It seems like only yesterday that we were ringing in the New Year.
But, believe it or not, we're now halfway through 2017.
Nearly four months ago, we set off on this incredible journey together, and I feel like we are on the cusp of something truly great.
That's what makes articles like the one I'm about to share with you so imperative for your journey here.
You see, the summer months give most of us a chance to slow down and catch up - on relaxation, on chores and, with a bit of scheduling and focus, on our wealth goals.
Now, as regular readers of my work know, I have a real love for old investing adages and maxims. And there's one that really applies to today's story.
Back during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told listeners that "he who fails to plan is planning to fail."
And was he ever right.
So many investors fail precisely because they "wing it" and don't have a plan or a system of any kind at their disposal.
But it's not just the plan itself that's really so important.
It's the insights that you gain from setting up and revisiting the plan that are the real benefit.
You reassess - and remind yourself of - such things as:
- Your risk tolerance
- Your current financial situation, as well as where you eventually want to be
- Any ancillary issues (like saving for your children's college education or making sure you can handle taking care of an elderly parent)
- And the steps you need to be taking to actually meet all your financial goals
That's why I always set aside time for a midyear investing checkup to remind me of the "bigger picture," to reaffirm my goals... and to take a hard look at the health of my investments.
Here at The 10-Minute Millionaire, we've already started this invaluable process.
Earlier this month, we took a few moments to look back at some of the biggest money-making lessons we've learned so far.
And today, we're going to look at the final piece of our "Midyear Millionaire Checkup" - a review of our open recommendations.
Let's get started...
An Inside Look
Now, before we dig into our current trades, I want to give you a quick insight to how I evaluate open trades.
I always ask myself three questions when looking at an open recommendation:
- Has the narrative changed?
- Have the fundamentals of my trade changed?
- Has the technical premise of the trade changed?
Let's look at each of these together...
Midyear Checkup Question No. 1 - Has the Narrative Changed?
Understanding the current state of our market narrative is a key step in determining the health of our current trades.
That's why before I even look at overall performance, I ask myself if the overarching theme changed since I entered the trade.
And if it has, should that change how I manage the trade?
Now, 10-Minute Millionaires know our current narrative is on the verge of a massive shift.
Remember, until now, our current narrative has been the optimism surrounding the Trump administration's growth agenda on lowering taxes, less regulation, and more infrastructure spending.
From the day President Trump was elected, any news has been parsed by the markets based on whether or not it would help or hurt the president's economic growth agenda.
From the start, this narrative has been a sturdy and persistent driver of the market. And it isn't quite finished yet.
However, there is a new narrative that is starting to vie for attention - the Fed.
What's interesting about that is that we've had a Fed-based narrative before.
You see, before the November 2016 election, anything that encouraged or discouraged the Fed from raising interest rates more moved the markets in a big way.
But don't expect this new Fed narrative to be exactly like the last.
In fact, I call this new narrative "The Great Unwind."
In "Fedspeak," they call this "normalizing their balance sheet."
Now, for us as 10-Minute Millionaires, this creates an interesting time in the market.
That's because we're seeing something that hasn't happened in years - a blended narrative.
That means - since we're in an "in between" state - there is no immediate impact on any our current recommendations.
Let's look at this chart to get a better understanding of what I mean...
Midyear Checkup Question No. 2 - Have the Fundamentals Changed?
Before we move on to our second question, it's important to understand a few keys to fundamental analysis.
This type of analysis strives to understand the intrinsic value of a company.
That means looking at financial statements, the management team, product line life cycles, etc.
For 10-Minute Millionaires, we are only concerned with one thing: Is the company financially solid?
To answer that, we look at a few things:
- Has anything changed with new product launches?
- Has it changed management?
- Have there been any major outside influences like regulatory problems, accounting probes, etc.
When looking at our open positions, each trade has to get a green light on each of these factors before we can move on to our final question.
Midyear Checkup Question No. 3 - Has the Technical Premise Changed?
Now, much like our fundamental question, it's important to understand a bit about technical analysis for this part.
