Category Archives: trading strategy

Market Timing update 10-28-20

October 30, 2020expert rating, expert system, market timing, trading strategyadmin

It’s been a couple of months since we last looked at the Market Timing AI Expert System. Since that time the 400 rules that make up this AI system have generated a cluster of 3 down signals, followed by a buy signal and then most recently another down signal.

In this 7 minute video Steve Hill, CEO of AIQ Systems explores the signals and the confirmation techniques used to verfiy the ratings, together with the primary rules that fired.

The VixRSI14 Indicator – Part 2

January 19, 2018EDS, educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, trading strategyadmin

In this article I detailed an indicator I refer to as VixRSI14 using monthly charts. Today let’s apply the same method to weekly bar charts. Before we do that a quick look at how this indicator functions.

VixRSI combines two indicators – Larry William’s VixFix and Welles Wilder’s Relative Strength Index (RSI). In Figure 1 you see a weekly bar chart for YHOO. Notice that as price declines the VixFix indicator rises and RSI falls. VixRSI14 essentially measures the difference between the two and looks for extremes as a sign of a potential reversal. See Figure 5 for YHOO with VixRSI14.

Figure 1 – YHOO with Williams VixFix (with 3-day exponential smoothing) and Wilder’s 14-period RSI (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

The Weekly Version of VixRSI14

We will use the same method I described in the previous article, i.e.:

*We will calculate the VixRSI14 indicator (see code at end of article) on a weekly basis

*A “buy alert” occurs when VixRSI14 drops below 3.00 after first rising to 3.50 or higher

Once again, please note that:

*There is nothing magic about 3.50 or 3.00

*Not every “buy alert” is followed by an immediate rally (or even any rally at all for that matter)

*Any actually trading”results” will depend heavily on what you trade, how much of it you trade, when you actually get in, when you get out with a profit and/or when you get out with a loss.

*This VixRSI14 alert signal is simply serving notice that a given security may be overdone on the downside and may be ready soon to reverse to the upside. Nothing more, nothing less.

Figure 2 – AAPL(Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

Figure 3 – AXP (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

Figure 4 – IP (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

Figure 5 – YHOO (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

Summary

In 2018 I intend to try to share a few more trading “ideas” that maybe are not quite “finished products”. VixRSI14 fits neatly into the “Idea” category. Sometimes the alerts are early. Sometimes the alerts are late. Sometime the alerts don’t really pan out at all. Sometimes alerts are followed by one more sharp decline which is then followed by a major rally. So maybe some sort of trend reversal confirmation would be helpful. I don’t know.

Hey, that gives me an idea….

Code:

William’s VixFix is simply the 22-period high price minus today’s low price divided by the 22-day period price (I then multiply by 100 and then add 50). That may sound complicated but it is not.

The code for AIQ TradingExpert appears below.

########## VixFix Code #############

hivalclose is hival([close],22).

vixfix is (((hivalclose-[low])/hivalclose)*100)+50.

###############################

####### 14-period RSI Code ###########

Define periods14 27.

U14 is [close]-val([close],1).

D14 is val([close],1)-[close].

AvgU14 is ExpAvg(iff(U14>0,U14,0),periods14).

AvgD14 is ExpAvg(iff(D14>=0,D14,0),periods14).

RSI14 is 100-(100/(1+(AvgU14/AvgD14))).

###############################

VixRSI14 is then calculated by dividing the 3-period exponential average of VixFix by the 3-period exponential average of RSI14

####### VixRSI14 Code ###########

VixRSI14 is expavg(vixfix,3)/expavg(RSI14,3).

###############################

Jay Kaeppel

Disclaimer: The data presented herein were obtained from various third-party sources. While I believe the data to be reliable, no representation is made as to, and no responsibility, warranty or liability is accepted for the accuracy or completeness of such information. The information, opinions and ideas expressed herein are for informational and educational purposes only and do not constitute and should not be construed as investment advice, an advertisement or offering of investment advisory services, or an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security.

Trend or Countertrend? Why Not Both?

