Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Auto Sales … Stock Market Analysis … ETF Trading

AUTO MAKERS CRUSH EXPECTATIONS (Business Insider)
“The Detroit Big Three — Ford,GM, and Fiat Chrysler — topped analysts' forecasts for the month after Hurricane Harvey slowed sales in late August.” Story at…
 
MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS         
-Tuesday the S&P 500 was up about 0.2% to 2535, another new high.
-VIX rose about 1% to 9.51.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.323%.
 
My sum of 17 indicators was little changed today. My smoothed version of the 10-day version of this indicator is still bullish. RSI and Bollinger Bands are both close to “overbought” but not yet there. (RSI was overbought last Thursday but it has retreated since then and is now at 77.)
 
I’ll keep saying this for a while: I think the next big move up, say around 1%, could mark another short-term top. From there a retreat of some kind, probably in the 3-5% range, is probable.
 
I remain bullish longer-term. One wonders when this party will end so I will worry if the numbers deteriorate, but for now I remain fully invested.
 
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily)
The top ranked ETF receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading ETF.  While momentum isn’t stock performance per se, momentum is closely related to stock performance. For example, over the 4-months from Oct thru mid-February 2016, the number 1 ranked Financials (XLF) outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 20%.
*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…
 
Aerospace and Defense (ITA) remained #1 today. I am in ITA as of 21 Sept.
Avoid XLE; its 120-day moving average is still falling.
 
SHORT-TERM TRADING PORTFOLIO - 2017 (Small-% of the total portfolio)
LONG
-“In a bull market, you can only be long or neutral.” – D. Gartman
-“The best policy is to avoid shorting unless a major bear market is underway and downside momentum has been thoroughly established. Even then, your timing must sometimes be perfect. In a bull market the trend is truly your friend, and trading against the grain is usually a fool's errand.” – Clif Droke.
-“Commandment #1: “Thou Shall Not Trade Against the Trend.” - James P. Arthur Huprich
 
TUESDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)
Market Internals remained Neutral on the market.
 

 
 
 
 
Market Internals are a decent trend-following analysis of current market action, but should not be used alone for short term trading. They are usually right, but they are often late.  They are most useful when they diverge from the Index.  In 2014, using these internals alone would have made a 9% return vs. 13% for the S&P 500 (in on Positive, out on Negative – no shorting). 
 
LONG TERM INDICATOR
Tuesday, the Price indicator was positive; Sentiment, VIX & Volume indicators were neutral. With VIX recently below 10 for a couple of days in May, June, July, August and September, VIX may be prone to incorrect signals. Usually, a rising VIX is a bad market sign; now it may move up, but that might just signal normalization of VIX, i.e., VIX and the Index may both rise. As an indicator, VIX is out of the picture for a while.
 
 
 
 
MY INVESTED STOCK POSITION:
TSP (RETIREMENT ACCOUNT – GOV EMPLOYEES) ALLOCATION
I increased stock allocation to 50% stocks in the S&P 500 Index fund (C-Fund) 24 March 2017 in my long-term accounts, based on short-term indicators. The remainder is 50% G-Fund (Government securities). This is a conservative retiree allocation, but I consider it fully invested for my situation.
 
The previous signal was a BUY on 2 June and the last actionable signal was a BUY (from a prior sell) on 15 November 2016.