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The Trend, the Trend, the Trend

educational newsletters, ETFS, jay kaeppel, market timing, trading strategy

In real estate, it’s “Location, Location, Location.” In the financial markets it’s “the Trend, the Trend, the Trend.”  There is a great deal of certainty about what will happen next in stocks, bonds and gold.  But the key to successfully navigating these turbulent times starts not with predicting the future but rather with identifying the current trend in the here and now and going from there.  So let’s take a look at, well, what else, the trends.

I have certain trend-following models that I follow to help me to determine which way to be leaning in the markets.  Like any trend-following method they are far from perfect (my stock market model for example, suffered not one but two significant whipsaws in the last year+).  But for me there is no expectation that they will be perfect.  The only goal is to catch most of the upside during major bull markets, and miss much of the downside during major bear markets.
Stocks
For stocks I look at the 10-month and 21-month moving averages for the S&P 500 Index and use the following rules:
*A sell signal occurs when the S&P 500 closes 2 consecutive months below its 21-month moving average AND is also below its 10-month moving average
*Following a sell signal a new buy signal occurs when the S&P 500 registers a monthly close above its 10-month moving average
stock-trend
Figure 1 – Stock Market trend-following signals (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)
This method avoided much of the 1973-1974, 2000-2002 and 2008 bear market destruction.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that it sold at the end of September 2015 and at the end of February 2016 – both just prior to powerful upside reversals (like I said, trend-following models ain’t perfect).
The most recent signal was a buy signal on 3/31/2016.  
So the trend for stocks is presently BULLISH
Bonds
I have written several posts about this in the past.  My favorite bond timing indicator is Japanese stocks.  No seriously.  They have a string tendency to trade inversely to the 30-yr US t-bond.  I track ticker EWJ and watch the 5-week and 30-week moving averages.  Because Japanese stocks and t-bonds trade inversely I use the following rules:
*A buy signal for bonds occurs when the 5-week moving average for EWJ drops below the 30-week moving average for EWJ
*A sell signal for bonds occurs when the 5-week moving average for EWJ rises above the 30-week moving average for EWJ
The most recent signal was a sell signal for t-bonds on 6/10/2016
So the trend for bonds is presently BEARISH
bond-trend
Figure 2 – Bond trend-following signals(Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)
Gold
For gold I use two moving averages on a weekly chart for something I refer to as Jay’s Anti-Gold Index.  Rather than go into a long explanation I will link to the original article on the topic and offer a short explanation.  In AIQ TradingExpert I created a ticker comprised of 4 other tickers (GLL, RYSDX, SPX and YCS) which all trade in a negatively correlated manner to the price of gold (er, usually).
One moving average I call the “FrontWeighted36DayMA” (“FrontWeightedMA” for short.  The calculations are based on someone else’s work – unfortunately I cannot recall the person’s name so cannot give proper credit.  Hopefully Karma will work and somewhere that person will  Have a Nice Day without really knowing why.  The calculations are a bit long-winded so the AIQ TradingExpert code appears at the end of this article.
The other is the 55-week exponential moving average.
(CAVEAT: Because some of these tickers did not exist until 2006 trading signals began on 12/31/1996, so yes, it is by my standards a relatively short test period for a long -term moving average method.  To put it another way, don’t bet the ranch on  gold basedon this one indicator)
The trading rules are as follows:
*When the FrontWeightedMA closes a week BELOW the 55-week MA then a BUY signal for gold occurs.
*When the FrontWeightedMA closes a week ABOVE the 55-week MA then a BUY signal for gold occurs.
gold-signals-3
Figure 3 – Gold Trading Signals (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)
The most recent signal was a buy signal on 3/18/16.
So the trend for gold is presently BULLISH.
Summary
These indicators represent “my opinion as to where the markets are headed next” (because the truth is I don’t know).  There are objective, mechanical measures of where things stand today.  Nothing more, nothing less.
Also, none these indicators falls into the “World Beater” or “You Can’t Lose in Investing” categories.  But then again they are not really designed to (BTW if you do posses methods that do fit into either of the aforementioned categories, I would love to hear from you – off the record, of course).  What they do achieve is to offer a decent frame of reference during times of doubt.
And that is one of the most powerful tools any investor can possess.
So in sum, the current trend (at least according to what you’ve seen here) for stocks and gold is bullish and the current trend for bonds is bearish.
How long any of these trends will remain in place is anyone’s guess.  So enjoy them while they last.