January 12, 2018EDS, educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, trading strategyadmin

First the brutal disclaimers: What follows is NOT a trading “system.” It is merely an “idea.” Even more brutally, I can’t even claim that it “works”. All the testing I have done so far is more anecdotal. Also to an extremely huge degree, the actual entry trigger and exit trigger that trader might choose to use will have – as always – at least as much if not more impact on overall trading results as the actual “alert” signal detailed below.

Got that? OK, then let’s proceed.

The Debate

The ongoing debate in trading is always – trend-following or countertrend? Which is the way to go? There are (conservatively) at least a bazillion and one ways to argue one way or the other. Figure 1 displays ticker TXN with upper and lower “Acceleration Bands” (code for AIQ TradingExpert appears after disclaimer at end of article) drawn.

Figure 1 – Ticker TXN with Acceleration Bands (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

Want to start a debate? Ask this question: Is it better to buy when price hits the upper band or the lower band? Sometimes price hits the upper band and just keeps going. Sometimes it hits the upper band and the move peters out and reverses fairly quickly.

Going with the trend can lead to some big winning trades along the way, but typically involves a lot of whipsaws as well. Trading countertrend can lead to some great, quick profits – expect of course for when the initial trend never quite reverses and quick losses accrue instead.

What to do, what to do?

So the “idea” I mentioned at the outset generally goes like this:

*In an uptrend (which we will define in a moment)

*Wait for price to hit the Upper Band

*Then wait for a pullback

*Then wait for the uptrend to reassert itself

Got that? OK, me neither exactly. So let’s try to define things a little more clearly.

1. As long as the closing price remains above the 200-day moving average, we will call that an “uptrend”

2. Within an uptrend wait for the high of a trading day to reach or exceed the Upper Acceleration Band.

3. Following #2, wait for the 4-day RSI to drop to 32 or lower with the following caveats:

*If price touches the Lower Acceleration Band OR closes below the 200-day moving average

*Then the setup is invalidated

This is the “Setup”. For sake of example I will add an entry trigger as follows:

4. Following a valid #3 Alert Signal, buy when price exceeds the previous day’s high

I am going to purposely NOT add an exit trigger – just so that no one decides to “try it out” without at least giving it some thought on their own.

So Figure 2 shows the “Alerts” and “Entry Triggers” for the chart in Figure 1.

Figure 2 – Ticker TXN with Example “Entry Triggers” (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

So Figure 3 shows the “Alerts” and “Entry Triggers” for ticker EBAY

Figure 3 – Ticker EBAY with Example “Entry Triggers” (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

So Figure 4 shows the “Alerts” and “Entry Triggers” for ticker CSCO

Figure 4 – Ticker CSCO with Example “Entry Triggers” (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

So are these signals any good? Well, like a lot of trading methods, some look pretty good and others do not. As I also mentioned earlier, a lot depends on the method or methods you use to exit each trade.

Summary

The reality is that there is a chance that the “idea” contained herein is just no darn good.

But also remember that there are other “trend filters” (besides the 200-day moving average), there are other “bands” (besides Acceleration Bands”), there are other oversold indicators (besides 4-day RSI) and there are other entry and exit triggers.

As such, this piece is essentially for people who are willing to do a little digging on their own and, a) become comfortable (or not) with the idea, and b) develop some position sizing, stop-loss and profit-taking criteria.

Jay Kaeppel

Acceleration Bands Code for AIQ Expert Design Studio EDS

a is ([high]-[low]).

b is ([high]+[low])/2.

c is (a / b).

d is (c*2).

e is (1+d).

f is (1-d).

g is ([high]*e).

h is ([low]*f).

AccelUB is Simpleavg(g, 20).

AccelLB is Simpleavg(h, 20).

An Unusual 4 ETF Portfolio…That Seems to Work

October 30, 2017ETFS, jay kaeppel, trading strategyadmin

I know I repeat it a lot but the purpose of this blog is not to offer recommendations but rather to share ideas. So here is one that I am not quite sure about but am keeping an eye on.

The FourNonCorr Portfolio

Somewhere awhile back I started looking at trying to pair non correlated – or even inversely correlated – securities in a portfolio that had the potential to outperform the overall market. What follows is what I refer to as the FourNonCorr Portfolio. For the record I do not trade this portfolio with real money. I am still trying to figure out if there is something to it or not. But given that it has outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of 3-to-1 (granted, using hypothetical results) since December of 2007, I figure it might be worth monitoring for awhile.

