While June 23, 2010 passed quietly last week, it nevertheless marked the 2-year anniversary of our last domestic sell signal on 6/23/2008, which provided a safety net for those who followed its call and moved their portfolios out of the market onto the sidelines. Here’s a look at the blown-up domestic Trend Tracking Index (TTI) chart covering the past two …
Against The Wind
When the markets zig, you hope to have a component in your portfolio that zags to offset or minimize any drawdown. While that is not always easy to do, during May’s market meltdown, I noticed one ETF (IIH) that definitely bucked the trend. Take a look at the 6-months chart, comparing IIH with the SP 500 (SPY): Not only has …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 6/24/2010
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at: http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.php The bulls gave back last week’s hard fought gains and then some as the bears ruled. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs remains above its trend line (red) by +1.19% (last week +2.46%) keeping the current buy signal intact. The effective date was June 3, 2009. The …
Fed Keeps Rates Low
As expected, the Fed announced yesterday that interest rates would remain at their historic low levels. Normally, this should have cheered investors, but this time it was interpreted (correctly) that it was simply a sign of the economy struggling. Fears have been increasing lately that we might slip back into a recession, which would postpone any rate increases for at …
Recovery Doubts
Weak housing and worries about Europe proved to be too much for the market yesterday and, after a modest opening rebound to higher levels, the major indexes slid for the remainder of the session as the chart above (courtesy of MarketWatch.com) shows. The S&P; 500 ended up below the 1,100 level and broke below its key technical indicator, the 200-day …
The Rally That Wasn’t
In a repeat performance similar to what we’ve witnessed so many times over the past few months, the markets turned an early intraday 140 point gain of the Dow into a losing session starting the week on a negative note. The losses were modest, so not much should be read into them. The driver for the morning rally was the …