IKEM/184/YELLEN OPENED HER MOUTH

At the testimony before the Congress and she assured the rate hike might not occur until the second half of the year. She indicated that it would likely come later rather than sooner. The markets rallied on her comments again yesterday and rose to new fresh records. The Dow Jones index hit its second record close of 2015 and the S&P 500 also delivered a record finish. Go home and here is the Martini time. The markets are in rally mood. Naysayers, doomsayers, short sellers are not in the market? Remember, last year everyone was scared about the end of QE, but Mr. Market just gets higher since that time.

Tuesday gauges:

• Dow 18,209 +0.51% 
• Nasdaq 4,968 + 0.14% 
• S&P 500 2,115 + 0.25% 

The Nasdaq is only 1.6% off its March 2000 peak. The tech benchmark index advanced for the 10th session in a row, scoring its longest winning streak since mid-2009.

European stock markets gained nicely too across the board. The Athens Composite Index GD, +9,81% surging. And the FTSE is in 15 years high. As we forecasted the bulls are stronger in Europe recently in the first quarter of 2015, especially in FTSE, IBEX and SUI30.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.

FRIDAY IS HISTORICALLY UP

That is an interesting theory and legend on the floor except it is not true statistically. And, on the other hand speculating daily basis or intraday is the best way to burn all your money as the paper tissue in the fire. Our strategy is looking for longer term and trying to identify the underlying trend for weeks. You can enjoy our managed account performance. http://bfmassets.com/managed-account.html

Yesterday gauges:

• Dow 17,986 -0.24% 
• Nasdaq 4,925 +0.38% 
• S&P 500 2,097 -0.13% 
• Russell +0%

Thursday and the whole week was fairly muted. Yesterday only Nasdaq was able to deliver some gains and closed higher for the seventh consecutive day and delivered its longest winning streak in 2015. Everyone is sitting and waiting to figure out what happens with Greece. The volatility, the watchword of 2015 has gone this week. In January the Dow swung by 1% or more during ten days, but so far in February, it has only done only three times.

Stocks tried to rally further, but were only able to hold around the record levels and doing a ranging pattern in a narrow band. Everything is sitting on new highs in Europe and in US just the Nikkei sets 15 years new high. When does it come the break out? My bet is for sure not today, but if somehow occurs any bigger moves today it wouldn’t mean break-out clearly. The break out in my view is a process not a moment, ordinarily takes 2-3 days.

In technical terms the indices still have room to head higher, especially FTSE, IBEX, SMI and AUS 200. On the IBEX chart there is a key resistance level at the current price of 10.900 and if it is taken the Spanish benchmark index could easily jump up to 11.150.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.

GREXIT AND UKRAINE REALLY SCARY?

I doubt that if you look at the charts. Mr. Market really ignores both effects and just delivered yesterday again a modest rally. Day by day we see a creeping rally without any big jumps, but the indices are climbing higher. We are also long recently in FTSE and AUS200, SUI 30 and IBEX and our managed account portfolio keeps delivering nice returns to our clients. http://bfmassets.com/managed-account.html

Market gauges Tuesday:

• Dow 18,048, +0.16% 
• Nasdaq 4,899, +0.11% 
• S&P 500 2,100, +0.14% 

After the closure of US markets on Monday for the President’s Day, Tuesday session started in negative territory, but later we were up across the board, all European and US indices closed higher. Stocks turned positive in early afternoon trade on the news, after earlier trading along the flat line just below multi-year highs despite the lack of resolution on Monday in the Greece-euro zone standoff. The S&P 500 closed at 2,100 at the first time in the history that is really remarkable. The DJIA is only 10 points from its record reached late December and closed again above 18,000. This year the watchword was so far the volatility, but Tuesday was much lower volatility what we have been seeing early on.

So far this year:

• DJIA +1,3%
• S&P 500 +2%
• Nasdaq +3,5%

In technical terms as we forecasted in January the SUI 30 index from Switzerland was a good bargain. After the SNB’s decision made a typical bottoming process. We bought it first at 8,100 and still holding. Its recent price now is 8,750 and we are watching it closely while our target is still at 9,260 at the previous top, at the next resistance band. By now we got back to the midrange. The recovery would take weeks, but the investing is not a horse race.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.

