Shah Gilani's Archive

As Yogi Berra famously said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

I’m talking about the parallels between the day trading craze in the 1990s that helped fuel the 2000 “tech wreck,” and today’s retail investors driving stocks higher in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The question now is, what will happen to the market if stocks, pumped up by retail speculators, falter like they did in the dot.com bust?

Here’s what happened with retail investors in the 1990s, what they’re doing now, and what could happen to the stock market.

Just when the markets looked so promising to so many people, reality bites.

Yes, I’m talking about the frightening second wave of coronavirus infection spikes hitting U.S. states that recently “reopened”, hitting several countries especially hard, and as of this weekend, hitting Beijing, China, causing lockdowns in the country’s capitol.

That’s freaking out investors.

But, that’s not what’s got the potential to crash the market…

The stock market’s bounce off its March 23, 2020 lows turned into a rally, then into a bull market.

At least that’s what everyone saw happening until yesterday, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.27%, the S&P 500 fell 5.89%, The Dow Jones Industrials fell 6.9%, and the Russell 2000 fell a whopping 7.63%.

Is the rally over? Is the selling just some profit-taking? Or were we all head-faked into believing the worst is over as far as the stock market, the worst is over as far as the economy, and the worst is over as far as the pandemic?

The truth is out there.

But nothing is set in stone. If the pandemic comes back, the riots continue, or the President keeps tweeting, anything could happen.

The best way to protect yourself is to take concrete steps towards financial safety and economic security.

Thousands of Americans may think they’re set in the event of a crisis, not unlike the one we’re seeing now, but that frankly isn’t true. The truth is that a second downturn could absolutely ruin your financial future.

Unless you take the necessary precautions to prepare.

It’s nothing timely or complex – in fact, protecting your wealth can be one of the easiest things you do, if you follow these simple steps .

We’ve seen over $6 trillion evaporate in 2020 alone. Don’t lose any more cash and don’t let the effects of the coronavirus, or the seesawing market, take any more money out of your pocket (or your retirement fund, or your children’s college educations…)

Click here for more details on how to prepare for the worst.

You can protect yourself if you know what you’re up against, why our markets are hurting, and how you can make money against all odds.

Here’s how the market got to where it is, what just happened, what could happen, and how to play the market no matter what happens…

If you’re thinking when you retire you can live off some kind of fixed income portfolio, forget about it.

That’s a myth now.

Sure, there was a time when you could, but that’s gone the way of the dodo bird and free markets.

With the Federal Reserve manipulating interest rates “lower for longer” for decades and lately driving them down to near zero, or maybe busting another myth and turning them negative some time in our future, there’s no way anyone can retire comfortably, or retire at all, on a fixed income portfolio.

Not only isn’t there enough yield to be had, unless you load up of the riskiest bonds out there and good luck with that, you’re at increasing risk of losing money on your fixed income dreams in more ways than you know.

Here’s why and how traditional fixed income investing for your retirement is a bad idea and what to do instead.

To say the market’s been on a tear would be like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch.

Last week the Dow ran up 1,727.87 points to end the week 6.8% higher. That’s half the gain in a good year. The S&P rose 4.9%. And the Nasdaq Composite, on an intraday basis, made a new record high, climbing 3.4% on the week.

All week the “honey badger” (Google: honey badger don’t give a damn) proved it don’t give a damn about China, or protests, or politics, or anything. It just keeps on going, doing what it does, keeps going.

And then on Friday, when the world was expecting the U.S. to lose 8 million jobs in May, the unemployment rate was expected to hit 20%, and the market to keep going anyway, only one out of those three things happened.

The U.S. didn’t lose jobs, it gained 2.5 million jobs. And the UE rate didn’t tick up to 20% from the previous months 14.7%, it fell to 13.3%. Of course, the honey badger did what it does.

Is it “irrational exuberance” or are investors taking a nothing matters and what if it did attitude?

It’s both actually.

The free market isn’t free anymore, even though a lot of retired and soon-to-be retired folks think it is.

The truth is nothing in the capital markets moves freely anymore, especially interest rates.

Now, frighteningly, because America has morphed into a quasi-command economy where the Federal Reserve dictates economic policy, retirees don’t understand how dangerous most bonds and fixed income products have become in the new normal “socialized capital markets regime.”.

Here’s what’s being manipulated, why it’s bad, how it’s impacting fixed income investments, and what retirees and soon to be retired investors should be doing instead of putting themselves at great risk.

Airline stocks have been essentially grounded, for very good and obvious reasons.

But, like the rest of the stock market, as the airlines see the economy opening up, as the TSA tells us there are more travelers every day, as investors rotate into cyclical sectors and beaten down stocks, tarmac tied airline stocks should benefit, big time.

That said, timing the rise of airline stocks and choosing individual names isn’t the easiest game in town.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to play the sector in one fell swoop.

The U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) is well worth looking at, if not taking a long-term position in.

This isn’t a new ETF that was put together so investors could suddenly jump into the beaten down sector. The JETS ETF has been around since 2015. But saying it’s been overlooked would be like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch.

No-one paid much attention to JETS, until it became a highflier recently.

Up until early March the fund had only about $33 million under management, that is tiny for an ETF.

As an investment or trading vehicle it was too small for me or my subscribers to bother with, primarily because of its thin daily volume and spreads that were too large to make getting in or out tenable.

That’s all changed.

Like a runaway train the market kept barreling ahead last week, make that last month, make that the last two months, actually make that since the March 23, 2020 lows.

The S&P 500 ended last week up 3%. It ‘s up a whopping 17.79% in the last two months. And is up a mind-bending 36.06% from its March lows.

So far so good. But, there ‘s a problem. No one knows where the train tracks lead.

Markets could have gotten off track on Friday. The Dow was down about 300 points as nervous investors pared positions ahead of President Trump ‘s “conference.” But, instead of slamming China and ratcheting up rhetoric, or tossing trade war and tariff threats, the President just pointed a finger and repeated his displeasure with the Mainland ‘s heavy handedness over Hong Kong ‘s future.

And back up went stocks.

What pre-conference selling revealed is how jittery investors are, but there ‘s a lot out there that matters…

Just about everything in our lives is different, no thanks to the novel coronavirus.

One glaring difference is how retail investors have plunged into the stock market since COVID-19 slammed markets and shutdown the country.

While that’s different enough, what’s vastly different is retail investors, instead of typically selling at the bottom of a plunge, started buying early, have been buyers all the way up, and according to Goldman Sachs research, with their whacky list of favorite stocks have beaten hedge funds and their top holdings.

Since a ZeroHedge article earlier this week pointed out, “After years of trying and failing to sucker in retail investors into the stock market to allow a long-overdue distribution from top shareholders to mom and pop bagholders, as has been the trend heading into every prior recession…” maybe it’s time to ask, with stocks racing higher heading into another recession, is the new retail trend dangerous?

The answer is “no,” it’s not dangerous, at least not yet. But, “yet” could be any day now.

Here’s what you need to know is going on and what it means to your Total Wealth.

There’s a difference.

A rally won’t let you down. In fact, a rally will give you an opportunity to make money, hand over fist, four days a week… and it only takes one hour per day.

My friend and colleague, Andrew Keene, has devised a system that can make you four-figure windfalls, every day, four days a week.

And it only takes an hour, every day.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask Steve Milton, who made $250,000 with Andrew’s system.

Or Carrie Saunders, who made $3,000… three days in a row.

Or Mark Befano, who made $706,000 in only one year.

Andrew’s system made it possible for these folks to grab mind-boggling windfalls, and he can do the same for you.

He’s willing to share his secrets, all you have to do is click here.

Now, here’s what the market’s trying to tell us.. and what to do about it right now…