ClusterGains

This page discusses the constant battle between the bulls and the bears.  You can have a long-term bull market with bear downturns and vice versa.  The stock market will always switch directions sooner or later, and it may stay in the new trend for two or three weeks before the long-term trend resumes.  You can make money during these market reversals and you can protect your gains by knowing what is going on.  Some of the companies and ETFs on the right are worth watching and buying at certain times.

One way to know whether a reversal is about to happen is to watch the S&P 500 Index for overbought conditions.  The stock market cannot go up forever.  You can also look at the volatility index to see if it is starting to rise.  If the VIX is rising, it can be signaling a market pullback that could last for a few weeks.

One of the best ways to determine the long-term trend of the stock market is to look at the St. Louis Federal Reserve economic indicators page.  For example, if the unemployment chart is in a clear downtrend, then the stock market is probably going to stay in a bull run trend.