Weekly Update: May 20, 2013

Making Money in May Goes Against the Fray

I continue to be impressed by the growing appetite for equities even as the market climbs higher into what is historically a tough period of seasonality for having heavy long-side exposure. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke continues to assure the investment community that plenty of liquidity will be flowing into capital markets for months to come -- while some of his governors are using the now-popular term 'tapering' in their selected interviews regarding the eventual unwinding of quantitative easing.

Literally every dip of selling is being pounced on like a cat on tuna, and at this point, no one sitting on cash cares about what the Fed may do, when they do it and how the market will react to it. We are in period best described as 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,' in which waves of underinvested professional fund managers are now chasing performance as any garden-variety 3%-5% short-term correction remains elusive.

In this week's issue of Cash Machine, I'll discuss how the market is reacting to speculation of the actions of the Fed, I'll review several of our current holdings and update my Top Buys for the week, and I'll answer some of your questions in this week's Ask Bryan section.

Monthly Issue: May 13, 2013

Bumping Up Against Seasonal Resistance

The market naysayers have been wrong for the last thousand points gained on the Dow as the blue chip index crossed 15,000 for the first time last week in what is being called the most unloved rally of all time. No party hats this time around, just a brief cheer on the floor of the NYSE when this milestone became official on a closing basis.

In doing so, the pressure to get in by underinvested professional money only becomes more significant, even as we approach what is historically a tougher period to manufacture positive returns. Entering the May through August timeframe, when large numbers of influential market players are either fully hedged or on holiday and not active, make for a more volatile investing landscape.

In today's monthly issue of Cash Machine, I'll attempt to translate the 'Fed-speak' that is giving the markets mixed signals, I'll review the five positions that I recommended you sell in today's alerts, I have a new set of Top Buys for you and I'll answer some of your questions in this week's Ask Bryan.

Compare & Contrast