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Good Monday afternoon, one and all, or good Tuesday morning to you, depending on when you open up this newsletter in your e-mail. Regardless of when you're reading this edition of the newsletter though, you're probably well aware Monday wasn't exactly a great day for stocks.

We'll get to our usual poking and prodding of today's action in a moment. The first thing I want to do is (cautiously) call BS on something you may or may not have stumbled across today in your usual market-related media scouring.

Ever heard of Mo Islam? He's the 17-year-old New York high school senior who allegedly made $72 million over the past several years by day trading the stock market during lunch... at his high school. What lends credibility to the alleged success was that the story ran in New York Magazine, and then was regurgitated by other online financial news sources. There weren't many details as to how - or even if - Islam did the deed, like how much money he started with. A brokerage statement was reportedly seen, however, which apparently was enough vetting for New York Magazine and all the follow-on journalists who also penned commentaries suggesting it had to be true.

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You know, we've certainly got plenty to talk about today, with the market tanking the way it did. Before we get to our usual chat though, I want to give a quick shout out to the guys over at the Elite Opportunity who have just been phenomenal of late.

Honestly, I knew the EO's long-term portfolio had done quite well since the mid-October low (and even before then), and was holding up nicely even though the broad market has started to struggle over the past few days. I didn't really recognize just how solid the Elite Opportunity's long-term portfolio was, however, until John Monroe laid it out in today's newsletter.

Check it out. Based on today's current prices, the EO portfolio's combined pick-return of the six winning stocks in its ten stock portfolio is 115%. Conversely, the combined pick return for its other four holding is only -23%, with only one of those four being responsible for the bulk of that 23% loss. Folks, in this environment, that's phenomenal! Those are the kinds of returns most hedge funds can only dream of.

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You've probably already heard, but just in case, the U.S. officially added 321,000 new jobs in November, at least according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's the best job-growth number we've seen since January of 2012. Yet, amazingly enough, the unemployment rate didn't budge from 5.8%. What gives? Meaning, if jobs are so darn plentiful, why can't we move the dial on the unemployment rate? As is usually the case, there's more to the story you didn't read in the headlines (or even get to read at all). So, as is also usually the case, we'll be the ones to tell you the rest of the story. We'll warn you right now, though, you're probably going to be a little less enthused after hearing all the numbers.

First and foremost, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported on Friday there were 147.287 million employed people in the U.S. as of the end of last month, up only 4000 from October's reading of 147.283 million. So where'd the 321,000 figure come from? The "new payrolls" figure isn't calculated using the same data/method as the size of the working labor force. It's something to keep in mind in the future.

It gets more..... um, let's say interesting, though.

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You know, while it's still too soon to say the market's absolutely poised for a pullback, I don't mind telling you there's been a suspicious lack of progress from the market of late, at a very suspicious level. One or two more small missteps from here could start a chain reaction nobody really wants to see headed into the holidays.

Let's just start with a chart of the S&P 500 to show you what we mean. Once again the S&P 500 tried to clear the hurdle at 2075, and once again it failed. Had the bullish momentum not already slowed to a crawl in the two weeks leading up to the bump into this horizontal ceiling, we might be able to chalk it up to just being the calm before the next bullish storm. This isn't a break within a bigger bullish trend though. This is what a rollover looks like at the halfway point... not yet falling, but no longer rising.

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We're going to get back to our roots today and do something we just never seem to get enough time to do. What's that? Talk about small cap stocks. Yeah, we mention them on a pretty regular basis, but we rarely get to dive in deep with an analysis of the small cap market. So, we made a point of making time today. We think you're going to like what we've got for you, 'cause I'm pretty sure you're not going to get this kind of analysis anywhere else.

We've also got some thoughts on the broad market, of course, but we'll save those for last. Let's get rolling with today's small cap reality check.

Fine Turning Your Small Cap Stock Picks