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Saturday
Jul312010

Could Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) Go Lower?

Akamai Technologies (AKAM) has been a very popular growth stock among traders for some time now but has recently become a victim of a bad earnings reaction. Being in line with analyst expectations is barely passable, but don’t dare lower your forecasts. I mentioned in a previous article that earnings were not as important as forecasts and guidance if we want to find a bottom in the market.

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Friday
Jul302010

Is the S&P 500 ETF Rolling Over? NYSE:SPY

The S&P 500 is turning out to be a conundrum for many professionals and home traders alike. The conflicting information on good earnings, high unemployment, and other factors continue to batter the market. One moment the SP500 is heading for the stars and the next, it’s heading to the cellar.

So what’s a trader to do?

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Thursday
Jul292010

Financial ETF Update XLF, FAS, FAZ

The Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJIA) broke it’s four-day winning streak on Wednesday. Durable goods orders were down which surprised many (which surprises me because I seem to expect the worst) and the Fed’s Beige Book showed some economic softening.

There will be more comments on the economy coming from the

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Wednesday
Jul282010

Starbucks Could Be Losing Its Luster NYSE:SBUX

Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Shultz at a product launch.Starbucks (SBUX) has been an amazing growth stock during the past year and has “matured” by now offering a dividend. If you are one of the buyers from the March 2009 lows, this dividend would be on top of the 300% gains made from trough to peak.

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Sunday
Jul252010

Financial Sector ETF XLF Chart Analysis

Whenever there are moves in the markets that do not seem like they make sense, like a sudden drop in a sector that seemed to be doing well, I always check what the financials are doing. They have a significant influence on the overall market and there will be no sustainable rally without them.

If this sector is facing strong resistance, expect to see a pullback in ETFs that track the sector like the Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF) or the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shrs (FAS) as well as the overall market. This has been the case several times over the past few months and will continue to be so.

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Saturday
Jul242010

David Harvey on Crises of Capitalism

In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

This is based on a lecture at the RSA (www.theRSA.org).

Brilliant speaker and well animated video. Enjoy!

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Saturday
Jul242010

Interesting Video on People and Rewards

I’ve come across a very interesting video on how people perform with reward-based incentives. This video really had an impact on me and while it may seem counter-intuitive at first, it makes perfect sense in the end. The way it is animated is really quite awesome. I love this video and I hope you enjoy it!

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Friday
Jul232010

S&P 500 Technical Analysis Update with Fibonacci

This earnings season has been interesting so far, providing short-term traders with many opportunities to play the long and short side. While I enjoy taking advantage for big short-term moves, my preferred style of investing is swing trading and trend trading.

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Saturday
Jul172010

What the Big Mac can tell you about currencies

Bryan  Rich

Currencies have experienced a massive wave of volatility in the past three years. Driving some of that volatility are the early stages of a sovereign debt and currency crisis. As I laid out in my June 26 Money and Markets column, history suggests many of the sovereign debt problems in the world will likely be responded to with competitive currency devaluations. So it’s reasonable to expect large moves in currencies. How large should we expect? For our guide, let’s take a look at the market’s estimate of the current “fair value” of currencies.

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Sunday
Jul112010

Earnings may be the key to a short-term bottom.

Last week was undoubtedly a great week for stocks. Even with one less trading day, the Dow climbed 5.28%, the S&P 500 gained 5.41% and the Nasdaq added 5%. There was not a single down day and the fear indicators retreated.

This is all very bullish and I have been making my short-term predictions for this bounce as well. Some notorious bears like Doug Kass say that the bottom has been put in for the year and the media has been talkng about stocks testing the lows (so you know it won’t happen).

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Thursday
Jul082010

What's Going On With Crude Oil? United States Oil Fund USO

What timing! I’ve just received a new video from my friend Adam from MarketClub on Crude Oil. He gives his opinion on the price action in crude oil, looking back at the past year or so. What I like about his trading style is his special scoring system using his proprietary “Trading Triangles”. This is his system that gives clear signals on when to enter, exit and even stay on the sidelines of a trade. This has helped him (and me!) catch some huge trend moves, including the big rally in the markets over the past year and a half. It’s powerful stuff.

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Thursday
Jul082010

Equity and Commodity Update (SPY, USO)

The markets almost had me fooled today. Stocks opened higher and almost looked like they would not look back. The only news that came out was jobless claims which was 21000 less than expected and the crude oil inventory report which showed a decline of 4.96 million barrels (more on this in a minute). Rallying on less than horrible news has been the norm lately, but it’s not my cup of tea.

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Wednesday
Jul072010

What Makes This Stock Market Rally Different?

In case you haven’t seen the news, stocks did well on Wednesday. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the conditions are ripe for a bounce and while yesterday was a lackluster performance for the bulls, they really stepped up to the plate Wednesday.

I did not like yesterday’s price action, because I don’t trust big jumps right at the open in a weak market. It seems as though the only big gaps at the open that hold are the gaps down

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