No video this week. We have guests and other dogs with us for the holiday.The chart is YTD for the Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX) versus the S&P 500.You know the fund for its very long streak of beating the S&P 500. A look at the stale holdings on Yahoo Finance shows that it makes what I think are big bets and sometimes big bets do not work out.It has United Healthcare (UNH) which has a 4.45% weight after a 41% drop. The fund is overweight financials versus SPX and it has zero in energy. Zero?This is a good example of how actively managed funds can be problematic. A contrarian might have guessed that after a long run of outperformance the fund would lag. That makes sense. But the issue that ...

Volume jumped across the board Friday market the 3rd straight day worth of volume increases. Along with the volume increases we did see stocks move higher showing signs of accumulation. There is no doubt that the decline in oil prices eased the fears of traders on Wall Street helping fuel, pun intended the gains this past week. The only issue with this past week was volume was lower than previous week. Now mind you we didn’t trade on Memorial Day so this is a bit skewed, but we did see lighter trade all week. This past week highlights that its too difficult to make large bets on either side of the isle. I would expect to see this continue until we see more volume. Positioning yourself in this market is a difficult task. Many have to weigh action versus inaction. Most will choose ...

Weill this has to be quick as the chat room was too busy and I spent a LONG time writing up a nice piece that I would appreciate all members read that are subscribers to at least the silver level. The writeup on the long section will hopefully help some of you to understand why it is 100000x times better to learn to fish than to just take the fish fro free. Now I am dead tired, just updated my orders, and still have to hit my forums. But what I can tell you here is that I had a few very nice stocks bounce off key averages or trendlines that could be very bullish on the short term to possibly the long term. I also loved the fact that the put/call ratio stayed at .94 above the .90 level which signals that most are still wanting to place as many bearish ...

More earnings report set for this short trading week, enjoy the day off today Masters and get ready to place your bets this week. Wednesday, May 28 Timing is everything they say. Movado Group, Inc. (NYSE: MOV) will probably agree with that. Watch earnings as they are expected to tick lower by 50% as compared to last year. First Call is showing estimates at 4 cents per share on $97.30 million of revenue. Earnings growth is slowing and has been estimated to continue to be negative through 2010... not encouraging. Thursday, May 29 One of the Masters favorites - Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has been up against hard times. In April the company announced a $1 billion share buyback plan. ...

Not to say "I told you so", but the Masters told you the market was going down.  On Monday we wrote The DOW crosses 13,000: Gentlemen place your bets, and down the ship goes.  But times like these are when you want to put together a shopping list of the best stocks out there, so let's do just that, go shopping. Thanks to the Fed news today about how rate cuts are done, inflation is fun, and expect more Americans to lose their jobs and start living in shopping carts, the DOW will keep going down. Let's start with two of the biggest companies in the world, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and General ...

Think the DOW will keep going with record oil and gas prices?  How about the cost groceries?  Did you get that loan from your Bank, how about that new house? Cypher once said, "Ignorance is bliss", don't get caught with your pants down Masters, let's break down how to play this market. We've said this a million times, but the time is right: The QID, DOG, and SKF: Rinse, Lather, Repeat Best against the DOW, use Short Dow30 ProShares (Public, AMEX:DOG), check out -- The DOG is man's best friend. The banking industry is still hurting, UltraShort Financials ...

S&P has tried and failed to overcome the 1400 level consistently over the last couple of months. Today, it overcame 1400 for a bit only to fall back. in fact, as I write this, the rally that has lasted most of the day has completely evaporated and S&P is now lower on the day. For the last week, I have looked at my holdings again and again wondering if I should sell my long positions or trim down. Many of my stocks have been steady and forming nice bottoms or bases (Omniture, Marchex) and some have just been going up at any sign of a broader market rally. Visa, Potash, RIMM, Apple and Nintendo have all weathered the pull backs exceptionally well and I am torn whether to hold on and ride out the bear or to sell and buy at lower levels. But then I have never been good ...