Welcome to the first weekend of spring, everyone. Yes, the official first day of spring was actually yesterday, if you can believe that. The fact that we had snow on the ground just last week (where I am anyway) and may see some snow again next week meant thoughts of a change of season weren't on my mind. I just happened to look at a calendar today and saw it there. Geez. Surely April will usher in some sunshine and warmer temperatures. Advertisement Goldman Sachs Advises to Buy Stocks in this Game Changing Industry E-cigarettes have been ranked one of the disruptive technologies most likely to make millions for investors in the months and years ahead. Find out which rapidly growing company could be THE investment of 2014. Click Here For The Full Report... Advertisement More importantly, how's your March Madness bracket doing? My Final Four picks (Florida, Louisville, Wichita St., and Michigan St.) are all still alive, but otherwise I'm not doing so hot. As of yesterday's games, I was only 11 for 16 on my picks. Anyway, while we're going to take a close look at the market after today's interesting action, the first thing we want to do is take a step back and paint an important big picture... a picture that investors may not be able to see for all the daily noise surrounding it. A Big Theme for 2014 From time to time we make a point of discussing what I call trade-worthy market "themes." These are just the convergence of cultural, economic, technological, and cyclical trends that make a certain group of stocks better trading ideas - even if only temporarily - than most other stocks. As an example, we named cybersecurity as a good investment theme last year following a couple of high-profile hacker attacks. We also picked water infrastructure as an investment-worthy theme when the American Society of Civil Engineers published a report last year that made it clear we, as a nation, are going to have to fix our water pipes. And, we pegged 3D printers as a solid trading idea, not so much because there's an infallible opportunity there, but because the market was insistent on going nuts about 3D printing stocks at the time once consumers could reasonably afford 3D printers. Our individual stock picks stemming from those three trends all paid off too. So what's our first big theme trade of 2014? Simple... solar stocks. For those of you who've been involved in the market for any length of time at all, you'll know solar stocks have been all the rage for months, and the only thing pointing them out to you now does is earn me a "Captain Obvious" award. Just hear me out. Yes, I know solar stocks had a great run in 2013, gaining an average of about 130% each. Thing is, I believe there's more bullishness in store here, not based on hope and hype the way 2013's strength was, but rather, based on the advent of viability. I'm talking about the kind of paradigm shift that sticks, and can actually be profitable for related companies that execute well. [The solar mania from 2008, as an example, was never based on actual profits for panel makers.] While I regularly peruse many of the same financial news sources you do, honestly, I prefer to make big decisions using information that's not part of the usual financial-media banter. It just seems like there's always some kind of angle from a company trying to inflate its stock price in financial news sources, or the media sensationalizes news in order to attract more viewers or readers. Instead, to avoid all that noise and bias, I prefer to get data - not opinion - from a source that has no vested interest whatsoever in corporate profits. One such source is the U.S. government, and more specifically in this case, the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That's where I found the nearby table, with projections about where this nation will get its power (electricity) in 2014 and 2015, and how that compares with the last couple of years. The area that should grow the fastest? You got it - solar. Though it's still a tiny part of our total power supply, it's the fastest growing part of our electricity production. I don't see that pace slowing this year or next year, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration doesn't either. The other unbiased data nugget suggesting solar power stocks are well positioned for growth for at least the next couple of years is this chart from the Solar Energy Industries Association showing the trend of total system installations. In Q4 of last year, we broke another installation record. Though we've been breaking installation records on a pretty regular basis since 2010, last quarter's record was a real screamer. Oh, and though I don't have a chart for it, it's worth noting how once again solar panel prices - on a per-watt basis - have fallen to all-time lows. Some panel makers are now able to produce and sell PV panels at about 50 cents per watt. Just so there's no confusion, it can still cost close to $5.00 per watt to install a solar power system, but thanks to new financing flexibility provided by companies like SolarCity (SCTY), you can basically lease your system for 20 years rather than buy the whole thing up front. The math makes sense for everyone except the non-solar utility companies, who are now getting beat out by residential solar power systems. And, I see the fossil fuel utility companies feeling more pain in the future, as the cost of solar panels continues to fall. It won't take much lower solar panel prices to cause some serious problems for traditional utility players. Bottom line? With the new lease-financing model already proven and grid parity already achieved in some places (without subsidies), solar is finally - and my apologies in advance - having its day in the sun. We're there. It's finally happening. It'll happen in the United States in the foreseeable future too. It's not just a fad or silly dream like ethanol has been so far. Solar power is now a mainstream business for the first time ever, and worth long-term investment dollars now that the price and demand trends have converged, thanks to the availability of the right kind of financing. It's the fist time we've ever had all three factors come together like this... the proverbial laying of the last piece of the puzzle. That's why this is the real deal. Now, while I see 2014 and 2015 being real growth years for panel makers and installers in the United States (and overseas), I'll also caution you we're still hearing the echoes of 2013's hype. I'd really like to see that hype die down and let solar stocks slide lower as a result before stepping in. The good news is, given that solar installations historically drop between Q4 of one year and Q1 of the next, I'm pretty sure we'll see most of these stocks at much lower prices within the next few weeks once investors get spooked about the sharp Q4-to-Q1 dropoff. That's when we'll go bargain shopping. That's all I've got to say to you on the matter for now. I know some of you already knew much of the information we discussed above, but just to make sure we all had the complete perspective, I had to get the idea and the key details out to everyone. We'll "do" something about it when the right opportunity comes along with the right stock. Stay tuned. Oh No You Don't! You know, for a couple of hours today it looked like the market was really going to take a shot at a breakout. The true undertow always reveals itself eventually, though, and today, stocks made it clear they're not ready to rally ... by walking right into the bears' trap and taking the bait. Take a real good look at today's chart of the S&P 500. See the high of right around 1884? That's right in line with the S&P 500's prior peak and current ceiling. It's almost as if the sellers were waiting there to ambush the bulls once they reached that level. In fact, on something of a subconscious level, I have to think that's what happened. The thing is, the fact that the market turned a decent gain into a sizeable loss in just a few hours isn't the alarming part of today. What concerns me is the massive selling volume we saw come out of the woodwork once the S&P 500 brushed the 1884 level. Not only were the bears waiting to ambush the bulls, a bunch of the bulls seemed to have their finger on the "sell" button. It's too soon to turn bearish in a major way. Like we told you a few times this week, there's a huge technical floor developing for the S&P 500 at 1840, and until it snaps, the bulls remain in the hunt. But, it's pretty clear there's very little actual confidence in stocks above the 1884 level. That could be a nagging problem for a while. Don't worry about it for the time being, 'cause it'll be here waiting for us when we get back on Monday. Just go enjoy the weather and some great basketball the next couple of days.