The Weekend Edition is pulled from the daily Stansberry Digest.
After a shaky start to the year, the broad U.S. markets had been relatively calm for the past several months...
But no more.
Over the past few weeks, volatility has returned with a vengeance... After months without so much as a 2% decline, we saw stocks swing several percent – up and down – every day this week.
We expect this to continue... As our colleague Steve Sjuggerud has explained, even under his most bullish "Melt Up" scenario, we're likely to see several more days and weeks like this along the way.
Regular readers know we've spent a lot of time discussing the Melt Up lately...
The reason is simple: If Steve is even halfway correct about a final "blow off" top in stocks, the next year or two could be among the most profitable of your entire investment career.
And this is all the more important when you consider that history tells us stocks could be "dead money" for years – or even decades – once this long bull market ends.
In other words, the Melt Up may be the last legitimate chance for many folks to achieve financial independence through the markets. If your savings aren't already where they need to be to meet your retirement goals, we'd argue you can't afford to miss it.
However, some people might think this advice to "stay long" for the Melt Up is contradictory...
After all, we've also been tracking plenty of reasons for caution today.
The Federal Reserve is "tightening"... Stocks are, by some measures, near their most expensive valuations in history... And there are huge excesses in the corporate and consumer credit markets, just to name a few.
Surely this is the time to be selling stocks, rather than staying long or even buying additional stocks today... right?
Not exactly.
You see, what these folks are missing is that this isn't necessarily an "either/or" decision. There's no inherent contradiction in our advice to invest for the Melt Up AND take some extra precautions today.
You can do both.
Our colleague Dr. David "Doc" Eifrig agrees...
As he explained in the October 19 edition of his free Health & Wealth Bulletin e-letter...
Everyone's thinking of timing.
They're wondering when to get out of the market, how long the next bear market will last, and when to get back in... But they're asking the wrong questions...
That's what individual investors miss in every market cycle and every boom and crash.
You see, as Doc noted, the market isn't like a rocket that goes higher and higher...
It doesn't simply have one trajectory – up, then down. Anyone who tries to time the market today is likely to be disappointed...
In order to time the market correctly, you have to not only get your sell decision right, you also have to decide when to get back in. And more often than not, the market will whipsaw back upward and force you to either buy back in at a higher price or sit on the sidelines, missing big gains.
It rarely works.
Fortunately, Doc says there's a much better way to invest...
And the way he recommends doesn't require you to guess which way the market will go next. Instead of trying to time the market with "all or nothing" decisions, simply begin to "tilt" your allocations. More from Doc...
It's that easy. Don't ever decide that it's time to sell all your stocks... or load every penny you have into them.
Right now is the best time in the past nine years to reduce your risk and move some of your capital into cash and cash-like investments.
But it's also a good time to bet on my colleague Steve Sjuggerud's Melt Up thesis that the market likely has a final leg upward. Markets do tend to end in blow-off tops that post very generous returns in their final months.
In other words, you should bet on a Melt Up. Just be sure to do it with the right amount of money... and with the right investments.
We'll end today's essay with a quick word from Porter...
On Wednesday, we aired the biggest event in Stansberry Research history. And the best investor in the world hosted it.
No, I (Porter) am not exaggerating.
There isn't a better investor anywhere in the world than my lifelong friend and business partner, Steve Sjuggerud. If you've been reading our work for any length of time, you've probably already figured this out for yourself.
Now... why should you care about any of this?
Because after the Dow dropped roughly 2,000 points over the past few weeks, it's more important than ever that you get the right information. We're at a critical moment right now.
During the event, Steve answered the two biggest questions on every investor's mind...
- What's going to happen in the financial markets over the next year?
- And exactly where should you put your money today?
I know what you're thinking... "Everyone and his mother has an opinion on where the markets are headed. Why should I listen to Steve?"
The answer is simple... Because no other analyst out there has accurately called so many major market moves since 1999. From his call of the market top in early 2000... to his call of the bottom in early 2009... to his spot-on predictions about gold, real estate, biotech, China, and many more... no one has done a better job over the past 20 years of identifying the market's biggest and most important moves.
The numbers prove it...
We looked at the data earlier this year while compiling our annual Stansberry Research
"Report Cards"... And Steve's returns continue to blow us away.
As you probably know, few investment firms are able to beat the S&P 500's returns over long periods (like five to 10 years). But since launching True Wealth Systems in early 2011, Steve's average annualized return is 26%. That's nearly double the S&P 500's annual return in the period.
Virtually no one who has been investing in large-cap, long-only, liquid equities can match these results over this period.
If you have any money in the markets right now – or plan on investing after the recent pullback – you'd be a fool to do it without hearing from Steve first.
Fortunately, you can still do that... Until tomorrow, you can watch a replay of this free event by clicking here.
Regards,
Justin Brill and Porter Stansberry
Editor's note: Steve just put together a special portfolio to help subscribers make the most money as the Melt Up unfolds. He believes each of these nine positions could soar 100%-plus in the coming months. Right now, you can access Steve's portfolio – and more than $10,000 worth of research – for a small fraction of what it would normally cost. Get all the details here.
