Setting up to climb a Wall of Worry?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade. The...

What’s the next market narrative?

This crisis has so far gone through two phases of market psychology. The first phase was panic, as it became apparent that COVID-19 had become a global pandemic, and economies around the world were shutting down. Stock prices rebounded during the hope phase, supported by a flood of fiscal and monetary stimulus, and the hope...

A clash of sentiment

Mid-week market update: What should one make of sentiment readings? Credit Suisse reported that long/short hedge funds are now in a crowded long position: One result of April’s latter month short covering is an all-time high net long exposure among equity long/short managers globally, albeit on a historically low gross exposure.   That's contrarian bearish,...

Earnings Monitor: Reality bites

Now that we are slightly over halfway through Q1 earnings season, it would be useful to see what we have learned, and how market expectations have developed through this pandemic period. Let's begin with the big picture. FactSet reported that the bottom-up consensus forward 12-month estimate fell -1.9% last week, and -18.3% since downgrades began...

Buy the dip, or sell the rip?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade. The...