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[Music] [Music] [Music] hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the investing with IID podcast it's just neelon here your host and it is Wednesday January 8th 2025 our first episode of the 2025 season I think uh um yeah or did we do one already no it was it was it was uh New Year's Day so we we did missed you guys last last week and uh we're back and we've got a great guest to kick things off with us today of course we're doing this Live on YouTube um and joining us is Ali Corum

she is our multi media video executive uh director and she has been with IBD now for 10 years you just uh recently celebrated your 10 year anniversary is that right I did over the summer can't believe it yeah learned a lot so it it's it's flown by but at the same time you know there's there's been a lot of learning over that time well I've got to say I remember uh when you first started uh just you know coming into Bill's office and I think I had shared with you that uh oh gosh years ago

as I was cleaning up my office the the old offices I'm like oh look it's a it's a Aly uh it's an Aly resume that I had in my files so funny yeah um so of course I think this is one of the things where a lot of people have been excited about this you're always on the other end of things you're always hosting uh so most of our subscribers most of our listeners are probably very familiar with Ally uh because of how many great interviews she's done and let's just kind of get into your

story a little bit because you started with really kind of the journalism Focus you were at SMU you were at the O'Neal School of Business journalism that kind of double major and what got you kind of I don't want to say more interested in trading um but what what kind of shifted like some of that Focus for you like hey this isn't just journalism for me anymore right yeah you're exactly right I started at IBD in 2014 it was to be a journalist uh and I always loved the visual medium uh focused in broadcast journalism

when I was in college that was sort of my my specialty and my passion and so I wanted to bring that to IBD when it turned out that hey this this is a great job opportunity uh and I of course majored in finance and journalism as you alluded to there so I you know I I'd seen the quarterly reports I've you know flexed my analytical uh muscles in my brain but I really led the creative side as well and being a Storyteller but that's always what I've seen myself as first is a journalist and a

Storyteller so when I got to IBD and started working on the news team you know I was thinking about this earlier today you know when I started writing for print because at that point we still had a daily print I remember my first front page story was on Home Depot earnings and Justin I don't even think we talked about the stock much at all maybe other than the fact that hey it was up x% after earnings zero context about the the stock the chart what really was going on it was mainly just fundamentals and the

news and that really changed uh when I I think this is what sparked It For Me Justin I really wanted to cover all of the hot companies I wanted to cover Tesla I wanted to cover Apple I wanted to cover Netflix but those belong to all the beat reporters on the tech team so I thought to myself okay how can I cover these really awesome companies without encroaching on the turf of these beat reporters that get dibs to cover these certain uh hot companies and the way that I could do that with video is by

talking about the charts the chart action so that's what I decided to do my uh first video sort of in this Vibe was about Tesla I think it was the first time that the stock breached its uh 10- week line after its big initial move think about it this was back in 2014 and so that sort of kicked things off from there hey I can talk about Apple I can talk about all of these fun uh exciting companies and put the videos on the articles that are getting a lot of traffic on our site and

so that was sort of how I I uh I snuck my way into doing that and then from there I think Chris liked the idea so much that he started having the news team and the tech team incorporate technical analysis in those news articles because really before if we were talking about an earnings report or you know Apple new iPhone launch or whatever it was very news focus and again the only mention of the stock was is it up or down today what percentage there was was nothing really else included but then we saw that

IBD value ad and then it's just really grown and grown from there so of course I had to develop the knowhow to talk about the stocks and then we have a very educational Focus so it's just built on that from there I think over the years and uh it's it's a lot of fun to be an active Trader now well and it's it's it's interesting that you came from it uh from a story first uh kind of you know the fundamentals all of those things were kind of your first introduction you found that back door

uh to cover the stuff that you wanted and I I should also say for people that don't know or don't remember or weren't around at that time in 2014 when you started we didn't really we had very few videos out there oh yeah you you really kind of said hey there's an opportunity here and I think it was something that we had talked about before you got there it was like oh we really should do this but no one kind of ran with it like you did and and when I say ran with it I

I should mention for folks you know I I was sitting at my desk uh outside of Bill O'Neal's office the founder of investors's Business Daily you would go to the office in the back next to his get out the camera equipment haul it over you know set it all up you were a oneman show it was like I'm setting it up I'm I'm hitting the button hitting record I'm doing the editing um and that's what I was trained to do right that was what I was trained to do in college and and hey so I

