It's not just Technical Analysis all the time. It's actually quite the opposite. We have a lot of conversations with really smart people about all kinds of topics.
Today's guest is my pal Steve Reitmeister, who brings 40 years of experience, including being Editor-in-Chief at Zacks.com and CEO of Stocknews.com.
According to the National Retail Federation, 197 million Americans shopped over the 5 days from Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday. There are only216 million Americans over 15 years old in the country. Even allowing for double-counting, that’s a good turn-out for a fake holiday with unexceptional discounts.
Who won?
Well according to our Retail and Consumer expert Jeff Macke,
"Abercrombie won the mall. Walmart won Discount. William Sonoma and Dick’s Sporting Goods have won Home and Sports so hard they’re running out of chains to compete with. Amazon is winning the world and barely seems to care about (or profit from) retail at all."
The S&P500, Nasdaq100 and Global100 Index each made new all-time highs yesterday.
This is among many other stocks, sectors and indexes around the world that are also making new cycle highs.
We've been buying stocks very aggressively, of course, because historically it pays much better to own stocks during bull markets vs doing the alternative.
We've gone back and done the work. It's just math.
Those investors with too much cash, or too few stocks in their portfolios, have been paying the consequences.
The pushback I get, and have been getting over the past couple of years, tends to revolve around valuation and how stocks are "too expensive".
I find that to be a hilarious reason to avoid buying stocks during a bull market.
Common excuses for fighting this powerful trend include, but are not limited to:
I was wondering myself. So I asked Retail and Consumer expert Jeff Macke to shoot over some results.
His answer?
"Abercrombie won the mall. Walmart won Discount. William Sonoma and Dick’s Sporting Goods have won Home and Sports so hard they’re running out of chains to compete with. Amazon is winning the world and barely seems to care about (or profit from) retail at all."
Man is he good.
Look at this chart of Abercrombie breaking out of this multi-decade base to new all-time highs:
Last night was our LIVE Monthly Charts Strategy Session for Premium Members of ASC Research.
This 2-times per month LIVE event is one of the biggest reasons why most of the world's largest financial institutions that you've ever heard of come to Allstarcharts for help making big decisions in the market.
One chart that really stood out to me, especially considering where we are in the cycle, is just how many bears there are among individual investors.
And it would be foolish to ignore it. So we're doing the opposite. We're leaning in and pressing our bets.
Look at the Small-cap Indexes both making new all-time highs. The S&P600 Small-cap Index and Russell2000 Small-cap Index are completing multi-year bases and just beginning their next leg higher:
How many people do you know have Chinese stocks as the biggest winner of the Trump landslide victory?
I don't anyone, and I talk to a lot of people.
Traders and Investors are simply NOT positioned for it.
They're all just assuming Trump is going to be bad for Chinese stocks, with tariffs and rocket beef and whatever else....
I think it's great. We're happy to take the other side of their (already priced in) pessimistic views.
Here is the CSI 300 Index, which is basically the S&P500 of China. Look at the double bottom, followed by the most violent momentum thrust in the history of Chinese equities, and now the consolidation post election.