Sixteen years of trading stocks and options…
Sixteen years of 85% success rates.
Sixteen years of nailing perfect calls on housing, the financials, and the greater economy…
Five minutes with my Uncle Mike, and apparently I have no idea what I’m talking about.
There I was, celebrating my father’s 70th birthday, when a thick New Jersey accent whined from across the room: “Mike, Mike! Turn on your damn hearing aids when I’m talking to you… Mike, if you want to talk stocks and the economy, talk to Ian.”
For crying out loud, I thought. No. Not now.
My Uncle Mike is one of those guys.
He thinks he knows everything about everything – especially when it comes to Wall Street.
“Don’t listen to him,” says my Aunt Susan. “He has no idea what he’s talking about with stocks. Why do you think I still work at the age of 68? Mike the genius took our retirement and ran it into the ground.”
I tried to avoid him at the party. But all of a sudden there he was.
“Ian, Ian, it’s so good to see you. It’s me, your Uncle Mike… How are you? Your aunt tells me you play around in the stock market…”
Here we go, I thought.
“You know I called this latest dip in the market and made a small bundle. I grew up during the Depression. I know what the value of money is… I have connections all over Wall Street and can tell you where the market is heading at any time.
“I can tell you what the market will do this very week!” “Tomorrow, for example, the market will be up 150 points by close. I guarantee it,” he said.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him later that it dropped 300. He lost $10,000 on his call—if he actually invested any money in the first place.
My Aunt probably lost her marbles when she heard.
Point is – in this market, you can’t just guess. You have to do the research and really get in there. We’ve had great success over the years with our strategy. Recent weeks and months haven’t been as great, but overall our success is tough to discount.
There is no predictability when it comes to the markets these days, unfortunately. We remain uncomfortably range-bound. But there are still a great number of opportunities out there. There are stocks sitting too low.
Procter & Gamble (PG) – for example – sits at a 52-week low of $80.
It’s technically oversold, though, once we look at Money Flow and RSI. Both are telling me a reversal may be in store near-term… All I want to do here is jump in, wait for a slight bounce, and get out.
Consider buying to open the PG July 2015 80 call up to $2.
In this market, we can’t stay in stocks too long. There’s no solid market trend right now.
Ian L. Cooper
Forgotten Profits