Sunday, December 31, 2017

My 2017 report card

Preface: Explaining our market timing models
We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Model is an asset allocation model which applies trend following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity price. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. In essence, it seeks to answer the question, "Is the trend in the global economy expansion (bullish) or contraction (bearish)?"



My inner trader uses the trading component of the Trend Model to look for changes in the direction of the main Trend Model signal. A bullish Trend Model signal that gets less bullish is a trading "sell" signal. Conversely, a bearish Trend Model signal that gets less bearish is a trading "buy" signal. The history of actual out-of-sample (not backtested) signals of the trading model are shown by the arrows in the chart below. Past trading of the trading model has shown turnover rates of about 200% per month.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:
  • Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities*
  • Trend Model signal: Bullish*
  • Trading model: Bullish*
* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends and tweet mid-week observations at @humblestudent. Subscribers will also receive email notices of any changes in my trading portfolio.


Marking my 2017 calls to market
As 2017 draws to an end, it's time to mark my 2017 forecasts to market. Overall, the stock market in 2017 was remarkable. What if I told you that you could have had returns with a Sharpe Ratio of 3.2, using the 3-month T-Bill as the risk-free rate? As it turns out, you could have achieved that with a simple buy-and-hold long position in the SPX, whose Sharpe ratio is the second highest in its history in the last 59 years (via Vincent Deluard of NDR).



Indeed, US equities rose steadily in 2017. The drawdown was only 3% in the year, which is a feat that was last achieved in 1995.


With that in mind, I review my inner investor and inner trader calls of 2017. My inner investor gave himself a grade of B+, and my inner trader gave himself an C+ for the year.

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

What you should and shouldn't worry about in 2018

The end of December is filled with analyst forecasts for the following year. I would like to take this time to debunk some of the doomster myths about the stock market, and to outline some of the true risks that I worry about in the year to come.

One of the major myths that have been trotted out is the relationship between the Fed's balance sheet and stock prices. While this chart appears impressive, it is an illustration of the adage about correlation does not equal causality.


Instead, investors could be much better served to focus on earnings, with does have a direct causal effect on stock prices. Forward 12-month EPS is coincident with stock prices, and they are rising.


The full post can be found at our new site here.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

A sector review reveals animal spirits at work

Preface: Explaining our market timing models
We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Model is an asset allocation model which applies trend following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity price. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. In essence, it seeks to answer the question, "Is the trend in the global economy expansion (bullish) or contraction (bearish)?"



My inner trader uses the trading component of the Trend Model to look for changes in the direction of the main Trend Model signal. A bullish Trend Model signal that gets less bullish is a trading "sell" signal. Conversely, a bearish Trend Model signal that gets less bearish is a trading "buy" signal. The history of actual out-of-sample (not backtested) signals of the trading model are shown by the arrows in the chart below. Past trading of the trading model has shown turnover rates of about 200% per month.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:
  • Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities*
  • Trend Model signal: Bullish*
  • Trading model: Bullish*
* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends and tweet mid-week observations at @humblestudent. Subscribers will also receive email notices of any changes in my trading portfolio.


Here comes the animal spirits
Josh Brown composed an insightful post last week entitled, Trump's Singular Accomplishment:
I mean this without a trace of sarcasm, not being a fan of the President’s or pretty much anything he stands for…

Donald Trump’s singular accomplishment, in my view, is the ignition of Animal Spirits in the stock market and the real economy. Small business confidence measures shot up from the week of his inauguration and have remained elevated ever since. PE multiples expanded throughout the course of the year, which was not solely due to his tax policy – it was also about his swagger and I-don’t-give-a-f**k persona.
Indeed, the animal spirits in the stock market began to run wild starting in September, when the weekly RSI became overbought and stayed overbought. My former Merrill colleague Walter Murphy called this a "good overbought" condition, where the market continues to advance while remaining overbought. Since 1990, there have been two episodes when the market flashed a series of overbought readings. One lasted 10 months, the other lasted 14 months. In both instances, stock prices were significantly higher afterwards.


LPL Research quantified the "good overbought" effect on market returns using data that went back to 1950. They found that past episodes of weekly RSI above 80 has been bullish for equity returns, though the sample size is still low (N=13). The table below from LPL, which I edited and annotated, shows that the excess return from the price momentum effect fades out after six months. The incremental return from six to twelve months when when weekly RSI > 80 is not significantly different from the "at any time" returns.


This week, I review the sector leadership of the stock market. The analysis reveals a late cycle market characterized by price momentum leadership, and expectations of increased capital expenditures, as well as emerging leadership from inflation hedge sectors.