The portfolio consists of four ETFs:

Ticker FXE – Guggenheim CurrencyShares Euro Trust

Ticker UUP – PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish

Ticker TLT – iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas. Bond

Ticker XIV – VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX ST ETN

The monthly charts for each appear in Figure 1.

Figure 1 –The Four ETFs in The Four NonCorr Portfolio (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

As you can see there is a lot of “zigging” by one accompanied by “zagging” for another. No surprise that when the Euro rises the dollar falls and vice versa. Also, TLT often seems to move opposite XIV. That is essentially the purpose of these pairings.

Figure 2 displays the correlations between the four ETFs in the portfolio (using AIQ TradingExpert Matchmaker function from 8/31/2012 through 8/31/2017 using weekly data). A reading of 1000 indicates a perfect correlation, a reading of -1000 indicates a perfectly inverse correlation.

	FXE	UUP	TLT	XIV
FXE		(913)	77	(13)
UUP	(913)		(117)	43
TLT	77	(117)		(234)
XIV	(13)	43	(234)

Figure 2 – Correlations for the FourNonCorr Portfolio ETFs (Source: AIQ TradingExpert)

Clearly there is a whole lot of “not correlating much” going on.

Results

For testing purposes I used monthly total return data for each ETF from the PEP Database from Callan Associates. The one exception is ticker XIV which did not start actual trading until December 2010. For January 2008 through November 2010 I used index data for the index that ticker XIV tracks inversely (S&P 500 VIX SHORT-TERM FUTURES INDEX). Actual XIV ETF data is used starting in December 2010.

As a benchmark, I also tracked the cumulative total return for ticker SPY (that tracks the S&P 500 Index).

Figure 3 displays the cumulative percent gain or loss for both the FourNonCorr Portfolio and ticker SPY.

Figure 3 – Cumulative % gain/loss for The FourNonCorr Portfolio (blue) versus SPY (red); 12/31/2007-9/30/2017

Year-by-year results appear in Figure 4

	4 NonCorr	SPY	Diff
2008	(6.0)	(37.0)	31.0
2009	26.1	26.4	(0.3)
2010	45.2	14.9	30.3
2011	(1.3)	2.1	(3.4)
2012	34.3	15.8	18.5
2013	19.3	32.2	(12.9)
2014	5.3	13.5	(8.2)
2015	0.6	1.3	(0.8)
2016	21.0	11.8	9.2
2017*	24.4	14.1	10.2

Figure 4 – Year-by-Year Results

The results by the numbers appear in Figure 5.

	4NonCorr	SPY
Average 12mo % +/-	17.8	11.2
Median 12mo % +/-	14.9	15.0
Std. Deviation	17.1	16.8
Ave/Std. Dev.	1.04	0.67
Worst 12mo %	(11.9)	(43.2)
Max. Drawdown %	(17.8)	(48.4)

Figure 5 – By the numbers

All told The FourNonCorr Portfolio:

*Gained +334% versus +110% for SPY since 12/31/2007

*Experienced a maximum drawdown of -17.8% versus-48.4% for SPY

Thoughts

On paper, The FourNonCorr Portfolio looks pretty decent, particularly compared to the S&P 500 Index. But you will recall that I stated earlier that I don’t actually trade this portfolio with real money. Why not? A few concerns:

*Interest rates tend to move in long-term waves up and down. How beneficial will it be to have TLT in the portfolio if and when interest rates embark on a long-term wave up?

*I don’t entirely trust ticker XIV. Because of the way it is built it seems to have the benefit of upward bias due to contango in the VIX futures market (the opposite of ticker VXX – please Google “VXX” and/or “contango” for an actual explanation) it also holds the potential to sell off in shocking fashion. Using the index data as I did in order to replicate hypothetical performance from Jan 2008 through Nov 2010, XIV declined a stunning -72% between the end of May 2008 and the end of November 2008. It also experienced a -60% decline in 2015-2016. Need to give some thought to adding a security that is even capable of that to a permanent portfolio.

