Some Stocks Are Going Up. Most Are Not.

There are stocks going up and there are stocks that are not going up. What you’re not really seeing is many stocks going down. That’s probably the best way to describe this market. We’ve outlined our long positions, particularly those that have been showing relative strength and positive momentum. Those areas are working. But most stocks are not. You can see the difference in the Value Line indexes, when we compare them to the S&P500. Think of these more of the “Median” stock:

You can see the same thing in other areas we look for confirmation of risk appetite. Both the Aussie/Yen and the High Beta / Low Volatility ratios are not confirming the new highs in S&Ps:

The Advance / Decline lines for both the NYSE (common stocks only) and the Nasdaq peaked a while ago. They’re all telling the same story. Some stocks are going up but most are not. Look at Small-caps not being able to make any progress for most of the year:

And Amazon and Apple flat since last Summer:

What we are certainly NOT seeing, is stocks going down. Look at the new low lists in the Russell3000. There is nothing going on:

From the long side, we want to continue to focus on strength. There are a few leaders and there are a bunch of laggards. You can see that clearly in this chart: