Trader’s Narrative

In his seminal work, Secrets to Profiting in Bull & Bear Markets, Stan Weinstein talks about the importance of watching the global stock markets:

My studies have convinced me that the most profitable market moves in the United States occur when the overwhelming majority of the world markets are in agreement.

So I decided to put the recent US market advance to the test to see if other stock markets around the world have moved in agreement. I looked at many markets (including but not limited to):

Amsterdam
Chile
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Toronto (Canada)
Phillipines
Hong Kong
China
Argentina
Nikkei (Japan)
Mexico
Brazil
South Africa
Karachi (Pakistan)
Australia
New Zealand
Russia
… and a few others

Only a small handful were not making new highs: Spain (due to the real estate issues), Nikkei (can we blame the Yen?), Hong Kong, Russia, Argentina and Phillipines. Most looked like this chart, the Dow Jones World Stock Index: