It’s been a remarkable recovery for the market off lows reached at the end of March. The S&P 500 is back at all-time highs, but even more notable has been the consistency and magnitude of upside over the last two months. The S&P 500 has risen each of the last eight weeks and is currently on track for its ninth consecutive positive week.

There’s a market adage that says strength begets strength, meaning that a market performing well is more likely to continue that trend going forward. At the same time, periods of sharply positive movement can also be viewed as pushing things into overbought territory, giving way to a period of cooling off. Given these opposing forces, do similar periods of rallying suggest further upside or a slowdown?

To start, it’s rare for the S&P 500 to rise so many weeks in a row. There have only been twenty instances where the market has been up for eight weeks in a row dating back to 1950, and this is only the fourth time it’s occurred in the last twenty years. Despite longer streaks being uncommon, the market’s outlook hasn’t changed significantly depending on whether it’s been on a long streak. If anything, streaks around the seven-to-nine-week range have been constructive in the near-term, averaging three-month returns north of 3%. Meanwhile, the market’s one-year return has been around 9 to 11% whether the market declined the prior week or was up ten weeks in a row. Streaks longer than 10 weeks have performed worse, but there are so few instances (only two occasions) that we’d consider it mostly noise. Just because the market has seen consistent gains doesn’t mean that the market has materially strengthened during that period. The market was higher for eight weeks in a row in September 1997, but the S&P 500 only gained 3.6% during that period. As a result, investors shouldn’t adjust portfolios much just because the market is on a positive streak.

While the direction of movement is important, the magnitude of that movement is often a more important factor when evaluating momentum. Thankfully, the recent recovery has been even more notable for its level of upside. Over the past eight weeks, the market has gained an astonishing 17.3%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all eight-week periods. There have only been 16 other occasions in which that market has gained more than 15% in eight weeks, with the last time occurring almost exactly a year ago coming off the Tariff Tantrum bottom. When the market gains so much in such a short period, it’s historically an indication of a strong market. The S&P 500 has averaged a one-year return of 17.5% from those instances, generating positive returns at a similarly above-average rate of 88%.

Overall, investors should certainly consider the overbought posture of the market. But to reiterate recent research, an overbought market can always become more overbought, and a strong market is usually required to push things into extended territory. Strength begets strength, and improvement in the market over the past two months has historically been a sign of positive things to come. 

Today, we revisit an essay from Tom Dorsey and Judd Biasiotto, Ph.D. entitled “The Art of Being a Financial Advisor.” The essay was originally titled “The Art of Being a Broker,” as it was written years ago before the term “financial advisor” entered the modern lexicon, and, even though some of the industry terms may have changed, the lessons about what it takes to make it in this business and to truly become a master of your craft remain as pertinent as the day they were written.

You know, sometimes we lose sight of exactly what we are in this business for. We get trapped up in titles such as advisor, consultant, planner, analyst, and so on. In the end, though, it always comes back to the professional who can help his clients amass money more quickly than inflation and the government can erode it while staying within clients’ risk tolerances. That’s who I consider a true advisor. That’s what this business is all about, period. 

Whether you are helping your client save for a child’s education or retirement, it all adds up to the same thing. Is there more money in the account as a direct result of your intervention?  If the answer is no, then you will be fired at some point. Don’t think that will ruin the relationship that you spent so much time building, it won’t. Your past client will still golf with you. They just won’t let you touch their money. So, build up all the great relationships you can, but in the end, it won’t amount to a hill of beans if you don’t deliver results. In this business, if you are incompetent, then at some point down the road, you’re finished. The incompetent is the person who, for whatever reason, is unwilling or unable to focus on the task at hand. By not being able to focus, you give up your power, because power comes from focus.

Each and every day, I speak to advisors who find a way to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. These advisors have focus, they never lose sight of exactly what the task at hand is. These advisors have become artists. They celebrate every day the market opens and know full well that each day will bring a new surprise and a new problem. So many of us wake up in the morning, go to work, and within one hour find all that is wrong with the world/market. Somehow, it’s easier to find ways not to do business. Think about it for a second. Look outside your office door. How many advisors are always talking about how tough the business is or how bad the economy is? How many are saying, "What’s wrong with the world?"  Now think about the advisors in your office, who each day celebrate what is right with the world. My guess is the majority focus on what is wrong with the world. Robin Williams put it so well in the “Dead Poets Society” when he raised his hands in class and shouted, “Carpe Diem” (seize the day)!

Life keeps coming at us, there is nothing we can do about it. We can either enter each day on a positive note or a negative note. We can view problems we have with stock positions and customer accounts as a negative or a positive. When we view them as a positive, we have the ability to reframe the problem as an opportunity. Remember, as a craftsman advisor, you are an artist. Live your life as an artist with a creative vision. What problem do you have with your current clients or client? View the problem with the right perspective; is it in focus? Are you viewing the problem through a short-term lens or a long-term lens? In this business, there is always more than one right answer. The first right answer should only be attributed to you doing your job. The second, third, fourth, and fifth right answers can be attributed to being an artist with the ability to think creatively. The stock market keeps coming at you each day and doesn’t care one iota whether you are prepared or not. The market doesn’t wait for you to get up to speed; it’s perfectly willing to run you over.

