I agree. Repatriation of cash will allow companies to buy back stock and pay dividends. If we're lucky the companies will actually invest the money in R&D and expansion, but don't count on it. Most likely, stocks will rise due to buybacks and dividends.

The Fed will probably raise rates, which could offset the stock momentum. A 1/2 point raise is more likely than a 1/4 point raise. If that happens, then watch out. The market could fall.

So the timing of repatriation and interest rate raises will be an important factor in timing the market -- unless you use a long term, buy and hold strategy. And even if you do have a long term strategy, it might make sense to anticipate the interest rate hike and sit on the sidelines until the market stabilizes.

My cigar butts trades are doing well today:

DHT up 10% since Dec 5 purchase date.

UUUU up 16.5% since Dec 5 purchase date.

CPSS up 31% since Nov 7 purchase date.

PACD up 47% since Nov 7 purchase date.

Those gains far outweigh the losses I had from the Nov 7 purchases of STLY and PDLI. I sold both a week or so ago.

No doubt these trades are benefitting from the strong recent market. But I had written back on July 12 that the market could rise by 15% by Jan 12 given the appearance of a very strong bullish momentum indicator.

Couple that with the fact that small stocks tend to outperform large stocks at the turn of the year due to tax loss selling; many things were in place for this type of trade to have a good chance of success.

I'm raising cash. Sold my WFC shares on the recent run up. Will be exiting or reducing multiple positions in the Energy sector before the end of the month.

I'll maintain some positions I've been in for years.

It's certainly been fun participating in a run like this but the idea that this market hasn't gotten ahead of earnings requires some assumptions about the future I think are overly rosy.

I can't blame you for raising cash given the rapid run up. It would be good to have cash to buy stocks if the market crashes.

Right now, I am not fighting the tape. I don't want to sell into strength. The market has been strong for the past 5 months. I think it has another good month remaining. I'll use stops in case there is a big reversal.

One thing we know is that what goes up must come down ... eventually. Right now the market is red hot. I'll keep riding the wave, but will be on the lookout for signs of a reversal. So far, I haven't see any.

DHT and UUUU are up 11 and 25 percent since Monday.

CPSS and PACD are up 30 and 65 percent since Nov 7.

PACD in one month has become the best performing stock in my portfolio over the past two years. Those gains are NOT sustainable.

The market was up today, but decliners were greater than advancers by a few shares. That means there is a some selling going on, even though the S&P closed higher.

Took profits on AMD, and bought beaten-down TNDM.

Investing In Stocks
 

Hi, i am wanting to start investing in stocks and i think it's a good time because share prices are lower. Can any one suggest me from which company i should start from? :)

It depends on what your objective is. Are you looking to hold long term or short term. Are you interested in collecting dividends for purposes of income and/or reinvestment? Are you nearing retirement?

The best advice I can give is to read a lot of books.

Here is a link to several good ones:

http://www.fool.com/specials/2000/sp001107a.htm

You might even consider joining the Motley Fool website. They have some excellent message boards and offer other valuable investing information.

There are a many more good books.

Here is a list of authors whose books you should consider reading:

David Dreman
John Neff
Joel Greenblatt
Warren Buffett
Joseph Piotroski
James P. O'Shaunessy
Martin Zweig
Benjamin Graham
Kenneth Fisher
Peter Lynch

If you read these books, follow the authors' advice, I am certain that in 20 or so years your chances of being financially secure would be far greater than asking for stock picks from this message board. Although, there are some pretty good analysts here.

i keep hearing this and on the surface it's true but in real terms it isn't.
While it's true that the inflation adjusted return of the S&P 'Composite Index' from Oct 1929 to Oct 1955 was -3.25%, if you include reinvested dividends your return could have been 315%. That's an annualized real return of over 5.5%.
I know that I don't know where the market will be tomorrow but I would rather be invested in it than on the sidelines. Over the very long run, the stock market has had an inflation-adjusted annualized return rate of between six and seven percent.

Thank you so much.

Regular trading hours for the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) are Monday to Friday with an opening time of 9:30 a.m. and a closing time of 4:00 p.m. Each day it is open, It is important to also note that some U.S. holidays may affect trading on the TSX for equities traded in U.S. dollars.

