New ETFs On The Block: Innovator IBD 50 Fund (FFTY)

Ulli Equity ETFs Contact

Financial DataGeopolitics has taken precedence over economics in the past few months, thus stoking uncertainty and volatility across asset classes. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s latest statement this week that investors should prepare for higher market volatility underscores this new reality and calls for better protection for possible downsides.

Actively managed exchange-traded funds tend to perform well during uncertain times as fund managers regularly make necessary changes in a rapidly changing environment based on investors’ risk-reward profile.

Amid all the noise involving the US economy, New York-based Innovator Management recently launched the Innovator IBD 50 Fund (FFTY) ETF to give investors’ access in IBD’s proprietary investment strategy. Financial publication Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) has been compiling and preparing for decades a list of 50 stocks under the so-called IBD 50 heading and rating them based on relative strength.

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06-05-2015

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For June 5, 2015

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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THE LINK TO OUR CURRENT ETF/MUTUAL FUND STATSHEET IS:

https://theetfbully.com/2015/06/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-06042015/

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Market Commentary

STOCKS NOT PERFORMING DESPITE SOLID ECONOMIC DATA

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks finished the week slightly lower despite a solid employment report on Friday. Concerns surrounding Greece continued after a decision to delay repayment of an International Monetary Fund loan. Additionally, the better-than-expected jobs growth continued to drive speculation around a potential hike in interest rates by the Federal Reserve later in 2015. While many analysts believe interest rate increases are likely in the future, they still can’t predict when and how fast they will rise.

It was a good week for economic numbers. Following another winter slowdown, job growth picked up in May as the economy created 280,000 jobs. That was better than the expected gain of 226,000 according to Bloomberg. The unemployment rate edged higher to 5.5%, largely due to more people entering the job market, which is another sign of improvement. And wages rose 2.3% over the past year, the fastest growth since August 2013.

Crude oil settled up $1.13 or 1.95% to $59.13 a barrel. Oil fluctuated around its starting price for much of the day after initially spiking on news OPEC will maintain output at 30 million barrels per day for another six months, keeping a glut in markets.

In tech, we heard a new report today that Twitter (TWTR) announced a secondary offering from existing shareholders. The number of shares up for sale is anticipated to be around 10.4 million.

Next week, retail sales will be announced on Thursday, and the Producer Price Index and University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index are scheduled for release on Friday.

9 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight continued to slide today, while one of them bucked the trend. The lonely winner was the Financials (IYF) with a gain of 0.38%. On the downside, Consumer Staples led with a loss of 1.43%.

2. ETFs in the Spotlight

In case you missed the announcement and description of this section, you can read it here again.

It features 10 broadly diversified ETFs from my HighVolume list as posted every Monday. Furthermore, they are screened for the lowest MaxDD% number meaning they have been showing better resistance to temporary sell offs than all others over the past year.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

The above table simply demonstrates the magnitude with which some of the ETFs are fluctuating in regards to their positions above or below their respective individual trend lines (%M/A). A break below, represented by a negative number, shows weakness, while a break above, represented by a positive percentage, shows strength.

For hundreds of ETF/Mutual fund choices, be sure to reference Thursday’s StatSheet.

Year to date, here’s how the above candidates have fared so far:

YTD

Again, the first table above shows the position of the various ETFs in relation to their respective long term trend lines (%M/A), while the second one tracks their trailing sell stops in the “Off High” column. The “Action” column will signal a “Sell” once the -7.5% point has been taken out in the “Off High” column.

3. Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) retreated with the major indexes but remain bullish. Here’s how we ended this week:

Domestic TTI: +1.70% (last Friday +2.27%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014

International TTI: +3.21% (last Friday +4.07%)—Buy signal effective 2/13/2015

Have a nice weekend.

Ulli…

Disclosure: I am obliged to inform you that I, as well as advisory clients of mine, own some of these listed ETFs. Furthermore, they do not represent a specific investment recommendation for you, they merely show which ETFs from the universe I track are falling within the guidelines specified.

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READER Q & A FOR THE WEEK

Reader Chris:

Q: Ulli: Quick question regarding your opinion if/when Greece leaves the EU, could it make the Euro much stronger and in doing so negatively impact the IOO’s ETF performance?

A: Chris: There are many possible scenarios with Greece leaving the Euro. If it’s an ugly divorce and the EU has to swallow the losses of the unpaid loans, which is very likely, then the contagion could spread to the peripheral countries like Portugal, Spain and Italy. Eventually, it will mean the demise of the Euro as we know it, but the timing is unknown. However, if the Euro crumbles, the dollar will rally, and we’ll have to wait and see how domestic equities will be affected.

Keep in mind that we are in uncharted territory with this situation, and no one really has a clue how this will play out. One thing is for sure that you are better off having an exit strategy in place, because things could get ugly in a hurry, and there will be no place to hide except on the sidelines. If you are holding IOO (I don’t), you don’t have to panic; simply follow the trailing sell stop discipline and execute when the market tells you it’s time to do so. That will eliminate any guesswork or having to listen to predictions by others who don’t know either what the future will bring.

Hope this helps.

All Reader Q & A’s are listed at our web site!
Check it out at:

http://www.successful-investment.com/q&a.php

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR INVESTMENTS PROFESSIONALLY MANAGED?

