The stock market is about to finish the best July since 1989. The S&P 500 is up over 8% this month, its best month since April and best July in 20 years. After yesterday’s 1% rally, the index is up to 987. Baring catastrophe today, the S&P will register its fifth consecutive monthly gain.

Stocks surged yesterday. Gold sold off. And more “green shoots” appeared in the form of better than expected consumer confidence figures.  Crisis Strategy Alert editor James Dale Davidson reckons the “green shoots” of recovery proposition are overbought. He also reckons gold is still the asset of choice to hold as the great deleveraging continues.

Since the first day I started working in the stock and bond business, the old timers, who I have always sought out as a great source of advice, have said almost without exception, “The markets don’t change.”

We’ve been so caught up watching stocks soar we haven’t paid much attention to one of our favorite asset classes: commodities.

Markets slip again on weak housing data, economic outlook, Greenspan speaks: what the great contrarian indicator had to say this time, and plenty more…

Well, so far this year the S&P and Nasdaq are both in positive territory, the S&P by a little and the Nasdaq by 10 percent.  It has been a strange path to get to this positive territory with a huge drop in January and February and then a monstrous rally since then.

We don’t know if we’re in a recession, a “Great Recession” or a depression. All we do know that the stock market is anything but predictable right now.

To be successful in today’s market, it all comes down to understanding that you must “Invest in what you see, not what you think, hear or fear.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina “What’s that smell?”  We were on an airplane when Edward, 15, noticed an odor that seemed out of place. “Dad…you should have at least cleaned your boots!”

The rally is on! The Dow rose another 246 points last week. Enjoy it while it lasts…but keep those trailing stops tight. The “End of the Rally is Nigh,” says Barron’s.