Wow, it's been a great ride here at StockCharts.com!
The ride's not completely over, but I'm making a big change (and with mixed emotions) as I leave my role as Sr. Technical Analyst at StockCharts.com, effective September 15, 2019, and return to EarningsBeats.com as its Chief Market Strategist. There are a couple reasons for the change and I'll get to those in a bit. First, however, I'd simply like to say a few thank you's.
Thanks first and foremost to the StockCharts.com team. I've contributed to the FREE weekly ChartWatchers newsletter since 2006, but it wasn't until I officially joined as a Sr. Technical Analyst in March 2015 that I truly realized the platform that I had been given. It was an opportunity for me to pass along everything I've learned and continue to learn (ie, costly mistakes). I absolutely love what I do. I've paid LOTS of stock market tuition over the years, but it's all been in an effort to improve my skills and knowledge. I think anyone who has ever been involved in the stock market can relate. Two of my biggest passions, other than faith, family and golf, are the stock market and teaching and there could never have been a better opportunity for me than joining StockCharts.com. From Chip Anderson, President, to Kellie Erlandson, Business Manager (and fixer of all things business), to Bill Shelby and Grayson Roze, who both helped me get started with my webinars by co-hosting, to the developers of the greatest stock market tools in the universe, to customer service to the video production team (who has had to put up with my really bad puns and jokes for nearly two years!) and, of course, to my fellow technical analyst colleagues (the finest collection ever assembled on one website), I could not have asked for more support. These last four years have been among the best of my life and I'm truly grateful and thankful to everyone at StockCharts.com. I now have lifelong friends and great business partners to show for it. My relationship at StockCharts hasn't ended, by the way, but my role will be changing. More on that below.
My second GREAT BIG THANK YOU (!!!!) goes out to all of you. I cannot put into words all the support I've received during my tenure here. Whether you've read or subscribed to my daily Trading Places blog or to the ChartWatchers newsletter, watched my webinars a couple years back, attended ChartCon or perhaps a live seminar where I've taught, been a regular at MarketWatchers LIVE on StockCharts TV, sent me encouraging and supportive emails, or even ridiculed my mostly bullish calls (lol), I have truly appreciated your support. As I move on to my next role (or back to my prior role?), I will be looking for your support as well. Membership at EarningsBeats.com, at whatever level is appropriate for you, would be welcome and much appreciated. It all starts with a free membership to our EarningsBeats.com Digest newsletter that focuses on earnings and relative strength. It's very educational and designed to benefit those who are active in the stock market and those who are trying to learn more. Sign up and encourage your family and friends to do so as well, especially your kids and grandkids. It's never too early to start learning about the stock market. CLICK HERE to sign up for our free newsletter. It's a great first step to help me in my next adventure and one I'd be very thankful for. The timing is great too as I'll be joining John Hopkins on Monday, August 12th at 4:30pm for a "Sneak Preview of my Top 10 Stocks" webinar. Instructions for attending Monday's webinar will be sent out to ALL members of EarningsBeats.com, including free newsletter subscribers. I'll be discussing my decision to return to EarningsBeats.com and will be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Again, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for all of your support!
So what will my role be at StockCharts.com?
Great question and I'm glad you asked. Answer: I'm not sure. Thanks for the question. Next question! All kidding aside, some of this will be determined as we move forward. I have a wonderful relationship with the entire StockCharts.com team and look forward to continuing that. They are very supportive of my decision. Here's what I can say today:
- ChartWatchers. I fully intend to write my ChartWatchers articles every other week as I have since 2006. It's been 13 years and counting. I won't change a thing.
