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Hot Stocks Outlook uses VantagePoint’s market forecasts that are up to 87.4% accurate, demonstrating how traders can improve their timing and direction. In this week’s video, VantagePoint Software reviews forecasts for SPDR SPY($SPY), META Platforms ($META),  Nike ($NKE), Blue Bird ($BLBD),  Pfizer ($PFE),  Merck ($MRK).
SPDR SPY ETF ($SPY)
VantagePoint A.I. Hot Stocks Outlook for April 18, 2025
Hello again traders, and welcome back to the Hot Stocks Outlook for April 18th, 2025. I hope you all have had an excellent week out there in the financial markets. And as always, we’ve got a lot to cover here in this week’s Hot Stocks Outlook. But if you haven’t already, make sure you go ahead and click on the link down in the description below. You can get signed up for a live demonstration so you can learn all the specifics about how these predictive technologies are helping traders make better trading decisions out in the marketplace.
Now, as we typically do, we start out by taking a look at the S&P 500. Uh, we’ve got a little, uh, short week this week with actually Friday, today, markets being closed. Uh, but we can see year-to-date we are down 10%. Uh, and we’ve had one heck of a month here with a lot of volatility, a lot of noise. Uh, and this is especially why it’s good to have an approach and very good tools, right, so they can really guide you, uh, make sure your focus is in the right area of the marketplace.
META Platforms ($META)
And so a really great example, uh, here in meta, Meta Platforms ($META), not just in Meta here but the broader markets, right? We have the S&P and a lot of these markets in downtrend. And here we see Meta, uh, what we have here is daily price action. So as we go through this chart, all of these subsequent examples work exactly the same. Uh, and once you understand how to interpret one forecast, well, you can carry that on to all the next.
And so here with Meta, what we have again is daily bars and candles. So each one of those candles would represent a full and complete trading day. And the first thing that’s going to jump out at you is right up against the price data there, there’s a black line and also a blue line value. So the black line that you’re seeing there is actually a simple moving average. This is a very common technical analysis indicator. Uh, in this instance it’s a 10 period, so to look at the previous 10 close prices, add them all together, and then divide by that number.
And one of the weaknesses with traditional technical analysis like this is that all the data that creates that indicator comes from the past. So it really just summarizes what’s already occurred and doesn’t have any predictive capability for the trader. And so this is where VantagePoint traders are able to compare that value to this proprietary predicted moving average. And for this price, which we can think of again as a price that’s getting plotted on the chart for us—well, for that to get plotted, this is where the technology of artificial neural networks comes into play.
And they’re performing what we would call intermarket analysis. So what that means is, specifically for Meta, there are dozens of markets that are known to drive and influence future price. Now this can be markets that share positive correlations, inverse correlations, there can be leading and lagging relationships in the data. And this is where the technology of artificial neural networks is going to be excellent at summarizing all of that and producing highly accurate forecasts.
So this could be, again, things like other individual stocks, but it’s also going to be things like those broader ETFs and indices, right? So the S&P 500, potentially the Q’s and the NASDAQ, and it’s even able to look at things like the value of currencies, global interest rates, and, if applicable, potentially even commodity markets like gold, oil, wheat, sugar—depending on, again, that market that specifically you’re trading.
And so in this case, Meta, again, we’re going to have dozens of markets that’ll go into that calculation and generate highly accurate predictive indicators. So we’re going to use this to forecast where the market is likely to go next. And so whenever we see that blue line, in this case, cross below the black line—and we’ve seen this all throughout the market, whether it’s the SPY, whether it’s, you know, any markets that you’re running your scans each evening and trying to find new uptrends—well, most of the market is currently in a downtrend, and we’ve seen that bearish price action.
So we see here with Meta that blue line below the black line. And using that technology of artificial neural networks, looking at those relationships, we can take that and house that into different indicators. So if you look at the very bottom of the chart, you see this bar that goes from green to red and back to green. Well, we can use those neural networks to solve a different problem for us.
So instead of the overall trend direction like we see here at the start of this down move, well, the neural index is just going to let us know of short-term strength or weakness just over a 48-hour forecast. So a couple days ahead, warning you of strength or weakness within that uptrend. And you’ll notice here that when the neural index gets bullish, we had a couple days of strength here again, actually before that announcement. Well, sure enough, the next day, very strong.
But what’s going on with the overall trend? You’ll notice that predicted moving average, that blue line, is still below the black line. And at the end of this, you’re provided a predicted high and predicted low. So if you really think about this, we’ve got the overall trend direction, we’ve got short-term strength or weakness from the neural index, and then we can go in and really fine-tune intraday where are levels we really want to be paying attention to, to do some trading.
And so each week in these Hot Stocks Outlooks, we go back and look and say, okay, well, how accurate are all of those predictions again before the next trading day? So this will be the prediction for Monday next week as we get into markets trading again. Uh, but currently you see this week saying, okay, well look, Meta is still in a downtrend. If you want to do some trading here, well, it really screams at you when we got up to the high of this trading day—well, there’s your opportunity to get short, take profits on shorts. And you see a 9% decline here in just the past four trading days.
