Despite an early whip-saw move, the markets slowly but surely gained momentum yesterday and ended up closing higher as the chart above (courtesy of MarketWatch.com) shows. It wasn’t a huge move, but it solidified the price position above the S&P;’s widely watched 200-day moving average (currently at 1,115). Contributing to upside momentum were better than expected reports regarding private-sector payrolls …
Holding Above the Line
Some profit taking was expected after Monday’s strong push above the S&P;’s 200-day moving average. Although volume was fairly light, the pullback yesterday was modest, and we remained above the critical 1,114 level on the S&P; 500. Weaker home and auto sales, amidst worries about Friday’s upcoming jobs report, worked against upward momentum, but no harm was done. Interestingly, the …
Behind Schedule
First, a personal note. I am out of town, and my trusty laptop caught a nasty virus despite my many precautions. My email program has been down since Sunday morning, but I hope to have it restored by (hopefully) tonight or sometime tomorrow. Please be patient if you have emailed me; I will respond as soon as possible… Second, my …
Stadion Funds Responds
Several readers sent in positive responses regarding my post on Stadion’s ETFFX fund, which uses some form of trend tracking to avoid market exposure during bear market drops. Stadion’s Senior VP Steve Beard had this to say: Your recent writing in which you commented favorably about Stadion’s approach to managing money was gratifying. Thank you. Two things: ETFFX has actually …
Sunday Musings: Market Tops
Currently, a clear long-term trend can’t be found anywhere among the major indexes. If you look at charts of the Dow Industrials, Transportations, Nasdaq, S&P; 500 and others, they’re all in the process of forming large tops, which can have dire downside consequences, unless a breakout to the upside occurs. Very typical of representing a market top is our Domestic …
Reader Feedback on ETFFX
Several readers emailed comments regarding last Saturday’s post covering ETFFX. Here’s what Glenn had to say: It looks like they are using something similar to a 60 day SMA of SPY to make decisions. Sometimes they apparently are not 100% ‘in’ though, resulting in underperformance in an up market. And looks like they occasionally use some other criteria, or don’t …