Stocks Approaching Dangerous Levels

Yesterday's rally in all of the major indices $DJIA, $SPX, $EEM, was very well received and triggered many tweets regarding Dow being at all time highs. Even President tweeted that stock markets are doing Great! I would recommend against such tweets because:

1. What happens when the market goes down? If one owns a rising market, they would have to own the declining market as well, which could be much more negative.
2. Market risks are increasing and we are close to a turn in the markets, which will correct post-election rally. Hence, a deeper correction can be expected. 

Following analysis supports the correction hypothesis (not a Bear market for now). Please note that below analysis is predictive and unlike mainstream finance, which is reactive, this analysis helps in understanding potential market move before time. This analysis also plays a pivotal role in our client portfolios (H1 2017 Performance has been shared). There are four key components:

1. Structure
2. Technical/Divergence
3. Market Timing
4. Sentiment

This correction could last for few weeks/months before resumption of the trend because we don't see a Bear market right away. But do you want to be part of a market when its going down and the headlines are negative? Some investment suggestions are included at the end.

Structure
Firstly, the Elliott Wave structure is nearing completion. Once this 5-wave rally completes, we will see a decline. Next decline could bring DJIA back to ~20,500. As for the upside, if current structure (As shown below) holds, Dow Jones Industrial Average cannot exceed 22,000, which is less than 500 points from yesterday's close.

One of the lesson that we have learned over past several years of market analysis is that one cannot and should not blindly believe on Elliott Wave structure without considering the market backdrop.

Divergences
Inter-market divergences highlight discrepancies between markets. These discrepancies typically take place in 5th wave where markets start diverging. We can currently seeing a divergence between SP500, DJIA and Nasdaq (shown below).

  

Please note that these divergences don't mean that long-term trend has reversed. On the contrary, there are no signals (structural or momentum) that this decline could lead to a new bear market.

Timing
Our proprietary market timing model has a key market turn date scheduled for July 14 (+/- 4 business days). Therefore, we can expect a top by next week.

This model has worked very well in the past and also serves as a key component of our proprietary strategies. We are working on developing a unique trading system around IPM, with potential go-live in 2018.

Sentiment

Following charts show that sentiment is very elevated. 

Long positions in DJIA are at all time highs, which does not bode well for a sustained rally.

Investor Intelligence survey respondents are mired in the bullish region for quite some time, and same is the case with Naaim survey results (charts courtesy of Babak).

 

Lastly, these two are very interesting.

TD Ameritrade users are very Bullish and are showing it with their trades. Since these are real retail investors, them being so bullish doesn't bode well for the markets.

More than half of E-trade users are also optimistic regarding the prospects of the market, which is another warning signal (Courtesy Noon Six Cap)

Positioning

Markets are at a critical juncture. Preparing for such a decline will depend on personal risk tolerance and tax considerations. Everyone should evaluate their investments through following key investing questions:

1. Am I ready for a stock market trend change?  
2. Will I have the mental strength to go against the herd?  
3. Can I take advantage of new opportunities?

If you think you have too much exposure to stocks, you can reduce some exposure to be able to buy again. If your comfortable taking a hit to the portfolio knowing that you might not be able to enter back in time, it's better to ignore the news and remain invested. Worst thing a person can do is not reduce exposure at top and then get stressed with market/news, ad get out at the bottom, only to see a resumption of the rally.

Alternative Solution: We are helping clients answer above questions every day. And have developed our proprietary strategies to generate consistent returns, while taking advantage of new market opportunities and minimizing existing risk. We aim to provide Absolute Return Hedge Fund like strategies for individual investors through Managed Account model.

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Stock Market Consolidation & Break-out Levels

Since July, market has been going sideways to down. This downdraft has been persistent, boring and choppy. While markets are still within 1-2% of all-time highs, this choppy action has brought forward a lot of bears and helped improve the valuation measures like P/E ratios. 

In fact, the true purpose of these kind of market declines/sideways corrections is to reduce optimism and lay the foundation for the next rally phase because investors get tired of the market performance.

Sentiment - Fear/Greed Indicator

CNN's fear greed indicator is suggesting that the frothy sentiment that we saw in mid July has now been replaced by lack of enthusiasm towards the market. 

In fact, the sentiment is as negative right now, as it was at the time of Brexit. Therefore, we can see another sharper rally from these levels.