So a lot of weakness around Meta. Uh, I think they’re getting into a little trouble with some, uh, uh, you know, helping China and some of these things, uh, maybe sort of weighing into the stock price here. Uh, but a pretty strong decline here—10% just in about four trading days. And so this is where VantagePoint traders are able to use these tools to get an edge on other market participants.
Nike ($NKE)
Now, we’ve talked at length about Nike ($NKE), um, and it’s just a great example of how VantagePoint can really alert you to the start of weakness. And then you can get those catalysts that really weigh and help you, right? So we got tariff announcements that really crush stocks like Nike and Under Armour, uh, really drove these things lower and they have not recovered.
And so when we look back and say, okay, well, how accurate have all of these predictions been? Well, you see how many opportunities are here to get on the bearish side—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7—here we get all this noise, potentially 8, 9, and you’re still within a day or two, the market is moving lower and staying with that downtrend. And again, this is that announcement day. Um, you know, we got all that huge, uh, relief rally because they took off the tariffs, but it doesn’t change the bigger picture, right?
So when you get that noise, you want to understand, okay, well, where’s the best area to get involved? Where can I do some trading? Well, clearly Nike shares, you only want to short, take profits on shorts. Uh, and that’s been a very, very long opportunity here—about 29% move over 33 trade—very long period of time where this has just remained in a downtrend. There’s been numerous opportunities to get involved, short, trail your stops, uh, and have a nice position in the portfolio that’s benefiting, uh, off all this volatility.
Blue Bird ($BLBD)
Now let’s move on to Blue Bird ($BLBD). I took a look at this last week, and it’s really just a good example of highlighting again the short-term forecasting of VantagePoint. Now, markets are very bearish. There are not a lot of areas where we’re seeing our predicted moving averages above our actual moving average. But this is something I brought through last week because it’s like, okay, well, at least we have some strength here. We can have some short positions in the portfolio, but if we want to balance that out, well, potentially Blue Bird here—we can look at some of these levels.
And so, um, this being actually last Friday before—you know, I release these videos before the market opens—and you see here how well this works. Move down to the predicted low, trade up to the predicted high, nice opportunity there. Again, you get these two days at the beginning of the week where we move down to these predicted lows, but again, moving towards that predicted high and allowing you to at least pull a little bit of money out of the market if you’re doing a short-term day trade.
But you got to be really careful in these markets. There’s not too many areas where you want to, uh, push your luck on the bullish side. Uh, and more so we’re seeing a lot of these markets in persistent downtrend.
Pfizer ($PFE)
Pfizer ($PFE) here. So here we see Pfizer. Uh, we got that blue line below the black line, neural index bullish. Uh, and again, you can see with these predicted highs and lows, a lot of really excellent guidance before we really get into this hyper-volatile period. So you can have some great entries in the market and some great positioning, uh, and just adapt that moving forward, right? If we get our predicted moving averages crossing, you know, back above our actual moving averages, we can, you know, cover those shorts, maybe look to go long in other areas of the market.
And again, one of the great benefits of all of this is that there’s a scanning feature that we can just identify fresh crossovers in the market. So when the broader markets—and we have all this correlation—starts to turn higher, well, you’re going to get a lot of signals. And you’ll also be able to really deduce, okay, well, where is that happening, right? Is it happening in pharmaceuticals? Is it happening in, um, you know, health care stocks? Is it happening in energy stocks? Uh, and this really hones the trader in on, hey, where do I want to focus? And then I can benefit off of these short-term forecasts once I’m in the right place at the right time.
But here we see Pfizer again—very, uh, uh, bearish opportunity here. We can look at the overall move from some of these predicted highs and lows and a 12% decline there—wait, almost 13%—just in 13 trading days. So some, uh, really strong movements lower.
Merck ($MRK)
Merck ($MRK) here. Here’s Merck, another pharmaceutical stock. Blue line crossing below the black line all the way back here. Uh, and again, you get these little blips where that neural index gets bullish, we start to run sideways, but look at all the separation here, right? So even with that, you know, news announcement, you didn’t even get past the previous day’s high. In a market like this, the trend remains very bearish. Uh, and clearly an area of weakness in the market that traders can exploit.
So, uh, as we go lower again, see all of these predicted levels that get hit. And then within—you know, here’s an interesting—you see these all the time where you never got up to that level. What’s happening? Gap up right to that level and then immediately failing and going lower. All this weakness from the neural index, and it just persists here, right? So even on this day where we come back, broadly in the market just moving back to the predicted high and, you know, going lower still.
So really nice opportunities there in the pharmaceutical space. And some of these were great opportunities, you know, last year. Um, I’m pretty sure Merck and, uh, Bristol Myers Squibb, things were down like—you know, down $40, $50 a share. Well, you know, now they’ve moved up to about 100 and starting to roll over here—about 17% decline here just in 21 trading days.
So we’ll go ahead and leave it there. We got a really interesting market environment. But you know, for the VantagePoint trader, it’s just about walking things forward, identifying where these markets start to shift, and where those strong forecasts are coming through.
So, uh, once again, this has been our Hot Stocks Outlook for April 18th, 2025. Thank you all for watching. Best of luck, and bye for now.
