Where are we in the market cycle? Riding the up-trend.

GMI6/6
GMI-R10/10
T210863%

I used my favorite indicators to review the Dow 30 Index’s action since 1915, as this is how far back TC2007 allows me to track this index.   I looked at the monthly chart and the following indicators: 5 and 30 month simple moving averages and the 25.4.4 monthly stochastic. I am posting a chart of the Dow 30 since late 1992. A few patterns leap out at me.   First, notice how the Dow spent most of the time in the roaring 90’s   up-trend above the rising 30 month moving average (red line) and with the 5 month average (dotted line) rising above the 30 month average.   (Click on chart to enlarge.) The stochastic (in the lower window) with two exceptions, spent almost all of the time above the 80% “overbought” level (top parallel line), until it began a steady decline in 1999, foreshadowing the major decline in the Dow. The 5 month average declined below the 30 month average. The bear market bottomed out with the Dow below the declining 30 month average and with the stochastic around oversold territory, near 20% (bottom parallel line). The market turned up, the 5 month average rose above the 30 month average and the stochastic returned to near 80% again.   In 2008, the process repeated itself, with the 5 month turning down below the 30 month average and the stochastic declining until it became very oversold again, around 20%.   The market has now rebounded, the 5 month average is rising nicely above the 30 month average and the stochastic has just returned to overbought territory, an area where it has stayed for years in some previous rising markets.

So where are we in the current cycle?   It looks like we are in a strong up-trend with no sign of any weakening yet.   In fact, the 30 month average has not yet reversed up, but the 5 month average is moving up nicely above it.   Now I have learned in trading   over the past 40 years that patterns are meant to be broken.   The road is littered with the carcasses of Ph.D.’s who wagered heavily and lost, based upon complicated mathematical relationships that worked in the past.   I can tell you that the simple patterns I have discussed below seem to me to have worked well over the past 95 years.   Major bottoms in the Dow have occurred with this stochastic below 50% and the more severe ones, around 20%.   So, I won’t begin to suspect the end of the current up-trend until I see the stochastic turn down and the 5 month average decline below the 30 month average. I’ll let you   know when that happens…….

Meanwhile, my General Market Indicator (GMI) remains at the maximum reading (6 of 6) and the more sensitive GMI-R is at 10 (of 10). Thus, all of my short term and longer term indicators for the   QQQQ (Nadaq 100 tech stocks), and the SPY (S&P 500 stocks) remain positive. The QQQQ and SPY have closed above their critical 10 week averages for 15 straight weeks. However, Friday was only the 15th day of the QQQQ short term up-trend.   The Worden T2108 Indicator is at 63%, in neutral territory. And 68% of the Nasdaq 100 stocks closed with their MACD above its signal line, a sign of short term strength. The weekly GMMA chart below shows that all of the short term averages (red) are above the rising longer term averages (blue), reflecting an established up-trend. So with my more conservative funds, I am adding to my positions in the major index ETF’s like QLD, SPY and DIA, a comfortable way for me to ride the up-trend.

Short term down-trend deepens; QQQQ Guppy chart ominous; In cash

GMI1/6
GMI-R2/10
T210830%

I started teaching two classes on technical analysis last week and will explain more of my concepts and include informational links, as many students will be new readers.   My General Market Index (GMI) keeps me trading with the general market’s trend.   The GMI is a count of 6 short and long term indicators.     Because I like to trade growth stocks, the GMI focuses largely on the NASDAQ 100 stocks, as measured by the ETF, QQQQ.   The Successful New High Index measures whether stocks that hit a new high 10 days ago have risen since that time.   Since I trade stocks at or near new highs, I also like there to be at least 100 new highs in my stock universe of roughly 4,000 actively traded stocks above $5. My daily QQQQ and SPY indicators measure these indexes’ short term trends. The weekly QQQQ indicator is my measure of the longer term trend.   Weekly charts provide me with a more interpretable and reliable picture of the market’s trend.   Finally, my IBD Mutual Fund Index indicator tells me how well growth funds tracked by IBD are doing.   If   funds that invest in growth stocks   are doing well, I am also more likely to make money trading growth stocks. I subsequently added four more   indicators to   the GMI in the form of the GMI-R (revised). The added indicators count whether there are more   daily new highs than lows, and how the QQQQ has performed in relation to three moving averages.   I become very defensive in my trading portfolio when the GMI is less than 4 and consider going to cash.   When the GMI goes to zero, I also start going to cash in my more conservative university pension account, which allows me to trade its contents only a few times each year.   So, with the GMI currently at 1,

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My post from the bear market bottom; weak TJX; GMMA shows QQQQ in strong up-trend

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GMI-R10/10
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“Last week, a person who knows nothing about the market asked me how to short stocks.   This is reminiscent of the  stories of the shoeshine boys providing stock tips, near the roaring 20’s market’s top.   The sentiment is just too negative right now.   Does this mean the market has to turn up?   Not necessarily, but the market is always an assessment of competing probabilities.  â€œ (Post on 3/8/2009, GMI: 0, T2108: 7%)

I wrote the above words last March, which turned out to be just as the market successfully tested its bear market lows and   began the current rise.   The Worden T2108 indicator was   in single digits, a rare screaming oversold buy signal.   When people around me who never traded asked me how to short stocks it turned out to be a key contrary signal that the market decline was near an end.   Similarly, I remember when a friend who knows little about the market asked me if he should refinance his house to invest in the market–back in 2000 near that market’s top………

I have noticed that the pundits have been saying that TJX , the discount retailer chain, is a good buy. I therefore was struck by the GMMA daily chart below, which is flashing warning signals. With the short term averages (black lines) now below the longer term averages (red), this is not a stock I would want to own.   It may even be a good short play.   You do know that analysts sometimes tout a stock so that their big clients can unload their long positions to the unsuspecting public. (The “NA” on the chart shows when IBD wrote about TJX in its New America column.) Another stock with similarly weak technicals is PWRD.

TJX--GMMA

Meanwhile, the GMI and GMI-R

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