We would also like to take this opportunity to remind any of those who have had substantial losses in the market this year that today is the last day on which to sell those stocks and take the tax write-off (or to use the losses to offset any gains realized) up to $3000. The only constraint is that you cannot repurchase the same securities within 30 days of the sale. For more on tax selling, visit http://www.fool.com/ddow/2000/ddow001110.htm or other sites.

Thursday, December 21, 2000:  Buy.  As the year end approaches, many issues confuse the average investor as to what is going on in the market. Concerns of an overall economic slowdown, likely year-end tax selling, and fears that the Fed may not react in time to avoid a recession, all work together to make the market's movement of late seem more like a limbo contest ("how low can we go"). Over the last two days, the signals we've been getting have become more and more bullish, with our proprietary strength factor at over 170 yesterday and reaching 272 today, the strongest on the bullish side that we've seen this year (over 150 bullish or bearish indicates a likely buy or sell, respectively, if our other criteria are met). Our ratio of bullish to bearish is over 10:1, and we've got enough breadth and strength to give us a buy on the market in the next one to three days. And with computers and internets just under-, biotechs just over-! , and semiconductors right at our long term buy levels of November 30, we would recommend averaging into the market over the next week or two, with a strong likelihood of more or stronger buys coming at the beginning of 2001.

Note: Because some of the high-tech sectors are not that strong and because several areas of the market have broken through support, leaving as much as 10-15% more possible downside, we would recommend a 5-7% stop-loss mentality (if the NASDAQ decreases more than 5-7%, it cancels the buy). We don't see it as likely that all of these areas will break down at once, but if the market does slip more than 5% or so, it would likely continue down further. After all... it's still a bear market. All surprise is on the downside.

Monday, December 18, 2000:  Five trading days after our sell calls of last week, the NASDAQ has lost the greater part of its 20+% gains and is within about 5% or so of its 52 week intra-day low. We've been starting to get more bullish signals after the last several days, and with three of the four technology sectors also within about 10% or so of their lows, though we do not have full-scale buys, we're looking for those industries to start turning up soon.
Other: Although we do not cover these industries in detail, both optical networking (digl, glw, jdsu, sdli, etc.) and wireless stocks also look poised for an upmove soon.

Wednesday, December 13, 2000:  Not much to add here. In addition to the sells we've gotten recently on the technology and financial sectors, we got another signal after Tuesday's market action. First, the weak sell we had on the Dow from nearly two weeks ago which was not able to execute after the Fed hinted at a more favorable interest rate picture has turned into a stronger sell (actual execute date was today, as the Dow pulled within about 1% or so of its three month highs, a resistance level it has had difficulty overcoming in recent months).

Monday, December 11, 2000:  The NASDAQ is up over 20% since our buy call nearly two weeks ago, and while the markets had indeed been oversold, this recent rise is a little more than can be digested without at least a temporary breather. The signals we've been getting have turned broadly bearish, actually giving us a weak sell on the market. With bearish signals on 60% of the stocks in our database and a strength factor of 153 (over 150 bullish or bearish indicates a likely buy or sell, respectively), we are looking for a near term retraction in most areas of the markets (see below). We do not expect this to be a protracted decline, however (some areas may even trade sideways, rather than down), and longer-term investors should maintain their positions until we get a stronger sell.

Thursday, December 7, 2000:  We have not been getting an enormous volume of signals this week. However, the nature of the signals has shifted drastically in the last two days from reasonably strong bearish after Tuesday's runup to strong bullish today, indicating a likelihood that markets will be stabilizing. Most high tech areas have retraced 30-50+% of their recent gains, and appear ready to begin resuming their uptrends.

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