This Market Is Weaker Than a Wet Paper Bag

Here’s the magic number: 124.07. That’s the number you need for shorting U.S. government debt.

In my DailyWealth column April 13, I said if the long bond fell below 124.07, it would signal a bond bear market. Well, the long bond closed at 123.26 last Tuesday and is now making new five-month lows…

The "long bond" is the nickname for the 30-year Treasury bond. It’s the longest-dated debt instrument the U.S. Treasury issues. And on March 18, the Federal Reserve announced it would buy $300 billion "longer-dated" Treasury bonds.

This was the news the bond bulls had been waiting for. The world’s most powerful…

Here’s a One-Week Trade Good for 25%

It is a different market today than it was six weeks ago.

Back then, I warned short sellers they were about to get wiped out. Since that essay, the S&P 500 has rallied 20%. The Dow is up over 1,000 points. And investors are breathing a sigh of relief that the worst is over. Indeed, the strength of the recent rally seems to have just about everyone thinking we’ve entered a new bull market.

While I’d love to join the ever-expanding chorus of cheerleaders yelling out, "Give me a B… Give me a U… Give me an L – L," we’d have…

It’s Time to Take Precious Metal Profits

It’s just about time to take profits on platinum.

Back in January, we made the unpopular assertion that platinum would outperform gold this year. At the time, it seemed ludicrous – at least, that’s what I heard from the many gold bugs who read our musings here in Growth Stock Wire.

After all, platinum is more of an industrial metal while gold is a a hedge against inflation. So with the economy in a recession and with the government running the currency printing presses around the clock, logic dictated gold should be the metal of choice.

Of course, I’ve never been…

Candlesticks Trounce North Korea’s Rocket Science

The Dingdong 2 rocket (a/k/a The Fizzler) is said in some quarters to have placed a satellite in orbit, and that it is broadcasting patriotic music. There are several difficulties with that thesis: responsible authority states that (1) the rocket, together with its satellite payload, never achieved orbit; (2) various pieces thereof were tracked as they fell into salt water; (3) no tracker has been able to find the satellite in any orbit; and, most importantly, no one can hear the music except, perhaps, Kim Jong-Il himself.

The Japanese Candlesticks routinely perform better than that. As a particular point of…

A New Bull Market Is Just Getting Started

Commodities are ready to explode higher.

In the commodity sector, you don’t get a more bullish sign than when the 20-day moving average crosses over the 50-day moving average. (And there isn’t a more bearish sign than when the cross goes the other way.)

Take a look at this chart of the Commodities Index (CRB)…

The 20-day moving average crossed over the 50-day moving average back in September 2007. That kicked off a strong bull market in commodity prices, and the index rallied from about 325 all the way up to 475 – a gain of 46% – in just 10 months.

In July…