That’s what happened to me when I took a graduate-level class with one of my mentors in technical analysis, Dr. Hank Pruden.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “technical analysis,” it refers to analyzing a market or an individual asset using charts.

I was expecting to learn about trend lines, bullish and bearish patterns, cycle analysis, etc., in this class. But instead, we dove deep into the psychology of the markets, trying to understand what motivates investors and traders to act the way they do.

Today, there are many institutions that teach behavioral finance, but at the time, it was groundbreaking stuff.

One of the most important concepts is that investors’ behaviors repeat time and time again. There are no guarantees, of course, and every situation will be a little different, but humans can be fairly predictable.

We typically fear the worst just before things get better… and we expect things will always be this good just before they get worse.

This course taught me a number of key ideas that I still use nearly three decades later. Here are a few of the most impactful ones.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias occurs when you focus only on the information that confirms your beliefs. People do this with their political beliefs all the time, and the media plays into it by exclusively giving them information that aligns with their point of view.

In the markets, an investor may believe that a stock is a great buy because they see the company’s products everywhere… which may cause them to ignore the fact that the stock has been in a downtrend all year. Despite the market signaling that things are not great for the company, the investor buys the stock anyway.

Overconfidence

I’d bet almost everyone reading this believes they’re a better-than-average driver. In college, I had an argument with a friend about what a horrible driver he was. “How many cars have you totaled?” I asked. (The number was three in the previous four years.) “Yeah, but they were all somebody else’s fault!” he exclaimed.

Enough said.

When things are going well in the markets, investors often confuse a bull market with their own genius and think they’ll know when to get out. Of course, it doesn’t work out that way.

The Herd Effect

How many times have you been looking for a place to eat and walked past an empty restaurant to wait at a crowded one?

We’ve seen this time and again in investing, like when people piled into dot-com stocks, crypto, cannabis stocks, and meme stocks because that’s what everyone else was doing.

Being aware of these concepts can help you question your own decision making and ensure that you’re thinking critically about each buy and sell.

You can also use stock charts to test your opinion.

For example, in early 2021, AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC), the poster child for meme stocks, took off. The stock moved from the $20s (split-adjusted) to over $600 in a few months.

And keep in mind, this was not some new tech company or a biotech that had a cure for cancer. AMC is a movie theater chain. And you’ll recall that in 2021, no one was going to the movies. So it made no sense that everyone was piling into the stock.

Let’s say you were on Reddit or some other message board reading about AMC and all the reasons it should go higher. One look at the parabolic move on the chart would tell you to be very careful… because when the stock stopped going higher, it was likely going to reverse quickly.

Technical analysis is simply the visual representation of investors’ emotions. The more aware you are of those emotions and behaviors and how to interpret them, the better a trader and investor you’re going to be.

The post 3 Lessons Every Investor Should Know appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Our New Year’s resolution in Wealthy Retirement is simple: Continue to deliver insights that can help you prepare for – or improve – your retirement and move one step closer to financial freedom.

One way you can help us do that is to share your feedback.

Could you please take a moment to answer a few questions about your experience with Wealthy Retirement?

It will take less than 60 seconds, and it will help us serve you and your fellow readers even better in the new year.

Thank you in advance!

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor

There’s something about the start of a new year that flips a switch.

A clean slate.

A fresh calendar.

And a chance to finally level up a skill you’ve been meaning to master.

That’s why we’re starting the new year with something truly special…

We’re thrilled to announce an Oxford Club exclusive partnership with Peter Tuchman – widely known as “The Einstein of Wall Street” and the most photographed broker on the New York Stock Exchange – alongside veteran trader David Green of Wall Street Global Trading Academy.

If you’ve ever watched market coverage, seen iconic NYSE photos, or followed the pulse of Wall Street over the past few decades…

You’ve seen Peter.

Now, for the first time, Oxford Club readers are getting direct access to him and his business partner David in a FREE live masterclass kicking off the new year.

• Tuesday, January 6
• 8:00 p.m. ET
• Free – Oxford Club Exclusive

This isn’t about chasing flashy predictions.

It’s about building a real, rules-based foundation – the kind of knowledge that helps you approach the market with clarity, discipline, and confidence.

In this New Year masterclass, you’ll learn:

• How day trading actually works (no myths, no hype)
• What it really costs to get started
• Core principles of technical analysis
• Risk management techniques professionals use to survive and stay consistent.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to:

Then this is a powerful way to start.

