DID YOU MISS ONE! See Them All Here
EDITOR’S NOTE: There will be NO newsletter next week as I am traveling. However, if something critically important happens I will pen a brief note. Make sure you are registered at the website for important updates and allocation model changes.
Last Tuesday, I discussed the market’s breakout to the upside and the increase in equity exposure in client’s portfolios. To wit:
“From a technical basis, looking at the structure of the trend, and given the probability it is in the latter stages of this particular bull market, we have likely seen the S&P 500 just complete a large consolidation, as mentioned above, concluding Wave 4 of the Elliott Wave principals. This suggests that a Wave 5 has begun (the last part of the trend sequence) which will coincide with the ‘market melt-up’ phase of this advance before the next major correction begins.”
“Theoretically, once a small correction action that maintains the current bullish-trend works off the current “overbought” condition, the blow-off speculative Wave 5 impulse move should begin.
Wave 5, ‘market melt-ups’ are the last bastion of hope for the ‘always bullish.’ Unlike, the previous advances that were backed by improving earnings and economic growth, the final wave is pure emotion and speculation based on“hopes” of a quick fundamental recovery to justify market overvaluations. Such environments have always had rather disastrous endings and this time, will likely be no different.”
Buying Because I Have To. You Don’t.
Let me repeat what I wrote the last time as things have not changed.
“I am buying this breakout because I have to. If I don’t, I suffer career risk, plain and simple.
But you don’t have to. If you are truly a long-term investor, this rally is just a rally. There is no confirmation fundamentally the bull market has yet resumed. Such leaves investors with a tremendous amount of downside risk relative to the reward that is currently being offered.
However, investor patience to remain conservatively invested while what seems like a “bull market” is in force is an extremely difficult thing for most to do.
So, if you buy the breakout, do so carefully. Keep stop losses in place and be prepared to sell if things go wrong.
It is important to remember that the majority of those touting the bull market are simply just getting back to even after an almost year-long sludge. For now, things are certainly weighted towards the bullish camp.
However, such will not always be the case.”
This week, I am adjusting the model allocations up to 75%. Review last week’s missive for the individual sector analysis for recommendations leading up to the model change.
However, while I am changing the model, this does not mean going out and clicking the “buy” button on everything you can find. We must now wait for the right entry point to increase equity allocations to the new model weights.
As shown below, the market is currently 3-standard deviations above its 50-day moving average. This is “rarefied air” in terms of price extensions and a pullback is now necessary to provide a better entry point for increasing equity allocations.
However, as I have noted, there is a difference in pullbacks.
While the breakout this week is certainly “bullish” and should not be dismissed lightly, it is valid if the breakout holds. However, as I noted on Tuesday, the rotation from bonds to stocks is confirming the push higher currently. Much of the sustainability of the rally going forward is dependent upon the ongoing rotations from “safety” back into “risk.”
Disclosure Note: I did take a short position against bonds on Monday with a target of 1.7-1.8% on the 10-year Treasury. (TBT)
Importantly, despite the breakout and increase in bullish exuberance, the markets are overly extended, overly bullish and excessively complacent. Such a combination of factors greatly increase investment risk.
However, given the long consolidation process of the market since May of last year, the markets are confirming their ongoing bullish trend. As stated above, this requires me to increase equity exposure to 75% of target weightings. After such an extended run in the markets, this seems somewhat counter-intuitive. It is. But, as Bill Clinton once famously stated; “What is….is.”
While the market “IS” currently acting bullishly, it doesn’t mean such will always be the case.
As investors, we must modify Clinton’s line to: “What is…is…until it isn’t.” We must be able to recognize, and be responsive to, changes in underlying market dynamics if they change for the worse and be aware of the risks that are inherent in portfolio allocation models.
If the bullish trend holds, works off the excessive overbought conditions and resets investment risk, the models will be adjusted back to 100%.
Here are the guidelines to follow in adjusting your portfolio allocation model.
While I have often been chastised for not “chasing markets,” I am also not working my way back to even. Having been underweight equity risk in recent months has paid dividends by reducing portfolio volatility and emotional stress.
Here is my point. As a long-term investor, I don’t need to worry about short-term rallies. I only need to worry about the direction of the overall market trends and focus on capturing the positive and avoiding the negative.
