By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
While fundamentals are important when it comes to investing, it's technical analysis (the study of stock prices) that means the difference between success or failure.
And today, our Chris Johnson wants to show you one dead simple technical indicator you can use to take your decision-making, and thereby your success, to the next level…
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Ever heard the term "bandwagon fan"? Take the Pittsburgh Steelers, for example. They're the best football team in the NFL from where I'm standing.
But the Steelers were a steamrolling, unstoppable NFL "dynasty" in the 1970s. The Pro Football Hall of fame notes (and I can confirm), "Eight consecutive playoff berths, seven AFC Central titles, and four AFC championships from 1972 to 1979. The Steelers became the first team to win four Super Bowls and the only team to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice."
But the wheels fell off in 1980. The team went through a 26-year championship drought, until 2006's Super Bowl XL when – don't you forget it – the Steelers became the first wildcard team in the NFL to win three playoff road games and the championship. I stuck with 'em for those long years, but who knows how many fans went elsewhere.
Of course, those bandwagon fans came running back after the 2006 championship. You never want to be called a bandwagon fan because, let me tell you, Super Bowl XL felt a whole lot better for people like me, who'd stood by the team for those 26 dark years.
No wonder one of my 10 Commandments of Trading is: "Avoid running with the crowd." In other words, stay off the bandwagon unless you're actually in the driver's seat.
That's an approach that's made me one satisfied sports fan, but, more importantly, a really successful (read: "really wealthy") trader… Full Story
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
These stocks to trade let you bet on their earnings reports and collect fast profits in just weeks.
Based on these stocks' recent performance, our trading expert Chris Johnson has detailed how they're likely to move going into next week's earnings.
Then he picked three trades that let you profit on that move.
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
It's the most important earnings season of the year – actually, in 10 years.
Companies need to show they're worth their soaring stock prices.
Some will succeed and see shares go higher, while others will take a hit.
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Until Barry ("Asterisk") Bonds leapfrogged him 13 years ago, Henry Aaron had been Major League Baseball's all-time homerun king for more than three decades.
Yet, in one of those cool ironies of life, "Hammerin' Hank" always said that the "triple was the most exciting play in baseball."
Let me tell you: I get what "Oh Henry" was saying – the triple is edge-of-your-bleacher-seat exciting. A player drives the ball into the outfield, and it skitters past the fielders and rolls to the wall. Then the player sprints around the bases and slides into third in a cloud of dust – hoping to beat the throw that's intended to gun him down.
With MLB's return last week, I caught a couple of Cincinnati Reds games. And I realized that there's a stock-market equivalent to the baseball triple.
You see, the most exciting play in investing is the "short squeeze."
That's what happens when an investing pro tries to beat the bullish "shift" in today's market by betting against a particular stock. And because the loss on that kind of a bearish bet during a bullish rally is potentially unlimited, the pro has to "cover" by purchasing the shares in the open market.
When a whole bunch of bearish pros on a particular stock have to cover all at once – meaning they're elbowing one another and stampeding through the narrowest of doorways and grabbing shares at every and any price – that stock goes vertical like a ballistic missile.
That's the "short squeeze."
And there's nothing more exciting than having that happen to a stock you already own.
Well, almost nothing.
You see, we're on the verge of the absolute-most-exciting play in all of investing: It's something I refer to as an entire "short-squeeze market."
We're talking about a nearly vertical ascent to the bull market's peak.
It's in the on-deck circle. It's about to happen.
And here today, in the spirit of that excitement, we've created a "triple opportunity" – three "short-squeeze market" stocks that will let you cash in… Full Story
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
These two silver trades let you turn a bounce in silver prices into fast profits.
Silver is rising as the dollar falls and as governments keep pumping stimulus money into economies.
That all means it's time for you to make money, with these silver stock options...
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Four times a year – once each quarter – publicly traded companies drop their protective veil and give investors a look at their books.
It's kind of like a financial "State of the Union."
We call it "earnings season."
