 2017 speaking of the lottery many people feel like they hit the jackpot if they were invested in the stock market this year joining us to take a look back at 2017 and a look ahead to 2018 because a lot of folks are saying well look that's in P 500 up 20% in 2017 how do you top that Melissa Armo owner of the stock swoosh and Ariane Vodani at MV Financial and join us now to look into their crystal balls good morning Melissa we're gonna start with you good morning what a year it was this year for the market the market is the winner this year let me tell you what happens most in 2018 do we still go up I believe we still go up there would have to be some kind of catalyst for the market to have any steep pullback or change trend right now and there could be some type of geopolitical event that would create that to happen but right now it's smooth sailing the market had the best year that it has ever had and no people know that the markets run up and everyone's been talking about it all year but I'm telling you the market had the best year it ever had this year and here's why it made more brand new all-time highs this year than it ever ever has it had more follow-through with bullish gaps every bearish gap down was quickly bought up there were only two pullbacks in March and August that you could have technically bought the market into a pullback into a rally and I don't know what today brings we won't know until four o'clock but there's a chance the market might close today and make another brand new all-time high today on the last trading day of the year and that would just be more confirmation that in 2018 which would be for the Dow 72 record highs and we're about a hundred and sixty three points away from 25,000 light volume well we'll see some window dressing which could spike volume near the end but anyway it could happen with one good rally let me bring you in here because Melissa spoke about catalyst that could derail this party that we've enjoyed in our 401ks and investments in 2017 besides geopolitics could something like messing up some trade deals or what are the catalysts that you see that could pull down this market sure well we're we're overdue for a correction no doubt about that but I a black swan is really the only thing I could see really derailing or a great change in the fundamental picture as long as earnings continue to stay strong I think money will continue to flow in from the sidelines we're the late stages of a bull market and I don't really see anything like Melissa said changing the fundamental overall picture I think that we've shrugged off every type of worry and investors have shrugged them off for the last two years and we'll continue to see that happen and it's been a complacent market but it's also a strong economic picture or stronger one so yeah more of the same and speaking of earnings are expected to grow 12% next year all right well if you take a look at the Dow and the winners and the losers this year a lot of folks are saying if you look at the beaten up Dow stocks GE being one of them down sharply two years in a row that that for instance is a stock to buy in 2018 Melissa I would not buy GE right now I'm sorry to say it it's a lovely company however the fact is the stocks in a downtrend and you know technically speaking you don't buy stocks that are in a downtrend and you buy stocks that are strong one of the big winners this year is Facebook. Facebook closed at the end of 2016 around 115 and it made new highs this year again brand new all-time highs up to 184 Facebook moved 50% so we're talking about the market the market moved over 20% Facebook moved 50% in a year Facebook is a good buy. But isn't it too expensive and you say Amazon you say Facebook I'm gonna add Apple and I'm gonna add Microsoft to that area on those are the top four tech funds in the S&P 500 this is what a lot of people own I mean you keep buying or do you say right they've cooled off recently minus Amazon maybe we sell them in the new year. I would hold I mean it's always a good strategy right to buy the losers and sell your winners but at this point those companies are gonna remain strong and there's no reason to really sell you might miss out on potential upside I think generally you want to have a good array of different sectors and stocks in your portfolio you want to remain disciplined hold now is not the time to to really make any fundamental changes because again like we talked about things are looking good and remain the same is there a place for GE or these companies that are in a downward trend or doing poorly sure but when you buy them that's anyone's bet. You guys are too optimistic for me I mean I'm loving it but you know I'm trying to play devil's advocate here I got one oil as of late strong energy market however the energy sector is down this year one of just two sectors in the red for 2017 is this a sector beaten up in quotes to buy in the new year Melissa. Well I would say anything that's in a downtrend when the market's at an uptrend isn't good to buy you're talking about on the cheap the problem is that when something's cheap it could keep going down down down until it rides back up again so you don't want to buy something and then be down before it goes up the idea is to buy something and then you're upright a ways to get small size so different different oil stocks have been doing better than others you have to pick and choose I think which ones you go for but I think the tech stocks are the ones that you want to focus on just get small sizes even though they're expensive you're better to have less size and quantity and if you're a long-term investor it really really shouldn't matter because you're running it out for the long haul if you're a trader you're in and out for a day or two and and so that's you know that's up to you it depends what your time horizon is what about Bitcoin Arian that that's a good way we could all make money in the new year right you hear you just keep hearing about it don't you you know we're not recommending to our clients to buy Bitcoin we got a lot of questions on it and I'm personally staying away from it you know the risk is is off the charts even though everything looks rosy and you hear about it every day and you hear about these success stories you know again we're here for the long-term growth and you know participating in market growth and Bitcoin is just a little too speculative and there's too much craze around it so we hear about all the hackings and everything else governments around the world are warning against in the cryptocurrency market all right Melissa Arian good to see both of you thank you for the optimism happy new year even better 2018 hope to see you then well coming up today is the last business day