As Baron Nathan Rothschild once quipped:
“You can have the top 20% and the bottom 20%, I will take the 80% in the middle.”
This is the basis of my 80/20 investment philosophy and the driver behind the risk management process.
While I may not beat the market from one year to the next, I will never have to suffer the time loss of required by“getting back to even.” In the long run, I will win.
As shown in the table below, a $100,000 investment in the S&P 500 returns a far lower value than the “Rothschild 80/20 Rule” model. This is even if I include a ridiculous 2% management fee.
But here is how it plays out over the long-term.
Yes, it’s only a couple of million dollars worth of difference, but the reduced levels of volatility allowed investors to emotionally “stick” to their discipline over time. Furthermore, by minimizing the drawdowns, assets are allowed to truly “compound” over the long-term.
Get it. Got it. Good.
The short answer is “NO, Not Yet.”
As stated above, the market needs to blow off some of the excess overbought condition in the market.
Secondly, we are moving into two of the worst months of the year seasonally speaking combined with a Presidential election. It is very likely that we will see a correction in the market during this period. As Dana Lyons’ pointed out this week:
“Specifically, we have seen numerous forecasts calling for an impending stock market top, or at least a summer swoon. But while anything is possible in this market, a major market top right now would actually be unprecedented.
Why is that? Well, since 1900, using the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) as a gauge, the stock market has never put in so much as a 12-month top in the month of July.”
However, as I have noted previously, my expectations are for a correction of some sort in August and/or September. Notice the 12-month tops have occurred 5-times in September nearly tying the six in January.
For now, there are plenty of bullish arguments piling up to support markets over the next few weeks:
There is also a possibility this central bank driven liquidity push is a giant “trap” waiting to be sprung on unwitting investors.
The current rally is built on a substantially weaker fundamental and economic backdrop. Therefore, it is extremely important to remember that whatever increase in equity risk you take, could very well be reversed in short order due to the following reasons:
It is worth remembering that markets have a very nasty habit of sucking individuals into them when prices become detached from fundamentals. Such is the case currently and has generally not had a positive outcome.
The chart below illustrates point #5 above. There are still WAY too many negative divergences in underlying indicators to suggest an “all clear” for investors currently.
What you decide to do with this information is entirely up to you. As I stated, I do think there is enough of a bullish case being built to warrant taking some equity risk on a very short-term basis. We will see what happens next week.
However, the longer-term dynamics remain bearish. When those negative price dynamics are combined with the fundamental and economic backdrop, the “risk” of having excessive exposure to the markets greatly outweighs the potential “reward. “
Could the markets rocket up to 2200 or 2300 as I suggested earlier this week? It is quite possible given the ongoing interventions by global Central Banks.
The reality, of course, is while the markets could reward you with 160 points of upside, there is a risk of 600 points of downside just to retest the previous breakout of 2007 highs
Those are odds that Las Vegas would just love to give you.
Please be careful.
Investing is not a competition.
It is a game of long-term survival.
Okay, with the analysis above, let’s now set up the necessary adjustments to the model allocation so we are ready to adjust portfolios accordingly during the requisite pullback.
Step 1) Clean Up Your Portfolio
Step 2) Compare Your Portfolio Allocation To The Model Allocation.
(Note: the primary rule of investing that should NEVER be broken is: “Never invest money without knowing where you are going to sell if you are wrong, and if you are right.”)
Step 3) Have positions ready to execute accordingly given the proper market set up. In this case, we are looking for a pullback to reduce the extreme overbought condition of the market without violating any major levels of support.
Click To Enlarge
Increasing Weightings In:
No Change In Weighting:
Weighting Reductions:
Given the right “set up” to increase equity allocations, begin by “averaging up” in existing holdings in your portfolio to match model allocation and weights. When, and IF, the market confirms the continuation of the “bullish trend,” then begin adding new holdings to the model.
As stated repeatedly above, move “stop losses” on all positions up to current critical support levels and maintain a plan for “hedging” portfolio risk should something go wrong.
The current risk weighting remains at 50% this week but will increase to 75% given appropriate market conditions.
(Note: This is an equally weighted model example and may differ from discussions of overweighting/underweighting specific sectors or holdings.)
Relative performance of each sector of the model as compared to the S&P 500 is shown below. The table compares each position in the model relative to the benchmark over a 1, 4, 12, 24 and 52-week basis.
