The low-volume “dog days of summer” have been anything but uneventful. Rather than a sleeping dog, this summer has been more like a rabid dog—gyrating wildly and scaring the heck out of everyone in its path.
Last week provided the start of another leg down in what has been an unpredictable stock market, and the market now appears to be in the midst of forming another bear flag. Since rolling over and selling off strongly in late April, the market has demonstrated all sorts of conflicting formations that have confounded trend traders and investors.
As I pointed out back in June, cash on hand among S&P 500 companies has been at record levels, and up 25% over the same time last year. One would presume that such cash levels would eventually be used for share buybacks, M&A, or dividend increases – all of which would impact the market favorably.
Ron manages the virtual high-dividend portfolio called Rock Solid Yields and writes a periodic blog called Macro View of the Markets, which looks at the global economic factors that move the markets. At Sabrient he coordinates various special products primarily related to Sabrient's ventures in the online retail market. Sabrient’s re
In these uncertain times, investors are flocking to safe-haven ETFs, such as the Claymore/Sabrient Defensive Equity ETF (DEF), which tracks the Sabrient Defensive Equity Index
Nothing seems to be strong enough to lift the market out of its doldrums. Not the shiny corporate earnings announcements from Wal-Mart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD). Not the exciting merger talks between BHP Billiton (BHP) & Potash (POT) or between Intel (INTC) & McAfee (MFE). Not the slightly improved global economic picture.
The Sabrient Blog offers expert analysis and opinion on the markets through the multiple lenses of our bloggers. To track your specific areas of interest, check out these regular posts:
The market found pleasure in manure today. When Australian miner BHP Billiton (BHP) proposed to acquire Canadian fertilizer maker Potash (POT), the market saw this as an opportunity to soar. Perhaps traders took it as a sign that corporate cash is ready to be deployed…or perhaps it was simply a low-volume oversold bounce on the flimsiest of catalysts.
Daniel is an author, entrepreneur and trader. He currently divides his time between managing a portfolio for a private company and writing a book on ETFs slated for publication in 2011. In addition, he is partnering with Sabrient Systems to create a series of virtual ETF portfolios based on Sabrient’s proprietary quantitative analysis systems.
As we wind down the summer doldrums, are we heading toward another low-volume August? Today was one of the lowest volume sessions of the year on the NYSE. Kids are returning to school in some parts of the country already, and many portfolio managers and traders will begin returning to their desks. But what they are finding in the market this week is quite different than they would have seen last week.
The Dark Horse Traders' Hedge is long/short virtual portfolio written by Scott Brown, Managing Director – Retail Division at Sabrient Systems. It is a based on Sabrient System’s highly successful and popular Investors’ (H)Edge Portfolio.
Trading with Insiders is a newsletter/blog written by Robert M. Maltbie, Jr. a money manager and CEO of Stockjock.com. In addition to a lively market commentary, Robert selects two top-ranked stocks with high insider buying, based on the Sabrient Insider Ranking score.
ETF Periscope is written by Daniel Sckolnik. In addition to a lively market analysis, Daniel scans Sabrient’s SectorCast-ETF Rankings weekly to find a few ETFs that meet the current landscape of the markets.
Sector Detector is a weekly blog/newsletter written by Scott Martindale, Sabrient's Senior Managing Director. In Sector Detector, Scott discusses the top and bottom sectors (as represented by ETFs), using the Sabrient SectorCast ranking model for a one-month forward look.
He also tracks the top two Sector ETFs long and bottom two Sector ETFs short.
We have all heard the experts recommend "hedging" your stock portfolio. You may have meticulously researched and selected all of your portfolio longs as your core holdings for long-term appreciation.
The SPY sold off early today in advance of the FOMC decision, but bounced strongly from the support line of the bearish rising wedge formation, which also is quite close to its 200-day moving average. Just as I said last week, all market indexes appear a bit extended and ready to pullback, but the bulls are game. Put/call ratio and volume is low.
The market continues to creep upward, with the short-term trend clearly positive albeit on quite low volume. The S&P 500 remains above its 50-day and 200-day moving average, but as we head into the current week, our concern is about conviction within the marketplace. The ECRI (Economic Cycle Research Institute) finally gave a positive uptick last week, but it would be early to conclude that we’re on a strong uptrend.
The SPY finished the month of July up a robust +7%, and then started the first day of August by tacking on another +2% gain. All market indexes appeared a bit stretched from the mean and ready to pullback today, but the bulls fought on mightily to keep the day’s loss minor.
Our thundering herd of baby bulls struggled mightily last week to stay clear of that gloomy channel, and at one time the S&P 500 threatened to cross back under its 50-day moving average, but it ended the week about where it started.
The low-volume “dog days of summer” have been anything but uneventful. Rather than a sleeping dog, this summer has been more like a rabid dog—gyrating wildly and scaring the heck out of everyone in its path.
Last week provided the start of another leg down in what has been an unpredictable stock market, and the market now appears to be in the midst of forming another bear flag. Since rolling over and selling off strongly in late April, the market has demonstrated all sorts of conflicting formations that have confounded trend traders and investors.
Ron manages the virtual high-dividend portfolio called 
Daniel Skolnik, 
Scott Martindale