It’s completely free to attend.

Just click below to add it to your calendar, and we’ll handle the rest.

Add to Calendar (Free Masterclass)

We’re incredibly excited to kick off the new year with The Einstein of Wall Street and Wall Street Global Trading Academy – and even more excited to have you there live.

Here’s to a smarter, more intentional 2026,

Rachel

The post Learn From “The Einstein of Wall Street” appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Bryan is one of the most accomplished traders I know, and I’m always interested to hear what he has to say about the market.

To learn more about the work Bryan and his team have been doing, check out their website.

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor

Back in June 2025 – a Reddit user by the name of Nathan Smith posted an experiment.

He asked ChatGPT to pick U.S. microcap stocks (stocks with a market cap below $300 million) for him.

His goal?

“See how a language model performs in picking small, under-covered stocks with a $100 budget.”

Over the first four weeks of his experiment – the account reportedly generated 24-25% return on the $100.

A 24-25% return…

Sounds like a success, right?

Not so fast.

Soon after posting those results… Smith wrote: “I no longer can get chat to provide insights. I’m not sure what has changed but it is making up data and agent mode won’t work anymore.”

Oops.

It’s a good reminder that leaving investing decisions solely up to AI is a BAD idea… for a number of reasons…

Problem No. 1. It’s not hands-free

While ChatGPT generated the stock picks, the user still had to monitor the trades every step of the way.

He had to adjust if ChatGPT contradicted itself or recommended trades that were impossible.

He also had to impose his own stop losses and manually place the orders.

So although he was technically using ChatGPT to trade, it was more of an assistant than a “done-for-you” trading service.

Problem No. 2. He had no access to realtime data

ChatGPT can’t produce live price charts, track volume, see liquidity, or react fast enough to catalyst news.

It’s a language model… meaning it’s picking stocks based on text patterns from user data, not financial reality.

This sets it up for all sorts of false or outdated information that could lead to disastrous trades that crater your account.

Problem No. 3. It encourages the worst mindset

The idea that “AI will trade for me” is not a strategy.

Proper trading involves rules, discipline, pattern recognition, position sizing, risk control – and above all – patience.

Those are skills you can’t outsource to a language model.

You can only acquire them through getting in the trenches and learning how to trade using a proven system.

Problem No. 4. No long-term track record

Anyone can look smart with a small handful of winning trades over a short time period… in a rip-roaring bull market like we’ve had since April.

But could this ChatGPT trading model hold up during earnings season? A Fed meeting? A Black Swan event like COVID or the Housing Crisis?

YOUR ACTION PLAN

While this redditor experiment is a fun example of how a robot could trade for you, NO ONE should see it as a viable long-term trading strategy.

While AI agents like ChatGPT can help with stock research…

I’ll always favor using realtime data, risk management, and proper timing for long-term trading success.

But when you combine the research power of an AI agent with the expertise of an experienced trader… some real magic can happen.

At Monument Traders Alliance, we’re constantly using AI (the right way) to try to gain an edge for our readers.

Click here to learn more about our mission.

The post Can ChatGPT Really Make Winning Trades? appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Today, Bryan answers one question that every investor is constantly wondering: “How can I decide which stocks to buy?”

To learn more about Bryan and his team’s mission at MTA, check out their website here.

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor

One of the most common questions I get as a trader is…

“How do I know which company to trade?”

The truth is…

There are thousands of tickers out there, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

You’ve also got fear-based news headlines and social media hype hitting you on your smartphone and computer all day.

Overall, it can be difficult to know which strategies will actually lead to consistent gains.

But over my 20+ years as a trader, I’ve developed some tried-and-true methods for finding the best buy opportunities.

Here are 3 key factors I look for before trading a company.

Use these and watch your trading confidence skyrocket.

No. 1 – Notice the product in the real world

The first thing I look for when trading a stock is real world value.

For example, say I’m at a coffee shop, and I notice a lot of people wearing a certain kind of shoe.

That’s a strong buy signal because that company has demand.

This is especially true with women’s spending trends.

Women make up 70-85% of household purchases, so noticing what women are buying is one of my staple strategies for finding companies worth trading.

Start looking for these consumer trends and you’ll be ahead of 90% of other traders.

No. 2 – Look for an upcoming catalyst

A catalyst is a known date/event that could determine whether the market is bullish or bearish on a company.