Historically speaking, sectors that are leading the markets higher continue to do so in the short-term and vice-versa. The relative improvement or weakness of each sector relative to index over time can show where money is flowing into and out of. Normally, these performance changes signal a change that last several weeks.
The last column is a sector specific “buy/sell” signal which is simply when the short-term weekly moving average has crossed above or below the long-term weekly average. The number of sectors on “buy signals” has improved from just 2 several weeks ago to 19 this past week.
The risk-adjusted equally weighted model has been increased to 75%. However, as stated above, a pullback in the markets is needed before making any changes.
Such an increase will change model allocations to:
As always, this is just a guide, not a recommendation. It is completely OKAY if your current allocation to cash is different based on your personal risk tolerance, time frames, and goals.
For longer-term investors, we still need to see improvement in the fundamental and economic backdrop to support the resumption of a long-term bullish trend. Currently, there is no evidence of that occurring.
There are 4-steps to allocation changes based on 25% reduction increments. As noted in the chart above a 100% allocation level is equal to 60% stocks. I never advocate being 100% out of the market as it is far too difficult to reverse course when the market changes from a negative to a positive trend. Emotions keep us from taking the correct action.
As discussed above, the push of liquidity by global Central Banks is flooding into the U.S. In turn, this has rocketed equity prices higher subsequently breaking out above a 13-month long consolidation process. As I had stated over past weeks:
“With the technical underpinnings still bullishly biased at the moment, we are now in the position to increase equity allocations over the next couple of weeks.”
As is always the case, by the time markets makes a significant technical change, prices are generally at an extreme overbought or oversold condition. This is the case currently with the breakout which has created an extreme overbought condition in the short term.
While we certainly want to prepare ourselves to increase equity exposure in portfolios, we must patiently wait for the right conditions to apply those increases. Furthermore, while waiting for the relaxation of prices to make more prudent entries, it also enables investors to bypass potential “head fakes” of market actions.
While historically speaking, buying initial breakouts generally works to the advantage of the investor, there are plenty of precedents where breakouts marked the top of a price trend before the next major decline. Waiting to make prudent adjustments to allocations can help mitigate the risk of a false breakout.
Patience for one more week.
If you need help after reading the alert; don’t hesitate to contact me.
The 401k plan allocation plan below follows the K.I.S.S. principal. By keeping the allocation extremely simplified it allows for better control of the allocation and a closer tracking to the benchmark objective over time. (If you want to make it more complicated you can, however, statistics show that simply adding more funds does not increase performance to any great degree.)
The list below shows sample 401k plan funds for each major category. In reality, the majority of funds all track their indices fairly closely. Therefore, if you don’t see your exact fund listed, look for a fund that is similar in nature.
Lance Roberts
Lance Roberts is a Chief Portfolio Strategist/Economist for Clarity Financial. He is also the host of “The Lance Roberts Show” and Chief Editor of the “Real Investment Advice” website and author of “Real Investment Daily” blog and “Real Investment Report“. Follow Lance on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In
Real Investment Advice is powered by RIA Advisors, an investment advisory firm located in Houston, Texas with over $1 billion in assets under management. As a team of certified and experienced professionals, we seek to provide our clients with educational services and the necessary information and tools to educate you in the field of finance, investing and economics. To this end, you can use the Real Investment Advice Platform to avail yourself of various video, audio and proprietary collections of information at your leisure to learn and gather the necessary information that you may need in the fields of investment news, investment opinion, financial news, financial opinion, economic news and economic opinion, finance, investing and economics. Utilizing the functionality and tools provided by Real Investment Advice, you can access this information in a variety of ways, including via video and audio programming, audio and visual media content streaming services, downloadable audio-visual media, uploaded, posted or tagged third-party videos, receiving or viewing audio and video clips, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos, all of which are accessible on the Real Investment Advice media platform and/or various Internet and communications links that are accessible via the Real Investment Advice Platform and allow for the broadcasting, transmission and streaming of the information and audio-visual content to your media devices and other communications platforms for your viewing and listening pleasure. All of these tools and sources of information are made available to you so that you can utilize the same to make the right financial, economic and investment decisions.
RIA Advisors offers multiple custodial arrangements, either directly of through wholly owned subsidiaries, with Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers.
Subscribe today!