Market and ETF Report – Downtrends Dominate, Tech Leads Lower, Defensives not Immune, Clean Energy Holds Up (Premium)

Volatility remains above average in the markets and now we have a Fed meeting to contend with. There is only one thing to do when the Fed meets: turn off your news feed and wait a few days for the dust to settle. Knee jerk reactions are

Market and ETF Report – Downtrends Dominate, Tech Leads Lower, Defensives not Immune, Clean Energy Holds Up (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – Short-term Surges within Bigger Downtrends, Energy ETFs Hold Up, Clean Energy and Biotech Show Leadership (Premium)

Stocks surged the last four days with another big move. It seems that there is no such thing as “average” anymore as we are seeing big moves both up and down. The chart below shows SPY with the 5% zigzag in red. This red line only

Market and ETF Report – Short-term Surges within Bigger Downtrends, Energy ETFs Hold Up, Clean Energy and Biotech Show Leadership (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – Oversold Bounces with and without the Force, Energy ETF Pullback, Palladium ETF Hits Moment of Truth (Premium)

After becoming very oversold on Tuesday, stocks bounced on Wednesday with the major index ETFs gaining around 2%. Today’s report will put these bounces into context. We will show the difference between bullish setups in harmony with the bigger force and

Market and ETF Report – Oversold Bounces with and without the Force, Energy ETF Pullback, Palladium ETF Hits Moment of Truth (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – Slim Pickings, SPY Become Oversold (but), Dirty-Clean Energy Lead, Metals are Weak (Premium)

The pickings within the stock market are slim and the pickings outside the stock market are also slim. There are far more downtrends out there than uptrends and this limits the choices for trend-following and those looking for pullbacks within uptrends. SPY and QQQ are

Market and ETF Report – Slim Pickings, SPY Become Oversold (but), Dirty-Clean Energy Lead, Metals are Weak (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – Correlations Rise, Gasoline Weighs on DBE, Base Metals Breakdown, Gold Falls As 10yr Rises (Premium)

SPY is testament to the volatile world we live in right now. The ETF surged some 14% in 22 days (.64% per day) from July 22nd until August 16th and then fell 8% the last 11 days (.73% per day). The fall, so far, is sharper than the rise. The reversal occurred with

Market and ETF Report – Correlations Rise, Gasoline Weighs on DBE, Base Metals Breakdown, Gold Falls As 10yr Rises (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – SPY and QQQ Become Oversold After Failures, Energy Continues to Lead, Agriculture Perks Up (Premium)

Stocks were hit hard again over the last two days and are now short-term oversold. While short-term oversold conditions could give way to an oversold bounce, we saw some important failures near falling 200-day SMAs over the last two weeks. These failures are long-term negative so I would not read too much into an oversold bounce

Market and ETF Report – SPY and QQQ Become Oversold After Failures, Energy Continues to Lead, Agriculture Perks Up (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – Defensive ETFs Leading with Choppy Uptrends, Gold hits Short-term Support-Reversal Zone (Premium)

The weight of the evidence remains bearish for stocks, but SPY became short-term oversold after a sharp decline the last five days. Even though this could give way to a bounce, the bears reasserted themselves and risk looks above average for stocks. Today’s report will

Market and ETF Report – Defensive ETFs Leading with Choppy Uptrends, Gold hits Short-term Support-Reversal Zone (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – SPY and QQQ Reverse, Key Sectors and ETF Follow, Energy and Ag Buck the Trend (Premium)

Stocks fell sharply the last two days and these declines were enough to reverse the short-term uptrends in many stock-based ETFs. In particular, the short-term uptrends reversed for SPY and QQQ. This is a big deal because the Composite Breadth Model was

Market and ETF Report – SPY and QQQ Reverse, Key Sectors and ETF Follow, Energy and Ag Buck the Trend (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – SPY Hits Another Make or Break Area, Short-term Uptrends Rule until Reversed, September Seasonality (Premium)

The short-term uptrends are dominating the landscape, or at least this seems to be the case. SPY is below its falling 200-day SMA, but is up some 16% from its mid June low. It is a strong move that has yet to be reversed. In fact, there are dozens of ETFs with similar characteristics:

Market and ETF Report – SPY Hits Another Make or Break Area, Short-term Uptrends Rule until Reversed, September Seasonality (Premium) Read More »

Market and ETF Report – Stocks Surge, but Bonds Fall, Overbought and Staying Overbought, Trend Composite Settings (Premium)

Stocks surged on reports that inflation was less than expected. Bonds did not. This is interesting because bonds are supposed to be more vulnerable to inflationary pressures. The news, however, is just the reported news we can never be sure of the true reasons for the price moves.

Market and ETF Report – Stocks Surge, but Bonds Fall, Overbought and Staying Overbought, Trend Composite Settings (Premium) Read More »

Trend Composite Strategy (Part 6) – Applying an ATR Trailing Stop and Testing Different Time Exits

Today’s article is the sixth installment of the Trend Composite strategy. We will take the strategy a step further by adding an ATR Trailing Stop and a time exit based on the number of bars in the trade. Time exits are similar to, but not exactly the same as, rebalancing.

Trend Composite Strategy (Part 6) – Applying an ATR Trailing Stop and Testing Different Time Exits Read More »

Introduction to Trend-Following (revised) – Assumptions, Expectations, Indicators, Backtests and Conclusions – with video (Premium)

This article will dive into trend following. We will start by going over some key assumptions and expectations to consider when implementing a trend-following strategy. What are realistic Win Rates and Profit/Loss ratios? Attention then turns to selecting a timeframe suitable to trend-following. I will then explain 10 trend-following indicators

Introduction to Trend-Following (revised) – Assumptions, Expectations, Indicators, Backtests and Conclusions – with video (Premium) Read More »

Sector Breadth Models versus a Simple Trend Following Technique (Premium)

Sometimes what seems logical and helpful, is not and needs to be reconsidered. This is my conclusion with the sector breadth models. They are logical, and perhaps helpful at times, but they do not add value when it comes to timing trends in the sector SPDRs. A simple StochClose strategy performed better overall. This article will quantify signals for three breadth models using the sector SPDRs.

Sector Breadth Models versus a Simple Trend Following Technique (Premium) Read More »

Turn of the Month Strategy – Strong Long-term Performance, Beats Buy-Hold, Some Weak Months

The turn of the month shows a strong bullish bias with an extremely stable equity curve that really took off the last few years. This strategy, which is only invested 38% of the time, outperformed buy and hold with a higher Compound Annual Return. Overall, the eight day percentage change at the turn of the month is positive 68% of the time for SPY. Despite strong numbers overall, February is weakest month when testing over the last twenty years, and we just happen to be in February.

Turn of the Month Strategy – Strong Long-term Performance, Beats Buy-Hold, Some Weak Months Read More »

Picking Moving Average Combos that Adapt to Changing Environments – Comparing Daily, Weekly and Monthly Signals

This article will explore and backtest different moving average combinations on the S&P 500 SPDR over the last twenty years. Most moving average strategies work great when SPY trends, regardless of the period settings. However, SPY (aka, the market) does not always trend and trends are not uniform. Some are short and fast, while others are long and steady. This means we need moving averages that can best adapt to different environments.

Picking Moving Average Combos that Adapt to Changing Environments – Comparing Daily, Weekly and Monthly Signals Read More »

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