Dedicated short sellers tend to be among the smarter investors on the Street,
Yet you can make good money in that environment. It just takes a different strategy; you try to hold a core bunch of stocks you think are in secular bull markets and trade at inflection points.
The narrowing of the trade gap and claims coming in at four-year lows has a lot to do with today's market action.
The time to be bullish was back in October.
I've been investing in boring things, and boring has been pretty good.
If you think you can recklessly buy stocks you have to be assuming more than a V-shaped recovery in earnings -- you have to be assuming a hockey-stick shaped recovery.
The employment number that came out last Friday is consistent with a muddling economy. It's a fait accompli that the Fed will go up just a quarter point,
The cheerleaders talk about the economy growing, but the economy grew at 7 percent from 1966 to 1982, while stocks went nowhere because valuations were too optimistic. And they're optimistic now, by historic measurements.
The big concern is future inflation and the Fed is viewing that through the labor market. Wage growth continues to be muted.
The rally will extend and challenge December highs. But it's not a bull market. We're just bouncing back from January lows back to the top end of the trading range.