These catalyst events include quarterly earnings reports, product launches, mergers, buyouts, ETF inclusion, and FDA approvals.

Before these events happen, you’ll often see traders buying, shorting or hedging a stock.

Then, the market digests the outcome and a stock either spikes or falls.

Keep in mind – this is not about guessing what’s going to happen to a stock ahead of earnings. However, when you’re aware of these events – you can position yourself in a way that increases your likelihood of a winning trade.

No. 3 – See if the company has strong institutional backing

Another factor I look for is institutional backing.

Institutional backing is when big players – mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds – all put serious money behind a stock and hold it in size.

For example, before tech group Nvidia’s big run in 2023, it had whale funds like ARK Invest, Fidelity and BlackRock all with large positions.

This institutional capital acts as a liquidity base (price support) and a confidence signal for other funds.

Another term traders should get familiar with is “Supply burn.”

Supply burn is when the available float (shares that are available to trade) gets reduced or locked up.

For example, say company insiders use their own profits to buy shares of a company (also known as buybacks).

By doing this, they destroy the supply because the number of shares available to the public shrinks.

With low supply, this creates a squeeze effect where any catalyst (like earnings) could ignite major momentum.

Think of float like the kindling… and the catalyst is the spark that could light up a stock.

The post 3 Signals That a Stock Is a “Buy” appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

In today’s guest article, Lead Technical Tactician Nate Bear is showing traders how the meme stock craze in 2021 was just the beginning.

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor

Back in January 2021, the trajectory of trading changed forever.

The meme stock craze kicked off one of the wildest moments in recent market history.

Here’s how it started…

Retail traders on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets noticed that hedge funds were massively shorting GameStop (GME) – betting it would crash.

So if GME’s stock rose, shareholders would be forced to buy shares back at higher prices – creating a short squeeze.

This time, retail traders decided to act – and act big. They used their strong community, pandemic stimulus money and commission-free trading apps to pile into GME.

Then the boom happened…

GameStop skyrocketed from $20 to nearly $483 in just weeks. Many retail traders made life-changing money. Others got wiped out when prices crashed.

What This “Meme-Stock Mania” Did for Trading

As messy as it was… the 2021 meme-stock craze changed the game for retail traders.

They could now move markets en masse all thanks to a strong social media community. For many, it was an addicting feeling of control.

Fast forward to 2025, and those speculative traders are still here.

Except now they’re not just trading meme stocks, they’ve become a key part of mainstream trading.

In fact, they’re part of what JPMorgan is calling a “speculative buying frenzy” in 2025.

Why “Speculative Trading” Is on the Rise in 2025

Retail traders are using speculative trades at a rate we haven’t seen since 2021. Several factors are contributing to a rise.

There’s a volatile political climate from tariff trade wars. Plus an emergence of quantum computing tech to power AI, and the rise of short squeezes from heavily shorted companies.

Factor in a record high on the S&P 500 and retail traders’ appetite for risk is growing.

In May 2025 alone, speculative 0DTE options trades (these are options trades that are opened on the option’s expiration date) made up 61% of all SPX options trading – a new high. With retail responsible for 54% of that volume.

Total U.S. options volume also more than doubled from 5 billion contracts in 2019 to 10 billion contracts in 2023. It’s on track to break new records with 11.4 billion contracts.

Overall, trading is now less about investing and more about quick trades with big potential payoffs.

Retail Traders Becoming a Major Force for Driving Volatility

But speculative trading isn’t just about gambling on the next hot AI stock, retail traders are now affecting the overall market sentiment.

Earnings reports are one area that retail traders are looking at more.

As you’ll see above, recent data from Bespoke Investment Group showed that the typical (over) reaction to earnings reports has been trending the highest since the financial crisis of 2008.

Overall, retail traders are rushing into names that tend to have a big impact on the overall market when earnings come up. Think names like Nvidia (NVDA), Reddit (RDDT) and Tesla (TSLA).

As retailers pour in at higher rates, it creates massive swing trade opportunities as prices overshoot in both directions.

YOUR ACTION PLAN

I’ve been using “lotto trades” to take advantage of the recent speculative buying frenzy in Daily Profits Live.

To learn more about our mission at Monument Traders Alliance and why I launched Daily Profits Live, click here.

