Zone, economy, Energy, Europe, Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Bank, GDP, global, global economy, Iran, Macroeconomic, Market, markets, Middle East, oil, Paul Franke, recession, stock, stock market, Stock Markets, trade deficit, U.S., U.S. Dollar, war

Accumulating Cheap Stocks On This Market Rally

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Posted 21 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category CCIH, CJES, CRZO, FWLT, GFA, Investing, LNC, Market News, MTW, MWW, Natural Gas, SHLD, SODA, Stocks, SVNT, TEX, Trading

By Mark Holder

After a difficult performance in 2011, the Opportunistic Arbitrage model delivered a 25% gain in January easily outperforming the 4.4% advance for the S&P 500. We spent most of the month accumulating cheap stocks in order to take advantage of the market rallying against the proverbial ‘wall of worry’.

January was an interesting month with stocks rising even in the face of what appeared like continued negative news out of Europe. With the continued focus on Greece, most investors stayed out of the stock market and missed that yields on Italian and Spanish bonds saw dramatic declines. The ability to isolate the problems to Greece and Portugal were a big relief to markets that had priced in a European blowup in December.

The decline in emerging markets inflation was also a big plus. Specifically fast growing countries like China and India saw multi- year lows in inflation rates allowing monetary policy to pause and potentially ease as 2012 progresses. Read More

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Tags: 2012, C&J, C&J Energy, C&J Energy Services, Carrizo, Carrizo Oil & Gas, CCIH, China, ChinaCache, CJES, Coal, company, CRZO, dividend paying stocks, Eagle Ford, Eddie Lampert, emerging economies, emerging market, emerging market stocks, emerging markets, Europe, European, Foster Wheeler, FWLT, Gafisa, GFA, Greece, guidance, India, inflation, inflation rates, investors, Lincoln, Lincoln National, Lincoln National Corporation, LNC, Manitowoc, Manitowoc Company, Mark Holder, market rally, monetary policy, Monster, Monster Worldwide, MTW, MWW, NASDAQ, NASDAQ:CCIH, NASDAQ:CRZO, NASDAQ:FWLT, NASDAQ:OCZ, NASDAQ:SHLD, NASDAQ:SODA, natural gas, natural gas prices, NYMEX, NYSE, NYSE:CJES, NYSE:GFA, NYSE:LNC, NYSE:MTW, NYSE:MWW, NYSE:TEX, OCZ, OCZ Technology, OCZ Technology Group, oil, Opportunistic Arbitrage, Portugal, S&P 500, Sears, Sears Holdings, SHLD, SODA, Soda Stream, Sodastream, solid state drives, Spanish, SSDs, stock, stock market, stock price, stock prices, stocks, Stone Fox Capital, Terex, Terex Corporation, TEX, top picks, trade

Microcap Mobile Index Off To Fast Start In 2012: AUGT, ETAK, GLUU, MITK, VELT

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Posted 20 Feb 2012 — by Mobile Guru
Category AUGT, ETAK, GLUU, Investing, Market News, MITK, Stocks, Technology, Trading, VELT

By Mobile Guru

In early January, I created a Microcap Mobile Index consisting of stocks that have market capitalizations under $1B and a price over $1 that covered the companies below. Let’s take a look at how the group has performed year to date versus the NASDAQ composite. Impressively, the Mobile index racked up a 32% year to date gain compared to the NASDAQ which is up 13% year to date. Here is a short recap of some specific news items of relevance to the companies that comprise the index.

Stock Dec. 30 2011 Close Current Price Percentage Gain/Loss

AUGT $1.34 $1.94 44.78%
ETAK $2.65 $2.50 -5.66%
GLUU $3.14 $3.76 19.75%
MITK $7.25 $11.20 54.48%
VELT $6.80 $10.09 48.38%
NASDAQ 2605 2951 13.28%
Index Average 32.35%

Augme Technologies Inc. (OTC:AUGT)

• On February 16th Augme Technologies announced new features and functionality of its AD LIFE mobile marketing and advertising platform. The powerful SaaS-based platform is further optimized for customer ease-of-use while adding a number of key updates to Mobile SiteBuilder and the mobile couponing module. Read More

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Tags: 17th Annual Global Mobile Awards, acquisition, AD LIFE, advertising, advertising platform, Annual Global Mobile Awards, Augme, Augme Technologies, Augme Technologies Inc., AUGT, awards, CASEE, Chief Executive Officer, companies, Customized Content, Device Detection, devices, Elephant Talk Communications, equity, ETAK, freemium, Global Mobile Awards, Glu, Glu Mobile, Glu Mobile Inc., GLUU, GSM Association, GSMA, Hipcricket, Inc., index, interest, international, investing, Kleiner Perkin, lawsuits, Lucid Media, margins, market cap, market capitalization, marketing, Mary Meeker, Microcap Mobile Index, Mitek, Mitek System, Mitek System Inc, MITK, mobile, mobile ad exchange, mobile ad network, Mobile Advertising Delivery, Mobile Awards, Mobile Content Rendering, mobile devices, Mobile Guru, Mobile Index, mobile internet, mobile marketing, mobile revolution, Mobile Site Builder, Mobile SiteBuilder, NASDAQ, Nasdaq Composite, NASDAQ:GLUU, NASDAQ:MITK, NASDAQ:VELT, news, NYSEAMEX, NYSEAMEX:ETAK, OTC, OTC:AUGT, Ownership, parent company, patents, pending, platform, plc, revenue, revenues, SAAS, SiteBuilder, smartphones, stocks, technology, VELT, Velti, Velti Plc, Xin Ye

Market Astrology: About that Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) Collapse…Again?