Signs of a Break-out

While market's decline has been choppy in nature, it is along the top downtrend trend line. One key indication of a market trend reversal would be a break of the trend line to the upside. For DJIA, this trend line is currently at 18,300.  

A similar situation is present in case of SP500, where the downtrend line is crossing at 2166.

Therefore, a sustained rally of 100 points in DJIA and ~20 points in SP500 would confirm a break-out.

Overall, the markets remain in an uptrend. Market Classification Model remains in an uptrend. Therefore, there is a very high probability that we will soon experience a market break-out. Long lasting sideways action is preparing for a break-out after resetting optimistic sentiment, market valuations and technical indicators

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Bonds Rally Analysis and Stocks

Market's decline on Friday was very sharp and was on top of Thursday 250+ point decline in $DJIA. This decline has brought the market to a critical support level in Nasdaq and $DJIA, while in other indices like Russell 2000 and $SPY this critical level has already been broken to the downside.

Downside break means that the near term trend has turned down. Although some technical analysts might take this decline as a trend change signal, at UST we have been suggesting that a sea change has already taken place in the stock markets in August.

Unfortunately, many market participants are still not seeing the bigger picture because they don't follow objective trend analysis. Instead, they follow the market events and try to gauge the markets response to these events. At Understand, Survive and Thrive, we have always used objective market analysis and statistical models to identify market trends and turn points.

In the last post (link), we analyze the significance of recent Federal Reserves action and suggested that although the Federal Reserves thinks that the economy is strong and they can raise rates, this rate increase could not only have negative consequences on the market but also could result in lower rates. Longer term rates are governed by the perception of the economy of market participants and if investors don't believe in the same story of strong fundamentals, they might keep on buying the bonds, resulting in lower bond yields and higher prices.

Although this concept does not make intuitive sense, it was evident in the last few days where the market went down and interest rates also went down even after Fed's rate hike.

We have already discussed the potential fundamental issues with the economy and how its depends on the perception. There are also several technical reasons behind rally in bond prices:

1. Inverted Head and Shoulders Pattern
2. Capital outflow from bond funds
3. Proprietary trend indicator

Current pattern in the bonds suggests that the longer term bonds, as depicted by $TLT below, are carving out an inverted head and shoulders pattern. As you know, inverted head and shoulders pattern is a bullish pattern and shows trend reversal from lower to higher. So it will be interesting to see how the market reacts over the next few weeks when this pattern matures and is about to break-out.

From socio-economic and sentiment perspectives, in anticipation of Fed's announcement many people jumped ship from the bonds and exited in great numbers. This could be interpreted as a potential contrarian buy signal for longer-term bonds.

Finally, as we have been saying for quite some time, bonds are in bull market for some time and will remain till model says otherwise. Therefore, we will find reasons for the bull market to continue which can be either due to economic weakness, technical rally or delay from Fed in raising rates further.

Please note that this analysis is only pertaining to high quality long-term bonds and not related to Junk bonds, which are linked to the economic activity. Weakness in economy would result in a decline in Junk bonds, as we have been witnessing over the past few months.

Implications of the Presidential Elections

As mentioned in the last post, last 3.5 years saw doubling of the stock market prices i.e. from 6500 to 13000 (DJIA). Under such circumstances and keeping in mind that humans have a short memory span, it was very difficult to beat the incumbent President in the Presidential Elections. We can also say that Mitt Romney chose the wrong time to participate in the elections. 

Yesterday’s elections were a clear representation of the optimistic social mood. Everyone knows that the last 2 years have not resulted in any productive legislation, but even with such a bad record voters voted to keep the status quo. This voting behavior highlights how people think and how they perceive the stock market as the barometer of the health of the economy. In any case, yesterday's results will have far reaching implications for the entire country.

FUNDAMENTAL/POLITICAL ANALYSIS

We all know that during the last 2 years, when House was occupied by the Republicans and Senate was led by the Democrats, we did not see anything constructive in Washington. We only saw political point-scoring and bickering over critical issues like budget. This situation is going to continue over the near future, which means that nothing significant will be done for the economy. Thus, we might soon experience the fiscal cliff, sequestration and/or budget cuts. All of these actions will be detrimental for the economic growth. At the same time, Democrats will push their agenda for the tax hike which has been a contentious subject for Wall Street. In short, status quo is a bad omen for the American economic outlook.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

As far as the stock market is concerned, the optimistic social mood was the key driver behind President Obama’s success. However, as we all know that after a sharp decline, markets typically retrace a big chunk of the initial decline. A similar situation happened in the U.S. markets i.e. after the great crash of 2007-2009 market retraced almost 90% of the decline. The only problem is that this rise was subconsciously attributed to the sitting government, whereas in reality the market rally was not a function of actions performed by the President but was a function of time i.e. it was supposed to happen. In any case, people started feeling optimistic about the market and hence voted for the person, under whose tenure the market bounced back.