Jay Kaeppel

Chief Market Analyst at JayOnTheMarkets.com and AIQ TradingExpert Pro (http://www.aiqsystems.com) client

AIQ Market Timing signals a sell

expert rating, expert system, indexes, market timing

The AIQ TradingExpert Pro Market Timing Expert System uses over 400 rules based on numerous technical indicator conditions to determine if a change in the current trend is imminent. The signals can be quite early and confirmation from other indicators not used in the AI system, like Phase are recommended. Quick disclaimer, we are not advisors and do not give recommendations.

Here’s the signal from last week. The number of stocks with new highs vs new lows is clearly showing a persistent down trend, while the market has been flat.

By clicking the ER button in Charts we can see some of the major rules that have fired to generate the signal

The AIQ market Log in Reports  provides additional information that gives us some broader information on the market. here we can see how a broad range of indicators on the market are fairing and also the percentage of buy vs sell signals on stocks in the S & P 500 (Unconfirmed signals 43-57, confirmed signals 33-67) .
The market action from Tuesday generated a second down signal of 2-98, following the 200 point fall in the Dow. The major rules that fired this time are below.
While never perfect, we always take heed when this many rules are firing

The Best Bear Market Strategy

educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, market timing

OK, I suppose I should refer to this as “my” best bear market strategy.  For the record, “the” best bear market strategy is to sell short at the top and buy back at the bottom.  Which reminds me, if you possess information on how to achieve this objective please feel free to pass your contact info on to me.  Barring that, what follows is a pretty decent approach to dealing with bear markets.

Also, I will grant you that this is not the most “timely” article in the world, since we are not technically now in a bear market.  Still it never hurts to “be prepared”, so I want to highlight one approach to trading a bear market.

First the bad news: this method involves a fair amount of trading – at least two trades a month to be specific.  While this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, ultimately – using here the ubiquitous, annoying and yet highly appropriate phrase for our times – “It is what it is.”

Jay’s Bear Market Method

There are three parts:

  1. The Dow versus its 200-day moving average
  2. Specific trading days of the month
  3. Market Holidays

Dow versus 200-day moving average

For our purposes we will designate the stock market as being in a bear market when the Dow Jones Industrials Average is below its 200-day moving average.  To sum it up as succinctly as possible:

Dow > 200-day moving average = GOOD

Dow < 200-day moving average = BAD

One important note: For trading purposes I use a one-day lag when a crossover occurs.  If the Dow closes above the 200-day MA on Monday and then closes below it on Tuesday, then in theory the market turns bearish at the close on Tuesday.  However, for actual trading purposes it is pretty tough to get a trade off at the close on Tuesday when you don’t know for sure that you should until…the close on Tuesday.

So for the record, for our purposes a “bearish” period begins at the close on the day afterthe Dow first closes below its 200-day moving average.  Likewise, the bearish period ends at the close one trading day after the Dow closes back above its 200-day moving average.

Trading Days of Month

When our 200-day moving average indicator above is “bearish” we designate the following trading days of the month as “bullish”

*The last 4 trading days of the month and the first 3 trading days of the next month

*Trading days #9, 10, 11 and 12

In other words, when the Dow is below its 200-day moving average we want to be long the stock market on these days

Holidays

In addition to the trading days listed above, when our 200-day moving average indicator above is “bearish” we also want to be long the stock market on the 3 trading days before and the 3 trading days after each stock market holiday (New Years, Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, etc.)

Results

So what does all of this do for us?  The results appear in Figure 1 below.  To review, these results measure the growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow Jones Industrials Average only when:

*The Dow is below its 200-day moving average (with a 1-day lag following the crossover before a bearish period begins or ends)

*Today is within 3 trading days before or after a market holiday OR today is one of the last 4 trading days of the months, one of the first 3 trading days of the month or falls within trading days #9 through 12.

The blue line depicts the growth using Jay’s Bear Market Method.  The red line depicts the growth from buying and holding the Dow Industrials Average while our 200-day moving average indicator is  “bearish.”

1

Figure 1 – Growth of $1,000 invested in Dow using Jay’s Bear Market Method (blue line) versus $1,000 invested in Dow on all days when the Dow is below its 200-day moving average* (red line); 12/31/1938-9/26/2016

* – using a 1-day lag for crossovers

For the record, since 12/31/1938:

*$1,000 invested in the Dow only when the trend is “bearish” (i.e., below the 200-day moving average with a 1-day lag on crossovers) grew to $1,675 (or+67%)

*$1,000 invested in the Dow only when Jay’s Bear Market Method is bullish grew to $22,542 (or +2,154%).  Now that’s what I call “making the best of a bad situation”.