Simply put, technical analysis is the study of price and volume related to time.
Now, our 10-Minute Millionaire system goes the extra mile to answer this question for us.
Our system is designed to streamline and simplify this step by framing each trade before we get started.
That's why our trades require little to no maintenance.
If we have not hit our contingency exit (stop loss) or our first profit target, there's little to do.
The only major questions to ask in an interim trade review are:
- Is the trade close enough to my stop to require additional monitoring?
- Is my trade close enough to a profit target to require additional monitoring?
With this added insight on how I view open trades, let's turn our attention to our current millionaire-making opportunities to see how we're faring...
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Our Uranium "Pure Play" - Cameco
One of the more frequent questions I've been asked recently is: "Hey, D.R., are you still excited about our Cameco trade, even with its recent bearish movement?"
The simple answer is yes.
In fact, Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ) - the largest pure-play uranium miner in the world - is still one of the biggest and best wealth plays in the market today.
When we first made the investing case for Cameco, we gave you our in-depth "Find the Extreme, Frame the Trade, and Book the Profits" investment case for the company. If you missed that initial report, or want to review it again, you can check it out here.
My "take" on uranium differs from the conventional view: While most folks look at the material and see a coarse powder with a singular odor, I see something much more intriguing.
I see latent energy - the kind of energy that can power entire cities for decades. I see solutions - to problems created by other energy sources, like coal. I see answers - to questions about how the world will keep meeting the escalating demand for power.
In short, I see value - lots of value - for investors.
However, recently uranium bears have used "ripped from the headline" stories to pull the stock - and the uranium market - lower.
The first shot in the arm for uranium came back in April when nuclear energy giant Westinghouse revealed its Chapter 11 filing.
After the news broke, analysts around the world were quick to pontificate that the slow death march for uranium had finally begun.
But here at The 10-Minute Millionaire, we knew better.
In a weekend update, we decoded those rumors and made the case that Cameco was going to brush this news off entirely.
And that's exactly what happened.
After tumbling to $10.62 a share, Cameco quickly rebounded - eating our modest 2% loss at the time.
Then Cameco posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss, driving shares to a nearly five-month low despite having maintained its full-year guidance for deliveries and revenue.
This was a classic Wall Street overreaction to an earnings miss - nothing more than "nervous money" getting out of the stock even though the uranium sector has already started its recovery.
As 10-Minute Millionaires, we knew not to sweat this recent pullback - to not fall prey to those "ripped-from-the-headlines" stories or our "nervous" emotions.
And since then, this stock has rebounded and rebounded strongly.
So far, Cameco has moved up more than 13% off its recent lows and has come to a key action level on the chart...
Keep in mind that this is our longest time-horizon trade.
I firmly believe our patience will be rewarded in the play.
Uranium prices are quite volatile over time and therefore uranium stocks like Cameco will bounce around quite a bit.
Put your contingency exit and profit target in place - this is one trade you do not need to monitor but a couple of times a week.
Our "Wild West" Biotech Play - Meridian Bioscience
Our biotech "pick and shovel" play, Meridian Bioscience Inc. (Nasdaq: VIVO), had a less-than-desirable start.
Less than a week after we used our three-step system to get into this trade, the shares pulled back more than 9%.
At the time, investors fell prey to their emotions and quickly sold the stock after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that point-of-care lead tests made by Magellan Diagnostics - which is owned by Ohio-based Meridian - may produce false negatives when processing blood samples taken from a patient's vein.
Following the announcement, Meridian was quick to get to work responding to the issue.
First, the company stated that it is working closely with the FDA regarding the use of venous blood draws for the four specified products that do lead testing.
Second, the company emphasized that all four products can be used with capillary blood samples (samples that are typically taken from the patient's finger or heel).
And third, the company stated that this problem (venous blood draws) impacted only about 1% of its revenue.
After providing clarity to investors, this stock roared back to life - jumping as much as 9.5% the closing bell on June 7.