*On the flip side, XIV has been the driving force for gains in recent years and shows a cumulative gain of +416% since 12/31/2007. If (and when?) we ever do see a bear market and/or a significant pickup in volatility will XIV have a large negative influence on performance? That seems to be the $64,000 question.

Summary

As a thought experiment, The FourNonCorr Portfolio shows a pretty decent track record and seems to hold some interesting promise. As a real money, real world experience – questions remain.

Stay tuned, tinker and experiment if you wish,and don’t be too quick to “dive in.”

Jay Kaeppel Chief Market Analyst at JayOnTheMarkets.com and AIQ TradingExpert Pro client.

Disclaimer: The data presented herein were obtained from various third-party sources. Whilne I believe the data to be reliable, no representation is made as to, and no responsibility, warranty or liability is accepted for the accuracy or completeness of such information. The information, opinions and ideas expressed herein are for informational and educational purposes only and do not constitute and should not be construed as investment advice, an advertisement or offering of investment advisory services, or an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security.

March and April (and the Train Rolls On)

February 25, 2017educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, market timing, stock market, trading strategyadmin

The stock market is off to a flying start in 2017. We have a buy signal from the January Barometer, the 40-Week Cycle just turned bullish and most of the major U.S. indexes soaring to new all-time highs. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Major U.S. Average hitting new highs (charts courtesy AIQ TradingExpert Pro)

With the turn of the month near, what lies ahead for March and April? Well, it’s the stock market, so of course no one really knows for sure. Still, if history is an accurate guide (and unfortunately it isn’t always – and I hate that part), the odds for a continuation of the advance in the months just ahead may be pretty good.

Figure 2 displays the growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow Jones Industrials Average ONLY during the months of March and April starting in 1946.

Figure 2 – Growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow Jones Industrials Average ONLY during the months of March and April (1946-2016)

For the record, the months of March and April combined:

*Showed a gain 53 times (75% of the time)

*Showed a loss 18 times (25% of the time)

*The average UP year showed a gain of +5.2%

*The average DOWN year showed a loss of (-3.3%)

*The largest Mar/Apr gain was +15.9% (1999)

*The largest Mar/Apr loss was (-6.0%) (1962)

Summary

So is the stock market train sure to “roll on” during the March/April timeframe? Not at all. But with “all systems Go” at the moment and with a historically favorable period approaching – and despite a lot of overly bullish sentiment beginning to bubble up – I feel compelled to stay on board at least until the next stop..

Jay Kaeppel

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

Exponential Standard Deviation Bands

February 15, 2017back testing, EDS, Stocks & Commodities traders tips, technical indicator, trading strategyadmin

The AIQ code based on Vitali Apirine’s article in the 2017 issue of Stocks & Commodities magazine, “Exponential Standard Deviation Bands”

Editor note: “Author Vitali Apirine presented a method intended to help traders see volatility while a stock is trending. These bands, while similar to Bollinger Bands, are calculated using exponential moving averages rather than simple moving averages. Like Bollinger Bands, they widen when volatility increases and narrow as volatility decreases. He suggests that the indicator can be used as a confirming indication along with other indicators such as the ADX. Here’s an AIQ Chart with the Upper, Lower and Middle Exponential SD added as custom indicators.”

To compare the exponential bands to Bollinger Bands, I created a trend-following trading system that trades long only according to the following rules:

Buy when there is an uptrend and the close crosses over the upper band. An uptrend is in place when the middle band is higher than it was one bar ago.
Sell when the low is less than the lower band.

Figure 8 shows the summary test results for taking all signals from the Bollinger Band system run on NASDAQ 100 stocks over the period 12/9/2000 to 12/09/2016. Figure 9 shows the summary test results for taking all signals from the exponential band system on NASDAQ 100 stocks over the same period. The exponential band system improved the average profit per trade while reducing the total number of trades.

Sample Chart

FIGURE 8: AIQ. Here are summary test results for taking all signals from the Bollinger Band system run on NASDAQ 100 stocks over the period 12/9/2000 to 12/09/2016.

Sample Chart

FIGURE 9: AIQ. Here are summary test results for taking all signals from the exponential band system run on NASDAQ 100 stocks over the period 12/9/2000 to 12/09/2016.

