GMI still 6; waiting on options expiration

The GMI is still 6.  However, there were more new lows (159) on Wednesday than I have seen since last March when the Februrary rout ended.  Still, there were also 138 new highs in my universe of 4,000 stocks.  All up-trends I follow are still in place.  The Worden T2108 indicator fell a little, to 49.5; markets get toppy around 80.  The market pendulum is right in the middle between the bull/bear extremes.  On Saturday, most of my stocks will be called away and I will be back in cash and ready to write new August calls.  In addition, I am still long GRMN, FTO and AAPL, and short OMX.  Many oil stocks bounced off of support on Wednesday…

See my disclaimers on my prior post.

GMI: 6; All indicators positive; T2108 only 55; OMX weak

The GMI has been at a maximum 6 since July 3.  (Note :  I mainly post when the GMI changes.)  The GMI has been 4 or above since March 20.   If I had merely bought and held the Ultra QQQQ ETF, QLD, since then, my portfolio would have increased by about 24%.  It’s that easy–just catch the trend and ride it until it ends.   Gmi0713 Of course, I did not do this, but I have done well during this time writing covered calls, and riding AAPL and GRMN and FTO, all of which I wrote about.  In fact, I would say that if one has not made money during this rally, s/he should just stop trading and invest in a mutual fund or the SPY. The market provides brutal feedback, one knows the score by whether s/he makes or loses money.

The T2108 is 55%, so this rally probably is a long way from the toppy 80’s. However, the QQQQ has closed above its 10 week average for 16 weeks. A close of this index below its 10 week average, currently 47.53,  would be a sign of weakness and a signal that the up-trend is weakening.  Meanwhile, I will not fight the tape, although I could not resist buying some puts on OMX, which is in a steady downtrend. Holding a short on one very weak stock will enable me to make money when this strong market starts to correct.

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GMI: 6; Rally has more to go; IBD100 stock performance

The GMI is still at the maximum of 6. The Worden T2108 indicator, the percentage of stocks above their 40 day moving average,  is now back to 56%, up from a bottom reading of  34% at the end of June.  The pendulum is swinging back and typically does not top out until around 80%.  So this rally probably has more to go. So many stocks appear to be strong and the Nasdaq 100 tech stocks are leading the market up.

Speaking of growth stocks, take a look at how the IBD 100 stocks have been doing.  You will recall that IBD’s continual substitution of good performers in the list for poor performers biases the performance of the IBD 100 index over time.  My table below shows how each each original list has performed after it was published in IBD.  Ibdperform0708 Note that only about 50-60% of the stocks in the lists from 2006 closed on Friday above their price when the lists were first published.  I added a new column to the table, the percentage of stocks in each list that closed on Friday within 5% of their 52 week highs.  Note that the majority of the IBD 100 stocks on the lists from only the last two months, May and June, are within 5% of their yearly highs.  62% of the stocks on the IBD 100 list published on May 14 and 71% on the list from June 18, closed within 5% of their 52 week highs.  In contrast, only about one third or less of the stocks on the lists from February 5 and before, are near their yearly highs.  Another noteworthy finding from the table is the number of new highs last week among the IBD 100 stocks.  Approximately one fourth to one third of the stocks on the lists from April, May and June hit new highs last Friday, compared with only 10-14% of the Nasdaq 100 or S&P 500 stocks. These statistics suggest to me that one should not marry the IBD 100 stocks, but stay mainly with those on the more recent lists published by IBD.

I am a little cautious about this market because many traders have told me they are making  money.  It is unfortunate that one only realizes that the market trend has changed, sometime after it has occurred.  Enjoy this uptrend, but we must be prepared to lose some of our profits after it ends….

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