The post The Day Wall Street Changed Forever appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

But as Bryan Bottarelli explains below, that’s not the case at all. Successful traders are guided by many of the same time-tested principles that Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld espouses here in Wealthy Retirement.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been in the markets for decades, Bryan’s five tips below can help you become a better investor.

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

Don’t look now, but the market is clawing its way back to all-time highs.

And that’s bound to draw a lot of interest from brand new retail traders.

But here’s the thing – most trading advice for beginners is backwards. They tell you to “start small” but never explain how to trade small accounts differently than big ones.

So I made a list of the same five tips I learned trading in the pit of the Chicago Board Options Exchange – except tailored for people starting with $1,000, not $500,000.

1. Trade what you already know.

I tell my softball buddies who are interested in trading to buy a stock like Anheuser-Busch (BUD). That way, when they notice more 21-to-25-year-olds drinking Bud Light Lime, they can learn how to turn those observations into profits.

Or, for all you ladies out there, imagine if you bought Lululemon (LULU) stock at the same time that you bought your first $100 pair of black yoga pants. Over the last 10 years, the stock has gone from $50 to $250. That’s a strong 400% gain.

When you’re starting out, invest in what you already know. The last thing you want is to get some money tied up in a complex technology that you know nothing about.

2. Position size like a seasoned Wall Street pro.

Here’s my general rule for a new small account: Only allocate 5% to 10% of your total account value for each new play.

No one wants to be that guy standing on the dock, holding a suitcase with a sad face. But at the same time, you also don’t want to be that guy who sits down at the poker table, sees one ace, gets all excited, and shoves all in. That sort of untamed aggression rarely pays off.

As odd as it may sound, position sizing will actually help you make more money with a much, much higher winning percentage.

3. Define your risk ahead of time… then don’t freak out.

Here’s a common mistake I see that scares a lot of people off. They make their first trade, and, inevitably, it goes down. They see their trading account in the red, and they get scared, freak out, sell at a loss, and then never try trading again.

I know the feeling. It happens to everyone. But if you define your risk ahead of time, you won’t freak out. Say you buy $500 worth of Nike. Right away, you should set your total downside risk at something you’re comfortable with – say, 20%. If your $500 worth of Nike goes down to $400, you’re out – no questions asked.

This tip eliminates making trading decisions based on emotion, which already puts you well ahead of every other new trader.

4. Never ever (ever, ever, ever) second-guess taking profits.

When it comes to taking profits, you’re always going to find yourself with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other shoulder, each talking in your ear. The angel is saying, “Don’t be greedy. Take your profit and be smart.” But the devil is saying, “You idiot! You’re leaving money on the table. Hold for more!”

Luckily for you, I have a solution. Whenever you find yourself with this dilemma, sell half. This locks in profits, and it still allows you to be in for any further possible upside. It’s the best of both worlds.

5. Find a trading community.

This is the very best way to learn how to make money day after day. I can tell you firsthand, for me, nothing was more powerful than a group of people all making money together.

Let’s face it – sometimes trading can be a pretty lonely game. If you’re at home trading the markets and you hit a big winner, all you can do is fist-bump yourself and then give air high-fives to your imaginary trading partners. That sucks the joy out of winning. But if you have a community of traders all winning together, it’s one of the most powerful feelings in the world.

Bottom line: Trading isn’t a sprint and it’s not a marathon either. It’s a game that never ends.

And these five rules help you stay in that game long enough to get good at it.

The post The 5 “Non-Negotiables” of Making Winning Trades appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Below, Bryan explains how markets are noticing a pattern in Trump’s policies… and how traders can use it to their advantage.

For more insights from Bryan and the MTA team, check out their website.

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

Donald Trump’s erratic behavior on tariffs has caused wild fluctuations in the markets over the last 3 months.

Now as we cross the 6-months point of his second term, a familiar pattern is starting to form.

Trump recently announced a 50% tariff on the EU starting June 1. Only to walk it back after he received a “very nice call” from European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, which quickly repaired the Nasdaq’s 1.5% drop.

He also dropped his 145% tariff on China to 30% last month, which again sent stocks surging.

This has been the pattern with Trump so far.

Despite his threats, he’s never followed through on his most bombastic tariffs. He prefers to announce them and then pause them.

It’s leading to what traders are calling the TACO effect.

It stands for… “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

See the chart below.

As you’ll notice above, there have been three “TACO” moments where Trump paused tariffs over the last few months.

