ETF Analysis & Opinion

One aspect of the market recovery since the August/September lows has been the narrow market breadth. The Russell 1000 Index return has been held up by the large mega cap stocks within the index. This...

Summary: Aside from the upcoming FOMC meeting, there do not appear to be many strong impediments to further gains by year-end for US equities. Three scenarios seem possible:A breakout higher now is...

Last week’s review of the macro market indicators suggested heading into December that the equity markets looked solid and may have new leadership.Elsewhere looked for gold (N:GLD) to continue...

“The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.” – Oliver Wendell HolmesWell, the sloppy action we saw Wednesday was confirmed on...

The recent explosion of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has provided income investors with many new ways of goosing returns.However, the ETFs with the juiciest yields can be quite dangerous, as...

One of my tools in my market analysis toolbox is leadership analysis. In particular, I found that in bull phases, it pays to buy the market leaders (see here). I was playing around with Relative...

The Nasdaq 100 was the last major index to make a new all time high after the financial crisis that bottomed in 2009. But the ETF tracking the Nasdaq 100, O:QQQ, is yet to do so. Tuesday’s move...

The CBOE VIX Volatility Index is an interesting animal that has grown to become one of the most heavily watched indicators of fear and greed in the market. This index functions by measuring near-term...

How confident should diversified investors be that U.S. stocks can power ahead without the extraordinary stimulus of quantitative easing (QE) and zero percent interest rate policy (ZIRP)? Not too...

Most of the markets and sectors were bullish today after breaking above their short-term resistance. N:XLF was no different and was up over 1%. The move upwards was the results of buying pressure with...

Kudos to outdoor retailer REI for actually giving its employees time off on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. REI created an #optoutside campaign to encourage fellow enthusiasts to join...

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) rolled out the copy and paste machine for its December statement on monetary policy. I found just two snippets of differences from the November statement that are...

The Q's and tech were down today but were the stronger of the sectors. O:QQQ managed to remain in its tight range and above support, although not breaking above resistance. QQQ touched its resistance...

OK, I will admit I am a bit late with this one. I’ll go ahead and blame “The Holidays”. If you were wondering when it might be a good time to hold real estate stocks, the answer...