One Man’s Opinion: Will Europe Be Likely To See Strong Growth Next Year?

Ulli Market Review Contact

92835431The latest upward revision of second-quarter US GDP to 4.6 percent indicates an annualized growth rate of 3 percent or more in the third quarter, said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JP Morgan Funds. After years of disappointing growth, finally the US recovery seems to gather a lot of steam, he observed.

Asked to explain the recent stock sell-off despite the economy gathering a lot of steam, David said it’s difficult to rationalize the day-to-day events of the stock markets. To say geopolitical tensions triggered the latest sell-off would be silly as investors have been dealing with these issues for the last few months. Markets don’t go in one direction and occasionally there is some pressure to have a sell-off. However, every-time one of these corrections get going, it can only go so far before people realize they should start buying in the dip, he argued.

US markets witnessed three sell-offs this year before the latest one though the slide has been much smaller this time around. Asked what triggers these sell-offs, particularly in tech, biotech and social media companies, David said within the market there are stocks which are cheap and which are expensive. But over a period of time, all good news tends to get priced into the market.

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New ETFs On The Block: Flexshares Disciplined Duration MBS Index Fund (MBSD)

Ulli Mortgage Backed ETFs Contact

139868600FlexShares, the Chicago-based exchange-traded funds unit of Northern Trust, expanded its product line-up with the recent launch of the passively-managed FlexShares Disciplined Duration MBS Index Fund (MBSD). Though FlexShares has a wide array of products in the traditional equity and fixed-income segments, MBSD is the first mortgage-backed securities product from the company.

The new fund tracks the BofA Merrill Lynch Constrained Duration US Mortgage Backed Securities Index, a gauge designed to measure the performance of 30-year, 20-year and 15-year fixed rate residential mortgage pass-through securities publicly issued by US government agencies, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae.

Index constituents must have at least one year to maturity and meet the size requirements. Mortgage pass-through securities are backed by a pool of mortgages and the prepayment-risk is distributed across all the loans in the portfolio.

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09-26-2014

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For September 26, 2014

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2014/09/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-09252014/

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Market Commentary

Friday, September 26, 2014

SURVIVING A ROLLER COASTER WEEK

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

As the 5-day chart above clearly demonstrates, it was a roller coaster week, the outcome of which could have been a lot worse, had it not been for Wednesday’s and Friday’s rebound rallies. While they helped in keeping the losses manageable, the major indexes surrendered between 0.96% and 1.48%.

Helping today’s jump off the lows was a stronger than expected GDP number, which provided the firepower necessary to overcome this short-term down trend. The US economy grew at a 4.6% annual pace in the second quarter; while it matched its best performance since the recession it at the same time raises questions as to its sustainability.

Additionally, the consumer sentiment index remained very steady at its highest level since July 2013 and above the more recent August 2014 reading.

Still, it was a volatile week and it remains a wide open question if this oversold bounce actually has the legs to resume and extend the bullish trend.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight participated in today’s bounce, but no new highs were made.

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

All of them are currently in “buy” mode, meaning their prices are above their respective long term trend lines by the percentage indicated (%M/A).

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

YTD

To be clear, 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 is taken out in the “Off High” column.

3. Domestic Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) joined today’s rebound with the International one almost climbing back to the bullish side of the trend line. As I posted yesterday, I want to see a clear and sustained break below the line before issuing a Sell signal for that arena:

Domestic TTI: +1.55% (last Friday +2.37%)

International TTI: -0.12% (last Friday +1.66%)

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 Steve:

Q: Ulli: Why do you use the 39 week moving average and not some other type of moving average, like the 200 day or 50 week moving average?

A: Steve: When I developed the Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) in the 80s, I found the 39-week SMA to be the most effective average that minimized whip-saw signals and produced reliable Buy/Sell signals.

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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 September 26, 2014

Ulli ETF Tracker Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2014/09/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-09252014/

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Market Commentary

Friday, September 26, 2014

SURVIVING A ROLLER COASTER WEEK

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

As the 5-day chart above clearly demonstrates, it was a roller coaster week, the outcome of which could have been a lot worse, had it not been for Wednesday’s and Friday’s rebound rallies. While they helped in keeping the losses manageable, the major indexes surrendered between 0.96% and 1.48%.

Helping today’s jump off the lows was a stronger than expected GDP number, which provided the firepower necessary to overcome this short-term down trend. The US economy grew at a 4.6% annual pace in the second quarter; while it matched its best performance since the recession it at the same time raises questions as to its sustainability.

Additionally, the consumer sentiment index remained very steady at its highest level since July 2013 and above the more recent August 2014 reading.

Still, it was a volatile week and it remains a wide open question if this oversold bounce actually has the legs to resume and extend the bullish trend.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight participated in today’s bounce, but no new highs were made.

Read More

Weekly StatSheet For The ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter – Updated Through 09/25/2014

Ulli ETF StatSheet Contact

ETF/Mutual Fund Data updated through Thursday, September 25, 2014

Table of Content082312

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 10/25/2011

TTI

Our main directional indicator, the Domestic Trend Tracking Index (TTI), broke through its long-term trend line generating a Sell for this area effective 8/9/2011. Over the recent past, we’ve seen the TTI hovering slightly below and above this dividing line between bullish and bearish territory. The clear break to the upside occurred on 10/24/11 and, effective 10/25/11, a new Buy signal for domestic equities went into effect.

As of today, our TTI (green line in above chart) is positioned above its long term trend line (red) by +1.23%.

To avoid a potential whip-saw, a Sell signal to move out of all domestic equity positions will be generated once we have clearly pierced the red line to the downside. Be sure to tune in for the latest updates.

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Markets Move From Feast To Famine—International TTI Slips Into Bear Market Territory

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

In an about face from yesterday’s dead-cat-bounce, stocks took a big hit today. Losses across the board were the worst slide in two months. The Dow dropped 1.53%, the S&P 500 fell 1.62% and the Nasdaq trumped all with a 1.94% tumble. Apple (AAPL) was the culprit in the tech stocks’ decline, as a growing backlash is rising against problems consumers are having with Apple’s latest software updates and its new product launches, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Apple’s stock fell 3.8%.

Alibaba added no benefit to today’s decline, due to the fact that Yahoo! (YHOO) slipped 2.33% after revealing that it agreed to a one-year lock-up period that restricts the sale of the remaining ordinary shares it owns in Alibaba (BABA). As I have said before, be careful of post-IPO turbulence!

Not helping matters were geopolitical tensions as Russia started to retaliate in the ever expanding game of economic sanctions.

We did hear some good news today though from Nike. Nike Inc (NKE), the world’s largest sportswear maker reported a 15% jump in quarterly sales, a large portion of which was generated from the World Cup.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight succumbed to today’s selling and closed lower.

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