Each time the pause is announced, the markets go back up.

You’ll also notice the pauses haven’t had as abrupt an effect recently as they have had back in March.

Once Trump makes the announcement for tariffs, I’ve been looking to overreactions.

So far, this has been a winning proposition. A few weeks ago I closed 3 trades for winners for a 100% win-rate, including a 16% winner on DECK in 1 trading day.

I understand these short-term fluctuations can be stressful as a trader, but the truth is… you can work overreactions in your favor if you know where to look. I do this in The War Room every day.

Trump’s Other Big Promise on Oil

Aside from tariffs, one of the other things Trump’s promised is we’d make a crap ton of money in the oil business.

He also promised a crap ton of money in the steel business.

Even if you don’t like Trump, we want him to succeed in this way.

Right now, the price of oil is around $64 a barrel. No oil stock is going to moon as long as oil prices are down.

However, as my colleague Karim likes to say, one of the best things for low oil prices is actually low oil prices.

Low oil prices force the marginal producers out of business. So long-term oil plays in companies that stand to survive any market storms could be the move.

The post Trading the Trump “TACO” Effect appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

With my wife out of town this past weekend, I spent a lot of my free time at the tables, both in person and online. It was a rare weekend where I won every session.

What I was most proud of was that I won even though I didn’t always have good cards, especially when I played live.

The local card room has a lot of experienced players. When a guy sits down next to you and the dealer greets him by name and asks where his wife is, you know he’s logged a lot of hours in the place.

I took a big pot off of this regular with the one good hand I got all afternoon. He didn’t believe that my hand was as good as I was representing, and he paid for it. An hour later, we reversed roles and he got his money back.

When I got up from the table later that afternoon, I had won my money back and then some.

How’d I do it? By playing the same way I invest.

I’m very disciplined, but I occasionally take a big swing when I believe the odds are in my favor.

Discipline in poker means I don’t play bad cards. I’m patient. I’ll fold hand after hand if I’m not getting good cards and there isn’t the right opportunity to bluff. I know from experience that when I’m undisciplined, I lose my money – usually quickly.

With investing and trading, the same goes.

I use stops to ensure that a small loss doesn’t become a big, devastating loss – and that a nice win doesn’t become a loser.

At the poker table this weekend, the gentleman to my right lost all his chips. He pulled out a wad of cash an inch thick and peeled off another hundred in order to buy more chips. I saw him repeat that several times.

I never – and I mean never – do that. In fact, I don’t even bring enough cash to go back into my pocket in case I’m tempted.

Before I get in the car, I make a rational decision (before emotions take over) about the maximum I’m willing to risk. And that’s what I start with. If I lose it all, I won’t lose any more than I was comfortable risking.

That’s what a stop will do for you in investing.

Poker is also a lesson in position sizing.

The Oxford Club recommends that you never put more than 4% of your portfolio into any one position. That way, if you suffer a 25% loss on the stock, which is where we traditionally set our stops, you’ve only lost 1% of your entire portfolio, which is easy to bounce back from.

The poker world is full of stories of brilliant players who go bust because they’ve mismanaged their money. They take too much risk with too much money, and when things go badly, it becomes a catastrophe.

I’ve worked way too hard in my life to let any one investment take me down. I assume you have too.

Making and losing money is often an emotional experience. Make decisions about stops and position sizing before you put any money at risk.

Your outcomes will be better, and when things do sometimes go against you, it won’t be as traumatic – financially or emotionally.

And if I see you at the tables, trust me, I have the cards.

The post The Secret to Being a Winning Poker Player (and Investor) appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Below, Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld shares a timely reminder of the dangers of letting your emotions dictate your trading – no matter what kind of market we’re in.

If you have any success stories in volatile markets (or lessons you had to learn the hard way), feel free to drop them in the comments at the bottom of the page!

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

The worst trades I’ve ever made all had one thing in common: I let my emotions get in the way.

I either bought a stock that I knew was garbage after getting swept up in what other people told me… or I held on to a stock that I should have sold because I was greedy.

Let me tell you about the worst trade I ever made.

After several years of making plenty of mistakes, I learned discipline. I used trailing stops. I took partial profits on the way up when I was in risky positions. I was patient and followed sound rules.

Until Quokka.

During the dot-com boom, I bought shares of Quokka, which provided video content of extreme sports. I knew no one was watching. Not because it wasn’t good content, but because no one had broadband. We were still on dial-up internet back then. Watching streamed video was a painfully slow process.