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Posted 19 Feb 2012 — by Karen Starich
Category Investing, Market News, NFLX, Stocks, Trading

By Karen Starich

Last September my interest in Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was peaked when suddenly the stock slid more than 50% in 2 months. I checked the Astrology chart for the company when Jeff Pierce mentioned the stock had hit support and was a potential “buy.” What I found did not look promising, in fact it looked like the rip cord was about to be pulled on the stock! I wrote my original article here titled “Market Astrology: About that Netflix Collapse”

In September the planet Neptune (rules movies and the internet) was making hard aspects that would not be helpful for a company in the business of renting movies over the internet. I wrote that the company would take another drop on September 26th that would continue into October where the stock could potentially fill the gap between $52 – $60.50. Looking back now, those declines happened however the price target between $52-$62.50 did not happen. Since the decline, the company made improvements with their U.S. customer base and signed a multi-year deal with MGM Studios to exclusively stream it’s first run movies in the UK and Ireland. Read More

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Tags: analyst, astrology, chart, collapse, company, competition, content, content costs, content deals, costs, deal, deals, Downgrade, expansion, financial, financial analyst, foreign, foreign expansion, improvements, Ireland, Karen Starich, Market, market astrology, MGM, MGM Studios, movies, multi-year, multi-year deal, NASDAQ, NASDAQ:NFLX, negotiations, Netflix, price target, renting, renting movies, risks, stock, stock price, stream, studios, U.S., UK

I Believe We’ll See Recovery, Not Recession

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Posted 19 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category Economy, Investing, Market News, Stocks

By Gerald Gehman

Gehman Capital’s Undervalued Growth Companies model is a small cap portfolio that is designed to maximize rates of return over an extended period of time. I do not market time to avoid losses, or take profits in the short term. I choose to invest in companies that I think have a product, or products, that will generate long term profits and have the financial resources to withstand the stresses of start-up companies. For all of 2011, the account was down 41.4%. In 2012, the account is up 17.8% as of early February.

I believe that certain U.S. equities are underpriced and, more broadly, there is a lot of money currently available for investment in the global economy and markets.

Most every central bank in the world in trying to force money into the world economy. The money has allowed the U.S. to avoid an extreme disaster, and will continue to stimulate a recovery – it may be slow – but I believe it will be a recovery – not a recession. Read More

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Tags: capital, central bank, China, debt crisis, defaults, Deutschmark, domestic economy, economy, equities, Euro, Europe, European, European Community, European debt crisis, exports, Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Board, Gehman Capital, Gerald Gehman, Germany, Germany’s economy, global economy, international, international trade, invest, investment, investors, Market, markets, middle class, portfolio, recession, recovery, reward, risk, stock market, stock prices, stocks, trade, U.S., U.S. Economy, U.S. equities, U.S. stock market, U.S. stocks, Undervalued Growth Companies, welfare, welfare state, world economy

Trimming Bonds, Redeploying to Equities

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Posted 17 Feb 2012 — by Covestor
Category Bonds, Commodities, Currency, Economy, Gold, Investing, Market News, Sectors, Stocks, Trading

By Tom Yorke

Tom Yorke

While on vacation with my family, I ran across a New York Times story entitled “Greek Wealth Everywhere except Tax Forms.” It should have hit me harder, but perhaps the sun was baking my brain that day or perhaps I just needed to turn off for a while… but it all comes back to me now

Salient observations by the Times: Just 324 Greeks admitted owning a swimming pool, despite an actual count of almost 17,000. Thirty four doctors in a “trendy” Athens neighborhood claimed income of less than $13,300, a figure which exempts them from paying any taxes at all, period. Apparently Greeks with tax problems, according to the Times, have found that the way to solve those problems was to use, say, a third of their obligation to actually pay the government, a third to bribe the tax collector, and keep the other third in their pockets. (We’re sure it’s much different nowadays.) Read More

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Tags: 2012, austerity, austerity reforms, Bernanke, bonds, Commodities, commodity sector, Covestor, currencies, currency, demonstrations, depression, Deutsche Marks, diversification, Dollar, downside protection, economy, equities, Europe, GDP, Gold, Government, Greece, Greeks, investing, investors, Iran, James Grant, Market, pension funds, private sector, Real Estate, reforms, spending, stocks, Strategy, Syria, tax, taxes, Tom Yorke, trading, U.S., U.S. Dollar, U.S. equities, U.S. market

Oil Poised For Upside Move

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Posted 17 Feb 2012 — by Jeff Pierce
Category Energy, Investing, Market News, Oil, Sectors, Technical Analysis, Trading

By Jeff Pierce

Oil is looking like it’s going to bust to the upside any day now. It’s forming a wedge on many different timeframes and the ADX on the daily and weekly are both low that if it does breakout it could make a large move in that direction.

ADX identifies the strength of a trend and often times when it gets around 10 and starts to move up (after a period of declining volatility), that will generally lead to high volatility and an explosive move. And since the charts are looking very bullish, I suspect that trend will be up. Read More

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Tags: ADX, breakout, chart, CME, crude, crude oil, investing, Jeff Pierce, light crude, Light Crude Oil, Market, oil, oil stocks, price, spot price, stocks, technical analysis, trading, trend, volatility, WTIC

Market Playground

Archive for the ‘Investing’ Category

Well-Priced Stocks Will Ride Out These Market Swings

Playing This Trending, Overbought Market

This Market Rally May Have Some Legs

Welcome to the Economic Twilight Zone

Accumulating Cheap Stocks On This Market Rally

Microcap Mobile Index Off To Fast Start In 2012: AUGT, ETAK, GLUU, MITK, VELT

Market Astrology: About that Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) Collapse…Again?

I Believe We’ll See Recovery, Not Recession

Trimming Bonds, Redeploying to Equities

Oil Poised For Upside Move

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