I found something that a skill set that I had that the company needed so it was it was really great to contribute some value in that way because yeah before it was really just PowerPoint slides with voiceovers those were our videos yeah thank you those were mine gotta start somewhere valuable I should say that you know one of the things uh you know I I got I got to again see a lot of this happen unfold um because in 200 16 I moved down to the uh you know into the editorial area and uh I

sat behind Chris gessle our chief content officer and you would set up right in between Chris and I uh our our desks and that was where you would do your filming a lot of times stand ups in The Newsroom right before you would go go live you know it would be kind of we would have a quick discussion like oh you know anything to kind of chat about extra on the chart side on the technical side um so with with kind of learning a little bit more about the the charts um when did you kind

of switch over to oh I I need to be doing more of this trading on my own I mean certainly when you first started you were getting your getting your seal legs and everything like that it was really hard I'm sure to fit it all in but when did you start saying okay you know what it's time for me to start implementing some of this uh chart analysis I'm learning so late last year I actually looked at all my records to just sort of refresh myself and hey how how far have I come because it

it's been quite a roller coaster ride Justin and I'm really excited to dig into more details because I know what everyone really wants to know is my performance that's on IBD live how are y'all putting your money where your mouth is are you just blowing smoke uh so anyway we'll we'll see if people are uh impressed or not to some people I'm sure relatively it's not that impressive but uh we'll talk more about that later but anyway where it really switched from me I think was uh 2020 during the pandemic so it's so interesting the

first six years of my career very focused on being a journalist proving my Worth showing my value and uh and having a lot of fun with it uh while I was at it by the way um but then when 2020 came along of course it was this crazy market for for trading um and everything changed but before that for the first six years Justin I looked back I had traded probably six tickers total okay and uh in the first six years and it probably wasn't it was probably more like four years from 2016 you know

um and two of those tickers were xlk and QQQ and I just held them yeah so I was not really actively trading and then it was it was so funny looking uh back at my records at my past trades like what was I thinking this is so funny why what was I doing um but you know didn't didn't really make a a a ton of progress you know obviously with just a handful of tickers but hey you know QQQ over uh a four-year period you know from 2016 to 2020 like it was it was fine

um but then in 2020 I did move across the country from the west coast to the east coast so for the bulk of the year my extra mental capacity in addition to just I mean from a business perspective we were dealing with so much much I mean we had just started IBD live the previous fall there were so many things that were changing with the landscape our site traffic off obviously went through the roof we were figuring out new videos that we wanted to create new articles there was so much going on on the content

side so I did trade more but to be honest I wasn't fully in the game so I didn't have a killer 2020 like a lot of people did uh because again I was I was focused more on the real estate Market in the stock market let's just say you did pretty okay there I did pretty okay bottom ticking uh interest rates and yeah so some good home equity that's the story for another time Diversified you Diversified there you go but then you know in in 2021 as we've talked about many times growth stocks peaked that

February so you know I didn't really have that much time I guess you could say in a market that was favorable for growth um I do believe that year though is when I started um really trading the leveraged ETFs which you know you got to burn your hand on the stove a couple of times right but luckily I didn't do it in any size that I really got hurt but I believe you proo that year because it was still a good year for the indexes um so you proo uh I believe about Midway through the

year in 2021 May or so uh caught a piece of that on uh bounce off of the 50-day so that was a pretty good trade in 2021 I was also yeah if you want to show it there for the audience and you could even pull up spy if you wanted and for 2021 um so here's this is the monthly right here and so again you can kind of see how um you know spy just just just to kind of refresh people's memory um you know in 2021 growth and let's just pull up RK right uh

