With surgery and an indeterminate recovery period just ahead, I’ve given my colleague David Isham (EYE-sham) free rein to speak his mind here in my absence (which I hope will be brief). I was somewhat startled to see that, in his first Morning Line at-bat here yesterday, he boldly predicted that the Dow Industrials would hit 40,000 before the bull market ends. Considering how skeptical I am toward a stock market that has been pumped full of steroids by the Fed, readers might ask whether Rick’s Picks is sending out mixed messages. My suggestion is to keep an open mind toward any and all possibilities.  Although I could (and often do) give you a dozen good reasons why the Dow should be trading at half its current price, I cannot offer any guarantees that it won’t hit 40,000 first.  As unlikely as this seems to me, it’s a scenario that neither I nor any of my fellow permabears can afford to ignore.

David will also be putting out some actionable trading touts in the week ahead. He has been a Rick’s Picks subscriber since the beginning — which is to say, for long enough to develop a distinctive style of his own. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do. He brings a level of sophistication and imagination to chart-reading that could change the way you play the game.