- Trading Places. Hhhmmmm. I honestly don't know at the moment. I've been writing this blog daily since September 2015 after Chip requested (suggested? sorta demanded? lol). I actually volunteered to do it. I love to write about the stock market and everyone should know by now that I can be quite "opinionated" from time to time. It was really an easy decision for me to write daily in this blog, however, as I review the stock market every single morning. So it really was simply a case of me writing down my thoughts and sharing a few charts. If you haven't noticed, my Trading Places blog articles have mostly been published EXACTLY at 9am nearly every single morning since September 2015. You have NO IDEA how much it upsets me if I am a minute late. It was part consistency with a HUGE dose of OCD. I remember my dad many years ago, waiting on our front porch for the newspaper to be delivered at EXACTLY 6:30 so he could read the news and the sports pages. Heaven help that 11 year old boy if he arrived at 6:35! My therapist says that memory still lingers. :-) So I've tried to publish exactly at 9am so that all of you can agree or disagree with me just before the morning bell tolls on Wall Street at 9:30am EST. It wasn't a coincidence. Yes, I'm that anal-retentive and I'm sure it will follow me to EarningsBeats.com. This is a really long-winded answer (well, technically I haven't yet given you answer so it's getting longer), but I'll publish exactly as I have through September 15th. At that time or possibly before, I'll decide. I might continue publishing as is. Or I might publish that content at EarningsBeats.com requiring membership. If I do that, I'll continue publishing "something" here at Trading Places, I'm just not sure how much or how often, nor the level of content. All of that remains TBD (to be determined). Feel free to offer up suggestions. You can email me at "tomb@stockcharts.com" about any thoughts, questions or concerns you might have. I'd love to hear from you and will try to respond to everyone.
- MarketWatchers LIVE. I will continue this flagship show into the foreseeable future. My plan is to obviously host through September 15th, then I'm open to whatever StockCharts decides. I have always wanted to do a morning show. For those of you that have followed me for many years, you may recall that I used to do a national radio show, "Market Open LIVE" that I co-hosted with John Hopkins, President at EarningsBeats.com, and a friend of mine for more than 30 years. It was broadcast in 22 cities around the U.S. and focused on technical analysis. I was actually introduced to StockCharts during 2006 as a result of this radio show. But can you imagine trying to explain the "MACD" to radio listeners, many of whom didn't follow technical analysis? I probably sent listeners to the nearest McDonald's for a "Big MAC D". I'd love to do a morning show that spanned the market open, from say 9am to 10am EST. (Chip, are you still reading?) The good news is that you need to stay tuned, because something along these lines will likely be announced very soon. Sorry, I just spilled the beans. :-)
It's not that I don't love doing MarketWatchers LIVE, because I do. But it's at noon EST, which is right in the middle of my day and handcuffs my ability to golf (refer to my favorite things in life above) until later in the afternoon. Did I just say that out loud? Oops! Unlike Fed Chief Jerome Powell, I like to be transparent. (I had to throw at least one dig in at our Fed Chief.)
Why am I returning to EarningsBeats.com?
There are three primary reasons why:
First, in November 2018, I developed a proprietary method of selecting 10 stocks to be held for three months (through one earnings cycle). It starts with fundamental research as I review thousands of earnings reports to weed out tons of companies. In order to be included in my "Model Portfolio", companies MUST beat their quarterly revenue and EPS estimates (absolutely no exceptions - ZERO). It's a simple indication of a management team executing its business plan. It's probably also the result of me being a CPA, but if management makes big promises (estimates) on a forward-looking basis, why should I believe them if they just failed to meet their last promises??? No thank you. PASS! Once I find the companies that beat expectations as to both revenue and earnings, I look at their charts with 3 primary questions. (1) Is the chart technically-sound? (2) Is the company performing at least reasonably well on a relative basis to its peers and the benchmark S&P 500? (3) Is the stock liquid (trade at least 200,000 shares daily on average)? If the answer to those 3 questions is YES, then I'll add the company to my "Strong Earnings ChartList", which is simply a Watch List for stocks that I might be interested in trading. This list can have up to a few hundred names on it, so EarningsBeats.com members would ask, "What are your 5 or 10 FAVORITE stocks on this list?" I began scouring my Strong Earnings ChartList and provided my Top 10 names in a webinar on November 19, 2018. My Model Portfolio was born. The 10 stocks are equally-weighted, in 10 different industry groups, and changed every quarter based on current market conditions and changing relative strength. In other words, there is typically a 100% turnover rate each quarter. Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) is the only stock to have been included in my Model Portfolio in two consecutive quarters thus far. If you've seen the performance of restaurant stocks ($DJUSRU) in 2019 and the relative performance of CMG, then you'll know why it's still in that portfolio. Since its inception on November 19, 2018, my Model Portfolio has risen 49.67%, while the benchmark S&P 500 is up 8.47%. In a world where nearly every mutual fund underperforms the benchmark, my Model Portfolio performance has been both astounding and outstanding all at the same time. The performance has been SO strong that EB.com members have asked for two more portfolios - a more Aggressive Portfolio that concentrates on the best relative performers in the small cap and mid cap arena and a conservative Income Portfolio of more defensive, household names that show excellent relative strength and pay healthy dividends. These two portfolios debuted on May 19, 2019 and here is the performance of all three portfolios since that date vs. the S&P 500:
- Aggressive Portfolio: +19.85%
- Model Portfolio: +14.47%
- Income Portfolio: +7.03%
- S&P 500: +2.75%
Second, and this one really could be listed first, returning to EarningsBeats.com allows me to join my daughter Erin, who was hired by EarningsBeats.com earlier this summer. Erin is a CPA and left public accounting a few months ago - just as I did in 2003. She grew tired of working 60 hours a week in a very stressful environment. So now she's at EarningsBeats.com, working only 58 hours a week in a very stressful environment. Congratulations on the great career move! On a serious note, Erin's very bright, is a self-starter, and is very eager to learn more about the stock market. And I love to teach. Need I say more? EarningsBeats.com members have already been giving Erin rave reviews. I've always said I wish I could go back and teach my 25 year old self everything that I now know. Well, going back and teaching my children is the next best thing. I simply can't pass up this opportunity to help her explore what could be a life-changing experience for us both. Erin also is two things that I'll never be - young and female, two demographics where she'll have a much better opportunity to reach than me. I absolutely love the prospect of helping my children realize their dreams. What parent doesn't?
Despite loving everything that I do at StockCharts.com, this is really a no-brainer.
How can you support me?
In whatever way you feel comfortable. For those not in a position to sign up for a paid membership at EarningsBeats.com, simply continue reading my blog articles, listening to my StockCharts TV shows, etc. Continue learning more and more about the importance of strong earnings and relative strength in beating your benchmark, whatever that might be. The free EB Digest is a great way to improve your skills. As I mentioned earlier, you can CLICK HERE to sign up for that 100% FREE newsletter.
For those in a position to pay for a membership, I would really like for you to experience everything that EarningsBeats.com has to offer. There's an "almost" painless $7 30-day trial that will get you the following:
- 30 day full membership
- a seat to our Monday "Sneak Preview" webinar
- a seat to my next Top 10 Stocks webinar on Monday, August 19th (unveiling of Portfolio stocks)
- our Strong Earnings ChartList (will provide you the entire ChartList)
- access to all 30 portfolio stocks with annotated charts (working to add this to website)
- intraday trade alerts on select stocks from the Strong Earnings ChartList
- and so much more!
It's a great service that I believe will enhance your education and investing and trading success. As you can probably understand, we are making considerable changes to the EarningsBeats.com website as I write this, to include my return as Chief Market Strategist and much information relating to my three portfolios. Up until today, I've shared my stock selections with the EarningsBeats.com community each quarter, but the picks were mine and excluded from the website. That is now changing and will be a focus on the website. However, please be patient as we make those necessary changes.
This is a very long article without a single chart, so if you're still with me, CONGRATULATIONS! I'm really excited about my new (and returning) role as Chief Market Strategist at EarningsBeats.com and I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey!
Thanks for all of your support and of course.....
Happy trading!
Tom
