Trader’s Narrative

Often it seems our analysis of the markets are like children looking at ants through a magnifying glass. So once in a while it is always useful to take a step back and get a long term perspective. The chart below shows the inflation adjusted Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1925.

There are a lot of lessons to glean:

• While the corrections in 1929 and 1964 were of equal magnitude, the latter took much longer to play out.
• The 1960’s top (previous resistance) acted as support and repelled prices to initiate the spring rally in March 2009.
• The Dow trades at less than twice where it closed at the 1929 top.
• After more than 40 years the Dow is only trading a trifle 30% above its 1964 peak (inflation adjusted).
• Finally, the Dow managed to rise 31% since the spring rally in March 2009 - that is amazingly a pinch more than the gain from the top in the 1960’s.
• The Dow has traded in a very wide and rising trading range - so if you are really really pessimistic, you could say we are headed to 4000 (eventually)

Source: Chart of the Day

To get a full picture, compare this to the (very long term) inflation adjusted chart of the S&P 500 index.

“I, for one, welcome our new bull market overlords.”

Is this just a really deceptive bear market rally or is it the real thing? While the debate still rages, the market keeps going and going and going… like the Duracell battery rabbit.

A reliable but somewhat esoteric long term indicator is ready to pronounce the birth of a brand new bull market. Just as long as the stock market can hang on to most of its gains by the month’s end.

If you’re not familiar with the Coppock Curve I introduced it last summer as one of the pre-requisite conditions for a new bull market. Click the previous link to learn more. The other conditions (recession, a 20%+ decline, easy monetary policy, etc.) have all been fulfilled. The stage is now set for the last piece of the puzzle.

In January I wrote a Coppock Guide forecast:

In that hypothetical scenario, the Coppock curve would turn up by the end of February 2009 by the minimum. And in March, it would turn up significantly.

I wasn’t trying to predict what the indicator would say and when so much as to show that we would need to see one hell of a rally for it to register a change of direction in the Coppock Curve. And did we ever! From the March bottom the S&P 500 rocketed up 36%. That not only surprised almost everyone, it was finally enough to force the Coppock Guide to curl up:

S&P 500 Index
Probably the most important of all the indices, the Coppock Curve for the S&P 500 Index is about to give us a new signal to indicate a new bull market. But before it can do that, the S&P 500 will have to close at or above 874 at the end of the month. That is a fairly small buffer area of 3.35%. If it can manage that, then we’ll see something like the zoomed in chart shown above.

As the 2002 false signal shows, while this lagging indicator has a fantastic track record, it is far from perfect.

Of importance is not just that we are about to see a respite in the continuous drop in the Coppock Guide but that this upturn (when it comes) will be from an extremely deep level. As you can see from the chart, we haven’t been here for a long, long time. According to the Coppock Guide, a new bull will be proportional to the bear market that preceded it. So a recovery launched from such an extremely negative level means that the new bull market will be powerful and long lasting.

Nasdaq Composite
The Coppock Guide for the Nasdaq Composite already gave us a signal at the end of April 2009. But I hold it with suspicion since in the past the indicator has not been too trustworthy. For example, going back to the last time we transitioned from a bear market to a new bull market, the Nasdaq Coppock Guide was off by a lot. It first turned up in December 2001. But that was a false signal. Then there was another signal in August 2002 and December 2002. Both were again false.

Finally, it curled up yet again in late March 2003, just as the nascent bull market was sprouting its horns. So you can understand my reticence in rushing to accept the Coppock signals from the Nasdaq index. The good news is that because the Nasdaq Coppock Curve has already turned up, it needs to do much less to prove itself and confirm the signal. In fact, we could see the Nasdaq Composite fall 7.7% to 1587 by the end of the month and it would still be enough to keep the Coppock Guide headed upwards.

Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Coppock Curve is also ready to curl up after topping in October 2007. If it can manage to close at or above 8210 by the end of this month (about 2% from here) a valid signal would be given.

Caveats Galore
So while, “I, for one, welcome our new bull market overlords.” we’ll have to wait at least until the end of the month to get a definitive signal from this trusty indicator. And as a final caveat, while the Coppock Guide has an enviable track record, like anything else, it isn’t foolproof.