Arc Innovation because this kind of shows that way different look very different look uh spy however as you mentioned um that was still going it wasn't really until Omron uh the the variant came out a little bit after you know right around Thanksgiving uh that's kind of when it peaked there and look this was this was devastating even more so for a lot of those growth names uh you know Nvidia was down what I like 70% or more I mean it it got ugly in 2022 in 2022 right yeah yeah so I would say yeah

in 2021 uo and then Microsoft and Nvidia were my best trades of the year um and then that's also when I got more um involved with really using Market timing signals that is something that has been hugely helpful for me I think if you can get the Stars to align on uh stock technicals fundamentals store you know that check all the boxes with the market in a really strong spot um versus extended or not a favorable Market I mean if you have the wind at your back with the market then I think that that's like

the ideal scenario for me so that has been something that's helped me because if a stock is looking great but you're buying that stock when the Market's extended or you just get shaken out um so I I love having that uh as part of my strategy to really be dialed in with what the overall Market is doing not only for my individual stock trades but because I really do like the leverag ETFs so in 2021 I was doing the upro um and then mostly sat out pretty unscathed uh in the bare Market I think I

probably was a little uh slower to sell my Nvidia and my Microsoft than I should have been um but I I really didn't get too hurt in 2022 I Sid stepped that pretty well um and just being in cash uh even though there were a lot of oil and gas stocks that I kept seeing you know Commodities you know yeah yeah so so Sid that and then I think when the market turned in late 2022 early 2023 that's also how I got back in was with the Leverage gtfs so we can talk a little bit

about that or whatever you want to talk about just no no I I think I think that's a great segue for us to kind of get into that a little bit because um that that period in 2021 that you mentioned there really was a disconnect you know the uo was doing well you know growth was not starting in February a lot of those High Flyers that had worked so well in 2020 your your zooms your pelons you know all of those your Shopify you know that those were all peing but upro was still doing fine

and I I'll be honest I did not do great in in 2021 because I was still trying some of those growth names where I usually concentrate and I I neglected I I like doing the leverage dtfs too and I should have done more of that in 2021 uh so you know kudos to you here's here's the thing I think over over the last handful of years we have talked about so often how breath is poor but the index are looking good it's like okay well why don't I just trade the indexes I I know how

to look at technical so go go with what's working go with what's working yeah go with the mega Caps or go with the indexes hey that I like that that plays to my strategy so I have not really had a problem with this uh breadth issue it does make it harder to pick stocks um but it's just something to be aware of and there there are ways around it so yeah okay so again kind of getting into into this a little bit more on the leverag ETFs um for 2023 again if you looked at something

like I'm just going to look at RSP you know as an example and RSP of course is the equal weighted uh S&P 500 uh so you look at you know 2023 and I mean that was flat you know but you look at spy and it's it's kind of a different look you know there was especially at the end here a nice move and I guess this is also a way for us to seg way into kind of your most recent performance cuz you really hit it out of the park this last year so I wouldn't

say that I I had a chance to hit it out of the park uh but I still outperformed so I'll just I I'll tell everyone sort of what happened in in my in my view so um with my uh focus on looking at the indexes I did a pretty good job when we turned after the three waves down in November 2023 I I hammered it pretty hard I I pressed I pressed the pedal pretty hard so if you look at what the chart did after that on spy and I was playing this uh with um

tqqq and and qld um I I don't know why I did both of them but I did and um hey cover all your bases right just just it was like an experiment right because of the volatility you know it just anyway um but early November 2023 that was even though I had I had caught the turn um you know the spring before and then I was sort of trading around a core in that three waves down I hammered things pretty hard out of that so those next couple of months were fantastic for me um with

the leverage ETF exposure and with Nvidia um I remember in January of 2024 I was at CES not there this year it's kind of nice to have a break not going to lie us you're with us instead yes we appreciate I'm here instead um but I I mean I just thought that Nvidia was just this picture perfect breakout so I you know I was adding to that pretty I mean look at that so um so this was this was January 2024 um and so here's November we had the November 1st follow-through day just to remind

folks November 1st in 2023 coming out of this double bottom for NVIDIA so where were you buying it okay so my first buy actually I did I chased it I had fomo on the May Gap up that is where I so you have it right there you have it so on the left side this is this is January no I know look go go no no no you just just leave it where it is just leave it where it is just go to the Gap up on the left side left left left left all the

way back here yes yeah oh okay yeah so that is where and that was on earnings and I felt like I had Mi I missed the cup I missed this whole move and I was just like I can't stand it anymore I've got to get a piece of this so I was buying on that Gap up on earnings so sometimes you can get away with buying strength I do typically like the early entries close to the 50-day I got away with it this time um so if you go back to that daily view then so

