Stephen Leeb

Stephen Leeb, Ph.D. is the Chief Investment Strategist of The Complete Investor and Real World Investing.

Dr. Leeb’s books have been notable for predicting the secular bull market that started in the 1980s (Getting in on the Ground Floor, Putnam, 1986); the tech stock crash and rise of real assets, including oil and gold (Defying the Market: Profiting in the Turbulent Post-Technology Market Boom, McGraw-Hill, 1999); and the surge in oil prices (The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis, Warner Books, 2004). His national bestseller, The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel (Warner Books, 2006), co-authored with Glen Strathy, outlined the biggest challenges facing the US economy, and accurately predicted the 2008 sub prime mortgage crisis as well as the vicious subsequent economic cycle requiring massive infusions of government stimulus, near zero interest rates and much higher federal debt levels. Game Over: How You Can Prosper in a Shattered Economy (Business Plus, 2009) predicted a permanent peak in global commodity production. Dr. Leeb’s eighth and latest book, Red Alert (Hachette, 2011), outlined China’s growing prosperity and the ways in which its demands on increasingly scarce resources threaten the American way of life.

Among his many speaking engagements, he has been the keynote speaker at both a JPMorgan Chase energy conference and a Royal Bank of Canada commodities conference.

Dr. Leeb received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He then earned his master’s degree in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois in just three years, an academic record that stands to date. He is frequently quoted in the financial media, including Investors Business Daily, USA Today, Business Week, The New York Times, NPR and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, Dr. Leeb is a regular guest on Fox News, Bloomberg, CNN and Neil Cavuto.

Analyst Articles

Today an article appeared on Bloomberg headlined “Robot Takeover Postponed as Quant Funds Flattened in Equities.” It makes the point that the much-ballyhooed switch from human-managed macro and bottoms-up hedge funds to so-called quant funds has failed badly in 2017. And it failed badly even though most hedge funds themselves… Read More

Sell to close the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) January 19, 2018 $250 call option. We may revisit this trade soon. For now, close the position. … Read More

Buy to open the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) January 19, 2018 $250 call option. Our stock indicator is positive enough to initiate a long position in the S&P 500. We like the slightly out-of-the-money SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) January 19, 2018 $250 call option. Read More

One of the most dangerous phrases for an investor is “it’s different this time.” Every so often, though, it really is different. It was different in 2008, when a financial house of cards ran headlong into a tragically misguided Fed and a historic spike in commodities. It even was different… Read More

It was another week and another very small gain in an option. And even that was tough to come by as the very recent trend in oil and even in oil stocks has been mostly up. A year or two ago we would have sat out the uptrend and waited… Read More

Sell to close the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) December 15, 2017 $65 put option. We recommend closing this position now and awaiting future trade opportunities. Read More

Overall our indicators match the market’s striking lack of volatility. Except for the -2 for oil stocks, and the -1 for oil, they all are in stasis mode at zero, what we would characterize as a “do nothing” setting. Our indicators go back to the early part of the new… Read More

Buy to open the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLE) December 15, 2017 $65 put option. Our oil stock indicator signal is bearish enough to warrant betting against oil stocks. We recommend buying to open a put option against the XLE. We like the December 15,… Read More

With the exception of grains and other agricultural commodities, low volatility has been a common characteristic of markets–ranging from currencies to stocks to bonds to metals–since the beginning of the year. Vix, which is a measure of market expectations of volatility of the S&P 500, is currently trading close to… Read More

1) Sell to close the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) October 20, 2017 $241 put. 2) Sell to close the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) December 15, 2017 $65 put. We recommend selling to close out both put options at this time. … Read More