Thoughts {06.01.17}

The Nasdaq Powershares QQQ Trust {QQQ} representing the top 100 stocks on the Nasdaq exchange is year to date up nearly 19% not including dividends.  For comparisons sake over the same period the overall Nasdaq is up about 15% and the S&P 500 has advanced about 7.70%.  The outperformance in the Nasdaq is attributed to a small group of stocks.  I'm not going to comment on this right now.  Maybe we'll cover this discrepancy on a later post.  You can take away from these numbers what you want.

If you want a better understanding of what's going on in the world from a geopolitical perspective then go read Tim Marshall's book "Prisoners of Geography:  Ten Maps That Explain Everything About The World".  I especially recommend folks read the chapter on China.   My favorite quote about China from the book is actually in the introduction to the Chinese chapter by political scientist Lucian Pye,  "China is a civilization pretending to be a nation".  Read the chapter and see if you agree!

We are now squarely in the period roughly six month seasonal period of weakness where stock performance has been known to hit a rough patch.  While there is no guarantee that we will experience that kind of period in 2017 it behooves all of us to understand the patterns and what could occur.  To that end Jeff Hirsh over at the "Almanac Trader" notes that "June is not such a hot month in post election years".  

Go read over at the Washington Post why hedge funds are in trouble.

Back early next week.

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 in both clients and personal accounts.    Long the Nasdaq composite in certain client accounts.  Currently short SPY and ETFs related to the S&P 500 in a personal account related to an options strategy not employed in client accounts.  We reserve the right to change these investments without notice on this blog or via any other form of verbal, written or electronic communication.