This Is Like Sitting In on Private Board Meetings

Editor's note: Information in the market rarely flows evenly. Typically, the biggest players are able to act on information that's still unknown to the public. That's why Marc Chaikin, founder of our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics, developed a system to level the playing field. In this piece, adapted from the free Chaikin PowerFeed e-letter, Marc explains how investors can uncover these institutional moves – if they know what to look for...

Information leaks... The "smart money" buys ahead of major announcements... And analysts at the biggest investment banks have unprecedented access to what's happening.

That's just how the world works. There's no getting around it.

Now, don't get me wrong...

I'm not saying the reign of the "insiders club" is the way it should be. But it's the system we have.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has done a lot to clean things up over the years. But the investing world remains far from perfect.

That's why, early in my career, I developed an indicator to track the smart money. It's called the "Chaikin Money Flow."

And today, I'll share a bit about this powerful tool...

See What the Smart Money Is Doing Right Now

I developed my proprietary Chaikin Money Flow indicator way back in 1982. And to be honest, I'm amazed that it still works this well 43 years later.

Obviously, I believed it would work when I built it. But...

I didn't realize the tool would soon become such a major "stock analysis cheat code."

You see, the Chaikin Money Flow indicator works so well that hedge funds and billionaire investors now use it. It's even built into the Bloomberg Terminal. And Bloomberg's biggest competitor (Thomson Reuters) uses the indicator, too.

This tool focuses on what I call "accumulation."

The concept is easy to understand...

We want to know what the smart money is doing. "Accumulation" is simply the word for that. And as an investing tool, it works better than you might imagine.

Knowing what hedge funds and billionaires are doing with their money is like sitting in on private board meetings. And this became incredibly clear to me around 1989...

At the time, soft-drink maker Coca-Cola (KO) wasn't a popular stock.

The company had released "New Coke" in 1985. As you might remember, the wackos in management tinkered with Coke's formula to try to make it more appealing. They basically force-fed it to consumers.

But of course... the public didn't really want New Coke.

The whole thing bombed. Within three months, Coca-Cola went back to its original formula. And the event went on to become one of modern history's most famous marketing disasters.

Well, in the late 1980s, I noticed something odd in my analysis...

Coca-Cola's stock was accumulating money behind it. And importantly, the accumulation was persistent.

I learned early on that persistence matters. After all, you don't open a position of 23 million shares overnight...

That's how many Coca-Cola shares legendary investor Warren Buffett bought when he established a position through his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B). And I spotted that persistent accumulation by using the tools I had developed in my career.

It was an amazing feeling. I had uncovered Buffett's massive position before it became public. All I had to do was watch as a ho-hum stock accumulated cash behind it.

Coca-Cola went on to become one of the best-performing stocks of the next decade. Over that span, it returned around 27% per year, roughly doubling the overall market.

Simply put, the Chaikin Money Flow indicator can help you track the smart money in the market.

It's like sitting in on private board meetings. And it's a tool that helps level the playing field with Wall Street.

Good investing,

Marc Chaikin

Editor's note: In less than a week, we could see the biggest market move of the year. And it's something far worse than just a deeper crash. That's why Marc Chaikin is sounding the alarm. But with his strategy, investors could double their portfolios while others get left behind. Marc is also revealing his No. 1 stock to buy ahead of this peculiar shift... Click here to see what's coming next.