ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For March 27, 2015

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2015/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03262015/

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Market Commentary

Friday, March 27, 2015

STOCKS BREAK 4-DAY LOSING STREAK

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks got a boost in late trading Friday and closed higher across the board breaking a 4-day losing streak, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said in a speech the central bank will raise interest rates “gradually”. The Fed remains slow in interest rate hikes due to a persistent drag in the labor market and their “speculative” risks of another economic downturn.

In tech today, Intel (INTC) saw big gains on news of a speculative buyout of Altera (ALTR). If the buyout were to occur, which would entail a purchase price of market value $10.4 billion, it would be the largest buyout in Intel’s history.

Next week, the pace of economic reports is poised to pick back up, headlined by the March unemployment report which will be released on the Friday holiday. Other reports of note include personal income and spending on Monday, the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index on Tuesday, and the release of the ISM Manufacturing Index on Wednesday.

9 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight ended higher today led by Healthcare (XLV) with +0.72%, while the loser was the Financials (IYF), which slid -0.09%.

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:

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:

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) slipped from last week but remain clearly in bullish territory by the following percentages:

Domestic TTI: +2.90% (last Friday +4.07%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014

International TTI: +3.47% (last Friday +4.98%)—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

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

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

Reader Chris:

Q: Ulli: Do you ever decide to “take profits” on one of your 10 ETFs in apparent bubble conditions or instead wait and let the TTI’s help decide what to do?

For example, the biotech sector has been skyrocketing the past couple of years e.g. IBB ETF. The healthcare XLV ETF is considered a somewhat low beta ETF, but with that said, does have a decent % of biotech companies in its portfolio holdings.

I’m not sure on the exact %, but a few websites average to somewhere around 15-20% allocated to biotech companies in the XLV, which might provide a lot of volatility for this ETF if something were to disrupt the biotech industry e.g. Obamacare repeal, new gov. regulations etc.

A: Chris: I don’t like to make wild guesses about the direction of any ETFs I own; I like to use clearly defined price points to make my decisions for me. Most of the time, a trailing sell stop will be triggered before a trend line crossing occurs. When some ETFs rally strongly, such as biotechs and others, their respective trailing sell stops serve 2 purposes:

1. To limit downside risk should a sell off occur shortly after a purchase has been made, and

2. To lock in profits once an ETF has shot into the stratosphere and is bound to correct more quickly than others

It does not matter what the reasons for a sell-off are, I simply prefer having the sell stops be my guide as to whether to exit or not, rather than me trying to make an educated guess. Remember, one of the reasons we engage in Trend Tracking is to take the emotions out of the equation and become less attached to the decision making process.

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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/