It's always one of the most important times of the year for stocks.
And the current earnings season – which started this week, and which will continue through the month of July – is the biggest and most important in a decade.
Not since the Great Recession of 2007-2009 have the stakes been so high.
At risk is the $10 trillion in shareholder wealth that's been created since the market bottomed in March.
In my 30 years of professional trading, I've never seen a stretch where investors needed actual results and "forward guidance" from companies reporting their earnings as much as they do right now.
My job – and I love it – is to categorize the stocks of these companies as "high risk" or "low risk" and to guide you accordingly. What I'm going to show you will let you add to your portion of that $10 trillion windfall – and avoid giving any of it back… Full Story
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
The only constant in life is change. That goes double for markets: Investing, just like everything else, evolves.
The latest evolution has, for some folks, turned investing into something like a video game…
Armed with a smart phone and their trading app, tons of new investors are taking the markets by storm. No kidding – it's not a bit unusual these days for friends of mine to whip out their phones and buy shares of stocks that they've never heard from outside of a mention on Twitter, or some other 24/7 social media feed.
I hate to say, "When I was your age," but when I was growing up, investors would thoroughly research the fundamentals and technicals of a stock before moving hard-earned money into it. More recently, they'd at least plug the ticker into a search engine to get some insight to what they're buying.
Nowadays, though, it seems that if "RealK1ttyL0ver77" posts on their Twitter account to buy shares of "Kitten Mittens Holdings Ltd." because they're "real dope," people buy big, and before you know it, Kitten Mittens jumps 700%.
It's all about what the crowd is doing, and that has major downside.
A real-life example would be Hertz Global. Investors, who looked at a sub-$1 stock and saw a bargain, piled in by the busload. The stock rallied 700% even as its (inept) management team was dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the bankruptcy filing!
Sometimes there are real bargains… and sometimes cheap is cheap for a good reason – but that's a truism that seems to have been forgotten for the moment.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not knocking new trading apps or their new legions of users. I think it's fantastic that a new generation of investors – who, you could argue, have been clobbered by both the 2008 financial and the 2020 coronavirus crashes – are accessing the massive opportunities the markets provide.
More investors in the market means that there is the opportunity for more robust, fairer pricing.
More dynamic markets also means that more ideas are going to flow through the daily narrative. Simply put, crowdsharing of investment ideas means that you're more, not less, likely to find an investment that fits your risk and objective profile.
I'm a hardcore optimist. I've found ways to harness this huge momentum shift for everyone reading today, whether you're a new investor or an old hand.
You're going to be able to make better decisions on platforms like Robinhood and learn how to leverage the crowd's activity on there for maximum profits… Full Story
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
On a normal weekend, I make the opportunity to hit a few retail centers to gauge the ebb and flow of the consumer. During my regular morning Markets Live stream, I like to share my "Walk Down Main Street" stock recommendations with the audience. Today, I'm sharing them with everyone.
A "Walk Down Main Street" is just like it sounds.
Find your local Main Street – a popular shopping street or mall…
Open your eyes, put one foot in front of the other, and take a walk.
Check out which stores are popular, which are dead. Take note of what people are wearing, and where their shopping bags come from.
By the time you're done with your stroll, you'll have a handy list of better, more profitable trading stocks than anything you can read about in The Wall Street Journal.
Last week, I hit four different shopping "areas" not far from me in Cincinnati. I usually hit a specialty store, a shopping mall (or two), a bunch of discounters, and some grocery and department stores.
Pace yourself, but generally, the more you see, the more profits you stand to make.
Here's what I found… Full Story
By Chris Johnson, Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email
As the Fed continues cutting stimulus checks, the proverbial Band-Aid of economic relief, gold stocks are on the rise…
And chief among them, a prime trading opportunity is beginning to shine…
It's already flashed multiple positive trading signals, and according to pro-trader Chris Johnson, this only the beginning of profit potential here.
Check out the full trade details in this, the latest from Fast Profits with Money Morning...
