Stock Market Summary

Stocks finished higher today with the major indexes closing near session highs.  In addition, the DJIA posted another new high.  Investor participation was ok and market breadth was good.  As a result, we are raising the support levels on the DJIA, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite (see below).  Also, we are increasing the resistance level for the DJIA but leaving it the same for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite (see below).  Overall, we continue to believe the prudent approach is continue selling into strength and avoid becoming aggressive with opening new positions in stocks based on how far the stock market direction has run without a significant pullback.  Don't let a position turn into a big loss if the market trend suddenly changes.  If you need to own stocks, please see our open watch list below.

 

SUMMARY

 

DJIA: Up 0.9% to 11,981

S&P 500: Up 0.6% to 1,291

Nasdaq Composite: Up 1.0% to 2,718

 

BREADTH FOR NYSE

 

Advancing Issues: 2,143

Declining Issues: 904

Advance/Decline Ratio: 2.4 to 1

 

New Highs: 113

New Lows: 10

High/Low Ratio: 11 to 1

 

SUPPORT/RESISTANCE LEVELS

 

DJIA: 11,706/12,029

S&P 500: 1,274/1,295

Nasdaq Composite: 2,701/2,766

 

SECTOR ANALYSIS

 

Technology was the best performing sectors up 1.4% while Financials and Health Care were the worst performing sectors down 0.1%.

 

Other Sectors:

 

Consumer Discretionary Up 0.4%

Consumer Staples Up 0.2%

Energy Up 0.5%

Industrials Up 1.0%

Materials Up 1.1%

Utilities Up 0.6%

 

OPEN WATCH LIST SYMBOLS (Through Monday, January 22, 2011)

 

(SH: 42.6919 0.00 0.00%) added @ $46.03 on 11/12/10; current price @ $42.69; 7.3% loss

(PSQ: 33.40 0.00 0.00%) added @ $35.05 on 12/8/10; current price @ $33.40; 4.7% loss

(RWM: 32.30 0.00 0.00%) added @ $32.79 on 12/16/10; current price @ $32.30; 1.5% loss

(UUP: 22.44 0.00 0.00%) added @ $22.80 on 1/14/11; current price @ $22.44; 1.6% loss

(EUO: 19.40 0.00 0.00%) added @ $20.30 on 1/14/11; current price @ $19.40; 4.4% loss

(FDO: 43.44 0.00 0.00%) added @ $44.64 on 1/21/11; current price @ $43.44; 2.7% loss

 

CLOSED WATCH LIST SYMBOLS

 

(UUP: 22.44 0.00 0.00%) added @ $22.56 on 10/20/10; removed @ $23.51 on 11/30/10; 4.2% gain

(EUO: 19.40 0.00 0.00%) added @ $19.19 on 10/20/10; removed @ $21.65 on 11/30/10; 12.8% gain

(APOL: 41.87 0.00 0.00%) added @ $37.77 on 10/28/10; removed @ $39.97 on 12/31/10; 5.8% gain

(NUVA: 27.91 0.00 0.00%) added @ $25.11 on 11/12/10; removed @ $26.03 on 12/31/10; 3.7% gain

(DLR: 52.37 0.00 0.00%) added @ $52.22 on 11/26/10; removed @ $53.01 on 12/10/10; 1.5% gain 

(CSCO: 21.17 0.00 0.00%) added @ $19.36 on 12/2/10; removed @ $20.91 on 1/6/11; 8.0% gain 

(UUP: 22.44 0.00 0.00%) added @ $23.14 on 12/8/10; removed @ $23.37 on 1/10/11; 1.0% gain 

(EUO: 19.40 0.00 0.00%) added @ $20.79 on 12/8/10; removed @ $21.73 on 1/10/11; 4.5% gain 

Listen to The Intelligent Investor right Now

April 25th, 2011 by Jae Jun

Print PDF

The Intelligent Investor has supposedly been read by every value investor, but I highly doubt it. If you haven’t read it or just were not able to make it all the way through, you are at the right place.

An audio version of The Intelligent Investor is available for you to download and take with you anywhere. Play it in your car, while working out, or on your favorite music player.

To be able to stream the files or download it, you have to use the widget below. If you are an email reader, come to the site to take advantage of it.

The Intelligent Investor Audio

How to Calculate XIRR for Annualized Returns

January 24th, 2011 by Jae Jun

Print PDF The current portfolio tracking spreadsheet has its shortcomings as it doesn’t include non invested cash when calculating returns.

The true returns of any portfolio will include all cash flows and I have found the XIRR function in excel to be the best to calculate annualized returns.

If calculating returns was as simple as taking the beginning balance and ending balance and then calculating the absolute return, tracking investment returns would be so much easier.

But there is time value in money and once you start depositing or withdrawing cash and receiving dividends, it makes calculating annualized returns that much more difficult.

Investing $1,000 in January certainly is much different to investing $1,000 in December, before the year end.

That’s where the XIRR feature in Excel comes in.

Using XIRR to Calculate Annualized ReturnsWith XIRR you can calculate annualized returns even when cash flow for your account is irregular.

As an example, the starting balance is $10,000 with regular deposits and some gains totaling a portfolio balance of $15,000 on Jun 27 2010.

At first glance, without taking into account the cash deposits, you could be fooled into thinking the return is 50%. However, if you use the XIRR function, the calculated annualized return is much less at 28.8%.

As you can see, if the cash flows become longer and irregular with different cash flows, the calculation by hand becomes virtually impossible.

Free Spreadsheet to Calculate Annualized and Cumulative ReturnsNow you can calculate your returns quickly and easily with this free spreadsheet to calculate your portfolio returns.

Enter your beginning balance at the very top with deposits as positive values and withdrawals as negative values.

Enter the date next to each corresponding cash flow and if you need to calculate the return for any particular date, enter it into the third column.

Just make sure the ending balance is negative with a date to prevent errors.

The results will then look like the image below.

Full credit goes to a site called Gummy Stuff that is unfortunately no longer online for giving me this idea.

Download Portfolio Return XIRR Spreadsheet

Excel 2007 and newer only.No special plug ins required.Just enable macros and run.