Since early October, a big question for us has been, "How low can US Stocks go? Obviously no one knew then, and no one knows now, so all we did know was that we did not want to own stocks. We wanted to be sellers, not buyers. Go to cash and ask questions later, type of mentality.
We've looked at declines in Crude Oil and widening credit spreads as a gauge for what to expect out of stocks. We've been monitoring market breadth for evidence of confirmations of declining indexes or whether they're diverging from them. These internals studies and intermarket analysis techniques are great and incredibly helpful in any environment. But today I want to focus on specific prices levels for the two most important indexes in America.
Autos were some of the worst performers in 2018, and new lows on a relative basis to start 2019 suggest the first quarter may bring more of the same for this sector. This post will outline why we want to continue to sell strength in this sector, as well as the best ways to express this theme.
Below is a chart of the Nifty Auto Index hitting new 52-week lows relative to the Nifty 500. This trend of under-performance has been intact since early 2017 and appears to be heading back toward the lows it set in 2012-2013.
This is going to be a quick post, but I noticed a chart during my analysis that was too nice not to share. It just so happens that it's a great example of how a stock should act when transitioning from a downtrend to an uptrend.
I spent the New Year in Lake Tahoe, which is one of my favorite and most beautiful places in the world. Heading up to the lake with family and friends for a few days (and leaving my laptop at home) really helps clear my head and let's me focus on the environment we're currently living in. I see again and again people trying to compare today's market to "the average" of a dozen or so bear markets in the past. It's painful to watch.
It's hard to remember a time where I saw this much irresponsibility among investors, especially the pros who should know better. These "asset managers" are so busy dealing with investors, compliance, operations, marketing, regulations and whatever else they're busy doing, that they've completely underestimated the amount of risk in the stock market. It's like they forgot that risk is a real thing.
And what are they doing to justify their actions, or lack thereof? They're relying on a tiny sample size of prior market declines to "wait and see" what happens. They think they're "Portfolio Managers", but they should be "Risk Managers". There's a huge difference.
It's been a great couple of months for Bond bulls. As unprepared investors worry about their portfolios and financial media outlets irresponsibly call this market "crazy", we've been happy to watch the destruction of stocks and new flow of money into safer, fixed income assets. Interest rates have gotten slammed with stocks and bonds ripped. One for the good guys!
So the question now becomes, how low can rates go?
While we couldn't be happier that U.S. stocks got destroyed this quarter, let's not forget about all of the other markets out there. US Treasury Bonds have had a very nice rally during this stock market correction, which is another move we're ecstatic about. And Gold and Silver have started to make moves to the upside as well, which is something we haven't seen in what feels like forever.
But today, it's the US Dollar that I think stands out and the recent move lower could just be the beginning.
There are just a few days left in 2018 and it's tempting to make some last minute moves to improve your annual results in the old portfolio. But is it a good idea?
This is obviously not my first 'last few days of the year' experience as an active market participant. I know the feeling, trust me. I've made the mistakes. I've gotten cute. I've overextended myself in late December for absolutely no reason. It's those scars that I keep with me after all these years that remind me not to do it. It's like a kid with a hot stove. After he gets burned once, he won't ever make that mistake again!
The financial media loves to make you feel stupid for missing out on certain moves. Your friends and neighbors like to remind you about how well their portfolio is doing and all of their brilliant investments. It's easy to get caught up in this nonsense.
From a public markets perspective the Marijuana Industry is small, so small that it could go to zero tomorrow and nobody would notice. In late August we started covering the space after receiving a lot of reader requests, so as we close out 2018 I wanted to share one chart that perfectly summarizes the boom and bust it's witnessed over the last two quarters.
In this post I want to share two charts from the weekend update of our Market Internals workbook, both of which confirm the continued deterioration in breadth as US Stocks make new lows.
Somewhere along the way, a large majority of U.S. citizens convinced themselves that the market owes them something. They think that if they "invest" in the stock market, that they've somehow earned the right to make money over time. I'm not sure if it's the financial advisors feeding them self-serving garbage based on their tiny sample sizes. It could possibly be the financial media constantly making their viewers feel stupid for missing out on a trade or a long-term trend. These vultures use headlines like, "If you had invested $10,000 in X on this specific date you would have easily earned Y in that short period of time". They're proving to us how worthless they are. It's poison.
At what point do investors hold themselves accountable? It's never their fault for losing money. It's the Fed's fault, it's the Trump's fault, it's my neighbors fault who "made" me buy bitcoin.
It's YOUR fault if you lose money. We have no one to blame but ourselves if our "investment" account loses 10%, 20%, 50% or even much worse in the case of things like crypto currencies, precious metals or recent IPOs like Snapchat.
The market is a beautiful thing, particularly the analysis of supply and demand behavior. I'm incredibly fortunate to be a practicing Technician for almost a decade and a half and have become good friends with some of the best that ever did it. I will never take that for granted.
