Capitalogix

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

As you probably heard, the jobs recovery suffered a setback in March.  With the election coming, this promises to be an issue getting lots of scrutiny.

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• 10 Proven Strategies of High-Performance Teams [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
• IBM's Quantum Computers Could Change The World. (FastCompany)
• "When Siri Goes Psycho". A Clever Short Film. (Flixxy)
• Ranking the Web's Best 2012 April Fool's Jokes. (Blogs)
• Fruit Flies Use Alcohol to Cope With Sexual Rejection. How evolved do you feel now? (TW)

 

Trading Links:

• Facebook's Value Shoots Above $100 Billion On Its Last Private Trade. (BizInsider)
• Stocks Just Had The Best Quarter Since 1998, So Why Is Wall St. Skeptical? (Insider)
• A Good Sign: Companies May Finally Be Starting to Spend That Cash. (Businessweek)
• U.S. Tax Hackers: Cheating or Beating? (Infographic)
• Groupon's Shares Continue Falling to Close at All-Time Low.  Everyone loves a discount, and yet no one seems to be buying. (AllThingsD)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Here's a bumper sticker slogan that rings true more often than you might want.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Seven Truths about Change to Lead & Live By. by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (HBR)
• Good List of 100+ Useful Infographic Tools & Resources. (DailyTekk)
• A Blast from the Past: The New Use for Dormant Fiber from the Dot-Com Boom. (TD)
• ‘Ender’s Game’ Launches Production Blog. A Great Book for a Movie. (MoviesBlog)
• Five Leadership Lessons from Captain Kirk. Knowledge from the heavens ... or at least from the Starfleet. (Forbes)

 

Trading Links:

• How 9 Tech Giants Traded Just After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
• Tech IPO Pipeline: 65 + Startups with $100 Million+ Valuations Since 1/11. (CBI)
• New Kinds of Funds for Commodities. (WSJ)
• Why Do Investors Sometimes Make Bad Investment Choices? (KnowWPCarey)
• Billionaire: "All I Know About Investing In Startups I Learned Playing Poker". (Insider)

Party Like It's 1999 - If You've Been in the Right Tech Stocks

Sure the S&P 500 Index has done well this year.

But those results pale compared to how some select tech stocks have done.

Here is a chart comparing the performance of LinkedIn, Salesforce, Apple, Priceline.

 

  

There will be a lot of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" after a run like that ....

Related articles

• Commodities Are So 2011: Why It's Tech's Turn to Pop and (Maybe) Top (minyanville.com)
• Time to Get Real? (zerohedge.com)

A Quick Look at S&P 500 and It's Likely Next Move

The S&P 500 Index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week, with a less-than-whopping fall of 0.50%. 

Yep, half a percent. Moreover, it was only the second week of the year out of twelve in which the index posted a decline.  Results like that make traders fat, dumb and happy.

With a year to date gain of more than 11%, the S&P 500 is on pace for its second consecutive quarter of 10%+ gains.  According to Bespoke, if this holds, it will be just the 12th time in the index's history that it has posted double digit percentage gains in back to back quarters.

Here is a chart showing the daily performance of the Index. 

 

 
Note the area circled in red.  That marks where price came back inside the upper Bollinger Band.  Technical analysts might expect that the first likely target would be the mid-line (marked by the dotted blue line).  In this case, it also corresponds with likely support at the short-term up-trend line (marked by the green arrow).  Add the weak volume of the recent decline ... and you might have the recipe for a new rally?

Something Is Always Working - The Trick is Finding It While It's Working.

The S&P 500 Index is entering a seasonally bullish period.  The chart below shows the predicted turning points based on the past five years of historical data. 

 

 

Something potentially different this year is that the S&P 500 Index has performed pretty well year-to-date.  In fact, it is up 12.17% so far ... and things look pretty strong until May.

However,the chart below should serve as a reminder that there a lot other markets worth trading too.  For starters, the DAX is up 21.18% so far this year.

The chart shows the top-ten performing markets for the past few years.   Click the chart to see an expanded version of this data.

 

  
Note how much diversification there has been in the top-ten throughout the years.

That is the funny thing about markets ... something is always working.  The trick is finding it while it's working.