The EDS file can be downloaded from http://aiqsystems.com/EDS/Exponential_Standard_Deviation_Bands.EDS
and is also shown here:

!Exponential Standard Deviation Bands
!Author: Vitali Apirine, TASC February 2017
!Coded by: Richard Denning 12/11/2016
!www.TradersEdgeSystems.com!INPUT:
xlen is 20.
numSD is 2.

!INDICATOR CODE:
ExpAvg is expavg([close],xlen).
Dev is [close] – ExpAvg.
DevSqr is Dev*Dev.
SumSqr is sum(DevSqr,xlen).
AvgSumSqr is SumSqr / xlen.
ExpSD is sqrt(AvgSumSqr).

!UPPER EXPONENTIAL SD BAND:
UpExpSD is ExpAvg + numSD*ExpSD. !PLOT ON CHART

!LOWER EXPONENTIAL SD BAND:
DnExpSD is ExpAvg – numSD*ExpSD. !PLOT ON CHART

!MIDDLE EXPONENTIAL SD BAND:
MidExpSD is ExpAvg.

!BOLLINGER BANDS FOR COMPARISON:
DnBB is [Lower BB]. !Lower Bollinger Band
UpBB is [Upper BB]. !Upper Bollinger Band
MidBB is simpleavg([close],xlen). !Middle Bollinger Band
!REPORT RULE TO DISPLAY VALUES:
ShowValures if 1.

!TRADING SYSTEM USING EXPPONENTIAL SD BANDS:
UpTrend if MidExpSD > valresult(MidExpSD,1).
BreakUp if [close] > UpExpSD.
BuyExpSD if UpTrend and BreakUp and valrule(Breakup=0,1).
ExitExpSD if [Low] < DnExpSD. ! or UpTrend=0.

!TRADING SYSTEM USING BOLLINGER BANDS:
UpTrendBB if MidBB > valresult(MidBB,1).
BreakUpBB if [close] > UpBB.
BuyBB if UpTrendBB and BreakUpBB and valrule(BreakupBB=0,1).
ExitBB if [Low] < DnBB. ! or UpTrend=0.

—Richard Denning
info@TradersEdgeSystems.com
for AIQ Systems

Out With The Old (Part 1)

January 4, 2017educational newsletters, ETFS, jay kaeppel, stock market, trading strategyadmin

Before moving on to 2017 I want to revisit a couple of “old” ideas I wrote about recently.

One 9/23/16 I wrote this article detailing a very aggressive bond trading strategy. The model detailed essentially combined two other models that I have used for a number of years – one a “timing” model, the other a “seasonal” model. If either model is bullish then ticker TMF (a triple leveraged long-term treasury bond fund) is held.

(See also U.S. Stocks Lead, World Lags (Part II))

As shown in Figure 1, the first model turns:

*Bullish for Bonds when the 5-week moving average for ticker EWJ drops below the 30-week moving average for ticker EWJ

*Bearish for Bonds when the 5-week moving average for ticker EWJ rises above the 30-week moving average for ticker EWJ

Figure 1 – Bond Bull and Bear signals using ticker EWJ (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

The second model simply holds bonds during the last 5 trading days of each month

The rules for Jay’s Very Risky Bond Model (JVRBM) are as follows:

Bullish for TMF if:

*Ticker EWJ 5-week MA < Ticker EWJ 30-week MA, OR

*Today is one of the last 5 trading days of the month

Bearish for TMF if:

*EWJ 5-week MA > EWJ 30-week MA AND today IS NOT one of the last 5 trading days of the month

Figure 2 displays the growth of $1,000 invested in TMF if the bullish conditions above apply since 4/16/2009 (when TMF started trading).

Figure 2 – Growth of $1,000 invested in ticker TMF when JVRBM is Bullish (4/16/2009-12/30/2016)

Figure 3 displays the growth of $1,000 invested in TMF is the bearish conditions above apply since 4/16/2009 (when TMF started trading).

