Pre-opening Comments for Tuesday December 22^nd

U.S. equity index futures are higher this morning despite a greater than expected downward adjustment to third quarter GDP. S&P 500 futures are up 3 points in pre-opening trade. Third quarter real GDP was revised from an annual rate of 2.8% to 2.2%. Consensus was 2.7%.

Crude oil slipped $0.48 after OPEC agreed to stick with existing quotas.

Ford added 1% after the company raised its fourth quarter guidance.

TD Ameritrade improved 2% after Keefe Bruyette upgraded the stock from Market Perform to Outperform. Target price is $22.50.

Imax slipped 1% after Morgan Joseph downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Dennis Gartman noted the breakout by the technology heavy NASDAQ 100 Index yesterday and added to his long position in U.S. equities.

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Jabil added 6% after reporting higher than expected fiscal first quarter earnings. The company also raised guidance.

Natural gas is under pressure again this morning. Its period of seasonal strength normally peaks on December 21^st. History is repeating. Technical requirements for the end of the period of seasonal strength likely will be reached today.

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Technical Action Yesterday

Technical action by S&P 500 stocks was bullish yesterday. Eight S&P 500 stocks broke resistance (Alcoa, American Tower, AutoNation, Apache, Expeditors, Intuit, Massey Energy, Micron Technology and U.S. Steel) and none broke support. The Up/Down ratio increased from 3.27 to (333/98=) 3.40.

Technical action by TSX Composite stocks was quiet. Two TSX stocks broke resistance (Chartwell and Davis&Henderson) and one stock broke support (Lundin Mining). The Up/Down ratio was unchanged at (141/31=) 4.55.

Interesting Charts

Lots of encouraging technical action in stocks and Exchange Traded Funds that currently are in a period of seasonal strength:

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

‘Tis the Season for Announcing Top Equity Selections for the Following Year!

One of the recurring annual events that tend to favourably influence equity markets at this time of year is the release of reports by strategists giving predictions and top equity selections for the following year. Last year, strategists were cautious. This year they have returned to a bullish stance. The latest investment firm to release their top equity selections for 2010 is Desjardins Securities. Following is a link from the FP Trading Desk that gives Desjardins’ top 10 picks in 2010:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/tradingdesk/archive/2009/12/21/10-stocks-for-2010.aspx

Relative Strength of Sector SPDRs since November 5^th

November 5^th was the identified date this year for owning the S&P 500 Index. Since then, economically sensitive sectors such as technology, consumer discretionary, industrials and materials have significantly outperformed the S&P 500 Index. Notable underperformers have been energy, consumer staples and financial services. Two sectors were a surprise: Health care and utilities also made the list of SPDRs that have outperformed.

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com www.stockcharts.com

Ken Norquay’s Column

Copenhagen Cop-out.

The Copenhagen climate change conference was a show case for human nature. The conference was rife with blow-hard politicians and self-righteous protesters. The human ego is an amazing thing. And now that they’ve all gone home, what did we learn from this spectacle?

Modern human beings have a strange focus on the grandiose. We love the billion dollar international deals where rich nations give to the poor. We love the massive national targets for emission reduction, the idea of all nations cooperating in a globally united effort. We love this focus on bigness.

But, in problems like this, the devil is in the details. Greenhouse gas problems seem easy to solve.

For starters, an automotive engineer friend tells me that diesel engines use half the fuel that gasoline engines use. It’s easy for a nation like Canada to introduce limits on the numbers of gasoline engines produced in Canada: then the manufacturers would simply build cars with diesel engines instead. The government could easily limit the number of 8 cylinder engines in passenger cars. They’d simply build cars with 6 or 4 cylinder engines. The government could easily regulate the weight of passenger cars: they’d simply manufacture lighter cars. In other words, our government could easily force Canadians to drive the same kind of cars people currently drive in Europe. And the auto manufacturers could easily produce them.

Why won’t elected politicians do these obvious things? Because they are focussed on the grandiose. They are not interested in the boring details of simply getting the job done. It’s human nature.

It’s so easy to see the futility of human nature in others; not so easy to see it in ourselves.

Consider the financial world; are we all focussed on the banking system, the world economy, the automotive bail out? Are we overlooking the obvious simple things we can do to save our own personal financial worlds?

What about your budget? Do you spend responsibly? Do you save money? Are you too far in debt? These things are easy to sort out.

And what about your investments? Are you making money? Or are you losing? Is your investment advisor worth the money you pay them? Do you remember how you felt last year when the stock market dropped 45% in 6 months? Did you wish you had sold out long before? Have you sold out now?

For advice in this matter, I turn to country singer, Kenny Rogers. In his song, The Gambler, he offers this simple advice: “You’ve got to know when to fold ‘em, know when to hold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.”

But most of us have caught the Copenhagen flu: we focus on the grandiose problems of the world and forget all about the simple things we can all do to defend ourselves from future financial loss.

In my book, Beyond the Bull, I write about how your human nature impacts your investing. I encourage readers to focus on their own investment accounts, not on the grandiose world financial markets. Media coverage of the big and the bad can distract us and prevent us from quietly living our lives in a responsible way.

Focus on yourself first.

Ken Norquay, CMT

Financial Philosopher

Links to beyond the Bull:

Canada
http://www.amazon.ca/Beyond-Bull-Taking-Market-Wisdom/dp/0980923182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228246016&sr=8-1
US
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Bull-Taking-Market-Wisdom/dp/0980923182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228246055&sr=8-1
UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Bull-Taking-Market-Wisdom/dp/0980923182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228245979&sr=8-1

Matt Blackman’s Column

Matt talks about “Waiting for the Santa Claus rally”. Following is a link to his blog:

http://tradesystemguru.com/content/blogcategory/54/88/

Thackray’s 2010 Investor’s Guide: A great Christmas Present

Tech Talk frequently mentions Brooke Thackray and his book entitled, “Thackray’s 2010 Investor’s Guide”. The book summarizes attractive seasonal trades that are available during the year. The book can be purchased electronically below or by visiting your local bookstore.

U.S. Visitors click here: Thackray’s 2010 Investor’s Guide (from Amazon.com)

Seasonal trades in the book that currently are active include Agriculture, Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, Natural Gas and Metals & Mining.

Disclaimer: Comments and opinions offered in this report at www.timingthemarket.ca are for information only. They should not be considered as advice to purchase or to sell mentioned securities. Data offered in this report is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed.

Don Vialoux is a research analyst for JovInvestment Management Inc. All of the views expressed herein are the personal views of the author and are not necessarily the views of JovInvestment Management Inc., although any of the recommendations found herein may be reflected in positions or transactions in the various client portfolios managed by JovInvestment Management Inc

HAP Seasonal Rotation E.T.F. | HAC-T $10.10 December 21 2009

Open	10.010			-
High	10.170		-
Low	10.010		-
Bid x14	10.100		-
Ask x1	10.200		-
Volume	5,290		-
52-wk High 12/03	10.400		-
52-wk Low 12/09	10.000		-

Net Asset Value: $!0.09 per unit.

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