 

Related articles

• US Dollar and Oil Hold Clues About the Future (minyanville.com)
• Was Friday's Price Action in Gold Signaling a Top in the S&P 500? (minyanville.com)
• Money Flow for February Week Four (slopeofhope.com)

At the End of Pain, You'll Often Find Success

Do you know why you find your keys in the last place you look?  It is because it doesn't make sense to keep looking for them after you find them.

 

Ultimately, the key is to focus on the goal (not how you got to where you are), and to keep moving forward.

 

 

   hat tip to Cliff Michaels

Here is a video from Eric Thomas, otherwise known as the HipHop Preacher ... It is called "Pain Is Temporary", and has a great message worth hearing.

 

 

 

For more of Eric Thomas, here is a link to his YouTube page & here is a link to his website.

Finally, here is a small reminder:

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last.  Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”  ~Zig Ziglar

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

 

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Here Is Why To-Do Lists Don't Work. (HarvardBusinessReview)
• The Nine Flavors of Windows 8 Show How Microsoft & Apple Differ. (TechCrunch)
• Music Bloodline is a Great Music Discovery Tool for Spotify Users. (Gizmodo)
• Posing the Question: What Is Competitive Yoga? (TheDaily)
• Firefox Plug-in Reveals The Small Army Stalking You On The Web. Try this real-time visualization to reveal the parade of spies tracking you. Cool but Scary. (FastCoDesign)

 

Trading Links:

• Buy-and-Hold Can’t Die. (AlephBlog)
• What’s Behind the High Gas Prices at the Pump? (Mint)
• You Hear That?  It's Quiet ... Too Quiet. (Wall Street Journal)
• David Stockman: 'You'd Be a Fool to Hold Anything But Cash Now'.  (BizInsider)
• Our New Financial Overlord? IBM’s ‘Jeopardy!’-Winning Artificial Brain Gets a Job on Wall Street. (TheDaily)

Year-to-Date Market Performance Chart

Here's a breakdown of forty global futures based on year-to-date performance.

It might be interesting to compare how your favorite market stands up to this list of various markets?
 

Other Performance Breakdowns:

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Yearly
•  

Related articles

• 50 Best Performing Stocks Year to Date (bespokeinvest.com)
• 2012 Country Stock Market Performance (bespokeinvest.com)
• Key ETF Performance (bespokeinvest.com)

Do You Care that the U.S. Equity Market Continues to March Higher?

There has been a disconnect.  Individual investors don't seem to care that the market continues to rally.

Here is a chart showing continued investor out-flows, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits multi-year highs.

 

  

History seems to be on the Bulls' side.  Here is a Bespoke chart showing what has happened after the S&P 500 Index rallies 15% (or more) in a three-month period.

 

 

 

It has been a pretty bullish indicator.

Moreover, sentiment is not not so frothy since the rally has been so widely ignored by individual investors.  As a result, traders don't expect much panic-selling on a move down.

In addition, the Markets have been resilient through some scary news cycles recently. 

The question is: can it continue? 

Well, if the Market can't shake-out some sellers, the next surprise could very well be another move higher.

Related articles

• GOLDMAN SACHS: 3 Reasons Why Investors Should Take US Election Cycles Very Seriously (businessinsider.com)
• Money Flow for February Week Three (slopeofhope.com)

Some Interesting Links for Your Weekend Reading

You don't have to look hard to find prices going up.

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Most Expensive City to Live In the World Survey. Can you guess? (HuffingtonPost)
• The Personal Computer Is Dead. Product is transforming into service. (TechReview)
• Is the Laptop Dead Too? Yup. (FastCompany)
• Car Dealers Wince at a Site to End Sales Haggling. (NYTimes)
• Exercise Your Body/Mind. Some of these videos are crazy. See for yourself. (Video)

 

Trading Links:

• The Really Simple Argument For Why QE3 Is About To Hit. (BusinessInsider)
• When Should Traders Be In or Out of Markets? From Joe Fahmy. (BigPicture)
• Ultrafast Trades Trigger Black Swan Events Every Day, Say Econophysicists. (TR)
• The Target at Post-Bailout GM – Earning $10 Billion a Year.  (WSJ)
• Stock Broken: Why Trying to Stop Congress from Insider Trading Might Backfire. (TD)