How to Boost Your Returns With ONE Secret ETF Strategy

[Thierry Martin]

BIDU Moving up within a well defined uptrend channel. Look for a break above the 143 level for a run towards 150 in the short term. For longer term trade the channel buy the lower end of the channel and sell into the higher. Stops below the lower white line of the channel for longs. Price target for mid term is 165. Technical indicators are supporting the bulls. RSI is moving up and above its 50% level. Stochastic are also in buy mode. MACD is positive and above the signal line. You need to put this stock on your watchlist next week and pay special attention to the price and the volume action.

[Thierry Martin]

With the year ending I decided to post how well the stocks that I announced performed this year. Here are my results 2011. You could have definitely outperformed the market if you followed these picks.

1. EERG ? I liked this junior oil stock back in April at $0.35. It was interesting to me because the merger would have pushed the share price higher. It was a little speculative, but it still paid off. Since the announcement the stock rose as high as $0.45. If you sold at the high point you would have had a return of 28.5%. It has also merged with American Eagle Energy, with the new symbol for the two companies being EERGD. The new stock currently trades at $1.35.

2. DCHAF/DSM ? I picked this rare metal holding company stock back in May at $0.49. I liked it because it was essentially a mining company except it purchased rare earth metals instead of mining for them. With China announcing that it was going to decrease the amount of rare earth metals it exported (thus increasing the price of rare earth metals), DCHAF/DSM was a no brainer. The stock rose as high as $1.24. If you sold at the peak you would have a return of 153%! It currently trades at $0.53. With assets worth $1.47 a share, the stock is still a great buy at this price.

3. CTXIF ? I announced this textile manufacturing stock back in July at $2.20. Since that time the stock rose to a high of $2.60, up 18%. I still love this company and expect it to do very well in the New Year. The stock?s current price is $2.17. It?s still a great buy, especially considering the Net Asset Value per share is $6.11, a conservative liquidating value of approximately $4.06 per share, and net working capital of almost $32 million. The company is also sitting on just over $5 million in cash, or $0.72 per share in cash. The company is continuing to grow very rapidly and since 2010 has acquired an additional yarn spinning factory to include in its operations. I strongly recommend everyone

[Thierry Martin]

Well, stocks just continued their march higher, with another small gain for the week on the S&P 500. It was really a pretty uneventful week which was surprising considering the improved GDP report and important jobs report which was in line with expectorations. While the S&P was up this week, the ?risk off? trade seems to be coming back with small caps seriously underperforming in the last few weeks.

Big Ben spoke during the week and the absence of QE3 had a big impact on precious metals with gold and silver both down around 5% on Wednesday.

AAPL had a big gain on Wednesday following the GDP numbers and details of the ipad3 trickling out. Their release date is set for March 7th, but I have a feeling with AAPL being so overbought right now, this will be a ?sell the news? type event.



For the general market, complacency still seems very high at the moment. I believe there will be a selloff at some point soon, it's just a question of when and how deep. Puts are being bid up at the moment as traders look to protect their recent gains. The CSFB Fear Index is at a multi-year high which is interesting considering we haven?t even had a decent selloff yet. The spread between VIX cash and VIX futures is also at multi-year highs, another sign that a selloff is expected (doesn?t guarantee it will happen though).

Volatility is very stubbornly staying below 18. I would like to see the VIX back up around 22-23 at which point I will look at some more Iron Condors or Credit Spreads.



The SPX daily chart, shows that stochastics and MACD have started to roll over. I think a test of 1350 is on the cards for next week. Below that, there is support around 1325-1330 which coincides with the rising 50d moving average then below that there is support around 1300 and the 200d at 1275. Time will tell how far we drop, I wouldn?t be surprised if the 1330-1350 level held on the first attempt. The 50d EMA is above the 200d and both are still rising which is bullish.



