One of my favorite ratios to track offense vs. defense within the equity markets is the Consumer Discretionary sector (XLY) divided by the Consumer Staples sector (XLP). But a look under the hood shares narrow leadership and questionable upside. Below, we see the S&P 500 ETF along with... READ MORE
Most of my guests in recent weeks on The Final Barhave embraced the "we're due for a pullback" thesis. From the very bullish (S&P 3600) to the quite bearish (S&P 2000) and everyone in between, it seems most people feel that the... READ MORE
Most of my guests in recent weeks on The Final Barhave embraced the "we're due for a pullback" thesis. From the very bullish (S&P 3600) to the quite bearish (S&P 2000) and everyone in between, it seems most people feel that the... READ MORE
One of the ways I like to measure offensive vs. defensive pressure in the equity market is using the ratio of Consumer Discretionary to Consumer Staples. Watching this ratio can tell you whether institutions are betting more on the "offense," like retail and travel names, or the traditional... READ MORE
Every Monday on StockCharts TV's The Final Bar, we look at the markets from three perspectives: top-down macro, sector rotation and bottom-up stock selection. In this week's review, we identified three sector charts that are potentially turning bearish and suggest broader weakness in the equity space.... READ MORE
As a technical analyst who started my career just after the market top in March 2000, I've had the pleasure (I guess?) of living through a number of previous bear market cycles. I first learned about and started to apply technical analysis during the 2001-2002 bear market, so... READ MORE
As a technical analyst who started my career just after the market top in March 2000, I've had the pleasure (I guess?) of living through a number of previous bear market cycles. I first learned about and started to apply technical analysis during the 2001-2002 bear market, so... READ MORE
My weekly routine involves two important steps. First, in preparation for Friday's edition of The Final Bar, I go through a series of long-term macro charts for my Wrap the Week segment. Second, over the weekend I review the individual stock charts for all the S&P... READ MORE
I very much enjoyed participating in our StockCharts TV special event "Navigating a Bear Market" along with many of my fellow StockCharts contributors. In this article, I'll provide my comments and charts from that special, along with some brief updates on what has changed in the... READ MORE
For this weekend's ChartWatchers newsletter, I shared some perspective on the bullish divergence appearing on the daily S&P 500 chart. It's worth noting that Monday's selloff pushed the S&P down to new lows, invalidating the bullish divergence. As price continues... READ MORE
Every Friday on my show The Final Bar, we answer viewer questions from throughout the past week. One of today's questions related to the potential bullish divergence on the S&P 500 using price and RSI. In this article, I'll share how I think about... READ MORE
Are the markets oversold? Yes. Is it reasonable to expect that next week will see the markets recover at least a bit after this week's mayhem? Absolutely. But here are three charts suggesting that any short-term market bounce will most likely be followed by further downside for stocks.... READ MORE
"How come small-caps aren't doing better when the market's making new highs?" I've heard some version of this question many times over the last couple years, starting with the emergence of the FAANG trade. Once that subsided and the market resumed its... READ MORE
With stock markets in rapid decline this week, mindful investors should be looking around for opportunities. What asset classes are thriving while others are struggling? A quick survey of the asset allocation will indicate that, while oil has been in freefall and stocks are now testing and failing at support,... READ MORE
With stock markets in rapid decline this week, mindful investors should be looking around for opportunities. What asset classes are thriving while others are struggling? A quick survey of the asset allocation will indicate that, while oil has been in freefall and stocks are now testing and failing at support,... READ MORE
I keep reminding viewers of my daily show, The Final Bar(new episodes every weekday at 4pm ET!), that extended bull markets can actually be a little frustrating. While a consistent uptrend in prices tends to be a good thing for long-term investors, two things present quite a challenge. The... READ MORE
While sectors like Technology of received much of the praise for leading the recent market upswing, the Health Care sector is comprised of a group of five industries that all have fairly attractive chart setups. (Earlier this week, on my daily closing bell show The Final Bar, I conducted a... READ MORE
The final chart that I shared in my portion of the StockCharts 2020 Market Outlook (coming soon to our YouTube channel!) was a two-year chart of gold. After a pullback in the fall to Fibonacci support, gold appeared to be resuming its long-term uptrend.Later, gold reached an extreme overbought... READ MORE
The final chart that I shared in my portion of the StockCharts 2020 Market Outlook (coming soon to our YouTube channel!) was a two-year chart of gold. After a pullback in the fall to Fibonacci support, gold appeared to be resuming its long-term uptrend. Now, gold has reached the extreme... READ MORE
You pour yourself a cup and coffee, fire up the computer and begin your daily investment process. What do you look at first? What's the last thing you review before moving on to other things? Most importantly, is your daily process consistent from one day to the next?... READ MORE