then this is where my patients did pay off it held 400 that was a level that we were uh looking at a lot as the team as a team okay we really wanted to hold 400 it did um I think I don't know if that first um breach and retake of the 50-day in that August if I ride um you know I so I traded around it a little bit Yeah and in there but then I for sure again that November when it got back above the 50-day I was buying more of it held when

it uh pulled back to the 50 day again in November December um added a little bit more as it bounced from that area and then when it broke out I added more I just thought that that was a beautiful breakout volum it had everything round number tighter base than the previous base close at the highs I thought that that was just like a perfect pitch yeah um so I bought so so this is sounding like a lot of ads and again you did some subtractions there too how how large of a position were you looking

at what what's kind of your comfort level in that regard well Nvidia is sort of uh its own it's special and so uh just one one thing that I haven't shared yet uh about my Trading style is so I've shared a little bit about how ideally I like early entries clearly my initial buy here I got away with a big extension um and I like to hold for as long as I can I like being patient I'm patient until I'm not love using cell signals on the weekly chart um you know major violations of the

10 we line but again in this case I was even more patient than that and trading around it a little bit and I I was up on the position and I think that's the difference I think if you are up on something you can be more patient with it I'm not patient with something if I'm down 8 10 12 I don't let I don't do that um well I can wait till the 10we moving average line it's like ah no that's it seems too far away when you're not up on it right yeah so so

you got to be up on it and then you then you have the right to be a little bit more patient um but the other part of me me my personality is uh it's just a fact of life I guess as I I joked to you previously that I'm a lazy millenni I'm a busy lazy Millennial you know I want to do what's easy I don't want to keep this whole separate spreadsheet with all sorts of uh calculations and that's just I don't have the I'm you know I'm running a team I'm you know I

I focused on being a journalist and uh trading is still kind of on the site you know that's not my primary gig yeah um I'm just kind of doing it on the side so I trade on my phone I look at thinker swim on my desktop and Market surge on my desktop but I trade solely on my phone and so uh Jess and I will be on and and hey this conversation is all about being honest too right I just kept adding I wasn't really thinking about the size um and so I kind of got

over my my skis a little bit with this one um so your original question was performance right so there's there's sort of how I really got into Nvidia um and then traded around that next base a little bit uh in that April time frame but still was in it uh obviously in hindsight I should have sold on that uh downside reversal off highs in volume but I didn't because my rule was hold for a major violation of the 10 week also look for that second week action uh below the 10 week or or back above

it if you can which is so what what happened in that base in the April time frame it's spent one week below the 10 week it was pretty bad break but it snapped right back so I said okay I and and then by this point Justin I mean if my initial buy back in May of 20203 was around you know the split adjusted uh 379 or whatnot and ads along the way up till around 500 or whatever um you know then by that point it was it was getting over a thousand um so I had

a pretty large gain at that point and in some really big size on margin in a margin account and so when it came to that uh test of the 10 we the next time around which was over the summer you know in July August uh that pullback got a little the dollars got a little scary and that's one of the things about thinker swim right it doesn't just show it to you in percentage terms it shows it to you in dollar terms and it's hard to get that out of your mind sometimes yeah yeah so

that's I you know was like I'm gonna you know hold Nvidia for this huge move I have more than a double on it so I'm just going to be patient and then it had three really bad weeks um and I don't think I think maybe I sold my final piece of it that reversal week but I think I had got and so it hurt me but again it was the draw down like from from that Peak on that reversal week to where I ended up selling it I mean that was quite a bit off the

top of my profits right so 36% was at its low and that's that's a healthy that's a healthy chunk of change still you know based on all your buys you know starting here and and adding you know adding in here adding a little bit you were probably still you know well up on your initial position most of your ads but it's still hard pill to swallow yeah and I and I didn't hedge and and again like it it in hindsight it found support at the top of that prior base but I'm no Kathy Donnelly you

know she's she's the Zen master and I just I couldn't I couldn't so this goes back to what I said of where I'm patient until I'm not and so as much as it hurt you know I the stock could have peaked and and honestly it hasn't uh yeah it has come back but uh it hasn't really crossed that July High uh yet so I got shaken all the way out of it yeah so that was really sad for me but uh I I tried it again when it retook the 50-day got shaken out out then

