For Auld Lang Syne

Hey everybody, Dave Bartosiak here for my good friend Jim “The Count” Giaquinto. He’ll be back with you as soon as he breaks his first New Year’s resolution, on the 2^nd.

A very choppy, inside day for markets as stocks refused to take out highs or lows. You can still chalk it up as a victory though as the major market averages all managed to stay in the green into the closing bell. The S&P 500 finished the day up 21.11 points or 85 bps at 2,506.85. The NASDAQ Composite added

Don’t forget, you all have the day off tomorrow. If you happen to get too heavy handed with the Champagne tonight I have an ancient Polish secret for you to fix that hangover; pickle juice. Before the days of Gatorade it was this briny liquid which helped folks stave off rough mornings. Let’s just hope that the market doesn’t have a hangover heading into 2019.

Today’s Portfolio Highlights:

The very handsome and well-respected editor of Surprise Trader made a few moves today. Seeking to have a clean slate heading into the New Year, all the existing Surprise Trader holdings were cashed out. Despite a very rocky few weeks, both Restoration Hardware (RH) and Ciena (CIEN) were winners. Don’t forget that earnings season is right around the corner which means plenty of activity from Surprise Trader coming up.

A clean slate was the theme of today’s action with several editors cutting bait on a few losers. In the ETF Investor Neena Mishra dumped both the Global X FinTech ETF (FINX) and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSE:XBI). She attributed the moves to tax loss harvesting as well as making room for new ideas coming up next week.

Also, Ryan McQueeny made a few moves in Income Investor. Retail was on the chopping block for him as he dumped a few names. Among the deletions were Target (NYSE:TGT), Macy’s (M), and Chico’s (CHS). The only non-retail stock getting the axe today was BG Staffing (BGSF). Just like Neena, Ryan says he looks to get the number of holdings up shortly after the new year.

In his write-up tonight, power trader Jeremy Mullin set the stage for next year. He’s expecting plenty of volatility moving forward, which translates to opportunity. He said, “Looking to next year, I expect more of the same in what we saw these last few months: Volatility. It’s a word that will become popular in 2019 and that’s both good and bad. On the bright side a lot of opportunity is created for shorter-term traders like me. However, the big intraday moves can cause a lot of stress for traders. Those that can absorb or thrive on stress will do fine. Others that can’t adapt will likely burn out.”

That’s all I’ve got for you today ahead of the New Year. I wish every one of you a happy, healthy year.

Have a great night,

Dave

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