Since then, this stock has continued its unanswered climb higher... had a small pullback, and then dropped again on July 13 after another note from the FDA detailing the field agents' finding.
However, much like what happened back in early June, Meridian was quick to issue a statement, which provided clarity to investors - propelling the stock back up.
We can see the action for ourselves on this chart...
Now, remember that with Meridian, we're looking at the long-term picture here, and this trade stands to be a big moneymaker for us.
The watchword here is patience.
The reality is that 95% of investors let their emotions cloud their judgment.
And that's why they get such lousy returns.
As aspiring millionaires, we know this is a fact - and we're going to use that to our advantage.
Our "Ol' Reliable" Play - Columbia Sportswear
Columbia Sportswear Co. (Nasdaq: COLM) is the poster child for a "pop-and-drop extreme"...
Over the past 80 years, this Portland-based firm has grown from a one-product, mom-and-pop shop to a $2.4 billion apparel behemoth.
The company designs, sources, markets, and distributes active lifestyle apparel and footwear. The Columbia family of brands includes the flagship Columbia brand, SOREL, prAna, Mountain Hardwear, Montrail, and a handful of others.
Under these brands, the Columbia Sportswear operates on six continents and in approximately 100 different countries.
However, over the last 15 months, this stock has been trading in a sideways channel, putting it through a series of pop-and-drop extremes.
Since we bought into this trade, there has only been modest news - meaning the needle hasn't moved much.
The company has seen some significant management reorganizations, including the appointment of Jim Swanson as its new chief financial officer (CFO) and Peter Rauch as the new chief transformation officer (CTO).
However, despite being a savvy move on Columbia Sportswear's part, the new appointments only had a minor impact on the stock.
Now, when we look at this millionaire-making trade, it's important to remember we are targeting short- to intermediate-term profit opportunity.
And so far, this profit play has performed right on schedule.
So far, we've seen a nice initial pop up, weathered a very modest pullback, and are now moving along nicely in the green.
Here's a look at the action on the chart...
Now, going forward, I'm expecting another nice pop for Columbia Sportswear in the near term.
You see, after Nike's strong earnings report and business outlook was announced in late June, we'll look for Columbia to follow that sporting goods trend when it reports earnings on July 27.
A Look Ahead
Now here's the part of a "Midyear Millionaire Checkup" that gets me the most revved up...
Once we take a look back at where we've been and reaffirm our goals - we get a much clearer picture of the future.
And I see a bright - and very, very profitable - future ahead for us here at The 10-Minute Millionaire.
Over the next few weeks, I'll show you how to use this framework to flesh out our actual strategy... to show you how to put it into action.
I'll show you the steps to take to invest and trade like a 10-Minute Millionaire.
But, more excitingly, I'll be sharing scads of new "extreme" trades that will put you firmly on your path to millionaire status.
In fact, I'm putting the finishing touches on our next trade as we speak.
Make sure to keep an eye on your inbox for this one. It could trigger as early as this week.
The bottom line is this: If you follow our well-defined, nicely muscled system, you'll start the second half of the year with a bang.
And believe me when I tell you... if you embrace this strategy, you'll be well ahead of most retail investors - and can even expect to leave Wall Street in the dust.
And that's exactly what we plan to do.
This "Secret" Helped Transform Two Teachers into Millionaires: Donna and Dave R. were both teachers in Boston. But today they're retired millionaires who are also earning $10,000 a month in income. Their secret? Much of their wealth is due to a Great Depression-era "program" most have no idea exists. Learn more…
The post The Doctor Is In - Don't Skip This "Midyear Millionaire Checkup" appeared first on 10-Minute Millionaire.
About the Author
D.R. Barton, Jr., Technical Trading Specialist for Money Map Press, is a world-renowned authority on technical trading with 25 years of experience. He spent the first part of his career as a chemical engineer with DuPont. During this time, he researched and developed the trading secrets that led to his first successful research service. Thanks to the wealth he was able to create for himself and his followers, D.R. retired early to pursue his passion for investing and showing fellow investors how to build toward financial freedom.