try to I tried it a couple more times um and now I have a toll hold in it again and I'm trying to be patient with it but uh my patience is being tested here but anyway so this was a huge position for me uh dollarwise that contributed to my uh 2024 performance I would say if you're counting from the November follow-through day to July um of 2024 so November 2023 to July 2024 my portfolio was up probably 140% uhuh so that felt fun for for for for those for those track at home when she

said like oh yeah I didn't hit it out of the park well that's that sounds like you know maybe it wasn't a grand slam like you know we just had Le on the roller coaster Dives down Justin the the top of the roller coaster ride uh for me was a 140% gain yeah uh now I am still up uh more than 90% from that November follow-through day uh but my 2024 rate of return for everyone sorry that was so such a big leadup to your question here Justin so spy in 2024 up 23.3% the q's

up 24.8% uh even with all the Mist mistakes that I made after July uh my return was uh almost 49% in calendar uh 2024 and look you know you don't have to double every year but if you do it every now and then longterm uh it's going to really make a big difference so again congratulations on that alley but let's talk a little bit about some of the learning lessons here you know so you've you've gotten you've gotten a taste let's say of some really great success so what do you take from this in order

to make this sustainable for yourself and to really you know in your investing career you're still on the early side so what lessons do you take from this to say okay this is how I turn this into a lesson that really can pay a lot of dividends in the future absolutely so I would say 2023 and 2024 were my first two years where I very serious traded so you know I guess you could say back to 2020 but really honestly trading actively I would say I really didn't do that uh until 2023 and and 2024

so I now I have two years under my belt but I do also have that that bare market experience right I I sat that out but it was a Mark I was analyzing the market and looking at stocks so okay I have those kind of conditions under my belt have a turnaround type Market under my belt I have a strong market now under my belt uh and I think that it's okay to still be trying to find your style uh but post analysis I like doing it more again lazy Millennial I like doing it more

in real time after every trade right so where where was my entry where where did I get shaken out uh so I've I think I've done a good job at uh handling the minimizing loss side of my game and even the the stock picking and the market timing uh side of my game game but it's really the draw Downs right so my style does favor more longer holding times but okay well what should I be taking more partial profits into strength should I be selling a a little bit a little earlier and just waiting for

that final piece and hey if it does come back above the 10 week then then get back in um so I am still learning to refine my style a little bit more I would say uh you know hedging is not something that I I do I was telling you before the show that uh previously uh this was probably in 2021 I was playing around a little bit with sqqq and I just couldn't I couldn't get the timing right so I think using something like that as a hedge uh in 2023 and 2024 was just not

appealing to me because I hadn't been successful at previously I just wanted to get really good at a narrow skill set and and try to get really good at that and so I think for my style just really refining those buy hold and sell rules Again In the Heat of battle yeah it can be really tough I would say um and I'm and I'm not perfect I make mistakes right even though I love early entries sometimes I do get that fomo like with that initial Nvidia buy uh aab is another one where I kind of

chased it but it didn't violate my cell rules so I've been able to hold it uh so I think that in terms of learning lessons uh the loss cutting side that's that's huge and now I think it's more about managing the positions the sizing you know my my initial size I I did a really great job or uh maybe got a little too over my skis with Nvidia but uh of the other big Winners that I've had uh you know like ANF uh paler that I'm in right now I've gotten doubles in them or at

least at one point uh I had had doubles in those but could I have more have had more size maybe the initial buy maybe it was okay uh to go with the size that I went with but were there chances along the way where I could have added and scaled up so I am still working on the size part in addition to the draw Downs side Justin that's for me well and and look that's um that's a the hardest part of the game right once you get the buying down once you get you know kind

of your ultimate cell rules down it's it's all that in between um and one more thing I just wanted to hit on real quick because this is something that we were talking about on IBD live this morning and I thought it was so important uh that you well I shouldn't say we you were talking about uh this was all you Ally um you were talking about how you really try to change your your mindset uh you know to reframe some of these pullbacks to think of them especially with a stock that maybe you don't own

