That’s a great idea actually. One of my favorite things about writing here is that the comments are fantastic and often the writers know more about a segment of the market than myself so I love to feed off other people’s ideas. I am 100% for intelligent debate.

How about this: I use the current Research and Investment Ideas section to post a discussion on monthly market direction where everyone can express their opinions?

Another idea I have had is creating a virtual stock exchange link where everyone can create users, use VSE on marketwatch and track trades and ideas in real-time (or close to it). I think both would generate helpful ways for everyone to bounce ideas off one another and get some good discussions going that generate money making possibilities.

What do you think?

This is an idea. Is it possible for you to consider a format where your weekly or monthly views re:market performance are the dominant topic, yet allow for others to display alternatives views?

For example, the great majority of financial forecasters, including yourself, expect a final summer rally that will produce an SPX value anywhere between the high 900s to 1200 range. Yet how we get there or the degree of the move are equally important.

Re: next week I think we will see a retreat of all indeces, for example. It would be interesting to your readers to allow some form of civil debate as to movement prediction supported by credible, yet perhaps conventional, sources. I can provide my own forecast compared to yours and others. This is not meant to steal the thunder away from you, rather, provide for a forum where our positions here are further refined.

An obvious thread in your typical reader commentary is the bias we all have towards a particular outcome. The truth is that bias should stand aside to a more disciplined approach towards outcome discovery.

One of your readers the other day accused the bears as incapable of making money in this market. The truth is that one can make money whether the markets go up or down; directional correctness is the key.

I want to thank you for your hard work and excellent insights. For the couple of months I’ve been reading your blog I have enjoyed it very much. You’ve been making quite a few accurate calls. Makes me wish that I’ve known about this blog all along to guide me through these tumultuous waters. Please continue to keep the readers updated on the market and your sentiments. Your blog is quickly becoming one that I frequent multiple times a day. Since I don’t have time to read all the blogs out there, yours is usually the one I go to. I like that you translate everything into plain English so that it’s easy to understand.

Just ran across this while doing a write-up on something else. This earnings rally has been on my radar for well over a month:

http://pragcap.com/will-further-cost-cuts-leader-to-q2-outperformance

“The implications here are that we are likely to see another quarter of “better than expected” bottom line earnings as analysts have adjusted their EPS estimates very little over the prior quarter. This could further juice the stock market.”

I think I definitely could have been more clear about it. I didn’t really clarify the position until someone asked me specifically on Monday.

I don’t think Edward is wrong to question it….

TPC has been talking about a rally into earnings for weeks. Anyone who is a regular reader knows that. Are you new?

All in all, just avoiding the short position was a big win in my book. Being short into a 7%+ week is a huge loss….

I was also right on the direction of the market in the last week. But, and this is a big “but,” when I tried to convert that into a series of wins in the market, I came up short and actually lost a few bucks (not much). But my week was definitely not a “win.” Short of any specifics in your call, I don’t think you get to claim a win. That’s a little too easy.

Don’t get me wrong though. I always read your blog and usually come away better for it.

Just my 2 cents – it could be a portfolio with simple – buy, sell, hold calls and the date the call was entered. Put some money into the portfolio maybe 100K so we can do a sample allocation across the calls. Then track the portfolio in real-time, maybe by hosting it on Yahoo Finance or any other stock tracking website as a public portfolio.