The DOW surged 128.87 points last Wednesday, and suddenly I heard suggestions that the market is primed for a strong rebound and that a bottom had been reached. After falling to 10,098 on October 13, the DOW rebounded over 300 points to break 10,400 last Wednesday. But, before…

It's now a great time to be looking at the stock market. We are right in the middle of the third quarter earnings season, and many companies are reporting excellent financial results. When it comes right down to it, the only way to stay "ahead of the street"…

I still remember October 19, 1987, Black Monday, as if it were yesterday. I had just graduated from business school and was training at my first real job in the credit department of a large financial institution. The world of finance was exciting, and I was raring to…

I recently had lunch with a friend of mine who I describe as a pure speculator when it comes to trading. We were talking about the recent weakness of the DOW and the NASDAQ. He mentioned he was planning to short the DOW, as he expected it to…

Stocks saw increased selling last week on earnings and economic concerns. Take a look at the charts and you'll see a precarious situation for stocks in the near term. The S&P 500 broke below 1,200 last Wednesday for the first time since July 8. The DOW may test…

Let me tell you: things aren't pretty in the stock market. The DOW continues to trade precariously around key technical support/resistance at 10,600. On Tuesday, we saw another decline below 10,500, as worries about oil, interest rates, and the Q3 continued dragging on investors.  Oil prices continue to…

If the majority of your cash is held in large-cap stocks, you probably are somewhat envious of small-cap investors at this time. The blue-chip DOW is down 1.30% so far this year, and this is following a poor 3.15% gain in 2004. The year 2003 was much better…

Stock markets are on the retreat once more this week, after failing to hold above key technical resistance levels. Selling has been across the board from small-caps to large-caps to technology.  But for those of you who have followed my commentary, the recent failure of the NASDAQ to…

Back in early September I wrote about how the earnings growth of the S&P 500 companies would slow down in the third quarter and how the stock market doesn't like a slowdown in earnings growth. Today, with about half the companies having announced their third-quarter earnings, I thought…

While I'm not a fan of negative, "gloom-and-doom" news, the responsibility I have to my readers is "tell it like I see it." Nothing more, nothing less. And right now, I see something happening in the housing market that look doesn't look good at all. Here are just…

If you didn't beat the DOW by 250% or more in 2003, there are still plenty of undiscovered small-cap bargains where we found these winners: 1,030% gain on a camera chip company. 640% gain on an internet services provider. 415% gain on this provider of internet security software.…