Do you have the time to follow our investment plans yourself? If you are a busy professional who would like to have his portfolio managed using our methodology, please contact me directly or get more details at:

https://theetfbully.com/personal-investment-management/

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Back issues of the ETF/No Load Fund Tracker are available on the web at:

https://theetfbully.com/newsletter-archives/

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For June 5, 2015

Ulli ETF Tracker Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

————————————————————-

THE LINK TO OUR CURRENT ETF/MUTUAL FUND STATSHEET IS:

https://theetfbully.com/2015/06/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-06042015/

————————————————————

Market Commentary

STOCKS NOT PERFORMING DESPITE SOLID ECONOMIC DATA

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks finished the week slightly lower despite a solid employment report on Friday. Concerns surrounding Greece continued after a decision to delay repayment of an International Monetary Fund loan. Additionally, the better-than-expected jobs growth continued to drive speculation around a potential hike in interest rates by the Federal Reserve later in 2015. While many analysts believe interest rate increases are likely in the future, they still can’t predict when and how fast they will rise.

It was a good week for economic numbers. Following another winter slowdown, job growth picked up in May as the economy created 280,000 jobs. That was better than the expected gain of 226,000 according to Bloomberg. The unemployment rate edged higher to 5.5%, largely due to more people entering the job market, which is another sign of improvement. And wages rose 2.3% over the past year, the fastest growth since August 2013.

Crude oil settled up $1.13 or 1.95% to $59.13 a barrel. Oil fluctuated around its starting price for much of the day after initially spiking on news OPEC will maintain output at 30 million barrels per day for another six months, keeping a glut in markets.

In tech, we heard a new report today that Twitter (TWTR) announced a secondary offering from existing shareholders. The number of shares up for sale is anticipated to be around 10.4 million.

Next week, retail sales will be announced on Thursday, and the Producer Price Index and University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index are scheduled for release on Friday.

9 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight continued to slide today, while one of them bucked the trend. The lonely winner was the Financials (IYF) with a gain of 0.38%. On the downside, Consumer Staples led with a loss of 1.43%.

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Weekly StatSheet For The ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter – Updated Through 06/04/2015

Ulli ETF StatSheet Contact

ETF/Mutual Fund Data updated through Thursday, June 4, 2015

TOC021915

If you are not familiar with some of the terminology used, please see the Glossary of Terms.

 

1. DOMESTIC EQUITY MUTUAL FUNDS/ETFs: BUY — since 10/22/2014

TTI

Our main directional indicator, the Domestic Trend Tracking Index (TTI), broke through its long-term trend line generating a “Sell” for this arena effective 10/14/2014, which was followed by a violent break back above the line on 10/22/14 generating a new “Buy.” It was a classic whipsaw signal, and you can read more on my blog as to the events as they were unfolding.

As of today, our TTI (green line in above chart) is positioned above its long term trend line (red) by +1.89% keeping us in the market with our established positions.

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Stocks Dip Lower Amidst News From Greece

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks dropped sharply after Greece said it won’t make a scheduled loan repayment Friday, and the IMF lowered its U.S. economic outlook as it urged the Federal Reserve not to raise rates in 2015. Energy stocks were one of the hardest hit sectors as oil prices fell for a second day. U.S. benchmark crude fell $1.79 to $57.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Investors have been anxious about possible default and a Greek exit from the eurozone as negotiations over the debt-plagued country has dragged on for months. Greece owes its creditors — the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission – a total of about 1.6 billion euros by the end of the month.

In corporate news, shares of both T-Mobile and Dish jumped after it was reported that the two companies were in merger talks. Dish (DISH) rose 4.9% and T-Mobile (TMUS) climbed 2.6%.

And, back to interest rates. Interest rate worries also continued to weigh on the markets. The International Monetary Fund said in its annual review of the U.S. economy that the Fed should wait until the first half of 2016 before raising interest rates because inflation remains too low and there are significant uncertainties as to the future resilience of economic growth.

Downward momentum accelerated today, and all of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight slipped and closed lower. Sliding the most was the Global 100 (IOO) with a loss of 1.03%, while Healthcare (XLV) held up best by giving back only 0.69%.

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Nasdaq Flirts With Record High; U.S. Reduces Trade Deficit

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Wed pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

The Nasdaq made a run at its all-time closing high but fell short, though stocks still ended broadly higher on solid domestic economy news and optimism about talks over Greece’s crushing debt. For a good part of the day, the Nasdaq was riding a little above its record closing high of 5106.59, set May 27 before falling back to about 10 points shy of that threshold.

Speaking of debt, signs of improving economic conditions sent Treasury securities sliding and pushed the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield to its highest level since mid-November. The 10-year yield ended at 2.37%, up from 2.26% Tuesday.

We also heard some good news today regarding America’s trade deficit. Numbers came in from the Commerce Department that the U.S. trade deficit plunged 19.2% in April. Now at $40.9 billion, the trade gap has shrunk considerably from the previous month’s $50.6 billion. That figure marked the biggest deficit since late 2008.

And finally, Greece’s prime minister is meeting with European officials in Brussels over his country’s proposal to reach an agreement with its bailout lenders. If Greece defaults it could lead to the country leaving the euro zone.

Today, we saw 7 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight heading higher and 3 of them slipping a tad. The gainers were led by Consumer Discretionaries (XLY) with +0.78% while, on the downside, the iShares Select Dividend ETFs (DVY) surrendered -0.26%.

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