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Shares of Xometry (XMTR) are up double digits to new highs today after the company smashed Q3 expectations and raised full-year guidance. Here are the headline numbers:

It’s been another mostly sour week, with continued selling in the growth area of the market early on, followed by a big show of support on Wednesday, only for that move to go up in smoke on Thursday. On the week so far, the big-cap indexes are down less than 1%, though broader indexes are down 1% to 2% and growth measures are down much more—and this morning of course looks likely to bring more losses.

It’s been a tricky environment for many weeks, with cyclical and defensive areas doing well but with growth areas lagging. But this week definitely had a different tone, with the weak growth arena getting hit hard—before today’s bounce, the Nasdaq was off 4% on the week, while some growth funds (like the ARK Innovation Fund, ARKK, which was down 11%) cratered and many stocks cracked.

This year has certainly been a wild ride for investors, the volatility in the market has been extraordinary, we’re “officially” in a recession and the financial landscape has been dramatically altered. But we’ve been here with you through it all, giving you our best advice. Today, and in another issue before the end of the year, I’m going to re-print some of the pieces we’ve written in the last 12 months.

The market’s main trend remains up, and thus I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested.

However, last week’s GameStop affair has increased the risk of a well-deserved major correction and thus for the second week in a row, I’m recommending a slightly conservative stock with less downside potential—and a small dividend.



As for our current holdings, there are no obvious bad apples, but we must sell something to keep the portfolio a proper size and the victim today is our Brazilian Water company SABESP (SBS).



Details inside.

The market rallied nicely last week, and growth stocks joined the crowd (which is good), but today’s strong open didn’t last and now we’re seeing deterioration across the board, reminding us that the market is a two-way street. Plus, in the background is the fact that investor sentiment is so high, and the economic news has been so good, that eventually we’re going to need a big correction.

Still, looking at the stocks in our portfolio, I see no need for any ratings changes today.



As for today’s new recommendation, it’s a growth stock that hit a new high just last Friday and has a long runway of growth ahead of it as its young industry expands.



Details inside.

Most of the evidence remains bullish, so we continue to hold our winners and selectively put money to work — but the fact is that most growth stocks have been chopping sideways overall for a month or two, so we’re OK holding some cash and waiting patiently for the market and leaders to show their near-term hand. Tonight, we’re booking a little more partial profits in one of our winners, but are standing pat otherwise and will follow the lead of the market—and of leaders—going ahead.

It’s become more important than ever to know how to invest in ETFs - where to look, which ones to buy, etc. Here’s an ETF primer for 2022.

Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research recently penned an interesting article. The article focused on one calculation to find undervalued stocks that will consistently outperform the stock market indexes.

Our market timing indicators are discussed in every issue of Cabot Growth Investor. Here are detailed explanations of what they are and how we use them.

We remain bullish overall, and you shouldn’t overreact to an overdue pullback; the major indexes are still in uptrends, and many stocks look fine. That said, given the action, you shouldn’t be complacent, either. Dump anything that cracks, tighten some stops and look for lower-risk entry points.

We initially executed a bullish trade in WWAV after traders began building long-term bullish positions. I mentioned in my initial trade alert that there has long been speculation that WWAV is a takeover target of Coca Cola (KO), Pepsi (PEP) and other food and beverage companies.

Playing a competitive tennis match or tournament is a great deal like trading and investing these days. Going into a match, I rarely know the player, his style of play, or how I will approach the match. Similarly, these days in the market, every day is totally new, filled with unexpected swings. But as in tennis, in trading/investing you hit your best shots and put on your highest conviction trades—and over time, you will win out.

The action of the past few days has been very encouraging, raising the possibility that last week’s fearful dip (driven by eye-grabbing headlines concerning North Korea) was a shakeout. That dip produced some elevated short-term sentiment readings (including the highest put-call ratio since the election and a spike in the VIX volatility index) that are often seen near market lows.

We’re likely to bump our Market Monitor up a notch this week to level 8 to reflect the strong intermediate- and longer-term trends we’re seeing in the market. We continue to advise buying stocks as opportunities arise (either on solid breakouts or during pauses within uptrends) and to hold onto most of your strong, profitable stocks.

The major indexes continue to show impressive strength and resilience, with any pullbacks limited to just a couple of days before buyers show up again.

We’re encouraged by what we’ve seen so far in the New Year. Granted, it’s been just three-plus days, but of the stocks that had been setting up into year-end (either as pullbacks or as bases), we’ve seen a few emerge on good volume and hold their gains. That can always reverse, of course, but going with the evidence thus far, it’s bullish.

Given the straight-up run for six weeks and a few short-term signs of complacency, a bit more uncomfortableness is certainly possible; we’re open to the chance of a passing shower of sorts. And that’s probably a good reason to favor buying on weakness (instead of strength) and to be a bit choosy on the buy side.

Today, I want to describe a simple but powerful chart pattern that can help you identify low-risk entry points, or at the very least, inform you that the stock is acting properly. I’m talking about tightness in a stock price’s movement, and I’m seeing a lot of it these days.

In this topsy-turvy market, it helps to know how the big hedge funds and institutions are spending their money. This Options Barometer gives you the answer.