Figure 3 – Growth of $1,000 invested in ticker TMF when JVRBM is Bearish (4/16/2009-12/30/2016)

For the record:

*During the Bullish periods in 2016 ticker TMF gained +72%

*During the Bearish periods in 2016 ticker TMF lost -43%

Figure 4 displays the growth of $1,000 invested in ticker TMF during the Bullish versus Bearish periods in 2016.

Figure 4 – Growth of $1,000 invested in TMF during Bullish versus Bearish periods (12/31/2015-12/31/2016)

All in all not a bad year (Just don’t forget high degree of risk).

Summary

Make no mistake, this is a trading method that entails a great deal of risk. One can reasonably ask if a long position in a triple leveraged fund of any kind is really a good idea.

But, hey, the phrase “high risk, high reward” exists for a reason.

Jay Kaeppel

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

The Trend, the Trend, the Trend

November 11, 2016educational newsletters, ETFS, jay kaeppel, market timing, trading strategyadmin

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

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

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.

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

http://jayonthemarkets.com/

The 3 Days of the Month to Avoid

August 23, 2016educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, seasonal, trading strategyadmin

Some days are just better than others – am I right or am I right? As a corollary, some days are worse than others. Wouldn’t it be nice to know in advance which days were going to be which?

Well, when it comes to the stock market, maybe you can.

The 3 Days to Miss

For our purposes we will refer to the very last trading day of the month as TDM -1. The day before that will be TDM -2, the one before that TDM -3, etc. Now let’s focus specifically on TDMs -7, -6 and -5.

Let’s now assume that we will buy and hold the Dow Jones Industrials Average every day of every month EXCEPT for those three days – i.e., we will sell at the close of TDM -8 every single month and buy back in 3 days later. We will refer to this as Jay’s -765 Method. Granted some may not be comfortable trading this often, but before dismissing the idea please consider the results.

Figure 1 displays the growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow as described above versus the growth of $1,000 from buying and holding the Dow.

*The starting date for this test is 12/1/1933.
*For this test no interest is assumed on the 3 days a month spent out of the market.

Figure 1 – Growth of $1,000 invested in Dow Industrials during all days EXCEPT TDM -7,TDM -6 and TDM -5 (blue line) versus $1,000 invested in Dow Industrials using buy-and-hold (red line); 12/1/1933-8/15/2016

For the record:
*Jay’s -765 Method gained +94,190%
*The Dow buy-and-hold gained +18,745%

While these results are compelling, the real “Wow” comes from looking at would have happened if you had been long the Dow ONLY on TDMs -7,-6 and -5 every month since 1933. These results appear in Figure 2 (but you’d better brace yourself before taking a glance).

Figure 2 – Growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow ONLY on the 7^th to last, 6^th to last and 5^th to last trading days of every month since 12/1/1933

The net result is an almost unrelenting 83 year decline of -80%.

Summary

I would guess that some readers would like me to offer a detailed and logical reason as to why this works. Unfortunately, I will have to go with my stock answer of “It beats me.” Of course, as a proud graduate of “The School of Whatever Works” (Team Cheer: “Whatever!”) I am not as interested in the “Why” of things as I am the “How Much.”

Sorry, it’s just my nature.

Jay Kaeppel

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

http://jayonthemarkets.com/

Hedging Risk Away with Ticker TZA

July 29, 2016educational newsletters, ETFS, jay kaeppel, trading strategyadmin

It pains me to say that I don’t know where the stock market is going next. You would think that after being in the markets for so long and following a bunch of indicators and systems etc., that by now I would have developed some ability to divine what is coming next.

Alas, I have not.

But I do know three things:

*My trend-following stuff is bullish so I need to give the bullish case the benefit of the doubt (no matter how nervous or cynical I may be).

*Based on a variety of indicators the market is certainly getting overbought

*Based on the calendar, some caution may be in order

So, a thought today for those who might be wishing to hedge away some of their market risk.