But Quokka had landed a deal to cover certain sports at the 2000 Olympics. It wasn’t making any money, but I figured once the mainstream media started writing about Quokka’s Olympic coverage, the stock would surge – the “greater fool” theory.

I put a lot of money into it. More than I should have. The stock did surge. It went from $7 to $15. Following my discipline, I told my wife I was going to sell half of the position and take our risk capital back. We’d be playing with the house’s money.

She suggested I stay fully invested in the stock. She was caught up in dot-com fever – as were millions of others – and expected it to go higher forever. I protested, saying I’d sleep better if so much of our money weren’t at risk.

She again suggested (more strongly) that we stay invested in Quokka. “What if it goes to $40?” she asked. “That’s a down payment on a house.”

I repeated my reasons for sticking to my discipline. We went back and forth like this for a few minutes until she finally challenged my manhood.

Today, I’m secure enough in my manliness that I won’t budge. I’m confident that sticking to a discipline is the right thing to do. Back then, I let my emotions get the best of me and agreed to hold on to the stock.

I’m sure you know what happened next. The stock tanked to $10. “If it goes back to $12, I’ll sell it,” I said. It fell to my entry point at $7. “If it goes back to $10, I’ll sell it for a small profit,” I said. It dropped to $5. “If it goes back to my break-even point, I’ll sell it,” I said.

Then $5 became $3, which became $2. I was frozen and kept promising myself I’d sell the stock if it rose a few points. It never did. It went straight to zero, and I still own that damn Quokka stock certificate somewhere.

Clearly, I made a number of mistakes along the way.

First, I let my wife’s emotions skew my judgment. Next, when things went badly, I ignored my own rules and common sense. Hope became my reason for staying in the stock. I would have saved myself thousands of dollars in losses had I set a trailing stop.

Whether your rules are based on fundamentals, value, or technicals, you should have a valid reason for buying a stock and a system for exiting your trades.

I paid tens of thousands of dollars in tuition (trading losses) in my early trading career so you don’t have to.

But I promise you that if you let your emotions guide your trading decisions, you’ll have a tale of woe similar to the one I just told.

Have your emotions ever led you to a bad trade? Share your stories in the comments. (Don’t worry… we’ve all been there.)

The post The Most Boneheaded Blunder of My Career appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

He recently told us about his biggest new breakthrough in 20 years…

A website you can use to predict the biggest jumps on 5,000 stocks – to the day – with 83% backtested accuracy.

At first, we didn’t quite believe it… until we tried it ourselves.

In 2024 alone, you could’ve seen gains of 250% in 38 days on Take-Two Interactive Software, 101% in 10 days on Williams-Sonoma, 353% in 48 days on Aon, and more in Keith’s backtest.

We asked him for permission to share it with our readers, and to our surprise, he said “YES!” – despite its $5,000 value.

That’s exactly why we’re holding a special event on Tuesday, April 8, at 1 p.m. ET called Breakthrough 2025. It’s entirely free to attend.

Register here now.

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

The first quarter of 2025 is behind us, and so far, this market has been tough to navigate.

Markets are evolving, but this year has introduced a wave of unprecedented uncertainty, leaving investors searching for stability.

Uncertainty is the market’s greatest enemy, triggering volatility and knee-jerk reactions.

We saw that in the third quarter of 2024. Right before the election, the CBOE Volatility Index was soaring, investor sentiment was tentative at best, and we weren’t sure if the Fed would surprise us with rate cut news (again).

But as soon as those unknowns disappeared, the market charged forward with a voracity we hadn’t seen in months.

That’s the power of knowledge to soothe that fear of the unknown.

Now we’re facing a new series of unknowns that have spun the market into a panic: tariffs and trade war threats, stagflation fears, and concerns over the strength of the AI trade. Major indexes have fallen into correction territory, and there’s no sign of things calming down soon.

We’ll have to wait for some of 2025’s big unknowns to play out on their own. But here at TradeSmith, we aren’t panicking – we’re ready to take on the market as it comes.

Because we have recently made the biggest breakthrough in our history…

We have uncovered a way to solve one of the biggest unknowns in trading: the absolute best times of year to buy and sell any asset…

And it’s all based on measurable, tangible patterns.