The Worst of the Worst

Figure 2 displays the performance of the Dow during the “Worst of the Worst” trading days.  In this scenario:

*The Dow is below its 200-day moving average (again with a 1-day lag for crossovers)

*Today is NOT one of the trading days of the month listed above and is NOT within 3 trading days of a market holiday.

2

Figure 2 – Growth of $1,000 invested in Dow when Dow is below 200-day moving average AND today is NOT one of the favorable trading days listed above; 12/31/1938-9/26/2016

For the record, $1,000 invested in the Dow ONLY on these “Worst of the Worst” trading days by -88% to $114 since 1938. Now that’s what I call a bear market.

Jay Kaeppel

Chief Market Analyst at JayOnTheMarkets.com and AIQ TradingExpert Pro (http://www.aiqsystems.com) client

It’s all relative you see

group and sector, indexes, stock market, Stock trading

The markets have been shall we say been less than inspiring recently. Brexit came and went with a brief hiccup in the action and only in the last week or so has the volatility picked up. The Dow as you can see in this weekly chart is back the same level as December 2014

 

 

The VXX shows clearly the decline in volatility since the high back in 2011

 

The summer doldrums may be over, but during periods when the market is range bound, segments within the market are often performing very well or very poorly. One AIQ Report that can show the strength within segments is the Relative Strength Strong – Short Term. This report shows stocks in 3 month trend up and is a great report for those who trade with ‘the trend is your friend’. Here is Friday 9-16-2016 report. The report is ranked by the stocks with the best trend.

 

 

I highlighted 6 stocks in the top of this report. All have good trends in place, and all in the Oil and Exploration S&P 500 group. The group has performed quite well recently. The top 2 OILEXPO stocks CHK and DVN have both had a small pullback to their uptrend line. We’ll see how they do this week.

 

Seasonal Bonds Strategy using TMF

educational newsletters, ETFS, jay kaeppel, seasonal

Recently Jay Kaeppel of Jay On The Markets posted an update on the Seasonal Bonds Strategy using TMF. The gist of the strategy is straightforward,  “Long TMF on the last 5 day of each month” 

 I’ve posted the article below. 

 Here’s a seasonal chart of the last 3 years with the average of the 3 years (black line). I colored the last 5 trading days of the average line in yellow to see what Jay was referring to. 8 of the 12 months were positive, 2 flat and 2 negative. Looks pretty good. At the bottom of the page you can see the returns this strategy yields.

 BTW this Chart type, known as a seasonality chart will be included in the next AIQ TradingExpert Pro release this fall (OK marketing bit over) 



On 3/15/15 I wrote about an even more aggressive strategy using triple-leveraged ticker TMF that tracks long-term t-bonds using leverage of 3-to-1.
So of course the bond market rewarded my “brilliance” with a swift kick in the you know where in the months of March and April 2015 and especially in August 2015.
This would typically be enough to cause many people to go, “Well that guy’s and idiot” and to move on.  But fortunately in this case, the market is a marathon and not a sprint.
Update
Figure 1 displays the results generated by:
*Holding long 1 t-bond futures contract ONLY for the last 5 days of each month since 12/30/1983
*Holding long 1 t-bond futures contract during all other days since 12/30/19831
Figure 1 – Long 1 t-bond futures contract ONLY during last 5 trading days of month (blue) versus long 1 t-bond futures contract on all other days  (red); 12/31/1983-8/12/2016
The results sort of speak for themselves.
After I wrote about my aggressive TMF strategy, TMF (of course) got hit very hard (as triple leveraged ETFs will do from time to time, hence the use of the words “aggressive” and “risky”), in March 2015 (-4.5%), April 2015 (-5.3%) and especially in August 2015 (-11.5%).
Still, as you can see in Figure 2, things have rebounded nicely since (hmmm, maybe I should be worried).2
Figure 2– Growth of $1,000 Long ETF ticker TMF ONLY during last 5 trading days of month (blue) versus long TMF all other days; (red); 12/9/2009-8/12/2016
So far the “Long TMF on the last 5 day of each month” strategy is up +31.8% for the year in 2016.
Year Last 5 TDM Long TMF
2009* +12.9%
2010 +33.4%
2011 +15.2%
2012 +35.7%
2013 +6.7%
2014 +45.7%
2015 +6.8%
2016** +31.8%
*-Starting 4/16/2009 when TMF started trading
**-Through 8/12/2016
Summary
So did this odd little strategy “weather the storm” and “take the market’s best shot” in 2015 and now it is “smooth sailing”?  Probably not.  Make no mistake – this is a strategy that entails a great deal of risk.  Still, for aggressive traders looking for an “edge”, it might be worth a closer look.
Jay Kaeppel