Ticker TZA

Ticker TZA is not necessarily one of my favorites. It is an ETF that tracks 3 times the inverse of the Russell 2000 small-cap index. In other words, if ticker RUT falls 1% today then TZA should rise 3%. There are two primary concerns to keep in mind before considering buying shares of TZA are:

*The shares are extremely volatile

*The shares have experienced a serious downside bias – even when RUT is headed sideways (See Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Ticker TZA (black bars) versus Ticker RUT (Russell 2000) (Courtesy AIQ TradingExpert)

So if you are going to buy TZA you’d better pick your spots. As I discussed here we are entering an “interesting” time for the market. So let’s explore the possibility of buying a call option on ticker TZA as a hedge against a potential market decline.

Call Option on TZA

Remember, TZA should increase in value if the Russell 2000 declines. Therefore, a call option on TZA should also increase in value if the Russell 2000 declines.

As you can see in Figure 2, the “implied volatility” (which generally tells you whether there is a lot of time premium built into the price of the options for a given security) for options on TZA is near the low end of the historical range. This tells us that there is relatively little time premium built into TZA options, therefore they are “cheap”.

Figure 2 – Implied option volatility for options on TA near the low end of the historical range (Courtesy www.OptionsAnalysis.com)

Next I ran the “Percent to Double” routine in www.OptionsAnalysis.com (see output in Figure 3. The phrase “percent to double” tells us what percentage the underlying stock must rise in order for the call option to double in price.

Figure 3 – Percent to Double routine suggests buying Sep30 TZA call which will double in price if TZA rises 12.56% (i.e., if RUT declines by roughly -4.19%) (Courtesy www.OptionsAnalysis.com)

Figures 4 and 5 display the particulars and risk curves for buying 10 TZA Sep 30 calls.

Figure 4 – TZA Sep30 details (Courtesy www.OptionsAnalysis.com

Figure 5 – TZA Sep30 risk curves (Courtesy www.OptionsAnalysis.com)

A few things to note:

*The cost to buy 10 is $2,550.

*TZA is trading at $30.25/share.

*The breakeven price for this trade is $32.25 (if TZA is below $32.25 at expiration and we still hold this position then we will lose -$2,250)

*There are 50 days left until September expiration

*The trade has unlimited profit potential

Regarding potential, in Figure 6 we see that if TZA rallies back to its June low of $33.77 this trade will generate a profit of between $1,500 and $2,400 depending on how soon that price is reached

Figure 6 – A potential 1st profit target for TZA hedge (Courtesy www.OptionsAnalysis.com)

Summary

Is this a good trade? I can’t say for sure that it is. In fact, the only way this trade makes money is if the broader market suffers a hit, so a good part of me would prefer to see this trade “not work out”.

But the point of all of this is simply to point out that it is possible to hedge against a significant market decline by buying call options on an inverse leveraged ETF.

Mr. Market, you take it from here.

Jay Kaeppel

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

http://jayonthemarkets.com/

Zero In On The MACD

June 15, 2016EDS, Stocks & Commodities traders tips, technical indicator, trading strategyadmin

The AIQ code based on Barbara Star’s article in May issue of Stocks and Commodities “Zero In On The MACD,” is provided at www.TradersEdgeSystems.com/traderstips.htm, and is also shown below.

FIGURE 7: AIQ. Here is a sample chart of VIAB with MACDhist, the color bars, and the 34- and 55-bar EMAs.

Figure 7 shows the MACD histogram on a chart of Viacom (VIAB) with the color bars and the 34- and 55-bar exponential moving averages (EMA). Note that I did not code the weighted moving average (WMA) but substituted the EMA for the WMA. I chose to view the chart of VIAB by running the EDS “Zero MACD.eds” on 3/14/2016 and examining the alert messages on the report “List.” VIAB is the only one on that date that showed a cross up on the MACDhist (see Figure 8 for a look at part of this report for 3/14/2016).

FIGURE 8: AIQ. This shows part of the EDS custom report “List” that shows the MACDhist values on 3/14/2016, the color status, and any alerts that were generated for that day.

! ZERO IN ON THE MACD

! Author: Barbara Star, TASC May 2016

! Coded by: Richard Denning 3/14/16

! www.TradersEdgeSystems.com



! INPUTS:

macd1  is  12.

macd2  is  26.

macdSig is  1.



! INDICATORS:

emaST  is expavg([Close],macd1).

emaLT  is expavg([Close],macd2).

