Where is the-best return in 2017 ?

2017 has completed 4 weeks of trading, it is interesting how stocks are faring so far YTD.

It is important to compare your return with best performing index or sector, we are too fixated on comparing with Dow or S&P 500 or Nasdaq.......that may not be the right approach to better your own performance.

Best performing sectors or index beats handily 3 popular averages.

2016 was SOX as the winner with huge outperformance 

Now the question is , can SOX match its 2016 performance in 2017....maybe maybe not.

Latest projection from technicians for 2017 are as follows :

Dow        UP 4.3%

XLF        UP 5.5%

Nasdaq    UP 8.6%

SOX        UP 11.61%

XLE        UP 14.51%

S&P 500 UP 15.00%

RUT       UP 24.68%

These are projections for 2017 performance by one technical outfit, which keeps changing, depending  on how actual performance is of each sector.

BUT it gives lot of ideas, as to where investing / trading $ should be given.

IF you are ETF focus or mutual fund focus, this gives you some direction also.

This year, my focus is to track best performing sectors / index on an ongoing basis for ideas.

It will be nice to even outperform, a sector like Russell which is predicting 24%++ gain in 2017.

Some of the strategies, which one can apply to beat any sector is to keep an eye on overbought and oversold stocks and trade them accordingly.

Another idea, is to sell short term covered call when any stock is overbought.

In other words, to beat all averages, it will take lot of active trading ideas.

Market is never easy, it gets challenging IF you are emotionally involved with your picks, try to be extremely analytical in terms of its potential vs actual performance.

Be your own critic on a daily basis, by week end, you should know IF your performance is affected by market conditions or wrong pick.

Try to make adjustment in terms of weighting on a bi-weekly basis.

2017 should be very good for small caps in terms of actual performance vs major indices.

Swing trading, writing calls could be a winning strategy!

Good luck with your own strategy and comfort level.

BLOG does NOT give buy or sell.

Saleem