In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk about the underperformance of the S&P500 relative to both Gold and US Treasury Bonds. The big question I think worth asking is whether these are massive distribution patterns in US Stocks on a relative basis, or if these are just consolidations within an ongoing uptrend that has been in place for years already? If you're in the bear camp / recession coming crowd, then you would expect these tops to complete themselves to the downside. If you think stocks go on to make new all-time highs (I do), then these are not massive distribution patterns but just healthy consolidation instead.
How are you liking the day to day swings in the market? Is it too much for you? Go through this checklist and make sure these questions are answered before moving forward.
Today, I thought it would add value to take a step back and see what's happening in the market bigger picture. They love distracting you with noisy headlines, but the way we approach it is: Whenever In Doubt, Zoom Out!
Here's how we see things in Stocks bigger picture:
This is a question I get a lot from friends and family or someone I just met that knows what I do for work.
What's funny is that they don't ask it quite like that. They won't ask, "JC how do I make money in the market?", even though that's what they really mean to say. It's usually more like, "Which pot stock do I buy?" or "Which Crypto Currency should I buy?", depending on where we are in the cycle. It's rarely an IF, and more of a Which One?
The way I see it, you can add the same amount of money every month for decades and just let it compound. If you're disciplined enough to do it (most of you aren't), I can see a good case for that strategy. But if you're looking to get into more specific trades or investments, I think a well-defined risk vs reward strategy is the only way to profit. If you can't manage risk responsibly you'll be gone soon.
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I make the bear case for US Stocks. I think we've been pretty clear about the fact that we believe stocks resolve this consolidation since 2018 higher, not lower. But I always think it's important to take the other side and consider the alternative. What will the market environment most likely look like if we're wrong, and we should be selling stocks rather than buying them. I think we brought up some good points here.
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk about how the spike in Crude Oil earlier this week is impacting Energy Stocks. When we look specifically at the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Index, prices broke down below the 2009 & 2016 lows, only to quickly reverse back above. We also saw this happen in the Oil Services Index. Prices of the $OIH broke below the 2001 lows only to get back above it swiftly. I think if we're above 24 in $XOP and 14 in $OIH, we want to err on the long side. If we are in fact seeing a mean reversion in Energy Stocks, I would image Crude Oil will most likely be flat to up in that environment. The levels are set, now let's see how this plays out!
We've all been there and we've all seen others do it to. We get one data point and then all of sudden we're drawing direct conclusions based on that number. Think about how silly it sounds to make decisions based on a government report or even single chart or "technical pattern".
The first thing we need to do is take a deep breathe (We live better when we're breathing). Then we want to ask ourselves, "Ok, this is new data. How does this fit within the context of all the other data points". We also want to identify how much weight we want to put on this particular data point.
It's funny, when I first started studying for Sommelier exams, I caught myself doing the same thing. Instead of looking at the wine, smelling it, tasting it, thinking about what it could possibly be and then coming up with a guess, I was already making guesses just by looking at it. Light body? Pinot Noir!!! Heavy tannin? Napa Cab!!! Low acid white? Viogner all day baby! Wrong, Wrong and Wrong again!
If you've been in our world long enough you've heard someone say, "Technical Analysis Is Voodoo". As far as I'm concerned, the more people who think that the better it is for us! As Technicians we are analyzing the behavior of the market and its participants. Our human emotions are driven by fear and greed and therefore markets trend, by nature. This is why Technical Analysis works. Today I sit down with Sebastian, the wine maker at Rancho Maria Winery in Sonoma, CA, to discuss this very topic.
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk about how important it is for Transports, Small-caps and Micro-caps to hold above their August lows. This is a major risk barometer for sure. The Dow Jones Transportation Avg held its early June lows and so did the Russell2000 Small-caps. As long as that remains the case, we believe the path of least resistance is higher for US equities. As a confirmation, we're looking for Micro-caps to get back above their early summer lows. This period reminds us a lot of what we saw in 2016 right before a historic rally in Stocks around the world!
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk the relative performance of stocks. When assets are in strong uptrends, they not only perform on an absolute basis, but they tend to outperform their alternatives. With new highs in the S&P500 last month, we've seen nothing but lower highs relative to both Gold and US Treasury Bonds. In fact, on a relative basis, the S&P500 is actually down to its late December 2018 lows. Will they hold or confirm a massive distributive top? I think the resolution will tell us a lot about the strength of the current stock market.
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk about US Small-caps and the underperformance we've seen out of anything non-large-cap since 2018. We are now down to levels not seen since early 2016 when Small-caps started their outperformance vs Large-caps, which is where stocks bottomed after the 2015 cyclical bear market. Is this where the turn begins? Let's walk through it together and see if we can figure it out!
Here is the video from my BNN Bloomberg interview this week. They asked me if I thought the media was making too big of a deal out of an inversion of the yield curve and I agreed that of course they did. That's what the media does, irresponsibly exaggerate things that don't need to be exaggerated at the expense of their audience. I'm happy to come on TV to bring some sense of reality to the conversation. Someone has to. In this video we discuss the ongoing Cyclical Bear Market in stocks and what we're waiting for to confirm that a new Cyclical Bull is getting started.
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk about the underperformance of European Stocks and the fact that it's their weighting in Financials that is, in part, dragging them lower. This has really become an interest rate story as Financials around the world are keeping other countries' markets from breaking out. The overwhelming exposure to Technology continues to keep the US winning relative to everyone else.
