Charting Stocks

The Russian stock market collapsed today, causing the RTS and the Micex stock exchanges to suspend trading for one hour at 4:05 p.m. Moscow time.  The RTS stock index, which is denominated in US dollar,  plunged 9.4%, while the ruble-denominated Micex stock index fell 9.6%. The decline in Russia followed a tumble in oil prices, [...]

One of the ways market technicians try to predict sector out performance is by conducting a relative strength analysis. In a bear market the price charts of most sectors and stocks are moving down with the market. Some sectors are moving down more than the market, and so they are relatively weaker, and some are [...]

As of 01/02/2008 the the year price target on the S&P 500 set by the Chief Investment Strategists at the major investment banks are as follows:
Strategist Year End Price Target
Citigroup                                   1675
HSBC                                          1700
Credit Suisse                              1650
Bank of America                         1625
UBS                                             1700
Morgan Stanley                           1525
Bear Stearns                                1700
Goldman Sachs                           1675
JP Morgan                                    1590
Lehman Brothers                         1630
Wachovia                                     1590
Merrill Lynch                                1525
Average 1632
Average [...]

Short ETF’s are the big winners in 2008.
The following ETF’s are among the top performing index funds for all of 2008. It should come as no surprise that each of them short (bet against) the market. This bunch, in particular, actually does so by using leverage and gives the investor exposure to twice the [...]