JE SUIS BULLISH

Because this is a bullish market, that’s simple is that, the bulls are buzzing around. As we forecasted last week the breakout of 2,060 at S&P will bring more gains up to 2,090 and it happened yesterday. In our managed account portfolio we delivered to our clients nice returns. http://bfmassets.com/managed-account.html

We are bullish and in this market it could be very expensive whoever sells it. US markets rallied yesterday again and delivered a sharp rise, pushing the S&P 500 to its highest close this year and within shouting distance of the record close reached on Dec 29. The Nasdaq rose to the highest level since 2000 and its gain was supported mostly by Apple. The Dow was up again with three digits.

Across the board all US indexes closed sharply higher and finished spectacular four days move. We got back to the record band areas and we also experienced much lower volatility than early on. The markets were fairly muted in this term. This week was about the great optimism. Of course this euphoria couldn’t go further day to day like that we should see some drop back next week.

• S&P 500 +0,96%
• DJIA +0,62%
• Nasdaq +1,18%

Technically the S&P 500 reached its upper side of the band at 2,090 so might come some rest for a while after four days rally. But if it goes out to new record we should buy further the index.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.

HIGHEST CLOSE OF S&P 500 IN 2015

The morning started again with some hesitation, but by the afternoon session US stocks are rallied yesterday and hit S&P500 finally the highest closing price in 2015 and turned green +0,5% for the year. So far, the markets year-to-date have been very volatile and not going anywhere, but by now the picture is changing slightly.

The DJIA gained in triple digit and it’s 26 stocks out of 30 gained as well and by now the index is flat for the year. Coca-Cola’s shares rose by 2.8%, helping lead the Dow higher, after the company reported 4th quarter profit and revenue that topped analyst expectations. The Nasdaq’s gain was supported mostly by Apple climbed by 1,9% and the first company in the history of US which capitalization is above 700$ billion.

Investor optimism was fueled by good news from Greece. The markets got a boost after news reports offered hope that the European Commission was considering a six-month debt extension. European stocks climbed on Tuesday France’s CAC 40 gained 1% and Germany’s DAX added 0.9%.

• S&P 500 +1,07%
• DJIA +0,79%
• Nasdaq +1,3%

Technically the S&P 500 closed above the 2,060 resistance level and therefore we are expecting more gains in the following days up to the next resistance of 2,090.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.

WOMEN ARE BETTER TRADERS

But they are not a lot in this business unfortunately. Only 15% of all traders are women at banks and at hedge funds only 6%. I have the same numbers only few female students have attended our trading classes and they are less probable being investor also to our managed account program. http://bfmassets.com/managed-account.html

That is a bit shame since they are far better trader than men. How is that possible? It is biology and their Testoren level significantly lower than in men and therefore they are not trained for risk taking, they are mostly risk avoiders. The men are taking more and higher risks.

The female traders lose less money than male traders. They are far more disciplined and tend to follow their own rules while men are breaking the rules more often which mostly causes the real damages.

Despite being less profitable than women, men placed bigger volume of trades than women and therefore generating higher brokerage fees and their exposure are much bigger. And, finally the women traded fewer times than the men so they able to downcrease the transaction costs.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.

BUY THE POPULAR OR THE UNPOPULAR STOCKS?

To be exact we are not trading any single stocks while in our methodology the volatility in single stocks is much higher and therefore too risky for us so we are only trading in our managed account programs indices http://bfmassets.com/managed-account.html

But the question is still accurate we should own popular stocks which are loved by the mass or ignore them and hold the most hated ones. Which class is the real overperformer in longer term? The reason for the popularity effect is that stocks are not like other goods. When they rise they have a tendency to increase, not decrease. A typical investor who hears that a friend or neighbour had made money out of that stock wants to jump on the bandwagon.

The popularity is comes from media, those stocks most likely are in the news, in TV and mostly recommended by analysts. This is called a Momentum-effect which helps the price get higher and continue to perform well in short term. But after a while this popularity push these stocks up to excessive valuations and they are going to lose the momentum for sure.

Since 1960 the statistics show the least popular stocks are outperforming the popular ones with around 7% per year. And, the popular ones have much higher volatilities if the market falling 5% they drop 10%.

The common mistake is owning popular stocks also between professional traders and brokers. They may want to show to their clients that they have been smart enough to buy the hottest stocks of the year. The money managers are likely to buy their favourite shares — by definition, those that have recently performed well. This is the momentum effect. This might explain why the average manager does not outperform the market.

All in all buy the pariah and lagging stocks and ignore and forget the trendy ones like facebook, google, apple, tesla…etc.

Start your investment with our profitable team of traders: http://www.bfmassets.com/managed-accounts

The BFM Assets Team.