Market Performance: January 21, 2024.

Dow Jones futures rose modestly Sunday night, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. Tesla (TSLA), ServiceNow (NOW) and Netflix (NFLX) headline a big earnings week.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones hit all-time highs with the Nasdaq at a two-year best. Big techs led the market rally last week week. Small caps struggled, but they did rebound from support on Friday.

Friday excepted, market breadth has been lackluster in 2024. But market leadership is robust, with a significant number of stocks flashing buy signals in the past few days with many others setting up.

What You Thought You Knew Is Hurting Your Money

Making money decisions is tricky business. There's a lot we gotta think about when we're trying to build our savings or invest what little extra cash we have. If that’s not hard enough, on top of that, our brains can play psychological tricks called on us called fallacies, too. In Psychology there is a fallacy called "overconfidence bias" where we start believing we know more than we actually do. We might think we've got special skills to predict which stocks will blow up or when the market's about to make a turn. But a lot of times, we end up making risky plays that don't work out how we thought.

Understanding OverConfidence Bias

Overconfidence bias is a cognitive bias that can lead investors to overestimate their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the financial markets. At its core, overconfidence bias is a cognitive fallacy where individuals overestimate their abilities, knowledge, or skills. In the realm of finance, this bias manifests when investors believe they possess a unique ability to predict market movements, time buy and sell decisions accurately, and outperform the market consistently. This overestimation often leads to excessive trading, increased risk-taking, and suboptimal investment outcomes.

There is No Such Thing as a Sure Thing

As a professional wealth advisor, I will assure you that investing has NEVER been a sure bet. No matter how smart anyone may think their takes are, the market is always unpredictable. Keeping our confidence in check helps us make wiser choices, that add up to better outcomes in the long haul.

Feel the Love: The 21 Best Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Every Budget

Valentine's Day is right around the corner! Here's a list of Valentine's Day gift ideas to buy your sweetheart.

For those who haven’t formulated a list just yet, we’ve rounded up a collection of gifts that are outside the typical heart-shaped box of candies, jewelry or flower bouquets. From apparel to electronics, beauty and grooming, clothes, shoes and gifts for foodies, the items on our list are perfect for that special someone in your life – even if that someone happens to be you.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to show your love — whether your’e shopping for a significant other, friend or family member. Keeping that in mind, we rounded up a few, thoughtful and useful gifts for the kitchen, bedroom and more.

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