Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (November 17th):

...[A]s repeatedly noted in these missives following the Bear Stearns (BSC) bailout, a similar series of hastily conceived reactive, rather than thoughtfully conceived proactive, “plans” have been enacted only to subsequently find that they should have been constructed better. That happened again last week as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson abandoned the Treasury’s plan/scheme to buy toxic assets under the original TARP legislation in lieu of “capital injections.”

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (November 10th):

...[B]y far the most unprecedented event of last week was President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. I had actually thought there would be a celebratory equity market rally Wednesday morning on this unprecedented election, but alas it was not to be. Evidently, “the Street” was worried about an Obama regime that will increase long-term capital gains taxes, raise taxes on dividends, increase the size of government, increase the size of entitlement programs, well you get the idea.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (November 3rd):

...[W]e have been recommending various attractively yielding convertible preferreds that play to companies with clean balance sheets and decent fundamentals. Additionally, last week we “dialed in” the trading account (for the first time in weeks) by recommending a number of exchange-traded funds [ETFs] and in some cases employing a hedging strategy to reduce trading risk.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (October 27th):

...[T]he markets gapped lower early Friday morning, leaving the SPX trading more than 25% below its 50-day moving average [DMA] for the third time this month. As the good folks at the invaluable Bespoke Investment Group noted,

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (October 20th):

...[W]e have always thought the credit markets are smarter than the equity markets and therefore have been watching various credit spreads intently. The credit markets, ladies and gentlemen, will be the first “tell” as to when things will stabilize; and Mr. Bernanke is correct, “stabilization of the financial markets is a critical first step.” Late last week looked to provide the “first steps” to some kind of stabilization. For example, the November Eurodollar contract was sharply lower on Friday, as was the 3-month LIBOR interest rate. Rumors swirled that a major bank was lending heavily in the inter-bank market and the credit markets took a baby step toward thawing. We are hopeful that notion will spill over into the equity markets this week because the set-up for at least a trading bottom looks promising.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (October 13th):

...[F]or over the past year our main theme has been clean balance sheets, decent fundamentals, and a dividend yield. Speaking to these points, Raymond James’ research department is publishing a report that highlights some of the best yield ideas compiled from our analysts. These ideas range from Master Limited Partnerships [MLPs], Real Estate Investment Trust [REITs], and convertible preferreds/bonds; to fixed income, closed-end funds and Exchange Traded Funds [ETFs]. In addition to these ideas, we have our own “shopping list” using names like Eli Lilly (LLY), and DuPont (DD), which are positively rated by fundamental analysts at our correspondent research firm.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (October 6th):

The call for this week: Well, we arrived at the office at 5:30 a.m. [on Monday] only to see the S&P 500 preopening futures down 33 points amid news out of Europe of an expanding banking/credit crisis. Monday morning’s swoon comes on the back of Friday’s Flop, which turned out to be yet another Dow Theory “sell signal” like the one we wrote about last November.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (September 22):

...So what should we do from here? If the typical pattern continues to play, traders should look for a 2½-5 session rally off of the recent lows, and we’ve already had two of them, so traders should look to sell rather than buy. Following the envisioned 2½ -5 session “lift,” there should be an attempt to sell stocks back down and potentially retest last week’s lows. Historically, 70% of such downside retests are successful. In this case, however, we think the odds are near 100% that the trading lows are “in” for the year. Short-termers, then, should scale-sell strength in the aforementioned ETFs and wait to see how the market’s “internals” look during any subsequent pullback attempt.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (September 15):

Speaking to the trading side of the equation, we currently find ourselves in a conundrum. Our proprietary overbought/oversold indicator is within a few points of being as “oversold” as it was at the July “lows.” However, our seasonality pattern suggests caution until the beginning to middle of October. Therefore, we “sit” with regard to the overall stock market.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay, published Monday (Sept. 8):

...it is difficult for us to envision a discernable trend for the equity markets until the credit markets straighten themselves out; and, that is just not happening as credit spreads above U.S. Treasuries have not narrowed in months (see the nearby chart from the “must have” Bespoke website). Still, while we have counseled participants all year that it is a mistake to get too bearish, we have also suggested it is a mistake to get too bullish, as 2008 has (so far) proven to be more of a trader’s market than an investor’s market.