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

An update on gold (but not frankincense or myrrh)

Mid-week market update: There is not much that can be said about the stock market that I have not already said. The small cap seasonal Santa Claus rally that I wrote about appears to be proceeding as expected, though the tape is thin and most professionals have shut down their books for the year.



Next week is Christmas. It is said that the three kings visited the infant Christ with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. While there is no active and liquid market for the latter two gifts, gold is still traded and an update on the outlook for gold would be timely.

Gold is getting intriguing. Analysis from Nautilus Research indicates that we are entering a period of positive seasonality for gold.


At the same time, gold stocks are testing a key relative downtrend line. Should it rally further, it would be a signal of possible further future strength.


The full post can be found at our new site here.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Five steps, where's the stumble?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models
We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Model is an asset allocation model which applies trend following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity price. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. In essence, it seeks to answer the question, "Is the trend in the global economy expansion (bullish) or contraction (bearish)?"

My inner trader uses the trading component of the Trend Model to look for changes in the direction of the main Trend Model signal. A bullish Trend Model signal that gets less bullish is a trading "sell" signal. Conversely, a bearish Trend Model signal that gets less bearish is a trading "buy" signal. The history of actual out-of-sample (not backtested) signals of the trading model are shown by the arrows in the chart below. Past trading of the trading model has shown turnover rates of about 200% per month.


The latest signals of each model are as follows:
  • Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities*
  • Trend Model signal: Bullish*
  • Trading model: Bullish*
* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends and tweet mid-week observations at @humblestudent. Subscribers will also receive email notices of any changes in my trading portfolio.


What happened to 3 steps and a stumble?
As expected, the Federal Reserve raised rates by a quarter point last week and re-affirmed its dot-plot projection of three more quarter-point hikes next year. What happened to "three steps and a stumble"?

The old Wall Street trader's adage of "three steps and a stumble" refers to the stock market's reaction to Fed rate hike cycles. At first, stock prices don't react to the Fed raising rates, but eventually the market succumbs to the economic cooling effects of monetary policy, and a bear market usually begins after three rate hikes. Hence, "three and a stumble". The chart below from Ned Davis Research shows the effects of this rule on the Dow. Historically, the DJIA has declined a median of -17.9% from sell signals to NDR market bottoms.



Historically, the sell signals have been fairly prescient, though sometime early. This expansion cycle has been unusual in that the Fed began raising rates two years ago. We have seen five consecutive quarter-point rate hikes, so where's the stumble?

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

Mid-week market update: You can tell a lot about market psychology by the way it reacts to events. News overnight of the victory by Democrat Doug Jones over the troubled Republican candidate Roy Moore in the Alabama senate race was judged to be market unfriendly, as it meant that the GOP would have its Senate majority shrink by one vote to 51-49. ES fell immediately, but eventually recovered to roughly even the next morning at 8:30 before the release of CPI.

The near term message from the market is "stock prices don't want to go down".

Rob Hanna of Quantifiable Edges observed that this week, which is December OpEx, is one of the most bullish weeks of the year. Moreover, positive seasonality extends past this Friday for another two weeks.


Do you believe in Santa Claus?

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

China: A 19th Party Congress postscript

A decent interval has passed since China's 19th Party Congress (see Beware the expiry of the 19th Party Congress put option), and it's time to check in again on China to see how things are progressing. For the China bears, the overhang in debt looms large.



The worries are especially acute in light of International Monetary Fund's publication of the results of its financial stability assessment of China. In connection with that review, the IMF issued the following warning about three sources of vulnerability:
  • Excessive debt: In particular, concerns were raised over the rapid buildup of debt to keep non-viable zombie companies alive.
  • Growth of shadow banking: The growth of the shadow banking system makes it more difficult to monitor and control the risks in the financial system.
  • Moral hazard: The IMF also raised concerns over "moral hazard and excessive risk taking" because of the belief that the government will bail out troubled state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and local government financing vehicles (LGFV).
The concerns raised by the IMF echoes the writings of Winston Yung at McKinsey, who penned an article called "This is what keeps Chief Risk Officers in Chinese Banks awake at night".
  • Economic downturn leads to the emergence of credit risk
  • Risk management cannot keep up with constantly changing business models: 
  • Asset liability mismatch
  • Significant risk from off balance sheet activities
The full post can be found at our new site here.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Here comes the blow-off!

Preface: Explaining our market timing models
We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Model is an asset allocation model which applies trend following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity price. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. In essence, it seeks to answer the question, "Is the trend in the global economy expansion (bullish) or contraction (bearish)?"