Note that when a holiday falls on the weekend Saturday or Sunday, the stock markets will be closed the next calendar Monday in lieu of the weekend holiday.

Here you will find the TSX holidays 2017 calendar

While I am raising cash (mostly be exiting an overweight in Energy stocks), I did buy CVS today @79.50.

It sold off after losing the TRIAD contract to Walgreens/Boots Alliance and now trades at what I perceive as a fair value for a company still growing earnings at a double digit rate.

I started December with less than 5% cash and will exit with closer to 20% so it's not like I hate this market. But I do expect to see better prices when Trump hasn't solved all the economic problems we face in his first week.

I'm not a trader. I hold all my positions at least a year (average is 42 months and I have some that are 30 years old). I've been watching CVS since it fell in the 3Q and just decided it's unlikely to drop all that much further in any pullback and would open a position now.

Dow @ 20,0000
 

So called experts said the Dow was going to tank under Trump Wall Street hates him , businesses dont like him etc blah, blah,blah They predicted the DJI would drop a 1000 points Wednesday after the election Its up nearly 2000 since

Driving The Dow
 

Stocks that are moving Dow

Back on July 13, 2016 I predicted here on PA that the market had the potential to rise up to 15% by January 15, 2017 because a big momentum indicator was triggered.

I consider the political climate as I invest, but I also look at the facts. I leave it to others to give credit or place the blame for the economy on president.

Here are the facts:

When George Bush, Jr. took office the DOW was at 10495. 6 months later it had fallen to 7591.

7.5 years later, at the end of Bush's presidency, the DOW had fallen to 8000 just as Obama was about to take office.

Under Bush, investors lost more than 20%.

Then over the next 8 years the DOW, under the Obama administration, rose to 19912 -- about a 12,000 point rise.

Under Obama investors gained about 250%.

Under Trump, the DOW is up about 200 points. That's about a 1% gain. That's a good return if you can do it every week.

If Trump can stick around long enough to do two terms, it seems very unlikely that we'll see another 250% gain. That would put the DOW at 50,000.

A 4% gain per year would be a more reasonable target. That would put the DOW in the range of 26,000 at the end of the next 8 years.

However, that could all change if there is some huge financial crisis or a war.

Trump is smart. We'll find out if his business savvy can translate into savvy broad economic policy.

i think the above poster's 50k target is very realistic because of his great reasoning.

for me it looks like the dollar will weaken and help make it to that number.

Trumps way of doing things is very unpredictable, if you can predict it you can score with the s+p and dow.

If the DOW makes 50k over the next 8 years there will be a lot of happy CEOs. :D

Yeah, they all bought in at the low... :lol:

Funny stuff...they MADE BACK their losses and THEN made some money (this didn't start happening until 2013 by the way)...most of them, anyway...those that didn't bail in a panic back in 08...etc...etc...etc...

I can only hypothesize how "they" did. I'm just giving the facts.

The market started turning around in March of 2009 -- a month or so after Obama took office. There were 10 straight days where the up volume to down volume ratio averaged more than 2 to 1. That is a huge sign of momentum and confidence.

This happened this past July while Obama was still in office and Clinton was the favorite to win.

You can attribute this continuing bull market to Trump or Obama or whoever you want. Does it really matter who gets the credit?

The important thing is to look at the facts and then invest accordingly.

The rise since 09 is all Fed driven 0 interest rates or close to it,A bunch of QE's and Tarp all led to a recovery in the financial health of the banks and other lenders. Employment growth was weak. Send a thank you to fed for the rise since 09,
.

I don't care who is causing the market to go up...but to say investors made 250% with Obama is ridiculous...people were bleeding out when he took office.

Only a precious few bought substantially at the beginning of 2009, so I would venture to guess hardly ANYBODY made 250%. Like I said, those with the balls to actually stay in, MADE THEIR LOSSES back in around 2013, and THEN started making money again....

who the cares about stock markets. it took 8 years to make the 250%, i am going to come up with a move in the superbowl that will make you 300% in less than 3 hours.......

stay tuned

I think we'll see the Dow below 19,000 before it's above 21,000. It's not much of a prediction (a 5% retracement before a 5% gain) but give me some credit for the enthusiasm currently evident in the market.

I'm still optimistic that the administration and one party control of congress will be good for the market in general but the run up so far has been an expansion in an already heady P/E ratio on the expectation that a lot will happen in a hurry.