You pour yourself a cup and coffee, fire up the computer and begin your daily investment process. What do you look at first? What's the last thing you review before moving on to other things? Most importantly, is your daily process consistent from one day to the next?... READ MORE
I've written before about the importance of a good morning coffee routine. These are the charts you review first thing in the morning as a way of enhancing your market awareness. The first chart on your list, given that you're a long-term investor, should be a... READ MORE
During an interview I took part in for a podcast this week, I was asked to define technical analysis. I immediately provided John Murphy's summary that technical analysis is the study of "market action" and is based on a visual analysis of price and sentiment. After... READ MORE
During an interview I took part in for a podcast this week, I was asked to define technical analysis. I immediately provided John Murphy's summary that technical analysis is the study of "market action" and is based on a visual analysis of price and sentiment. After... READ MORE
When I worked for a large asset management firm, we had a number of fantastic digital displays that allowed us to view stock charts on a massive scale. The size of the screens made the work of identifying trends and inflection points much easier - and also way more fun.... READ MORE
As of this article's writing, I have just passed the two-month mark after joining StockCharts.com as Chief Market Strategist. Let me tell you, it's been an absolute pleasure getting to know all of the developers that are building and maintaining the powerful set of features... READ MORE
I wrote a while back about Home Bias, which describes how investors tend to stay "close to home" when making their investment decisions. Not only do US-based investors often invest exclusively in American companies, they also overweight companies that are closer to them geographically within the U.S.... READ MORE
We just completed our second week of The Final Bar, the new closing bell show on StockCharts TV. During our Friday mailbag segment, I was asked about how institutional investors think about relative strength. To be honest, relative strength is of vital importance to institutions because, well, that is how... READ MORE
Recently, a reader responded to one of my articles on the S&P 500 and asked about the value of support and resistance levels on a broad market index. He explained that support and resistance seems to make sense for individual stocks, as they're based on people&... READ MORE
I've been using technical analysis professionally for almost twenty years now. Though I have learned a great deal from putting the technical toolkit into action, some of my favorite learning experiences have come from attending industry conferences. Not only do you get to hear presentations from knowledgeable experts,... READ MORE
I've written before about RSI and the difference between "good" overbought and "bad" overbought. In the future, we may see the bond prices of these past few weeks used as examples of how to interpret extreme overbought conditions. A review of the stock-to-bond ratio... READ MORE
I'm often asked about how technical indicators work across different time frames. The short answer is "Yes, they work." The longer answer, which explains how you need to use the toolkit differently depending on your time frame, follows. Many investors have a tendency to lock themselves... READ MORE
I recently tweeted about the percent of stocks above their 200-day moving averages, pointing out that there is a key line in the sand for this important breadth indicator. This resulted in a fantastic question about looking at market breadth in cap-weighted terms vs. equal-weighted terms.In this article, we&... READ MORE
Any time I have a chance to interview other market strategists, I like to ask them about their One Chart. That is, "What's the one chart that you think is the best tell on the markets right now." To rephrase, if you could only have one... READ MORE
"Never confuse brains with a bull market." When the market is going higher and the average stock is appreciating, we often attribute the gains to our skill as investors. Due to our incredible investing prowess, we have managed to own stocks that are doing well! However, when the... READ MORE
What was the first chart you looked at today? Was it for a stock that you read about in a blog or the newspaper? Was it for a company that was mentioned in that e-mail newsletter you saw? Was it for one of your holdings that you're concerned... READ MORE
I’m currently on a cruise ship docked in Naples, Italy, on a two-week vacation with my family, along with a good friend from college and his family. Today, we toured the ruins of Pompeii, which meant very high temperatures but fascinating history lessons. Source: Pixabay In preparing to write... READ MORE
When you're a student pilot, your first couple of solo flights remain very close to your home airport. Basically, you get up in the air and do a couple laps around the landing pattern. This is meant to get you comfortable being in the plane by yourself, as... READ MORE
Has the slow and grinding uptrend in the US Dollar finally reached its exhaustion point? A quick review of the charts suggests this may be the case. The $USD chart has certainly been a frustrating one for Dollar bulls, as the trend, while steadily positive, has not provided the upside... READ MORE
Years ago, I was looking to hire a junior analyst to focus on database management and creating new data visualizations. We received quite a large pile of resumes; I'll never forget spending an afternoon flipping through papers until one of the them jumped out at me. What stood... READ MORE