MACD  is emaST - emaLT.  ! MACD line

SigMACD is expavg(MACD,macdSig). ! MACD Signal line

MACDosc is MACD - SigMACD. ! MACD Oscillator



HD if hasdatafor(macd2) = macd2.

MACDhist is MACD.                                 ! plot as historigram

MACDblue if MACDhist > 0.  ! use these rules to color MACDhist

MACDred  if MACDhist < 0.  ! use these rules to color MACDhist

MACDcolor is iff(MACDblue and HD,"Blue",iff(MACDred and HD,"Red","White")). !for report list

List if 1.



!ALERTS:

EMA1 is expavg([close],34).

EMA2 is expavg([close],55).

xupEMA1 if [close] > EMA1 and valrule([close] < EMA1,1).

xdnEMA1 if [close] < EMA1 and valrule([close] > EMA1,1).

xupEMA2 if [close] > EMA2 and valrule([close] < EMA2,1).

xdnEMA2 if [close] < EMA2 and valrule([close] > EMA2,1).

xupMACD if MACDhist > 0 and valrule(MACDhist < 0,1).

xdnMACD if MACDhist < 0 and valrule(MACDhist > 0,1).

UpAlerts is iff(xupEMA1,"xupEMA1",iff(xupEMA2,"xupEMA2",iff(xupMACD,"xupMACD"," "))).

DnAlerts is iff(xdnEMA1,"xdnEMA1",iff(xdnEMA2,"xdnEMA2",iff(xdnMACD,"xdnMACD"," "))).

The code and EDS file can be downloaded from www.TradersEdgeSystems.com/traderstips.htm.

ADX Breakouts

March 26, 2016back testing, EDS, Stocks & Commodities traders tips, technical indicator, trading strategyadmin

The AIQ code based on Ken Calhoun’s article in the March 2016 issue of Stocks and Commodities, “ADX Breakouts,” is provided at www.TradersEdgeSystems.com/traderstips.htm.

Since I mainly work with daily bar strategies, I wanted to test the ADX concept from the article on a daily bar trading system. So I set up a system that buys after a stock has based around the 200-day simple moving average (Basing200). Basing200 is coded in the system as:

The stock closing above the 200-SMA only 19 bars or less out of the last 100 bars, and
The stock closing greater than two bars above the 200-SMA in the last 10 bars.

For exits, I used the following built-in exits: a capital-protect exit set at 80% and a profit-protect exit set at 80% once profit reaches 5% or more.

I ran this system on the NASDAQ 100 list of stocks in the EDS backtester over the period 12/31/1999 to 1/11/2016. I then ran a second test on the system using the ADX filter (ADX must be greater than 40 at the time of the signal to buy). I used the same list of stocks, exits, and test period.

Figure 8 shows the first test without the filter: 883 trades, 1.84% average profit per trade, 1.51 reward/risk. Figure 9 shows the second test with the filter: 151 trades, 2.12% average profit per trade, 1.66 reward/risk.

FIGURE 8: AIQ, WITHOUT FILTER. Here are the EDS test results for the example system without the ADX filter.

FIGURE 9: AIQ, WITH FILTER. Here are the EDS test results for the example system with the ADX filter.

Although all of the key metrics are better with the filter, there is a significant reduction in the number of trades. In fact, 151 trades would not be sufficient for a trading system over this long test period. If one wanted to use the filter, then the list of stocks would need to be increased to about 2,000 stocks.

!ADX BREAKOUTS
!Author: Ken Calhoun, TASC March 2016
!Coded by: Richard Denning, 1/11/2016
!www.TradersEdgeSystems.com

!NOTE; THIS SAMPLE SYSTEM IS FOR 
           !DAILY BAR TESTING OF ADX FILTER ONLY

SMA200 is simpleavg([close],200).
HD is hasdatafor(250).
Above200 if ( [close] > SMA200 ) .
Basing200 if CountOf(Above200,10) >2
 and CountOf(Above200,100) 200. 
ADXhi if [ADX] >= 40.
BuyADX if Buy and ADXhi.

This code and EDS file can be downloaded from www.TradersEdgeSystems.com/traderstips.htm.

—Richard Denning
info@TradersEdgeSystems.com
for AIQ Systems