TradeSmith Daily

September 2016

The TradeStops Sector ETF Strategy (or How to Triple the Returns of the S&P 500)

September 6, 2016John Banks

Two weeks ago, we showed you how a simple strategy of using just 9 sector ETFs and following a simple set of rules could have tripled the return of the S&P 500. We have been inundated with emails from TradeStops members wanting more information on how they can do this on their own. Today, we will take you through a step-by-step explanation that shows you how to initiate this strategy. Here are the eye-popping results of the strategy. This study

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August 2018

The 2 VQ Approach Updated

August 27, 2018TradeSmith Research Team

Back in November 2016, TradeSmith wrote about investors who double up on their losers. He thought it made more sense to double up on your winners, which was an idea he wanted to explore for a long time. He asked our research team to look at an approach that uses the Volatility Quotient (VQ) to determine when it made sense to double up on winning trades. “When is a good time to add to a winning position?” The answer we came up with

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October 2019

How Many Stocks Should You Own?

October 21, 2019TradeSmith Research Team

We told you about the second most-asked question we get at investment conferences – how does an investor more effectively manage all the stocks he or she has bought? This is not new. Investors, especially newer ones, get excited about all the stock recommendations they read about and in just a few months, they can own well over 100 stocks. We’ve spoken with investors recently who own more than 200 positions. And just like that, they have a problem managing

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November 2019

Cannabis Stocks are a Gateway Drug to Losses (For Now Anyway)

November 19, 2019TradeSmith Research Team

Cannabis investors have a message for Joe Biden: The 1990s called, they want their worldview back. Biden, a U.S. presidential candidate and front runner among Democrats, hurt pot stocks this week by expressing the view that marijuana is a “gateway drug” and shouldn’t be legalized for that reason. The irritated response from cannabis investors and marijuana enthusiasts — and even from a handful of politicians on both sides of the aisle — was to point out that the “gateway drug”

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If they can shut down this man’s bank account, yours could be next…

November 20, 2019TradeSmith Research Team

Imagine getting the following notice from your bank, out of the blue, with no explanation: Your PERSONAL CHECKING / SAVINGS account ending in XXX will be restricted from use in 21 days, and permanently closed 30 days from the date of this notice. After a careful review of your banking relationship, we’ve made the decision to close your account above. As a reminder, your Deposit Account Agreement, which you received when you opened your account, allows either you or

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The Saudi Aramco IPO gets a Sad Trombone

November 21, 2019TradeSmith Research Team

Here is a pop quiz, or maybe a joke: Q. When is it bitterly disappointing to have an initial public offering (IPO) worth $1.7 trillion? A. When you were really hoping for $2 trillion, and you see it as a national embarrassment to have to take less, and your sense of money was already so distorted you paid $450 million for a possibly fake Da Vinci painting that lives on one of your yachts. We speak of the initial

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The Bitcoin to U.S. National Debt Ratio

November 25, 2019TradeSmith Research Team

Cryptocurrency can be complicated. But the case for Bitcoin is simple. It all comes down to one chart: The Bitcoin to US National Debt Ratio. The chart itself is simple too, as you can clearly see below. The chart is actually a little bit unfair — to Bitcoin. But even though the chart has an anti-Bitcoin bias (for reasons we’ll explain shortly), it does a good job of capturing the big picture. The chart presumes a total number of 21

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Macro Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Intriguing Non-Denial Denial

November 26, 2019TradeSmith Research Team

The Wall Street Journal posted a headline this week that made Ray Dalio upset. Dalio is a multi-billionaire and the 70-year-old founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, one of the largest macro hedge funds with $150 billion in assets under management. We can see why the WSJ headline made Dalio mad — even though the story appears accurate. (Dalio didn’t deny the substance of the article — he just challenged the optics.) The episode is worth unpacking because it touches on

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