It won't. The Senate will be tied up confirming a new justice shortly.

I think that as the reality sets in that meaningful tax reform isn't going to impact fiscal year 2017, there will be a pullback.

I sure hope so. I'm 30% in cash since mid-Decemberish.

SFOR
 

i have been buying this stupid thing for the last 6 months. usually i would never tout a penny stock that is below a penny right now in a million years. most of these stocks are complete pump and dump scams. but this one has some very interesting people behind it like Beau Dietl, letters of endorsements from people like Warren Buffet and Donald Trump.

they have a tremendous law firm that is suing large company's. they deal with internet security and the money to be made at first will be in these lawsuits.

currently selling for .0056 cents. that is a little more than half a penny. it should go back to .03 whether the market stays friendly or turns bearish.

do your own due diligence on this one. i think its a double great gamble.

Heavy insider selling recently...across the board...sometimes tho...instead of an upcoming down market as was the case in the past....it could mean the "Big Dogs" got giant stock option bonus's...so just collecting some FREE cash from mom/pop investor(s)...and market will continue to roll...then again maybe not....

Some of the insider selling in banks was because options that had been awarded but which were out of the money in November, got into the money just before expiration in January.

I assume this was probably true for any industry that participated in the post election rally but was very visible in financials.

Barrons-a periodical that I have found to be more right than wrong about the stock market's future through the years- cover story this week thinks that the Dow could reach 30,000 by 2025 assuming no trade war or real war. It's a paid subscriber article so linking to it is pointless but there's a quick summary by someone who doesn't agree with the premise.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...-one-condition

OTOH, I'm not convinced I should take someone seriously who identifies themself after a character in a Brad Pitt movie.

It's a bull market.

it can go up point wise and not be in a bull market if the value of the currency does not keep up with the value of the dow.

Heavy insider selling isn't as predictive as heavy insider buying. Rich people always buying expensive s_ _ _, paying tuition to Harvard and Stanford, and cutting checks to ex-trophy wives.

good things come in three's
 

living lock #1 Trump to win presidency

living lock #2 New England Patriots to win superbowl

living lock #3 $50 and $100 dollar bills are going bye bye just like the $500 and $1000 dollar bills did in the early 70's. this stuff is happening all over the world right now. something different going to replace those bills at some point.

silver going to go ballistic at some point this year or next.

The 100's , I agree will probably be gone in the next few years but the fifties have value.Most banks in Europe and Asia only change money for their customers so tourists have no use for currency (cheaper to use an ATM ,even with the fees), although third world countries still have an unholy lust for US cash .I usually bring 3000 in hundreds when I come to the Dom. Rep in the winter, so it would inconvenience me to bring double the amount of bills but it will also inconvenience the drug cartels. :)

maybe i am pushing the envelope with the fifties, but since i have't been going to the casino's or race tracks i find myself walking around with a bunch of credit cards and less than $50 in my pocket at all times. even when you need to take an Uber ride they don't even take cash.

when the government does get rid of the bills it will save them plenty from printing the stuff. there will probably be a lot of down side to go with getting rid of these denomination's.

If they want to save money, getting rid of the penny like Canada did makes more sense.

I can't imagine the print cost on a $100 bill is any different than the $10.

And unless they intend to actually decrease the amount of cash in circulation, they would have to substantially increase the print of smaller bills.

The anti-counterfeiting technology/measures that are used in the printing of the $100 bill, make it costlier to print than any other bill....

i would say they probably would want less money in circulation and maybe rely on some type of digital money like what other's are trying to do throughout the world now.

Has anyone noticed today was another record day in the stock market? Of course people noticed but it is ignored on here it for reasons I simply do not understand. :)

before Trump got sworn in there were a lot out there that doubted his ability to govern, same thing happened with Obama. now it looks like more people trust his judgement.

during Obama the dow almost tripled, if it doubles with Trump that would be great. i don't think that will be that easy, but still very possible if the dollar continues to fall the dow could make some science fiction moves.

The market has been going up since 2009...straight up basically...so not sure what reaction you're expecting HERE when record highs are recorded...ho-hum I say.

Should I be shocked? Surprised? Dumbfounded? Awed? :lol:

Call me when we drop 10-20%...now THAT would be worth noticing...