Like I said above, if at the end of X period your client’s account is not ahead, or you are losing them money, then you are likely to go on waivers. Another period of underperformance and they may walk. There is no question now that the premium a client pays an advisor is for advice. If you have no solid, logical, organized advice to give, you are simply an intermediary and there are plenty of platforms that now perform that service for free.

Financial advisors study for the Series 7 exam, as well as many more exams (and licenses), before they are allowed to provide advice to clients concerning their hard-earned money. But having a Series 7 license does not mean you are an intelligent advisor. Even Aristotle made the distinction between education and intelligence when he wrote, “Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.”  A degree is just a piece of paper.  What’s really important is your wisdom, not your title. 

When I was a broker in the 1970s, I was registered to do financial surgery, however, it was years later before I gained the wisdom to do that surgery. In life, you have to prove yourself, just like you do in the advising business. Do you really think IBM cared if Bill Gates did not have a degree? Gates is actually a college dropout. Heck no, IBM didn't care! They were interested in his production. All they wanted was for him to “crank out” that software. The bottom line was “are you competent—can you produce?” And that’s the way it should be—competency-based performance. Believe me, that’s the way it is in sports. Just because Usain Bolt shows up for a track meet, you don’t think all the other athletes are going to say, “Oh Usain’s here, give him the gold medal.” No way! They’re going to make him prove he’s the best every time he walks on the track. They couldn’t care less that he’s considered the best sprinter of our time. Of course, Bolt can prove his worth when he walks on the track; he’s worked his whole life in order to develop his skills. Bolt did not stop training once he won the first gold. He forged on because he knew that he would have to prove himself over and over again. 

Unfortunately, that’s not the case with many people, and in this business, it's not the case with most advisors. It seems that as soon as they get out of school or attain the Series 7, the quest for knowledge is over. This is a mistake of significant magnitude. We live in such a fast-paced, dynamic society that by just doing nothing, we fall way behind. In life, you have to prove yourself each and every day. You can’t rest on your laurels. Once you think you have it made, you will reach a point where inertia sets in, and before you know it, you will be on the backslide. Bob Dunwoody calls it the Survival Zone up to the Comfort Zone and back to Survival. That is how most advisors operate. I did it and never realized it. It's the rare breed of the advisor who reaches the Comfort Zone and then shifts gears to a higher level, but you are all capable of this. It’s in man’s best interest to never be totally dissatisfied, but to be always unsatisfied. Leo Buscaglia says, “Education is a never-ending pursuit and the truest measure of intelligence is a dedication to continuing the process throughout life.” At Dorsey Wright, we learn every day. We come to work expecting to learn something each day. Let me read to you more of Buscaglia’s thoughts on this subject:

“To place proper value on learning, we need to recognize a basic law of nature; that which does not grow dies... A life that is lived within fixed limits and travels only the well-worn paths of habit and routine is diminished greatly by failing to recognize that we live in a constant state of change. That which does not grow dies.”

He’s right, you know! We should always be reaching out, experimenting, learning, and growing. The pursuit of wisdom is a life-long activity. Each day we should learn something new about the world and our business, and in so doing, we will never again be the same. Each day in our report, we try to create a learning experience for our clients. If you read our reports cover to cover each day, you will have no choice but to learn more about this business. You have to work long and hard if you want to really grow intellectually. It’s not easy, but nothing worth having in life is easy to obtain. Like the Lord said, “We reap what we sow.” For the life of me, I don’t understand why people don’t want to learn. Every time you learn something new, you become something new, something greater, something grander. We are all we have. Buddha told us that trips outside of the body are worthless. Jesus said, “If you want to find life, you have to look inside you." Therefore it is incumbent upon each of us that we become all that we can be; the most wonderful, intelligent, loving human being possible. And then we will always survive. Malcolm X said something extremely poignant. He said, “They can chain my hands and feet but they can’t shackle my mind.” Intelligence can set you free. Believe me, you can choose to be enslaved by ignorance or with intelligence be truly limitless. You can direct history, shape your environment, mold your life... you can make the impossible possible. Once upon a time, the Wright Brothers were told repeatedly that if God had intended man to fly, he would have given him wings. Today, we have corporations planning commercial flights to the moon and astronauts living in space for extended periods of time. Intelligence is power! 

Call

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Aug 21 $145 Call

Additional Data: 

Bid/Ask Spread: 9.42%

Delta: 58.93

Gamma: 1.85

Implied Volatility: 30.34%

Expiry Days: 84

Earnings Date: 7/31/2026

Put

Uber Technologies (UBER) Aug 21 $72.5 Put

Additional Data: 

Bid/Ask Spread: 5.31%

Delta: -49.34

Gamma: 3.03

Implied Volatility: 38.97%

Expiry Days: 84

Earnings Date: 8/5/2026

Income (Covered Call)

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) Jun 26 240 Covered Call

Additional Data: 

Bid/Ask Spread: 7.56%

Delta: 74.03

Gamma: -0.74

Implied Volatility: 70.23%

Expiry Days: 28

Earnings Date: 6/10/2026