Bet on the House.

ECONOMIC trends; ECONOMIC forecasting; STOCK prices; MORGAN Stanley & Co. Inc.; NASDAQ Stock Market; STANDARD & Poor's Ratings Services Inc.; AMERITRADE Holding Corp.; E*TRADE Financial Corp.; BUCKLEY, William F. (William Frank), 1925-2008

This article discusses the so-called term market research and the effectiveness of forecasting and monitoring the economy and stock performance. William F. Buckley loves the word" oxymoron"--the linking of two seemingly contradictory terms. Of course, while a great deal of research is done on Wall Street, astoundingly little is solidly based on the market's history and current trends. One Wall Street report earlier this year suggested that energy stocks tend to perform best late in the stock market cycle. For instance, Standard&Poor's announced that it would use closing American Stock Exchange prices for some Nasdaq-listed stocks when calculating the S& P 500. While I own stocks of several big brokers like Morgan Stanley, my choices here are the most trading-oriented ones, Ameritrade Holding (15, AMTD) and E-Trade Financial (13, ET).