uh it's a little bit easier when it's pulling back to think of that as an opportunity as instead of a oh things are falling apart and I need to get fearful right and I think you have to be careful with that because I think sometimes your mind can play tricks on you and make you think positively when you shouldn't you shouldn't be you should be selling right uh so I I think there is a little bit of a difference there uh and I think ANF was a great example for me I did get a a

double in that stock you were showing the chart there um and then when it broke the 10 we I I did sell all of it the uh first one yeah I I sold all of it but look what it did two weeks later I but I did get back in you did buy it back I remember that I bought it back and then I sold it again when it broke the 10 week so ended up I mean my rules ended up working um but I think there are some scenarios where uh it doesn't violate the

10 week okay let's let's uh talk about my biggest mistake of 2024 app okay I had I had that sucker and I let it uh I let it get away from me did you get out did you get out here because this is where I got out yep I got out that uh that week right before it took off but in my defense that week I was buying tqqq um so but it but it was no app Lovin um but I it's and this is another case of where you were busy you were in New

York in all these meetings uh you know September 11th was the day of this breakout and again I remember you telling the story you and Chris you know hey maybe we should maybe we should buy some of this tqqq just in case but you yeah well but that's kind of an excuse because on IBD live you know some people said and rightfully so hey like this is looking great it's showing relative strength but the market is is still kind of on uh uneven footing you know that was early to mid-september we were still trying to

get out of that chop right uh but it didn't end up being a big momentum shift by the end of the day but it started looking extended and we you know with a choppy Market you want to try to avoid buying stuff that's a little little too extended but I did say on IBD live I said I'm very very tempted here and I did nothing about it but anyway I had bought the strength previously and it's really condensed now so maybe go back uh a couple months if you can so you could go to October

maybe uh just really quickly I know we're getting close to wanting to wrap up here um so I bought that uh we were all buying it the same day if you want to point out where we were buying the like it tightened up and then it broke out a little bit above 91 oh yeah so uh no before where we were buying it oh oh we got before we got shaken out um so there this um was it there I that's where I sh if I bought it there I would I would still be in

it yeah yeah so that's my lesson we were buying it uh a couple days later than that it was coming out of that tight area yeah yeah so I I did buy it off of this you did buy it off of there all right but I still got shaken out so I bought it a little too late into that strength um and then I got shaken out due to the percentage decline from my entry but what did it do Justin it held the 50 yeah it held the 10 week which is what I love and

what I should I should have listened to my own rule on that but buying right helps you hold right so if I would have bought that 50-day retake which I really love instead of buying extended I for sure would have sat through that test and I'm G I'm gonna defend you here Ally because you know you you did follow your rule you you hold at the 50-day moving average line when you're up you know it's a different situation when you're not up on the position and you know that's the difference between you know buying here

and buying there you know yeah so that's so after that especially I'm really trying to burn into my brain those 50-day retakes in strong I mean if you look at the weekly on this one the spikes of volume I know volume's controversial now but and the triple digit growth you look at the fundament so outperformance major triple digit growth lots of accumulation I I should have been in this one and I missed it but uh talk about lessons this one definitely had uh a lot of lessons for me this year buying right holding selling getting

back in all the above and and and look I I think it's great that um there's so many of us that focus on that learning you know you have to always learn and and I think we you know we both learned this from Bill O'Neal here he was in his 80s you know he'd been at it for 50 years and he was still oh this is what I'm this is what I learned from this one this is what I learned from this one and um you know at at it takes a while I think that's

another thing that not everyone understands is um you know you you're kind of dependent a little bit on the market that you're given you know where you're at in your life at the point you know when you when you start and I think sometimes it's a matter of when you get that good year uh that really motivates you to to learn a lot and and take more from it so um I really appreciate you sharing all of all of those lessons um but I want to also kind of pick your brain a little bit because

again I think a lot of people just don't realize how good you've gotten at this you know you're you know C well certainly at the beginning of your career as as most people are you you've got a lot of learning to do and look we aren't paid to trade you know we're we're paid to do a job and so that's that's what we're doing here but you know this is kind of something we do on the side so maybe talk a little bit about the current market and what kind of uh learning lessons from this

