How to lose a trade war before it even begins

As we wait for Donald Trump's first State of the Union address, investors are left to wonder which Trump will show up before Congress on Tuesday. Will it be Teleprompter Trump, whose well-crafted speech will be interpreted favorably by the markets, or Twitter Trump, whose utterances will spook the markets?     Why tariffs won't...

The pain trade signal from the bond market

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...

Out of words for ‘extreme’ and ‘unprecedented’

Mid-week market update: most of this rally (see Embrace the blow-off, but with a stop-loss discipline published last November), but the scale of the unrelenting grind-up has been breathtaking. I have run out of words to describe "extreme" and "unprecedented" conditions. In short, the market has been dominated by momentum.     Josh Brown recently...

Sleepwalking toward a possible trade war

Sometimes misunderstandings can lead to enormous adverse consequences. In 1941, Japan believed that war was inevitable with the United States. The Americans had slapped a trade embargo on Japan, and made it clear that Japanese occupation of China was unacceptable. The Japanese High Command saw that America was a big industrialized country with resources that...

Bubbleology 102: What could derail this momentum driven rally?

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...