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Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.4% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 21.0% Average Holding Period: 248 days The FOMC will convene again for their regularly scheduled policy-setting meeting next week, announcing their decision on Wednesday afternoon. While there’s no chance of Janet Yellen and company raising… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.4% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 21.0% Average Holding Period: 248 days In a case of “good news is bad news,” stock, bond, and commodity markets are down across the board today after the Bureau of Labor Statistics… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 31.2% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 20.2% Average Holding Period: 247 days It’s been a solid week for Brain Trust Profits. As of yesterday’s close, in essentially a breakeven week for the broad market, our stocks gained 2.3 percent on average. The strong performance is primarily driven by three surging stocks, which we will review below. Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days West Texas Intermediate crude has run above $50 after a rollercoaster week in the oil market. News of increased violence in Libya (potentially a threat to the country’s oil supply), a cut in bank reserve ratio requirements by the People’s Bank of China (expected to boost Chinese oil demand), and a slightly improved economic growth outlook in the euro zone (likewise, a demand boost) all buoyed oil prices yesterday, while a good U.S. jobs report today kept the arrow pointed north.   Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held its first policy-meeting of 2015 this week under, as usual, market participants’ watchful eyes. Heading into the FOMC confab, investors… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days The S&P 500 is on pace today to snap its second five-day losing streak in the last three weeks. A gloomy global growth outlook, some mixed domestic economic… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days In its first monthly report of 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said that 252,000 non-farm jobs were added in December. The official jobless… Read More

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Brain Trust Profits issue of 2015! Although U.S. stocks opened the first trading day of the year solidly in the green, slightly worse-than-expected manufacturing data quickly turn the market the other way. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing manager’s index (PMI) reading… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days After a brief dip, the U.S. stock market is back to rally mode. The S&P 500 Index wasted no time erasing losses and surging to another record… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days It has been a rather volatile December for investors. Brought on by oil’s steep drop and fears of a global economic slowdown, and amplified… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days Oil’s slide continues: West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery (the benchmark for U.S. oil pricing) slipped to… Read More

The sharp fall in oil prices engineered by Saudi Arabia will likely be fairly short-lived, and indeed it should set the stage for the next major rally in oil. While prices could stay low for another six to nine months or perhaps a little longer, odds look good that within the next 12 to 18 months oil prices will rise much closer to their all-time highs from current levels. Moreover, oil’s drop has shortened the time it will take for commodity prices in general, whose correction began in 2011 with Europe’s recession, to bottom. All this has important implications for the short- and longer-term geopolitical and economic outlook and for U.S. investors. For the U.S., the lower oil prices are a mixed blessing. On one hand, they will put extra cash in U.S. consumers’ pockets; on the other, the country’s most dynamic industry, energy production, will crumble. For investors, we’ll note that since OPEC first flexed its muscle in the early 1970s, U.S. stock markets have never experienced major declines concurrent with a bear market in oil prices. The two economies that will benefit the most are Europe—at least over the shorter term—and China. Both are major oil importers, and lower oil prices are a free shot in their economic arm, giving consumers extra cash without the government laying out a penny. But China stands out as the biggest winner by far, with the drop in oil a multifold blessing over the shorter and longer terms alike. It not only hands Chinese consumers a de facto tax cut; it also gives the yuan more freedom to follow its upward trajectory. This further boosts consumer demand while allowing China to import all the military and other technology it craves. Better times in Europe will also help offset the higher yuan as European consumer spending picks up. As a bonus, China gets to buy oil on the cheap Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days Oil ministers from OPEC met yesterday and decided to keep its production level unchanged. Prior to the summit, Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in OPEC, had already signaled that… Read More

Average Annualized Return Per Closed Trade: 32.3% Average Return Per Closed Trade: 19.0% Average Holding Period: 226 days The stock market opened in a jovial mood today thanks to China’s unexpected move to support growth via lower interest rates. The People’s Bank of China decreased the one-year… Read More