past year or so that you're using to kind of approach the current market I'm just going to start with the NASDAQ because it's been a little bit tricky here lately I mean after we got this fed um you know fed reaction we were up at 20,000 um how are you kind of handling this I mean it's it's a it's a pull back to the 50-day yeah gosh well when you're in leverage gtfs uh a 3 to 4% single day decline uh let me tell you that is not fun um so I got out it was

it was a bad character change but where where did I get in on pqqq September 11th that was a character change in a bullish way if you want to point uh that that big bar out on September 11th um so that's where I was getting in so still a good trade right that's where I got in and the bad break is where I got out um so I really try to look for those character changes I think those uh are at least in the second half of the year the two most important days in the

market because look at what has followed so after had that character change to the upside what happened since and then of course the day after the election another really positive signal that's when I was going into Tesla and Bitcoin um and adding more exposure uh right after the election so I like looking for character changes in the market uh so for bullish and bearish and when we got that December 18th bad break yeah I I I scaled I had to scale back out of a lot of stuff um especially the the leveraged ETFs and you

know we're hanging in there but definitely we're not we're not in that powerful trending Market that you can clearly see on the charts when we have that action that's primarily contained above a rising 21-day line that's definitely the The Sweet Spot for me I know Joe FY also tweeted about that uh earlier today so great minds think alike there um so you you know I am long-term bullish here I think that if you have the backdrop of innovation and AI that we have that's so far-reaching and in in such early stages I think that's huge

uh I think also corporate tax cuts if we can have that that is big because it's a pretty simple equation Justin if you're just looking at the investor perspective alone right not the political side of things what do investors want they want earnings to grow if you have lower taxes you're going to have higher earnings so I think that's also a pretty big Tailwind but there's no doubt that we are going to have twists and turns along the way uh clearly if the last couple of weeks are any indication uh it's not going to be

made easy for us but again I think staying levelheaded looking at pullbacks in the context of an overall uptrend that we've had since 2023 think about those as potential buying opportunities and I think that if this uptrend ultimately continues those are going to be the times where we're going to want to start adding exposure and not get caught flat-footed and waiting until things are extended to get back in yeah great great Point Ally so uh let's talk about maybe just a couple you know again I really wanted people to kind of hear uh a little

bit more of your story this time the truth is if anyone wants to know your ideas on stocks and the market you know just tune in to IBD live uh that's www.investors.com IBD live you're on there hosting a lot of times but you you pipe in with uh your your thoughts as well I'm trying to add more some sometimes sometimes I just you know I let the panelists speak but uh trying to weigh in more yeah and then there's also of course the smt video uh that you're hosting on on most days uh unless you're

uh off gallivant somewhere um so which I will beid yeah so I'll be taking over alli's spot there um but uh maybe share a couple stocks that are on your radar and and maybe why okay so I like service now ticker no and Netflix here so we can start with service now so I think that this is a setup that I'm watching for a number of reasons that played in my style one I like big liquid leaders and I do of course if you can't tell with the tqqq I do uh skew towards technology that

you know I tried the oil and gas stuff in uh 2022 couldn't get it right um so I'm trying to just play in my strengths I I have to be careful though with not getting too Overexposed to technology I do have some consumer type exposure as well in the portfolio uh like door Dash uh for example is a current holding of mine which is also right around the the um 50-day there but anyway service now big liquid leader uh love the steady fundamentals if you look at a weekly or a monthly chart of this one

it's just fantastic relative strength looks Stellar here we do have earnings coming up in two weeks but here's why I like it it's because it's pulling back it's right at the 50-day and 10 we line so if we want to ref FR our mindset to okay if we get a bounce here that would be a Buy Signal for me versus waiting for a base waiting for a breakout to almost 1,200 that's going to feel a little too late for me so I'm looking for a bounce here and I love how the team has been talking

so much over the last couple of years about using levels to manage your risk for your exit so using the the lows of the last two weeks using that 50-day or 10 week line just to get you started and to have that clear level of risk where you're getting out uh I think that this is a good one to watch so you know there there's certainly a mix here that you've just talked about you uh have talked a lot about the chart but you talked a lot about these phenomenal fundamentals the the growth rate the

