There Are Reasons to Be Optimistic About the Market

Last year was a challenging year for the stock market, with all kinds of economic and political uncertainties causing significant volatility.  But as we begin this new year, it’s important to keep a long-term perspective and not get swayed by short-term market fluctuations.  Technical analysis is a helpful tool in this regard because it allows…

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A Hawkish Fed & A Defensive Stock Market

As most investors already know, the FOMC hiked interest rates again last week by another 50bps, establishing the Federal Funds rate at 4.25-4.50%. If you listened to Jerome Powell during the press conference, you know that he minced few words and was decidedly hawkish. CPI data came in better than expected, although inflation over 7%…

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This One Investing Style Is Having a Banner Year

Trend-following managers are having a banner year in 2022 amidst a year of turmoil for traditional portfolios. Trend-following has provided valuable diversification to investors who may have otherwise had much larger losses in traditional allocations. Consider that the SG Trend Index, an index designed to track the 10 largest (by AUM) trend-following CTAs and representative…

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Watch What They Do, Not What They Say

Investor sentiment can be a valuable contrarian indicator.  The idea is that when everyone is either too Bullish or too Bearish (as they are now) it implies that it may be time to consider the other side of what the majority is thinking. We gauge the level of Bullishness/Bearishness through sentiment surveys… and when levels…

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There Is No One-Size-Fits-All In Investing

The S&P 500 index just staged a very impressive rally off the June lows. Not only did prices rally, but we saw some much-improved breadth conditions – meaning more stocks have participated in the June rally than did in April/May. Healthy Bull Markets require broad stock participation – and as you can see, the percentage…

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Some Good News for Commodities

In case you hadn’t noticed, Commodities have come under a lot of pressure since June. However, there is some good news for Commodities. The recent sell-off in these inflationary assets is beginning to subside – and not surprisingly, it is happening at very logical prices. These are positive developments for the Bulls, as the appetite…

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It’s Going to Be a Really Big Week for Investors

On Wednesday, there is the FOMC meeting and announcement on interest rates. The market is currently showing a 75.1% probability that the Fed will increase rates by 75 bps. With inflation running at or above 10% and the Fed mandate to get inflation down to 2%, I am not sure that a mere 75 basis…

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