As mentioned earlier, RUT has been underperforming and has broken below key support. It is approaching the 50d at 790, below that there is strong support at 775 which I would expect to hold if we test it. The 50d EMA is above the 200d and both are still rising which is bullish although they are starting to level off. Keep an eye on this.



Copper has recovered but is still below resistance at $51.20. JJC is still above a rising 50d EMA and is also above a flat 200d. Keep an eye on JJC this week for an indication of broader market direction. The 50d EMA is below the 200 so this is less bullish than the stock indexes, but it looks like we might get a cross shortly. Expect strong resistance around $51.20 - $51.50.



XLF is starting to break above short term resistance, but be careful with this one as stochastics and MACD are both bearish and there is some divergence there also. The 50d EMA and the 200d EMA are rising and the 50 just crossed the 200 which is bullish. Keep a close eye on this ETF as it tends to lead the market. There is strong support at $14.20.



GLD sold off on huge volume this week, I?d like to see a test of the 200d around $160 and then we could maybe look at some bull put spreads if we also get oversold conditions. GLD is right at a flat 50d EMA and is above a rising 200d. There is strong support at the $155 - $160 level.



USO is pulling back after having a good run the last few weeks. Support and $40 held on Wednesday, below that there is support at the 50d EMA at $39 and the 200d at $37.50. The 50d is above the 200d and both are rising which is bullish.





Below is the economic calendar for next week, a fairly important data week with GDP and Jobless Claims likely to have a significant impact on stocks, so trade accordingly!

[Thierry Martin]

Just thought I would share this little nugget...

[Thierry Martin]

From a forbes article:

Solar Winds - SWI
Sales: $171 million


HMS Holding - HMSY
Sales: $339 million


Ancestry.com - ACOM
Sales: $354.4 million


Buffalo Wild Wings - BWL
Sales: $681.5 million


iRobot Corp - IRBT
Sales: $422.6 million


IPG Photonics - IPGP
Sales: $402.7 million


OPNET Technologies - OPNT
Sales: $157.1 million


BJ's Restaurants - BJRI
Sales: $559.4 million
*This is one of my personal favorites. Sales has grown 5.6% in 2010 , versus -1.8% for Red Lobster, 2% for Cheesecake Factory, -0.1% for PF Chang?s, 1.2% for Ruby Tuesday and 1.2% for Olive Garden.


TEAM - TISI
Sales: $544.6 million


DG (formerly known as DG FastChannel) - DGIT
Sales: $256.3 million


Emergent Biosolutions - EBS
Sales: $283.9 million


Hawkins - HWKN
Sales: $311.6 million


Exlservice Holdings - EXLS
Sales: $295.6 million


HealthStream - HSTM
Sales: $73.8 million


Interactive Intelligence Group - ININ
Sales: $192.2



These are not recommendations. Just ideas. Once again, credit goes to forbes.

FinViz - StockScreener and charting.
MarketWatch - News and quotes.
Zecco - Good broker!

[Thierry Martin]

COCO Has fallen big last two days based off news of competitor Apollo Group annoucing it lowered its projections for year over year enrollement numbers.

The reason I bring this up is because on feb 3rd, COCO was the only for-profit education company to show a higher level of enrollement than expected and is doing far better than most (including COCO) thought it would. So it rallied and settled around 5.00 for a month.

Only news since is that they renewed their leases on some campuses (normal) and Apollo's bad news.
seems harsh that COCO is taking such a large hit for APOL news.

[Thierry Martin]

Was pretty oversold. I got in at almost the bottom, (I hope).

[Thierry Martin]

Top bluechip stocks among politicians...

General Electric - GE
94 Politicians

Proctor and Gamble - PG
74 Politicians

Cisco Systems - CSCO
72 Politicians

Microsoft - MSFT
70 Politicians

Pfizer - PFE
61 Politicians

Bank of America - BAC
61 Politicians


*By politicians I mean members of the US congress. Source: opensecrets.org, and Center for Responsive Polit