Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK)

An ETF for US technology stocks? SPDR Technology (XLK-N) is a sector specific ETF with the S&P 500 technology sector. Big and mid-cap techs are working right now.

Technology tends to do well at this time of the year. There have been some good earnings. Right now there are opportunities for it to continue to do well. In November, on average, it produces a 2.6% rate of return, and has been positive 68% of the time.

Not a bad Tech sector ETF except that there is about 10% of communication names in it, so it is not a pure play technology.

SPDR Technology (XLK-N) or SPDR Industrial (XLI-N)? This one holds Apple (AAPL-Q) so it has been shooting up. However, technology is a little out-of-favour at this time. If you are going to invest primarily on seasonals, you want to be more into industrials rather than technology.

(A Top Pick Dec 19/14. Down 4.02%.) Technology is a high beta sector with a lot of leverage to the movement in the market. They can sometimes have a tendency to see a peak around the end of January and into February, but not always. Last year, technology stocks didn’t really weaken until July. The longer-term trend on this sector is up. The bigger trend is good, so he is going to hold it into the spring. The bigger trend is good, and this is probably a decent entry point for it.

Technology is one of the best areas to be focusing on. They have pretty high margins already and the good ones are growing their revenues quickly. Businesses have to invest in technology to remain competitive. With their rapid growth, they seem to be the best positioned to grow their way out of currency headwinds. The good tech companies are the ones that tend to have pricing power.

(A Top Pick Oct 1/14. Up 7.17%.) Historically this tends to move up from the middle of October right through until around the end of the 2^nd or 3^rd week in January. We are getting closer and closer to the period where you want to take some profits. Look for an opportunity to take profits on news around the middle of January.

People think that the Tech sector has run ahead of the S&P, but it really hasn’t. Apparently it is just 1 year out of 3 that it has gotten ahead.

(A Top Pick Nov 7/14. Up 2.32%.) Managing to hold its head above water. Technology stocks are bullish, usually until around the end of January, but sometimes he will hold them right through to the spring. The trend on the stock has been great for 3-4 years. He is very bullish on technology. The seasonal trade ends at around the end of January, but he’ll hold this right to the spring if the trend keeps going up.

(A Top Pick Sept 15/14. Up 5.91%.) (These 3 were a “Buy on Weakness of the market” plays.) This certainly showed that weakness in the 1^st part of October and gave excellent buying opportunities, come mid October all the way through to the present time frame. They tend to run up into January, around the Consumer Electronic Show and around the time when the technology companies tend to report their earnings. However, December tends to be the weakest month of the year for the technology sector. Takes a pause until after Christmas and then continues into January. Just sold his holdings today.

Technology. He really likes this sector. This is a great way of playing the big US technology stocks. They have been leading group through most of the bull market. He is seeing new highs on this and money flow moving into the technology sector. Some of the big components such as Microsoft, are breaking out of 10-12 year sideways patterns.

Don’t buy today. Seasonal strength starts in the middle of October. There has been a long upward trend even before the period of seasonal strength. It will be strong until the consumer electronics show in early January.

The 3 Top Picks are “Buy on Weakness” plays. Technology has a period of seasonal strength from about the beginning of October all the way through to January. This is a run up through to the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, as well as Christmas buying. A good early read would be when Oracle (ORCL-N) comes out with earnings this Thursday, and if there is outperforming reaction that would be an opportune time to get in early.

He really likes the tech space, especially if you look at some of the old guard tech names such as Microsoft and Intel which are hitting multi-year highs. This includes some Apple (AAPL-Q), Google (GOOG-Q) as well as some telecom, so it is not a pure technology play. Tech is actually cheaper than where it should be. These guys are the most cash-rich companies out there.

(Top Pick Feb 28/13, Up 25.47%) Still likes it very much. A lot of analysts look at tech stocks as value.