Back in November 2008, when the market was just days away from making that year’s lows I pointed out an ominous double top formation on the S&P 500 index.

The market managed to bounce from that support but when it was tested again last week, it wasn’t strong enough. The double top formation has unquestionably completed. The only remaining quandary is will it complete?

Before I showed a log scale chart (see above link), so here’s an arithmetically scaled chart of the double top:

If we take the neckline to be 776 on the S&P 500 (the 2002-2003 bear market low) and the top to be 1576 reached in October 2007, then a measured move would be meaningless because it would require the market to drop 800 points - something it can’t do right now. Unless we invent a way for stocks to go into negative integers.

Even half-way completing such a measured move would mean utter catastrophe for the stock market and by extension the global economy. Especially if it happens suddenly.

Before you think that is completely impossible, consider the reality that a long term Japanese investor faces:
Continue reading ‘Are We Headed Back To 1980?’

There a few ways to take advantage of the January effect this year:

Small & Micro-Cap ETFs
The simplest would be to buy small cap stocks or ETFs before the year end and hold until they have a pop. Since the definition of “small-cap” has been continuously revised up over the past few years, it might be a good idea to look at “micro-cap” stocks. Here are a few ETFs:

• iShares Russell Microcap Index (IWC)
• First Trust Dow Jones Select MicroCap ETF (FDM)
• Powershares Zacks Micro Cap Portfolio ETF (PZI)
• Powershares Dynamic OTC Portfolio ETF (PWO)
• iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index Fund (IJR)
• iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (IWM)
• iShares Morningstar Small Core Index Fund (JKJ)
• SPDR DJ Wilshire Small Cap ETF (DSC)
• Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB)
• PowerShares Dynamic Small Cap Portfolio (PJM)
• PowerShares Zacks Small Cap Portfolio (PZJ)

Closed End Funds
Last week I mentioned a method to capture January effect alpha which uses CEF and specifically, municipal/bond CEFs. This year is a bumper crop for this specific strategy because of the vast number of these funds which have severe losses.

Value Line Futures Index
Yet another way to play the January effect is to use the Value Line Arithmetic Index futures. This is a little known equity index compiled by Value Line Inc. - the investment research outfit. It is comprised of approximately 1,650 stocks which are equally-weighted, as opposed to capitalization weighted as in the S&P 500 Index.

The futures for this index are traded at the Kansas City Board of Trade with each contract valued at $25 times the value of the index (appx. 1324). The Value Line January effect strategy is pretty straight forward:

Buy the Value Line contract (nearby month of course) and (sell short) equal value ratio of the S&P 500 Index. Close the position in the first week of January. Depending on the calendar, around the 9th of the month. That’s it.

This simple spread trade has a remarkably high profitability ratio but sadly it only comes once a year. And the advantage it has to the other two year end strategies is that it is market neutral. Although I suppose you could short SPY to offset a long position in small/micro-cap ETFs.

Continuing the installments of what conditions precede new bull markets, here is one that should be very obvious.

Jim Stack says that the Dow Jones Industrial should drop at least 20% from its top. Here’s a chart of the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 from their respective tops to the bottom in March:

Although the Dow is still the most commonly used index for the stock market, I also added the S&P 500 to the chart. Since it uses capitalization weight it is a better index.

The Dow Jones Industrial fell 16.4% from October 2007 to the March 2008 bottom. The S&P 500 fell a bit more: 18.64%.

If we exaggerate the constraints and rather than the close, use the high and the low, we get a 20% drop for the S&P 500. But still not for the Dow - it only reaches 18%.

In any case, the point isn’t to “cheat” to be able to reach some synthetic level. Lets face it, although most people put the classic definition of a bear market as one that has fallen 20% or more, there is nothing really magical about that level.

Much more important is the fact it represents a wash out of sentiment because if a major index like the Dow or S&P 500 falls 20% or more, then weaker stocks will fall much harder.

Conclusion
Technically, this condition isn’t met.