stability the you know everything you know this this the stock has it so what is your mix now you started in so heavy on the fundamentals uh now that you've gotten a lot more chart analysis under under your belt um where do you kind of fall uh in terms of how you find your stocks is it more chart based or are you still reading a lot of stories and and kicking the tires on those uh fundamentals I feel like it's 5050 I think I really do because I am not a fast Trader I try to

get in early when I can I do sometimes uh chase the strength but I try to get in early so sort of swing trade esque entries but with a holding period or ideal holding period of a position Trader so because of that I went conviction in something I can't have conviction in something technicals alone I have to have the story I have to know the fundamentals otherwise I am going to get spooked in a in an ordinary pullback so I want all of those elements so they're both very important to me yeah we've got time

for one more stock where where where do you want to go okay quickly Netflix uh so service now sort of that AI side Netflix consumer but also technology and look at this orderly pullback right to the 50-day great Gap up on the last earnings report another company with uh a stellar story here you know they're moving more into live content uh and into gaming so I think that it's a really interesting story here and I love the setup to boot yeah I do have a position in uh Netflix myself and just as you said um

look my son he he asks every week if I mentioned him during the podcast so I'm mentioning Nicholas today so he knows that's right but um look they just started uh onwe right WWE I knew you were gonna say that because he loves wrestling yes he loves wrestling he was really it was at the int Dome and he is a little bitter that he was not uh that we didn't take him in fact he was telling his sister last night about it and he said yeah Laura didn't you know decided not to take me and

I'm like you mean your mom like he said it like that he said Laura like it was my daughter's like whoa so she wasn't home yet so uh I guess that's why he thought he could get away with it but yeah certainly has that fundamental side and as you mentioned I mean look the numbers the numbers are there uh on the weekly chart you know let's just go there 29% a little bit less stable um but you look at that earnings line and definitely uh and there's something new there so um very interesting be a

bounce yes bounce I I'm with you it's it's it's I I've I've actually been holding this for a while um I I did finally uh we moved my wife's account so I did have I have to go to the monthly to show where my wife bought it was here and that is not where I buy on weakness like that I refused but I I bought her one share and uh so I I still she nailed it yeah I still have some of this uh you know myself I'm looking at this you know pullback to the

10 we moving average line so um but Ally any parting thoughts uh one thing I wanted to kind of get from the uh the Youtube I it was a great question anything that you would any person or any book that you would say hey this is what I really learned the most from IBD live I'm telling you when I started getting involved in IBD live and hearing real trades from real traders that was huge for me and I just I've soaked it up like a sponge and sometimes I feel like I I'm Dorothy or something

like oh your your heart and your brain and your like I'm learning a little oh your hold rule or you love the sponsorship or how you look at the ATR I I've like learned a little bit of something from everyone on our team and all of our external guests and and I find okay what what kind of inspiration can I take from that does that jive with my style and so I feel like my style is sort of the result of a a little bit of everything from everyone so I'm not I'm not an original

uh person but I've just I'm learned a lot from everyone but the difference is you have to make it your own or you're not going to believe in it if you just follow someone into a trade you're you're going to mess it up so you learn from others but make it your own and believe in why you like it oh such a great note to end on Ally thank you so much I why haven't we done this earlier uh I think that's going to be the biggest question that comes from this uh pleasure Everyone likes

it I I well I did so uh I really appreciate it and I'm sure our audience uh will as well because I think that there's a lot of inspiration to take from this um and a lot of learning lessons of how uh you know look a double is a double you know what no matter how you look at it that's a great performance so congratulations on that the journey continues I exactly I was gonna say I don't think this is going to be your last double so uh that's my prediction yes awesome well that's GNA

wrap up the show for us this week thank you so much for joining us uh was a pleasure having Ali on and look we've got more for you this year uh really looking forward to a great year with all of you and 2025 uh we we've got the live show going now and next week we've got a brand new guest coming on this was someone that actually was recommended to me by David Keller who's been on the show a few times uh this is David Cox he's a senior portfolio manager at Raymond James um David

Cox has been on David Keller show uh a few times and he said you know this might be good for your podcast as well so uh going to be great to welcome David Cox onto the show next week we really hope you join us for that don't forget to like And subscribe and thank you so much for watching we'll see you next week e e