Time now to check in with stock market analyst “Dickie V”
for his take on the current market: “Oh this market is on fire. It’s so hot, it’s smoking. It’s beating all expectations. It’s beating
those naysayers. People like that knucklehead Don Ake who said the S&P
wouldn’t top 1600! He should just stick to marketing.
Let me tell you this: this is the best market of all
time. It’s a peak performer. It a PTP’er (prime time player). It’s slamming,
it’s jamming. When the market is this strong, this powerful, this determined,
it is unstoppable, simply unstoppable! It’s awesome baby!
 |
| This market's awesome baby! |
And the market continues to be awesome. The S&P has been as high as 1687 this
cycle and economists (according to a survey last week) see no bubble, no
problems. Everything is just fine and
investors are happy, happy, happy. Of
course economist never see stock market problems before that happen, they just
explain the problems after they happen (sort of like your mother-in-law).
This market is zooming despite:
-
Very slow job growth
-
Very slow economic growth
-
High level of uncertainty (implementation of
the Healthcare Act)
This
market resists all obstacles – so far it is unstoppable:
-
Last Monday - the purchasing managers’ index
for May was horrible. Result: Dow up 180 points!
-
Last Friday - another sorry jobs report.
Result: Dow up 207 points!
Model T Update
The
Model T prediction for peak S&P this year was 1550 so it missed by at least
7%, which is a failure. At the beginning
of the year I listed a several S&P predictions for this year by major firms
and they all were wrong. However I do
remember that someone (I didn’t save my notes) had predicted a peak in the
mid-1600’s, so someone knew what they were talking about. At the beginning of the year you called that
forecast a “crazy outlier”, today you would simply call it “boss”.
The
Model T also said the S&P would peak in the May/June time period. If I had
no narrow it down to a one month time period it would have been May 15 to June
15, which means that time is about up.
Because the current peak is 1687 and today’s finish is 1642, the model
still has a chance to be correct. But this market is tremendously unpredictable.
Some analysts still predict a crash and some say this is the beginning of a big
bull. If this were a poker game, I would
“check”. I’m not ready to fold, but I’m
not betting any more chips.
The
good news is that if the market dips (notice I did not say when); the Model T
says the market bottom will be around 1440; previously the predicted bottom was
1350. Also, before the correction was
forecast to last around a year, now the correction may last only a few months.
Something To Consider #1:
The
economy and the stock market are still dancing way out of sync. Therefore, one
of them has to change course soon. I
know I said my flamenco dancers often don’t perform the same dance, but there
are limits and we are testing them.
Something To Consider #2:
The
stock market is a very painful psychological game to play, even when you play
it correctly.
I
took money out of the market at the very end of April. I was nervous because the Model T’s upper
limit (1550 plus 2% error) had been breached and two friends who follow the
model had already pulled money back. Of
course watching the market keep going up has been psychology distressful. I am not hoping for a market crash but the
market closed today 2.8% higher than when I made my sale. It still may have
been a good move, but the game of course is not over.
Yes,
this is an evil game. You feel bad when
you play it well, you feel worse when you play it badly. And
it is time for me to sit back and just watch the game.
The
Model T is taking the summer off to see how this all plays out. If you are on my mailing list, I will still
be sending out some “Model T Classics”, the best posts of the last 4 years. (Click here to get on the list) And I will continue my Ake’s Pains humor blog through
the summer.
Good
luck in this game, because we are all going to need it!
Enjoy the time off. Looks like the perfect time to go short. Doesn't seem to happen just after you throw in the towel? Greedometer.com forcast down 2013-14.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.greedometer.com/the-final-rally-begins/
Don't be so hard on the model, it's been approximately right in directionality and may still prove approximately right in timing as well. Don't forget, you're forecasting a complex adaptive system -- you will never get it precisely right -- because it is made up of people. As agent K says, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals"
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the crazy outlier being "Boss" - even a blind squirrel calls the market right once in a while. The perceived accuracy is a combination of look-back bias and dumb luck. It will make the guys career, and god bless him for it - he must be smart and he/she is definitely lucky.
Finally, the stock market and economy don't necessarily correlate that well because earnings can deviate from typical ratios of economic activity. On that measure, the market is expensive (but not insanely) and primed for disappointments. The perversity is that corporate earnings are benefiting from increasing their share of national income, partly at the expense of persons (who are smart) and partly because QE is pushing valuations. The market reacts positively to crappy data because it means the Fed (dumb, panicky, dangerous animals) will keep pumping.
Anywho, have a great break, see you on the flip side.