Back on February 19th, we pegged discretionary stocks, the industrial sector, and technology stocks as the top sectors you had to own in 2015... at least for the first half of 2015. It wasn't just some off-the-cuff opinion either. We did (and continue to do) some serious earnings growth and valuation research at the sector-level, and we still see those three areas as the top spots to be in this year. We also mentioned yesterday how the oddly-strong U.S. dollar was beginning to be a real problem for major U.S. corporations that sell goods overseas. An expensive dollar means foreign buyers of our goods have to pay a lot to get them, and we've already gotten to a point where the sky-high greenback has hurt revenue for multinational corporations. The solution? Own smaller U.S. companies instead, as they don't rely on international sales nearly as much. Indeed, small domestic companies that sell foreign-made goods actually benefit from a wildly-strong dollar. Anyway, as I was reading this afternoon's edition of the Elite Opportunity, I got a couple of different inspirations for things I wanted to point out to you. One of them is, I want to dive deeper into the consumer discretionary sector's earnings trend and growth outlook. The other idea I wanted to pass along to you was simply to show you things can make a lot of sense when you have a good grip on all the trends and undertows that really matter. I think I'll get into the latter idea first. I'll be the first to admit to you some of the things we talk about (like marketwide valuations, sector rotation, and the strong U.S. dollar) may seem like mere philosophical banter sometimes. Trust me when I tell you though, there's a method to the madness. With decades' worth of experience collectively bringing you insights every day, the SCN staff makes sure every edition of this newsletter is something useful, and something you're not going to get anywhere else. That's an important detail, because the depth and breadth of research being done by institutions and hedge funds (and I don't mean the blathering heads on television) is potent. THOSE are the guys you're trying to stay ahead of.... the ones you never even hear of. The amateur trader down the street, the folks who make a living just by promoting themselves - those aren't the folks you need to worry about. It's the professional stock pickers and researchers who solely focus on the market that are the true "smart money", seeing opportunities you don't. Thing is, you do have access to these kinds of professional, bigger-picture insights that ultimately help you make good investment decision. It's the Elite Opportunity service, which unsurprisingly combined our two philosophical ideas above and turned them into a specific, strategic stock pick today. I can't tell you the pick, but I do want to share a couple of snippets from the EO newsletter today that will make the point well enough. John Monroe mentioned on Friday: "To set the backdrop and theme for our interest in [ticker removed= one has to remember what I mentioned recently with respect to the dollar, and isolating some of your investment ideas to companies that don't rely on foreign exposure. With a rapidly rising dollar, true or not, consumers feel richer, and the first place they'll spend their money is on their [target market name removed]. Secondly, we're talking about a strong brand and a Company that's well known within a consumer demographic here at home. Meaning, they don't rely much on the rest of the world for their revenue growth. Right now, that's a good thing... ... Third, when you consider the multi-year high on the dollar, although exports are likely to continue to wane, there's no question imports and textile costs are likely to have a positive impact on [industry name removed].... ... we continue to like consumer discretionary on a go-forward basis. The current economic environment continues to suggest if these markets are headed higher on a long-term basis, [industry name removed] is likely to help lead the way." See what he did there? John took two relatively vague ideas and worked them into one very specific pick. THIS IS THE KIND OF WORK THE MAJOR INSTITUTIONS, HEDGE FUNDS, AND PROFESSIONAL STOCK PICKERS ARE DOING. If you're not doing it too, you ARE behind the eight ball. Sorry if that's a tough pill to swallow, but it's reality. There's always someone out there who knows more and sees more. That's why this business is such a tough one, generally chewing up and spitting out the majority of people who have bold plans to outperform the market on a regular basis. This reality, of course, raises another issue for most people - the average investor doesn't have the time or tools to get and keep an edge on much better-funded and better-equipped institutions. The solution is to delegate that responsibility to the Elite Opportunity team, which just combined two key concepts we've talked about lately into a cogent, actionable idea. Today's pick is attractive... no question about it. Better still, it's a trading idea most investors wouldn't have found on their own because it was rooted in a combination of two relatively intangible concepts (an undervalued consumer discretionary sector and a wildly expensive U.S. dollar). Here's how you can tap the wealth of insights offered by the Elite Opportunity service, or just cut and paste this link:https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/pages/SCNEO/v1/. You got a pretty good taste of the EO's insight and wisdom today. Now imagine getting something that good every day! Anyway, I promised you a closer look at the consumer discretionary sector's earnings and valuation, so here it is - the S&P 500's Consumer Discretionary Index's trailing and projected earnings, and its P/E ratio through today. The trailing P/E of 21.5 isn't cheap, but the forward-looking (2015) one of 17.8 is. What's interesting about the strong growth expectations as that the outlook only calls for more of the same pace of earnings growth that's been in place since 2010. There's nothing unbelievable about it. I suppose, however, the S&P 600 Consumer Discretionary Sector chart of the same data is more relevant in this case. So, here's that graph. The trailing P/E of 25.3 is actually below the recent high watermark, and the forward-looking P/E of 21.1 is actually quite cheap.... considering the 25% earnings growth rate expected this year.   All of a sudden the Elite Opportunity's pick from the small cap discretionary space looks downright brilliant. If you look closely, the small cap discretionary sector's earnings are expected to accelerate this year and next year. Again, if you want insight like this all the time - plus the actual stock picks that go with them - here's how to get it all. Or, cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/pages/SCNEO/v1/ Note there's a 30-day money back guarantee too, so you can take a risk-free test drive and see it for yourself. On the Fence Well, I can't say I'm surprised to see the market peel back some after yesterday's big bounce. It was pretty clear the S&P 500 was going to tangle with a major technical ceiling at 2065, and sure enough, that was today's ceiling too. On the flipside, the S&P 500's 100-day moving average line (gray) seems to be serving as a floor. Moreover, the VIX is trapped in a similar range, between 14.5 and 17.1. This is kind of good... in a sense. At least we have some clear lines in the sand that will tell us when the market's ready to move again. I have to wonder if at least part of the reason the S&P 500 can't edge any lower is that the weekly chart is finding support at a long-term rising support line. The only issue with that premise is that the NASDAQ Composite isn't anywhere near a floor. Heck, it's still fresh off a bump into the upper edge of a long-term resistance line, and still has further to fall. Confused yet? Well, this'll make it worse - the NASDAQ Composite IS finding support at its lower 20-day Bollinger band. It has for the past three trading days. We're not saying all this to be annoying or cryptic. We're just showing you both sides of the coin to explain why the wisest decision to make right now is to not decide anything at all. Let's continue to let the chips fall where they may and make decisions when we have more certainty. I think we mentioned to you few days ago there's a time to be proactive and a time to be reactive. This is a time to be reactive, at least for just a bit longer. In the meantime, use the down-time to really explore the Elite Opportunity service. You get access to all the archives immediately after registering, and you've got the whole weekend to poke and prod it. Just go here, or cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/pages/SCNEO/v1/