Lowman's All-in-One!

[BonelessCat]

In the past, tax selling extended into the holidays as most investors plan to abandon parts of their holdings all together, or get back in for the lows of January/February. This year most investors have already taken all the tax losses they can stomach, and really don't need any more. So, savvy investors are looking to get back in at current lows and certainly in the coming weeks to take advantage of an early Santa effect and end of year rally as short covering sets in. Here you need to think manic/depressive as we have seen for almost a year now. Early January selling on "more bad news" will be followed by the Obama rally that will set in with high expectations that can't be attained in the first 100 days. Ooops, look for a May peak on a last wave of exhuberant buying and then the summer slide. The first changes in policy won't really set in until after the first quarter of the fiscal year. The real story of whether or not the Obama policies will work will unfold next fall.

Of course these dates aren't set in stone, especially after the first of the year, but from what I can gather we will follow that pattern fairly closely and roughly within that time frame, give or take a week or two.