As mentioned previously, Voting/War is the final manifestation of the social mood (happen towards the end e.g. wars typically happen near the end of the bear market). It will be appropriate in Elliott Wave terms to find out after 2 years that the stock market topped in October 2012 (right before the 2012 Presidential Elections, which were won by the incumbent President and soon after the QE Infinity announcement by the Federal Reserves).

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

• Since Elliott Wave analysis measures social mood in terms of the stock market, it is currently suggesting that we are starting a protracted decline phase, given that we do not break above October 5 highs. Detailed Elliott Wave analysis will be presented later. 
• Please also note that the Global Dow, unlike DJIA, is well below its April 2011 and March 2012 highs. This divergences between US and global markets, is another very dangerous sign for the market in the near future. 
• Finally, completion of the 8/4 test means that we are about to embark on a prolonged downtrend. 
• IPM model will help keep you informed of upcoming turn dates, so that one can take advantage of trading opportunities. IPM Model predicted the October top in September and has had an accuracy rate of ~92% over the past 3 years. IPM Model updates are available at subscription. 

CONCLUSION

After exhaustive analysis of social mood extremes, future decline potential and market trajectory reasoning, a very interesting conclusion is reached. Details will be provided in the next post. But in short, humans are supernaturally forced to make detrimental decisions, at the most critical junctures of time. And I think we just made one such bad decision (I hope that I am wrong !!) 

Stock Market & Presidential Elections 2012

Our lives and our decisions are governed by our moods. We live as per our mood (socialize if we are happy, stay introvert when depressed), we eat according to our mood (spend when we think we have money and are happy, or sleep with a just Ramen noodles when we are tired or are not affluent), and spend what we feel like. In short, our actions are governed by our mood swings. In the same respect, we vote as per our mood i.e. if we feel good, we vote for the incumbent. On the other hand, if we feel bad, we register revolt through our vote. In other words, voting is the best representation of the collective social mood of a society.

Another way to analyze the social mood is through the stock market, because Stock Market is the barometer of the broader social mood. When market rises, optimism increases and when it declines, pessimism saturates. This cyclic behavior is so common that it gave way to the contrarian trading strategies. This is because society’s collective optimism peaks near the top, while collective fear peaks at the bottom. Although there are many ways of measuring the sentiment, this article will address the relationship of people’s vote and the broader social mood.

At this point it is clear that both Stock Market and Voting exhibit social mood. The only caveat is the delay between the social mood exhibitions through the Stock Market VS Voting. If one wanted to assign a timeline to social mood exhibition, Stock Market would be the first responder, while geo-political events will be the last responder. This is because the social mood pushes the society to take actions in accordance with the broader social mood. These actions range from Voting out the incumbent leader to starting a War with another country. The interesting to keep note of is the fact that this social mood change is typically displayed through the stock market price pattern.

Now, if we look at the current situation from the stock market perspective (shown below), it is very clear that the market has been rising under President Obama’s administration. In fact the market has more than doubled under Obama since March 2009.

DJIA: 6500 ==> 13500

Gold: 900 ==> 1800

Oil: 35 ==> 90

This stellar stock market and commodities market performance along with the latest consumer confidence reading (consumer confidence is touching 4-year highs) and the low VIX numbers, clearly suggest that the social mood is very optimistic. Although we know that these 100% gains are a factor of prior market collapse, the short-term memory of the populous will allow these gains to work in the favor of the president. 

In past, when mood has been this optimistic, we have rarely seen an incumbent losing the elections. In other words, no matter how bad President did during his tenure, he has done enough good to keep the asset prices afloat, avoid a second recession and bring back optimism among the masses about the future of the country. Therefore, from a stock market and social mood perspective, President Obama is the favorite to win today’s presidential elections.

However, if the President loses today, it would mean that elevated stock market prices are not the sole representation of the Social Mood. And that people do take into account their personal situations when dealing with things like elections.

Next Post: Implication of Election results on the Stock Market (An Elliott Wave perspective)

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