My inner trader uses the trading component of the Trend Model to look for changes in the direction of the main Trend Model signal. A bullish Trend Model signal that gets less bullish is a trading "sell" signal. Conversely, a bearish Trend Model signal that gets less bearish is a trading "buy" signal. The history of actual out-of-sample (not backtested) signals of the trading model are shown by the arrows in the chart below. Past trading of the trading model has shown turnover rates of about 200% per month.



The latest signals of each model are as follows:
  • Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities*
  • Trend Model signal: Bullish*
  • Trading model: Bearish
* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends and tweet mid-week observations at @humblestudent. Subscribers will also receive email notices of any changes in my trading portfolio.


Party on!
Friday's November Jobs Report highlighted a number of important bullish data points for the stock market in the weeks ahead. The headline non-farm payroll release came in ahead of expectations, while average hourly earnings missed. At the margin, tame wage pressure which will restrain the Fed from becoming overly aggressive in raising rates.

As well, Thursday's release of initial jobless claims also underlined the remarkable inverse correlation between initial claims (inverted scale) and stock prices. So far, the continuing improvement in initial claims is supportive of higher equity prices.


In his latest update of high frequency economic data, New Deal democrat painted a bright picture for the near term, and an improving long term outlook:
The nowcast and the near term forecast remain very positive, with only relatively strong oil prices juxtaposed with relatively weak commodity prices as flies in the ointment. The longer term forecast, which I briefly downgraded to neutral, is weakly positive again.
Throw in the anticipated corporate tax cuts, it is difficult to contain our short-term enthusiasm. This week, I review my Recession Watch indicators and find that the current snapshot of recession risk is receding, though there are still some key risks on the horizon (also see Things you don't see at market bottoms: Rational exuberance edition).

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Duel of the market studies

Mid-week market update: Swing and day traders are often fond of studies that show an edge under certain market conditions. But what happens when two different studies disagree?

On one hand, Rob Hanna at Quantifiable Edges published a study yesterday that signaled a likely bullish outcome for stock prices. Yesterday (Tuesday) would have day 1 of that study.


On the other hand, I had identified a hanging man candle on Friday. While hanging man formations are thought of as bearish reversals, further studies showed that they don't necessarily resolve themselves in a bearish fashion unless there is a bearish follow-through the next day.



When the market opened up strongly on Monday, I had given up on Friday's hanging man, but the market astonishingly closed in the red to flash a bearish confirmation. My own historical study indicates that these episodes tend to be short-term bearish, and bottom out between day 3 and 4, which translates to either this Thursday or Friday.


How can we resolve this apparent contradiction in market studies?

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

How worried should you be about an elevated Shiller P/E?

In my discussions with investors, the Cyclically Adjusted P/E (CAPE), or Shiller P/E, has come up numerous times as a risk for the U.S. stock market. The current reading of 32x is only exceeded by the peak during the NASDAQ Bubble, and it is higher than the levels seen before the Crash of 1929. Does this mean that the risk of a substantial stock market drawdown in the near future is rising?


I studied the question in the context of some of the criticisms of the Shiller P/E and made a number of adjustments to the calculation. I found that the answer is the same. The U.S. equity market is expensive, but Shiller P/E does not work well as a short-term market timing technique. However, I have found that the combination of valuation and price momentum can provide clear warning signs that the market is about to enter a bear market.

The full post can be found at our new site here.

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Brace for more a volatile 2018

Preface: Explaining our market timing models
We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Model is an asset allocation model which applies trend following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity price. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. In essence, it seeks to answer the question, "Is the trend in the global economy expansion (bullish) or contraction (bearish)?"

My inner trader uses the trading component of the Trend Model to look for changes in the direction of the main Trend Model signal. A bullish Trend Model signal that gets less bullish is a trading "sell" signal. Conversely, a bearish Trend Model signal that gets less bearish is a trading "buy" signal. The history of actual out-of-sample (not backtested) signals of the trading model are shown by the arrows in the chart below. Past trading of the trading model has shown turnover rates of about 200% per month.



The latest signals of each model are as follows:
  • Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities*
  • Trend Model signal: Bullish*
  • Trading model: Bullish*
* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends and tweet mid-week observations at @humblestudent. Subscribers will also receive email notices of any changes in my trading portfolio.


Volatility ahead
Equity market volatility, as measured by the VIX Index, has been extraordinarily low by historical standards.



Last week's events is setting the stage for greater market volatility in 2018, which stems from the following three sources:
  • Political uncertainty
  • Fiscal policy
  • Monetary policy
Let's examine each, one at a time.

The full post can be found at our new site here.