7 ETF Model Portfolios You Can Use – Updated through 11/19/2013

Ulli Model ETF Portfolios Contact

At this very moment, nothing seems to be able to stop the run of equities. Since last week’s ETF portfolio report, the S&P 500 managed to climb above the 1,800 milestone marker on an intra-day basis, and added 1.13%.

What everyone expects to happen, such as the markets tanking either during September/October, did not take place as the indexes rallied to new highs. The lesson learned is simply to stay with the major trends and disregard mainstream media’s onslaught of forecasts and wild guesses as to what might happen next.

Sure, the fundamentals are anything but rosy; however, as long as the Fed is in charge of market direction via its easy money policies, it’s best not to fight the trend.

As a heads up, I will discontinue this section as of the first of the year since it has been replaced already with the daily update and posting of the “ETFs in the Spotlight,” which is more appropriate for the current market environment.

Here’s the latest ETF Model Portfolio update:

Read More

JP Morgan Strikes Deal With U.S. Govt. Maybe They Can Pay In Bitcoins?

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Tue pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

Stocks ended lower as investors digested a mixed batch of retail earnings reports and benchmark indexes struggled to surpass major milestones. However, a recovery in the U.S. housing market helped Home Depot top profit and sales estimates for the third quarter, prompting the No. 1 home improvement chain to raise its fiscal-year outlook for the third time this year.

Major news today centered on the JPMorgan settlement that was reached with the U.S. Government.  JPMorgan Chase has reached a $13 billion agreement with the U.S. government settling claims that the nation’s largest bank by assets misrepresented the quality of its mortgages in the lead up to the financial crisis. The deal is the largest settlement ever between the government and a corporation. While this was the big chunk of cash that JPMorgan Chase will have to fork over to the government, JPMorgan said last month that it has set aside $23 billion to cover further litigation expenses.

In the ETF world, the majority of sectors closed the day in the red except for energy, financials and healthcare.  Consumer staples still maintain their lead in terms of Q4 performance, posting an 8.14% gain thus far.  If you may not already know, the Winklevoss twins are planning to launch an exchange traded product holding Bitcoinns, which has been met with some over-the-top negative reactions from many financial journals and bloggers.

Winklevoss and his brother Cameron reportedly own about 1% of the Bitcoin market, or roughly $10 million. Of course, that number fluctuates because Bitcoin prices can be extremely volatile.  However, it can sometimes take years for the SEC to declare a product “effective,” so don’t expect an ETF tracking a virtual currency to come out anytime soon.

Instead, let’s let’s look at some real numbers via our ETFs in the spotlight:

Read More

The Bull Market Remains Charging Forward

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Mon pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

Many spectators held their breath today as both the S&P and Dow both strained to reach their all-time highs of 1,800 and 16,000 respectively.  But alas, neither index could hold on to the mighty achievements as both eventually dropped to 1,791 and 15,976.  Still, the Dow and S&P 500 are up more than 20% so far in 2013.  This 5-year bull market that we have experienced has been phenomenal, but might reverse if simulative monetary policies are scaled back.

Major market movers for Monday were Boeing, Tesla, Sony and Bitcoin.  An interesting note on Bitcoin is that since October the digital currency has more than quadrupled its value to now stand at $675.

In the ETF markets, all sectors except industrials closed out the day in the negative.  However, this is not reflective of the spectacular overall Q4 performance that ETFs have shown.  Thus far in Q4, all sectors have realized gains greater than 5%, with consumer staples (XLP) leading the pack at 8.54%.  As ETFs have been basking in the sunshine of the S&P’s glory this year, one can only stay optimistic as the index continues to perform.

Let’s head over to our ETFs in the spotlight:

Read More

ETFs/Mutual Funds On The Cutline – Updated Through 11/15/2013

Ulli ETFs on the Cutline Contact

Below are the latest ETF Cutline reports, which show how far above or below their respective long-term trend lines (39 week SMA) my currently tracked ETFs/MFs are positioned.

The first report covers the ETF Master List from Thursday’s StatSheet and includes 398 ETFs, of which currently 339 (last week 322) are hovering in bullish territory.

The second report includes only High Volume ETFs. To clarify, High Volume (HV) ETFs are defined as those with an average daily volume of $10 million or higher.

These ETFs are generated from my selected list of some 93 that I use in my advisor practice. It cuts out the “noise,” which simply means it eliminates those ETFs that I would never buy because of their volume limitations. 71 ETFs (last week 68) have managed to remain in bullish territory after the recent market volatility.

The third report covers Mutual Funds on the Cutline. There are currently 799 (last week 797) above the line and 51 below it out of the 859 that I follow.

Take a look:

1. ETF Master Cutline Report     

2. ETF High Volume Cutline Report

3. MF Cutline Report

In case you are not familiar with some of the terminology used in the reports, please read the Glossary of Terms.

If you missed the original post about the Cutline approach, you can read it here.

One Man’s Opinion: Does A Dovish Fed Make Life Difficult For The European Central Bank?

Ulli Market Review Contact

92835431One could expect the Federal Reserve chair nominee Janet Yellen to very much explain the Fed policies because she has been the Fed vice-chair for the last two years. She has very much bought into the strategies being pursued by Bernanke said Jeremy Stretch, head of currency strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

That pretty much boxes analysts into a corner ahead of her testimony, because everybody’s perceived that her dovish tendencies coming out of the statement. So even a relatively balanced testimony in the Q&A and perhaps not wanting to alienate some of the Republican minority members of the Senate Banking Committee could actually start reign back in some of the expectations of a stimulatory monetary policies now, that could well see the US yields moving higher again and dragging the dollar with it, Jeremy said.

Asked how much dovishness is actually priced-in by the markets, Jeremy said a considerable amount since that has been the ongoing and overriding assumption. Her candidacy was always an expectation of an extension of the status-quo and maybe even a little more that – this perception that she is an “uber-dove”.

Read More

New ETFs On The Block: Global X Next Emerging And Frontier ETF (EMFM)

Ulli Emerging Markets ETFs Contact

141319272Global X Funds, the New York-based sponsor of exchange-traded funds known for its dividend-focused products, has launched a fund that gives investors exposure to an exciting crop of emerging and frontier markets.

The Global X Next Emerging & Frontier ETF (EMFM) gives a new spin to EM investing as it includes equities from 35 countries exhibiting high growth potential and favorable demographical trends. The fund comprises of 200 holdings and focuses on regions that haven’t been available to most US retail investors, and specifically excludes stocks from the BRICS, South Korea and Taiwan.

Global X believes the countries included in EMFM have a demographic advantage over the BRIC nations with an average age of 28 against 33 for BRIC. It believes these economies will experience longer periods of high growth rates, similar to what the BRIC nations experienced over the past 15 years.

Read More