Richard’s Comments

The essence of Dow Theory, and this may shock a lot of amateur so-called Dow Theorists, is VALUES. In his writing, Charles H. Dow stressed values above everything else. William Hamilton and Robert Rhea put a lot of emphasis on the action of the Averages (which Dow did not do), and later during the '70s George Schaefer went back to basics and re-emphasized values.

"To know values," wrote Dow, "is to know the meaning of the market." Dow advocated buying stocks when stocks represented great values, and then selling stocks when they became overvalued. As for value, Dow placed his main emphasis on yields or the return on the investment.

By Chuck Butler

When my oldest son, Andrew, was younger, he had a good friend, Josh. He was either at our house or the two of them at his house every day, with sleepovers on the weekends.

One weekend, I rented a movie for us to watch called Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I loved it, and the boys adored it, and watched it over and over again for weeks (we just kept renting it each time)! The story in the movie has been on my mind for years now ... Andrew is 36 now, so this was a long time ago!

Stocks exhibited signs of relief that the world did not explode overnight, and so recovered much of yesterday's losses.  The Asia Dow rose 0.64% and the STOXX 600 gained 0.28%, with virtually all major markets trading higher.  Brazil added onto yesterday's big gains, with a 0.94% rise.  Both the NASDAQ and the S&P Small Cap index rose to new all-time highs, with the Dow Industrials again lagging the market as a whole.

by Jon S. Strebler 

Richard Russell became interested in gold as an investment – as real money – back in the 1960s. His buddy Jim Dines may have been “The Original Gold Bug,” but Richard was right in there with Jim, Harry Schultz, and other heavy-hitter goldbugs that earned so much notoriety in the 1970s. Richard loved gold, and right up to his last days, he had a hard time saying anything other than “Buy,” regardless of the yellow metal’s outlook at any given time. For decades, his subscribers were mostly on board with him; they liked gold’s (and silver’s, to a lesser degree) story.

By Matthew Kerkhoff

Successfully predict the start of the next recession, plus or minus a few months, and you stand to make a lot of money. Not only can you reposition your portfolio towards bonds and cash – typically the best place to be during periods of economic malaise – you can also sell your stocks at or near the market’s peak.

In fact, if your primary objective is to invest in sync with the Primary Trend of the market, then predicting the onset of a recession is your most important task. This is because the primary trend of the market typically follows the economic business cycle.

Richard’s Comments

[Editor’s note – the following excerpt from Richard is a combination of four articles, written from March, 2006 to May, 2007, and presented in chronological order.]

March 28, 2006 - Values are rich and dividends (where there are any) are minuscule. In brief, this is not an investor's market. This is a trader's market, and most amateurs are not equipped to make money trading -- this may sound harsh but I've found it to be true over the years.