I'm on the east coast this week for the Thanksgiving holiday so I came into the city to say hi to friends. Catherine Murray and I had a nice conversation on BNN Bloomberg about US Stocks, Interest Rates and what Credit Spreads are suggesting for overall risk appetite from institutions.
We could not be more thrilled to see stocks selling off. There has been more than enough evidence since the beginning of October to suggest that a more neutral approach to markets and/or selling stocks short has been the best course of action. Passive investing is great, in theory, but markets like this remind everyone that hope is not a strategy. We need to weigh the evidence as it comes in and always reevaluate our thesis.
Over the past couple of years you'd have a hard time finding a bigger US Stock Market bull that me. There was no reason not to be incredibly constructive towards equities. Leaders were leading, consolidations were resolving to the upside and the trends globally were up. We didn't think it made any sense whatsoever to fight that trend, while many others did. Top callers were horribly wrong for a long time.
While updating our Canadian Chartbooks this weekend, I noticed a few that stood out as offering well-defined opportunities where the reward/risk is skewed in our favor. This short post will outline these names and levels, but members can view all of our Canadian Universe by clicking here.
There aren't many stocks in Canada hitting all-time highs right now, but Rogers Communications is one of them. It's a leading stock in a strong sector, so as long as it's above 68.70, we want to be long with an upside objective of 95.25.
When we want to see what the market is doing on a given day, we all have our list of the ticker symbols we punch in: $DJIA or $SPY or $QQQ. Some people are more global and look at things like Gold, Crude Oil or Interest Rates and countries like Japanese or German Indexes. I talk to guys and gals who tell me the Russell2000 is the market for them. We're all different. The point is to be true to who you are and act accordingly.
I get asked a lot what that list is for me. The way I interpret this question is, “What are the 15 ticker symbols I punch into my charting software to see what the market did or is doing at any point during the day or night?”.
We've been looking for breadth and momentum divergences to be confirmed both in the US and globally to mark the start of "the bottom" in equities as an asset class, so today I want to highlight the breadth of one sector which provides perspective on the current market environment.
I learned a long time ago from one of my early mentors, "Don't Fight Papa Dow". In other words, this is the most important index in the world. When someone asks you what the market did today, they're wondering how the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed for the session. Some people would argue that the S&P500 is more important because it represents 500 stocks, rather than just 30 from in the Dow Industrials. But by that logic, the Russell3000 should be most important because it represents 98% of all investable assets in the U.S. equities market, and contains 3000 stocks. But most non-professionals don't even know the Russell3000 exists. Also, if you overlay the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the S&P500, they move together.
If you get the Dow right, you're likely to get the direction of S&Ps right as well:
Until stock markets sound the "all clear" signal and we can get back to our regularly scheduled bull market, we have to operate with a different set of rules in order to protect our capital -- both money and mind. Corrective or Bear Markets require a different set of tools. And it's not just knowing that the odds more favor short direction plays versus long direction plays, it's knowing that you have to manage open risk differently. You have to structure trades differently. And you have to operate in shorter time frames.
Down markets can be incredibly profitable for nimble traders. In fact, in my 20-year career, my most profitable years ever were 2000 and 2001 when we were on the backside of the Spring 2000 "dot com" bubble where NASDAQ dropped a dramatic 78%!!
This is a special episode for me. James Bartelloni, CMT was one of my early mentors in the field of Technical Analysis. It's a treat to be able to have him join us on the podcast. What I like about Bart is that every time we chat, he gets me thinking about something new. He looks at the market in a different way than most market participants. His risk management techniques include sacred geometry, musical notes and lunar cycles, among others. It's always an interesting conversation with Bart, the editor of the blog BartsCharts.com. If this episode gets you thinking differently and gets you a bit out of your comfort zone, mission accomplished!
Now that we've gotten a decent bounce, many are asking what the next directional move in the market is going to be. In this post we'll outline why we think that Financials and Smallcaps are the areas to watch for clues.
Depending on who you talk to, today could be "the most important mid-term election of our lifetime." (aren't they all?)
All the hype. All the buildup. All the angst.
Regardless of the outcome, it's possible U.S. stocks can experience outsized and emotional moves. We all remember November 2016 when final voting tallies were coming in and overnight futures were signaling the end of times, all trading limit down. Every market participant was scared and likely had a sleepless night. And what happened when they rang the opening bell?
There are assets out there that have a lower or no correlation with the rest of the U.S. Stock Market. These investments are really helpful, but even more so when we're looking for stocks to buy in an environment where we think most stocks keep falling in price. One of these less correlated areas is the Uranium space.
Investors in Uranium stocks over the past 7 years have been some of the worst stock market investors in the world during that period. Think about this, Uranium investors have performed even worse since 2011 than gold and silver investors! That is saying a lot. We've already been buying precious metals stocks the past couple of months so it seems like rotation into the worst of the worst areas is happening in unison.
First of all, here is the Uranium Futures chart breaking out from the downtrend it has been in since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 that marked the top in the space:
