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On the off-chance you've forgotten, today is the tax-filing deadline.... at least in the United States. I'm going to guess most of you have already filed, but if not (and depending on when and where you read this e-mail) you may still be able to get your documents postmarked in time.

Either way, April 15th tends to by a fairly dreary day for most of us, knowing a big chunk of our hard-earned money is just being given away to some people who don't always spend it wisely.

On the other hand, I know at least a few of you have already had your tax-based gloom wiped away this week by the nice trading gains on stocks John Monroe recommended as trading ideas on Monday and Tuesday. Bank of America (BAC), Intel (INTC) and JP Morgan (JPM) all behaved as expected earlier this week after announcing earnings, leading to some nice swing-trading profits for Elite Opportunity subscribers who took action. SanDisk (SNDK) and Netflix (NFLX) were also examined by John and his team, and they may have reported last quarter's results by the time you read this.

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Well, we have to give credit where it's due. While Tuesday was a bit of a ho-hum day for the overall market, Elite Opportunity subscribers that took John Monroe's advice yesterday are up pretty nicely thanks to a bullish response to earnings news from JP Morgan (JPM). That was John's favorite pick between it and rival bank Wells Fargo (WFC) in yesterday's edition of the EO, and sure enough, JPM jumped about 2% after Tuesday morning's solid earnings report. It would have been great for stock traders, but it was absolutely fantastic for options traders who like to apply leverage to their stock picks.

I don't know if I've made this point before, so I'll make it now - although the EO service doesn't explicitly trade options (just for logistical reasons), it's well-suited for those of you who do like options trading. Even if not an official short-term pick, like I mentioned in yesterday's newsletter, John usually has a near-term trading opinion on some of the market's most active names.

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Good Monday afternoon/evening, everybody, and welcome back from the weekend.

You know, while earnings season may have officially began last week when Alcoa (AA) got the ball rolling, for all intents and purposes I think the party starts on Tuesday. That's when JP Morgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) will post last quarter's results, followed by Intel (INTC) after the closing bell rings tomorrow. Between the three I think we'll get a pretty good glimpse of what's to come - a glimpse Alcoa just couldn't give us. See, Alcoa is largely at the mercies of the always-wacky commodity market. Intel, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo are mostly driven by economic conditions.

In case you missed it, Bryan Murphy gave us a thorough preview of what to expect from the two big banks, and how last quarter's top and bottom lines fit into the bigger-picture trend on both fronts. If you want a starting point, that's where to go.

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Welcome to the weekend, everybody. We hope you all had a great week. In any case, we've got a pretty full edition for you today, so let's just dig in, starting with the item weighing on my mind the most.

Do any of these crazy realities ring a bell with you?

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Do you ever just get one of those feelings something isn't quite right? You may not be able to put your finger on it. Heck, you may even see some evidence telling you your gut feeling is completely wrong. On the rare occasion you get that really strong inkling though (and this is coming from a guy who takes a systematic, scientific approach to investing), I think you have to pay attention to it.

Well folks, I got such an inkling today. There's just something not quite right about the market's current rally efforts. There's also something uneasy about its bigger-picture condition. While I'm not calling for a recession or a bear market, I do think things could get - shall we saw interesting? - over the course of the next several weeks.