Editor's note: The biggest sell-offs don't always come without warning. In this issue, adapted from the free Chaikin PowerFeed daily e-letter, Ethan Goldman explains a tool that our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics uses to spot market swings... And he reveals how it could have helped investors avoid a 44% one-day crash – with a signal that flashed months in advance.
A huge stock move recently caught my eye...
On October 29, financial-services firm Fiserv (FISV) released its third-quarter earnings.
This is the company behind the Clover payment processor. Fiserv also serves banks and fintech businesses across the globe.
And the company's report shocked its investors...
Fiserv missed its earnings-per-share ("EPS") estimates by a massive 23%.
Leading up to the third-quarter earnings release, analysts had expected Fiserv's EPS to come in at about $10.16 in 2025. That estimate fell to $8.60 following the report.
As I mentioned, investors were dismayed. After the earnings release, Fiserv's stock collapsed by a staggering 44% in a single day.
Multiple law firms are now investigating Fiserv for potential securities fraud.
One group has accused Fiserv of issuing "misleading and false statements." And it says that the company didn't disclose "information material to investors."
Another law group cited comments from Fiserv's CEO on the earnings call, who admitted that previously published forecasts would have been "objectively difficult to achieve."
It looks like Fiserv will have its work cut out for it in the coming years.
But this crash didn't have to catch investors off guard.
In fact, we spotted warning signs on Fiserv long before that earnings report...
Warnings About Fiserv Throughout 2025
Fiserv's stock was soaring to begin 2025. Then, on April 24, the company reported first-quarter earnings.
Fiserv's stock dropped more than 18% in the wake of the report. That's when the Power Gauge started flashing caution.
We use the Power Gauge at Chaikin Analytics to combine investment fundamentals, technicals, and more into a simple, actionable rating ranging from "very bullish" to "very bearish."
Fiserv's relative strength versus the S&P 500 Index collapsed. And the Power Gauge picked up on a retreat by the so-called "smart money" on Wall Street from the stock.
As you can see, our system quickly flagged a sell signal based on the breakdown in relative strength. Take a look...
Let's say that you had poor timing buying Fiserv's stock – and you bought at the peak on March 3 for $237.79 per share.
If you had sold on April 25 when the Power Gauge issued its first sell signal, you would have "only" lost about 25%.
Sure, that wouldn't have been ideal...
But it's a better outcome than selling after the company's third-quarter earnings report. From its peak in March to the market close on October 29, Fiserv fell about 70%.
And you'll notice in the chart above that the Power Gauge didn't stop flagging Fiserv after that sell signal in April. Our system issued three more sell signals before the October crash.
That includes one on October 27... two days before Fiserv lost 44% of its value.
A Smarter Way to Read the Markets Early
Importantly, the Power Gauge isn't a crystal ball...
It's our powerful tool for detecting changes in a stock before it unravels. Put simply, it uses 20 individual factors to detect what's going on "under the hood."
It's all data. And with its range of alerts, the Power Gauge can flag specific signals that a stock is poised for more downside ahead – just like with Fiserv.
The Power Gauge was clear on Fiserv last year. And today, the stock gets a "bearish" overall rating. So our system still sees more pain ahead.
I wouldn't be investing in Fiserv anytime soon. Instead, I'll be using the Power Gauge to find "bullish" opportunities.
Good investing,
Ethan Goldman
Editor's note: Last year, the Power Gauge flagged 43 of the top 50 stocks. Since 2016, it has flashed bullish on at least eight of the top 10 performing stocks every year. And tomorrow, Chaikin Analytics founder Marc Chaikin will release his 2026 battle plan, along with his top 10 stocks for the year. Join to make sure you're not one of the millions of investors "asleep at the wheel" right now.
Further Reading
Growth stocks don't outperform simply because they grow faster. They win because strong companies know how to put profits back to work. When capital is used well, returns don't just add up – they begin to reinforce one another.
"Investors need to know how to determine whether a stock's decline is temporary... or if it's time to walk away," Marc writes. And as expectations shift around AI today, timing matters more than ever.
