So I would love for you to read through my list, Tools of the Trade - How I Invest (2012 Edition), and then email me (Email subscribers just click reply!) or leave a comment on this post including the services you utilize yourself.

Your list can include newsletters, websites, blogs, brokers, subscriptions services, anything. If it helps you make money in the market, then I would love to know what it is! Also, feel free to keep it short and sweet just listing names, you don't have to go through the trouble I did on my post.

For example, my favorite trade platform is thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade:

With your responses I can then put together a great post highlighting my findings. It'll be great.

Thank you in advance for your participation. I hope this bull market is treating your portfolio well and I look forward to hearing from you!

Original post: What are Your Favorite Stock Tools and Services?

A lot of earnings highlights today: Visa, Cisco, Panera, Groupon, Buffalo Wild Wings, amongst others. For the details head over to today's IBD Market wrap up.

The good stuff:

• This is why the Dow Jones Industrials index is worthless (Bespoke)
• The end of money-market funds? (SmartMoney)

Most interesting thought of the day comes from this great piece, Consumer Credit and the American Conundrum (ZeroHedge):

Individuals go to work to produce a good or service for which they are paid a finite amount of money for. With that income they pay taxes which leaves them with discretionary income from which to live on. Pay the rent, utilities, insurance and healthcare, food, clothes and put gas in the car and that pretty much consumes the majority of the paycheck. Today, the situation is quite different and a harbinger of potentially bigger problems ahead. The consumer is no longer turning to credit to leverage UP consumption - they are turning to credit to maintain their current living needs.

I am no expert on economics but this makes logical sense to me and I don't think it could have been broken down any cleaner. A fantastic read for sure.

And here is a nice graph showing the leadership sectors thus far in 2012 (StockCharts.com). Defensive sectors consumer staples, healthcare, and utilities are lagging the market YTD while the others lead.

Whether or not Greece has an effect on the market this week remains to be seen. Apparently an announcement is due out any day but no one has yet to see anything come across the wire beyond crazy headlines like these.

Hope this rally is treating your portfolio well. Stay frosty out there and I will see you back here tomorrow!

Original post: February 8th, 2012 Market Recap with Look at Leading Sectors

Interesting reads:

• Consumer credit soars $33 Billion, epic credit bubble collapse enroute? (ZeroHedge)
• Are we in the early stages of a great 1995 rally all over again? (StockCharts.com)
• Student loan debt on the rise, fueling jump in bankruptcies (IBD, Bloomberg)

The confident "everyone on board the market train" bias is starting to become very evident. With the mainstream media focused on the positive and average investors piling into the market there is almost always a top being formed behind the scenes.

The trend is your friend so by all means take advantage but perhaps proceed with care. Tighter stops on new positions for example is never a bad idea in these times as the market gives gains back much quicker than it adds them on.

Now more than ever, stay frosty (sharp) out there!

Original post: February 7th, 2012 Market Recap

Today's fun facts + links:

• Apple impacts S&P 500's earnings to the tune of 20 - 30% (Market Montage)
• Barry explains the current market in a language everyone can understand (Yahoo Tech Ticker Video)
• Today's volume was the lowest non-holiday trading day in over a decade (ZeroHedge)
• Super Bowl sets record with 111.3 Million Viewers (Bloomberg)

Congratulations to the New York Giants on the big Super Bowl victory yesterday. See you back here tomorrow!

Original post: February 6th, 2012 Market Recap and Volume Record

Interesting today:

• The average daily market changes falls back under 1% (Bespoke) - "At one point in early December 2008, the S&P 500 had averaged a daily change of +/-4.02% over the prior 50 days, which is the highest level ever seen in the index's history."
• From StockCharts.com, "According to the Wall Street Journal, 'Caterpillar's 20% stock surge this month contributed nearly 34% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 415-point advance.' As a price weighted 'average' the highest priced issues in the Dow carry the most weight. This is also true for the Dow Transports and Dow Utilities."
• Facebook's S-1 reveals Zynga (ZNGA) supplies 12% of Facebook's revenue, shares soar (IBD)

Tomorrow we have the all important jobs report due out which will possibly maybe probably not have an effect on this market. full details.

No recap tomorrow as usual so have a FANTASTIC weekend and I will see you next week!

Original post: February 2nd, 2012 Market Recap with look at ZNGA Breakout

Interested reads today:

• Facebook has over 800 million users, filed today to raise $5 Billion in an IPO (Bloomberg)
• A REAL look at the housing market with Barry Ritholtz (Yahoo Video)
• Greece is heading to a "condition of absolute poverty" (ZeroHedge)
• Is 2012 set to be a copy performance of 2011? (Bespoke)

And the best are these 8 Facebook fun facts from its IPO prospectus (hat tip ZeroHedge):

1. Facebook's stock ticker will be "FB"
2. Facebook's IPO will raise $5 Billion
3. Facebook currently has 845 million monthly active users (MAU)
4. Facebook currently has 483 million daily active users (DAU)
5. Facebook has over 2.7 Billion likes and comments per day
6. There are 100 Billion friendships on Facebook
7. Facebook sees 250 million photos uploaded daily
8. Facebook had $3.7 Billion in revenue for 2011, 85% growth year over year (YOY)

Mind boggling! Will you be buying Facebook when it goes public?

Original post: February 1st, 2012 Market Recap with 8 Facebook IPO Fun Facts

Stocks wavered to a narrowly mixed finish Tuesday following a round of worst-than-expected economic reports, but the major indexes ended January with big gains.

Fun fact of the day, SentimenTrader (one of my favorite newsletters) reports,

For the first time in history, the S&P 500 never suffered any more than 0.6% drop during the entire month of January.

Pretty impressive I'd say. Jason goes on to note however that when looking at this occurrence for other months during the year there seems to be no meaningful buy or sell signal for moving forward.

In earnings, AMZN stock is down over 8% in after hours trade after reporting earnings that missed sales and gave a unimpressive outlook for Q1 revenue. Full breakdown at MarketWatch. The stock is sitting at about $177.50 currently.

Updated Gold chart analysis included tonight, see you back here tomorrow!

Original post: January 31st, 2012 Market Recap with AMZN, Gold Updates

The stock market closed lower Monday but well off its session lows. The Nasdaq, which had been down as much as 1.2% in early trading, closed with a 0.2% loss. Strength in techs seemed to help the composite.

• From what I gather from my reading, Europe's latest is that Greece is expected to be ousted from the Eurozone and the market has already baked in any other drama possibilities. Debt sales are going better than expected in countries like France and Italy, and leading powerhouse Germany is showing positive signs from its latest economic data. Track the Europe's debt crisis with this New York Times tool.
• Fun fact from today's Bespoke report on ETF performance year to date, Silver SLV is leading with a gain of +20.56% and natural gas UNG is leading the decliners with a -10.37% return ytd.
• For those who have been hearing yip yap about the looming "golden cross" (when the 50 day moving average crosses back above the 200 day moving average), Barry posted a good article on the topic which breaks down some truth behind it. While a positive signal historically, it is no golden "guaranteed to profit" opportunity.
• Lastly, if you are like me and have a hard time remembering earnings dates, I suggest using Yahoo Finance's earnings calender. I apologize for not mentioning it at the beginning of this past earnings season!

Stay frosty out there and I will see you back here tomorrow.

Original post: January 30th, 2012 Market Recap with Top ETFs YTD