Let me show you how…

Time to Plant Our Investments

To the naked eye, stocks seem to trade erratically, whipping upward one day only to plummet the next – even after good news.

But there are stocks that trade so consistently – rising (or falling) sharply during specific windows of time, year after year – that you can map out an entire year of great trades right now.

It’s not unlike how farmers make their plans for the year. They don’t know if it’ll rain or snow next Wednesday, nor can they assume that every field they plant will produce a healthy crop.

But farmers do know when to plant for the best results, which (here in the Northern Hemisphere) is in spring.

This is a dependable seasonal pattern in nature that humans have used to our advantage for thousands of years… without knowing the first thing about Earth’s orbit.

With only a glance at their calendars, farmers get to work prepping and planting their fields from March to May, tending the crops from June to August, then harvesting in September to November, depending on the crop.

In fact, farmers behave this way so reliably that it creates a specific cycle in agricultural prices. Every year when it’s time to harvest, there will be downward pressure on the price of those crops, since supply will at least temporarily be greater than demand.

Just as dependably, stocks go through seasonal cycles, too – and like farmers, you can learn the best time to buy or sell any given stock, down to the very day you should place the order.

It’s all thanks to our unique market analysis tool. It’s a simple but powerful system that displays consistent historical patterns coming up for any asset in the TradeSmith database.

It’s called the TradeSmith Seasonality Tool, and I believe it could be the biggest breakthrough in our 20-year history.

And with a new earnings season practically on our doorstep, a whole new slew of cycles is about to begin…

Make a Data-Driven Decision

Take Netflix (NFLX), for example.

The popular streaming stock tends to climb dramatically starting in January. That’s the first seasonal window highlighted here in green on our TradeSmith Seasonality chart…

Then – after a springtime lull – it jumps from early May until mid-July. That’s the second seasonal window, bordered in blue.

Why is January to April such a great time for Netflix? And why does it perk back up in the summer? Maybe it’s the earnings reports… although those have been a mixed bag for the past few years. Perhaps Netflix has been releasing hot new shows early in the year or gets a bump from students going on summer vacation?

We can’t always say why, but the why doesn’t necessarily matter.

Instead, we can simply recognize that the stock price has risen 18%, on average, between May 8 and July 12 every single year during the past 15 years… and draw our own conclusions about the stock.

Will it play out the same way in 2025? There are never any guarantees. But it is encouraging to know that the stock’s January-to-April bullish seasonal pattern played out as predicted with stunning accuracy, as you can see in the blue line on the chart above. The stock went up 23.3% from the start of the window to the peak.

And Netflix’s summertime bullish seasonal pattern has a 100% track record of success.

Let’s look at another example: Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX).

Vertex is also looking like a good buy in the spring and summer; it already passed through two bullish seasonal windows earlier this year, with returns of 5.4% from January 1-21 and a gain of 5.2% from February 17 to March 4.

And Vertex tends to climb 8.8%, on average, from June 11 to July 21 – with an 80%-plus track record of gains during all three of these periods. In fact, the stock seems to be highly seasonal in how it trades, with several high-probability patterns playing out throughout the year, including one bearish pattern in mid-September:

Really, I could go on all day showing you different seasonal patterns in various stocks.

With a quick TradeSmith screener for seasonality, I was able to find 43 of them with a high-probability bullish pattern starting between April and June, each averaging 10% to 20% gains in those first couple of months.

But I share this data just to show you how you can plan your trades on any stock… down to the day.

See, most people who recognize the power of seasonality can’t get that specific about it. They can show you which sectors tend to perform best in the summer or the winter, sure, and they can attempt to explain why so you’ll feel confident in their conclusion.

Even when you can plot out a whole year’s worth of seasonality, as we do at TradeSmith, some days are still far better than others. We highlight those days for you as the green zones you saw on my charts here today.

And I don’t mind telling you that this could be the biggest breakthrough we’ve ever had at TradeSmith.

This can allow us to recommend trades in 2025 (and beyond) more confidently than ever before – because we know which stocks will offer us high-probability trades months ahead of time.

On Tuesday, April 8, at 1 p.m. ET, I’ll show you everything I can about this strategy and how we will use it to find you the most reliable stocks to trade… on their very best days of the year.

Click here to register to attend and learn more about these new seasonality signals – our major breakthrough – and try the tool for yourself, 100% free.

The post How to Know the Best Day to Buy Any Stock appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.